Aloha!

Did you miss me? We got home from Kauai about a week and a half ago, and I've been busy creating a video memory of our trip. Well, that's finally done! Now on to the pictures :oD

What made this trip so special was that my friend, Mary, and her family came to join us! We've been online friends since 2005 and met IRL two years ago in Cleveland. We were worried about the hubbies... if they didn't like each other, this was going to be a looong week! But, no worries. Everyone got along fine!

Here is our first day. We picked flowers and made leis at my aunt and uncle's house for Mary's family's arrival. Then we dragged them out to a late night Obon in the evening. With the time difference, we kept them up until 3am Eastern time.

Here are some pics sight-seeing around the island...

We went ATV-ing one day. My family has never done this before and it was a BLAST! The kids were on 4-wheelers. Doug, Mary, Jim and I were on 2-seater mud buddies. We drove out to a private waterfall for a swim... what fun!

Another one of our prearranged events was a snorkel cruise to the Napali coast. This was Mary's family first time on the ocean and first time snorkeling! We've been on this trip a couple of times before. It was so fun seeing it all new through their eyes!

Mary and Doug took the day off, while we took Carley kayaking with us! It's completely safe. In all the years we've been kayaking, no one has ever fallen out. Carley paddled in a double kayak with Jim... and they rolled it over. Chalk it up to a full kayaking experience, lol! We paddled up to a trail, parked our kayaks and walked to a beautiful waterfall!

And lastly, no Hawaiian vacation is complete without a day of surfing!

It was a whirlwind vacation! All that in one week!
What made it BEST, was that it was a great time with great friends!

5K Sunday!!!

I arranged a Virtual 5K with my friends at Scrappin' Mojo this weekend. Do you like the logo that Chris made for us?

We actually ran a real 5K race today, so I'm going to use those times for the virtual 5K.

Chris and I have done the OC Fair 5K for the last 3 years. Cheryl just took up running this year, and she's always wanted to run this race. It's through the fairgrounds during the fair, but before it opens to the public. It is fun and festive.

There were 4 detours through the fairgrounds. The kids had plans to slide down the giant slide. I was going to just run through, but when I saw the slide... I thought, "Why Not?" It turns out that the kids missed the slide, and I was the only one that went down. I don't regret it... it was FUN!

Chris started out really FAST. He blasted out of the starting area. He finished in 24:04 (13/36 in his age group, Pace: 7:45)

If you take out the time that it took to me at the giant slide, I finished around 25:10. With the slide I finished in 28:26 (10/95 in my age group, Pace: 9:09). Without the stop I would have won my age group (the winner finished in 25:30).

Cheryl got stuck in the starting funnel. She finished in 26:13 (4/83 in her age group, Pace: 8:27).

No PRs for anyone this weekend, but lots of FUN!

Let me leave you with a couple more puppy pictures...

Buddy says,"Cheryl play with me!"

And, Chris forgot to leave his door closed, hahaha!

More Puppy Pics

Please don't roll your eyes at me, but I have more puppy pics to share. We have a whole pack of dogs here this weekend: Jena, Jammer, and Buddy.

Jammer is our neighbor's dog. She is so sweet that we knew she'd get along great with little Buddy. These three just play, play, play! Look at Jena and Buddy play tug-of-war! Of course, you know who won....

BUDDY!!! Haha! I wish I got some pictures of Jammer tugging with Buddy. Jammer was dragging the little guy across the floor on his tummy. She wasn't going to let Buddy win!

Now it's time for Buddy to sit it out and let the big girls play!

We tried to get a nice picture of the three of them for the blog, but it became apparent quickly that was going to be quite impossible. It was not problem getting Jena and Jammer to stay, but as soon as Jim put Buddy down, he'd pounce on one of the other two and all heck would break loose. This is as good as it gets, lol!

I hope you all have a great weekend!
This is our anniversary weekend... 27 years!