Incredible Friday

What an action packed Friday I had today. It started with a good friend / co-worker having a very nice retirement ceremony at the HQ PACAF bldg (court yard of heroes). Very nice ceremony and Joe with his 5 kids below. Then at lunch I decided instead of having lunch with Amanda at her school we would take off and go somewhere for lunch. We went to the officer's club for the Friday's special (stir-fry). She kept saying how special it was to have such a wonderful lunch and she felt like we were on a date.

Food was exceptionally good and hopefully we can do it again before Amanda gets out of school.

After lunch I had my quarterly reading to the 2nd grade class. Today's book was Balto (a true story of a very brave Alaskan dog that saved the city of Nome AK in 1925) still today considered the bravest dog in the world.
After reading I had about 15 min's before school let out so I decided to walk down to Pearl Harbor and just enjoying the beautiful day. What an incredible place

Then it was off to run a couple errands and get a bite to eat. While we were waiting for food Jake showed me his "lady-killer" look. He is such a ham

Then it was off for one last treat for the night. A scoop of ice-cream. While we were eating our ice-cream a young lady came up to us and gave the kids a doll her husband won out of the dollar machine. It didn't take the kids long to figure out how to have even more fun. It's so nice to hear the kids laugh so hard.

Now we are ready for the weekend!

Hawaii indoor sleding

Here is Jake practicing his indoor sledding down the stairs on his homemade sled (cardboard box and trash bag)

Honolulu Zoo

Since Amanda had the day off from school, Lynn decided to take the kids to the Honolulu zoo for the day.
Of course they had to visit the petting zoo. This is Jake's favorite part

This is Amanda's favorite part (almost swimming with the fish)

Jake showing off his climbing skills

Jake and Amanda riding the giraffe statue

Lynn and the kids enjoy the zoo

To the love of my life

just for you dear

A good week of exercising

Finally got a full week of exercising under my belt. I haven't been able to put 6 consecutive days together in a very long time. However this past week was a good week, with 60 miles of biking (3 hrs, 12 min) & 13 miles of running (2 hrs, 33 min) and a 100 meter ocean swim, for a total of 6000 calories burned this week. Hopefully the trend will continue of at least 6 days of exercising and a couple days of swimming thrown in for a complete workout.

Looking forward to an easy bike ride for a couple hours tomorrow.

It doesn't get much better than this!

What a wonderful birthday I had today. Everyone wished me happy birthday(home, work & friends) and made me realize just how many true friends I have in life. Lynn had to teach tonight and Amanda needed some valentines for school tomorrow, so off to the mall we went. Once there Amanda suggested we go to Farrell's for dinner (which was in the mall). I said sure that shouldn't take us too long. Quick and easy dinner
Just as the waitress brought the bill she asked if I would fill out these cards and they would mail birthday coupons. Amanda jumped into action and said today is my dads birthday. The waitress quickly jumped into action and got all the employees together for a quick birthday song (this is the same waitress we had tonight singing). When she asked how old I was Amanda quickly answered for me. The kids loved it and felt like they really got me good.

This was the first song I heard this morning when I got in the car and it stuck with me all day.

All-in-all it was an excellent day for me to just stop and realize just how wonderful my life is with a wonderful family, great parents and in-laws, the perfect brother and a few good friends. Then tonight as I took the kids to bed both Amanda and Jake said to me just as they were falling asleep, happy birthday dad and I love you. What more could I possible ask for in life? nothing, but exactly what I have - thanks to everyone

What a weekend of fun, swimming, and special treat for Amanda

This was a weekend to remember. We were all over the island doing all kinds of fun things this weekend.
First and foremost this is a Mai-tai toast to my younger brother (Nathan in Anchorage) who had is 32nd birthday today and hopefully this will remind of the nice warm Hawaiian days
Jake and I, have a photo moment in the pool. Little Jake is becoming quite the little swimmer.

Jake doing is favorite activity of all time - eating ice-cream after Amanda's special evening and wearing a little on his face. He says it taste better that way.

Jake getting in on the photo shoot prior to one of our weekend adventures.

Here is Amanda the morning after getting her ears pierced. She was incredible and loves her new ear-rings and hair style. I'm sure glad I have plenty of guns for the boys in the near future.

Amanda in the "hot-seat" after getting her ears pierced

Amanda getting the first ear pierced. She said it didn't hurt at all.

Before all the serious action we decided to take in a quick game of glow-n-dark mini golf. This is always a great place for some good family fun

And prior to arriving to the mall we drove around Kaneohe Bay to look at some neighborhoods and stumbled across an open house for this brand new 3000 sq ft home overlooking the bay. It's in an area called Bay View Estates, this particular home is called the Gardenia , (check out the photos) and comes completely furnished (fake grass and all) for a whooping $1.4 million dollars. It was a very nice house, but not for the Soots family.

What a great weekend, now it's back to the office and school next week. We need an extra long weekend soon!

karate kid/muscle man

Here are a couple video's of Jake in action.

karate kicking a water bottle

more water bottle kicking

Mr. muscle man