Day 15: Fun With Family

Posted by: Cris

I am extremely thankful that about 20 years ago a cousin that I only knew on a limited basis and his wife chose to move to Hawaii. Flash forward and they are here with their daughter who is a year older than Juneau and even though we have settled on a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we still have family nearby who are looking out for us and that we all love hanging out with.

Tonight, we headed over to Magic Island to watch the Friday night fireworks over Waikiki. We got there a little early so the girls had some wild crazy play time while waiting for Melody to arrive.

Rock in the shoe break...

When Melody arrived, excitement ensued...seriously, Juneau got so excited she literally couldn't control herself.

Hugs all around

Playtime before the main event...

Finally the firworks start:

Friday night fireworks over Waikiki

Juneau and Melody spent the entire time discussing the color of each set of fireworks and just general jibber-jabber that I'm sure was bordering on noise pollution for the other onlookers.

When the fireworks got a little too loud, Nova thought Aunt Beth made a great port in the storm

Even Juneau and Melody thought the fireworks got a little too loud (Photo copyright 2010: Tim Hamilton LLC)

After the fireworks, the girls wore Uncle Tim out taking turns making him spin them around. Luckily Tim hadn't eaten yet.

Then it was off to the Spaghetti Factory

Nova chowed on her Mac & Cheese...

...but with the time pushing 9:00, the tired was creeping into her eyes.

Even the tiredness couldn't stop Nova from taking very seriously to the task of eating her ice cream for dessert.

Back on Aunt Beth's lap again...Nova senses the Mommy Vibe emanating from Beth and tries to cash in on it.
By the time we made it to the car, Nova was just about a zombie. She made it halfway up the hill on the Likelike before she fell asleep. Juneau made it all the way home and actually walked to her bed under her own power. We'll see how late of a sleep-in this translates into.

So, yet another fun night in the books with cousin Melody. Thank God for our Hawaii family!!

I got to talk to Emilie last night on the phone for awhile and then again at 4:00 am this morning when she miscalculated the time change and thought I would be at work already :)

I'll leave you with these excerpts from an email I got from her today. I think this is all safe to publish:

"FOB was attacked at 0500, so we got called to aid station to help with casualties. no one seriously injured. We are safe inside the walls but the fire is soooo close, coming from the watchtower right outside my room. shells from the helicopter were falling on the dirt around me when i ran to the aid station. Unlikely anthing will ever actually make it inside the FOB walls, but still a little unnerving."

I assume this is the story covering the attack (just the second on the FOB in 6 months).

Jalalabad Base Attack - Nov 2010

(Warning: A couple graphic pictures in this newstory)

Another story says the security forces there recognize these attacks as ridiculous and merely attempts to garner press attention.

Keep her in your prayers!!