Yellow Hibiscus with glimpse of beach....

Here is a picture of a group of yellow hibsicus flowers and even one bloom that isn't opened, with small glimpses of the ocean in the background. These blooms were as big as my hand! I am amazed at the wonderful flowers here on Oahu.



This photo was taken by me with my Sony DSLR-A350. My settings were f/8; 1/250 second exposure time, ISO-100, 50mm focal length, 4.97 aperture, auto white balance, no flash was used and no photo editing.

Night before School Starts Back.....

I think right now in my life the most amazing sound I could hear in the morning is the sound of the school bus coming to pick the kids up for school! MO had a family tree project to do during Christmas break and of course it is bedtime and he is still working on it! We have had tears and arguements over this project today. However we did learn interesting things like Grandad Lambert (from my side of the family) and Grandpa Dean (from hubby's side of the family) both worked for the city of San Diego at the same time. I never would have even thought that the families may have known each other in the past since my family is from the east coast and James is from midwest and west coast! We called my dad after finding the information about Grandad being a San Diego Police Department Taxi Driver and he confirmed the time frame of that. Grandpa Dean was working for the city of San Diego at the same time! MO wants to think that his great-grandfather's might have known each other. I think that is pretty cool!

Of course, today has been a struggle with all the kids for different reasons. I just think that it is too long of a break and that our routines have been shot. It is so time to get back in the routine of school right now. JO, of course, was well underway of getting ready for bed as MO was working on his project. In addition to posting pics here -- which I promise will be of Hawaii as soon as our routine can get to be normal again! -- I am trying to take at least one picture of each child all year long. I will start putting these into albums for them to have at the end of the year. I just think this is a neat thing to do. I walked in the bathroom and said, "what are you doing?" JO said, "what" back at me as she leaned her head back and I got this cute picture of her.

Well this is goodnight from us for tonight and hopefully I can get out and about tomorrow to snap some photos of the area where I live!

Night Shot of USS Oklahoma

by Kimberly

Here is a night time shot of the USS Oklahoma Memorial that I took. I was playing around with my son's little point and click camera on the way home from the movies and got what I think is a great shot!

To learn more about the memorial here is there website:
http://www.ussoklahoma.com/Pearl_Memorial.html

I am so amazing and blessed to live in such a great place!!

Highlight of New Year at Noon!

by Kimberly

This was the highlight to me of this year's new years celebration with our children! I am sure the kids were pretty excited too but the balloons may have been more memorable to them! LOL - You know how little ones are!

Nina (Wendy Calio) from Imagination Movers on Disne Channel was a special guest this year at the Honolulu Children's Discovery Center "New Year at Noon" celebration! She was promoting her dance studio here on Oahu, but the exciting part was she had a dance party with all the kids before the big ballon drop. The kids loved learning her dances and she even taught them a hula dance that she and the "Movers" have come up with. I am hopeful that we will see it in a future episode.

The photo was taken at the end of the event when she made time to sign photos for the kids. I just thought this was an amazing way to kick off the new year! Well, this the balloon drop and the apple juice toast!

Oh yeah, by the way, the little one's hand is up because he is trying to shaka! LOL!