The Elusive Seth

That was the nickname his parents gave him. Months and months ago. It is his superhero name.

I met Seth for the first time in December. There had been many stories before him, and his parents had shared so many memories of their time with him, that it was easy to feel like I knew him already.

Everyone talks about his smile - and it's true. It just lights you up to see him smile. He played hide-and-seek with us while Lois and I were visiting. He's VERY good at it. He would sneak up on us and jump out from behind the sofa with a smile as broad and bright as the day. He also excelled at playing a joke on me where he would disappear around the corner and wait to see how long I kept talking before I realized he was gone.

He loved his family very much and just worshiped his dad. My heart goes out to the Watson family. I hope you find peace and comfort in knowing we love you and Seth.

We all loved him - and we will all miss him.

One Year Anniversay!

Today is special to me. One year ago yesterday Adjoa came home! She flew in around 11 pm on the 7th - we were so excited! I paced around the airport waiting and waiting. She was quite sleepy, but recognized me right away and snuggled up to me. I carried her on my back out of the airport and we drove straight home.

We spent a few moments walking around the house together - she freaked out when she saw Eden - like screaming freaked out. They are best friends now. About half way into our Hawaii trip this Christmas, Adjoa went into the bathroom and came out with tears streaming down her face. When questioned about why she was so upset, she said, "I miss Eden!" It was so cute.

Anyway, I can hardly believe it has been a year already! She is amazing and special and I am so lucky and blessed to have her as my daughter!



We went to breakfast this morning to celebrate - breakfast was the first meal we had together at home. I figured it would be a great way to celebrate how blessed we have been this year.

We love you, Adjoa!

Valley of the Temples, Dole Plantation, and Waimea Valley

Towards the end of our trip we visited the Dole Plantation {education AND fun!}, the Valley of the Temples, and Waimea Valley.

The Dole Plantation has super-yummy pineapple ice-cream, and Robert's parents love the pineapple cream macadamia nuts there. Adjoa loves the train and the ice-cream.

The Valley of the Temples is an amazing replica of a temple in China. They built the entire temple without nails. It's beautiful - and the ponds have some seriously HUGE Koi.

Finally, we stopped by Waimea Valley. There is an easy hike up to the waterfall, and they have a massive botanical garden. We had fun swimming in the waterfall - although it was a little cold.

On our way out of the valley, Adjoa and Pa came up with a fun and entertaining method of travel. Well, fun for Adjoa, rather tiring for Pa. I'm sure it all started as an accident, but Adjoa was having so much fun, Pa just HAD to keep up the game. I'm pretty sure they burned the stroller when we left. It was for our best interest. If Adjoa ever sees that stroller again, she's going to be more excited than a kid at Disneyland.

Pearl Harbor

We did the customary visit to Pearl Harbor. Robert really enjoyed it. This time around we also did the Bowfin tour, which was pretty cool. The audio tour informed me that submarines made up about 2% of the US Naval Fleet and were responsible for something like 80% of the attacks on enemy vessels. Pretty cool.

The audio tour - geared for families - presented the Bowfin to us as though we were new recruits. Hence all the 'recruit' references in my captions. I really got into it. Not that I'd really want to BE on a submarine for 2 years, it's just fun to visit.

There are some pictures of Adjoa doing a welcome back dance - I thought the action blurs were kind of cool - I like the way her dress looks.

We also went out to the USS Arizona Memorial. They show a video before and it's pretty sobering.

Finally, there are a couple pictures Robert took as we were headed back to the car - I looked down, and Adjoa was holding her dress up like a princess and muttering to herself. It was pretty cute. Please look at her and not my bum.

The Oahu Revealed guide book also had a little story about Pearl Harbor that we found interesting:

An Oversight Leads to a Spared Gas Station - and Victory in WWII

Say what you want about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: Militarily, the plan was brilliantly conceived and executed. The level of surprise was only matched by the level of destruction, and Japanese losses were minimal. Although our aircraft carriers weren't there (by chance, not design), the Japanese nonetheless achieved their goals and did not make any mistakes....except for one - a mistake so giant, so glaring and so important that it possibly ended up costing Japan the war.

When Japanese warplanes were swarming around during the attack, their pilots were so single-mindedly focused on destroying ships and planes that they totally ignored row after row of conspicuous white fuel tanks above the ground. In them was the fuel that powered all of America's Pacific Fleet. If a single bomb had been dropped on just one of the tanks, it could have set them all ablaze. It would have taken a year to replace that fuel. A year that our aircraft carriers would have sat idle without any gas. A year when the Japanese navy would have had free reign. A year that could have changed the outcome of WWII.

Having dodged that potentially fatal bullet, the navy accelerated a plan that was already in the works - building giant gas tanks underground beneath Red Hill to hold the quarter billion gallons of fuel needed to power the Navy's Pacific Fleet. (Large naval ships can only travel a few fee per gallon.) To this day if you are near the H-3 and H-201 freeway intersection and look mauka (toward the mountain), you will see Red Hill, the Pacific Fleet's gas station and the Navy's response to the Japanese biggest blunder of the Pacific War.

Oh, and here's a quick little vid-gem. Robert was taking a video - his intent was to talk about the Wet Guns, but because I'm soooooo hysterical, he started laughing and stopped. That's the story I'm sticking with. It sounds better than "I totally got into the whole recruit thing from the audio tour and I'm so dorky that my husband laughs at me." In case you miss it, yes I did say rather proudly, "I'm a good recruit!" I was just passing on what my commanding officer told me, folks.