Why Can't I Blog Everyday?!

I THINK about blogging everyday, but something always happens. I used to be so good at posting everyday! Now I've turned into a Friday blogger for our themed photos. I'm going to try to get back into it! Once again...

Shall we play catch up again?

So... yesterday Ally wanted to go have her hair cut! She showed me a picture and I thought it was just too much for her. I pay a lot of money for her hair to be done every 3-5 months (straightening), I did not want to have her hair cut so short that she would hate it. So we came to a compromise and this is how it turned out. I think when it's straight, it look a little punk... but still... it's cute. This was an "at home" photo, so I let her wear her make-up like this. I think it actually turned out really cute!

Last night we went to our Family Ministry Group. I had so much fun! We played Scattagories until about 11:30. I am NOT used to staying up so late anymore and this morning, I had the biggest headache! I'm going to miss all the people we've met at our church! When Daniel was on his 6 month deployment, we really kept busy doing things with them.

Daniel recently found out that he screened for XO early. There is a board that meets and in the "first look" about 20% screen. Making it on the first look means that you've done well.. So we're proud of him!

I have been searching houses online like a crazy woman! I am so excited about buying a house I could just scream! While all of our friends bought houses along the way, we always held out for "THE" house! Now it's time to buy one and I can't wait! We are still waiting for orders, but have put together some plans here and there. If everything goes like we want it to... (HAHAHA)this is what we're going to do.

1. Get orders!!! Man! Our hands are so tied until this happens! I wish we could have them TODAY!

2. Pack out Household goods, and my car. (I will have to drive D's car and drive him to and from work)

3. Go on house hunting leave -Kids get out of school on June 23 so we'll hopefully go after that

4. Find the most incredible house and price EVER! hahaha

5. The kids and I stay stateside and wait for closing, family reunion in P-cola, visit, etc.

6. Daniel comes back here and turns over house to the Landlord.

7. He will live at Paul and Ang's house if he needs to- they will be gone. :) Thanks P&A! D will ship his car when he's finished with it here.

8. We close on the house, he comes home (hehe.. home to our new house) and that's it!

Of course there are a million things to do in between all of these things... but this is the goal!

I've been reading a great book called "The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home" by Alan Perlis and Beth Bradley. It's a great book! We have another that it full of checklists! I love checklists! We are trying to get a better understanding of it all before we jump in and regret something. We also get lots of suggestions and pointers from friends. The best I've heard so far is to go back at night time when everyone in the neighborhood is home to see what the neighbors and everything is like! I'm trying to put together (of course I am) an itinerary of things we have to do and things we should consider/not forget, etc. We want to document the entire event and make an album out of it. I really want to blog about it all... we'll see if I can do it.

We've been having a huge craigslist garage sale! We're trying to just get rid of things we don't need or won't need anymore once we move.

We've decided to only have 1 television in the house now. I think I might be ready to just have NO TV at all. Maybe just something for movies and Rock Band OF COURSE!

Okay I'm finished playing catch up! I'm going to start my water post today too... hopefully. I can't believe how much it's been raining here! Kapolei is so dry! But now I don't have to water my grass!!! yay!

Punchbowl Cemetary

Here are the pictures from Punchbowl Cemetary. I decided to go around lunchtime, so the sun was really bright and I wasn't able to get pictures that I really liked. I plan to go back though because it's really, really pretty.

Stand Down Video

This is the video that Daniel made during his time off after deployment. I think it turned out really well. Enjoy!

Our First Geocache!

We did our first Geocache today! It was really close to our house but it was fun for the first one!We had things to add to the cache, but these caches were just a log book. They were also "micro". Meaning they were really hard to find!
It didn't take long to find this one. Ally found it!

We got the eTrex gps that took us really close to the site. It worked really well too!


We celebrated my birthday again... This time we had a real cake and real presents! I don't have pictures of them, but I got a tripod for my camera and a new flash!

This picture was taken with my new flash and the tripod! Since Mason turned 10, he can no longer smile like a human boy!

Geocaching was really fun! I can't wait to do it again. Tomorrow Daniel has to go to work, so I think I'm going to go to the beach! Please have good weather, Hawaii! It's been rainy and cloudy for weeks it seems!

We have also been getting ready for the Jimmy Buffett concert! Daniel has been singing all day... I got my hushpuppies on... It's hilarious!

Alcatraz

I've been promising Alcatraz, so here it is finally! After walking the streets of San Francisco all day in the cold (oh so cold) weather, we got on a ferry to see Alcatraz. The ferry took us around the entire Alcatraz Island and a tour guide also told us interesting facts about the island. It was a very pretty ride, but we couldn't be outside so I didn't get any pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge or the Bay Bridge.

The ferry ride over.

Alcatraz guard tower.



Officer quarters on "The Rock". The officers lived on the island and also raised their kids here!


Back in the day the officer's club had a lot of entertainment- even a bowling ally!



From outside the main prison.




Inside the main prison.

Inmate cell on C block.

I think the rooms were 6X7X8 feet. The inmates knew every little inch of their cells.

Al "Scarface" Capone

Inmate Library.

Library. Only about 275 inmates were at Alcatraz at one time. I would have thought more.

This was a device used to attempt an escape. Even if the escape was successful, the inmate would have to swim in the freezing water back to land.

Officer's attire.

Coast Guard Lighthouse on the island.

San Francisco from Alcatraz. The audio tour guide said that the inmates could smell Ghiradelli Chocolate from their cells. Many inmates said the hardest part of being at Alcatraz was being able to see the city lights, hearing the people celebrating events like bringing in the New Year, and not being able to participate. They always knew what they were missing.

San Francisco and the Bay Bridge

This was the visitor's room. This was the inmate's side of the wall they could speak to family members through.

The famous escape route.

In the kitchen, all the knives were to be on a board that had their shape painted so that the cooks always knew if knives were missing from the kitchen. Many did go missing.

This is the sering hole from the kitchen to the dining hall.

We were getting ready for the slammer demonstration and we were able to see the moon It was beautiful! I don't know how to get better pictures at night yet... I'm working on it!

This is the famous "slammer". Where you see the numbers is the cell numbers that this device would grab and then open or close. The guy only did about 5 at a time I think. The guy that did the demonstration said he had visited other prisons to see how they work also. He gave some interesting facts. Not until 1938 were the inmates allowed to speak! I can't believe that one! He also said that while at Alcatraz, the sound of the slammer was a constant noise. On all floors there were cells being opened and closed all day long along with whistles and the sound of orders being yelled from the officers. This was NOT a happy place to be and was NOTHING like prisons today. I'm not sure what year, but the guy said that there was a power outage in San Francisco and Alcatraz jailed inmates from other prisons after it was shut down. That must have been scary!

Spooky Building at Alcatraz. By the time we left it was dark, so that was kind of cool.

Okay! That's the end of my adventures in San Francisco. I know this one was long, but now I start blogging like normal!

Hope you enjoyed my trip! Thanks for reading! I will post a little more about the Space "A" travel experience next... not so much first class as miserable!

San Francisco Man

Okay, these were some of my favorite pictures! Amy, you said you loved them and so I had to post more! I'll post pics from Alcatraz later too. Thanks Amy! I hope you enjoy these as well.

San Francisco Trip- Part IIII

Finally, my favorite part of the trip!

The old churches and buildings were my favorite part! I could take pictures of just that all day and I think I sort of did actually! There are so many! I think during the entire vacation I took around 1500 pictures... so here are some of my favorites and if you have questions or comments, you know what to do! Here we go!

We had lunch here and it was really good. Daniel got this HUGE plate of seafood, Mason got a huge pizza, Ally and I had this really spicy pasta, the service was amazing and it only cost like $32! This was a great find!

We rode a cable car (not a trolly) up and down very steep hills in the city! It was great! I still like Trolly! I guess the locals don't like it much though.

Stay tuned for Alcatraz!