Some random pictures

Marcus seems to think that if he sits under the coffee table I can't see what he's getting into.

He's recently started using his Bumbo as a walker.  I think we need to get him a push around toy.

Marcus giving Kimber a hug.  She promptly got up after these pictures were taken.

Friends and Fondue

Marcus and I had some friends over last night.  I didn't get any pictures, because I never think to grab my camera during things like this, but I'll do my best to describe the scene.  I wanted to do something fun for my friends whose husbands are deploying in the near future.  I thought, what better than a fondue party?  Nothing.  We had a blast.  It took a ton of prep on my part, but fortunately you can prep for a fondue party over the course of a few days.

We started off the dinner with a cheese and cracker tray and the fabulous artichoke and jalapeño dip with pita chips from Costco.  I can eat the entire tub of this dip by myself in one sitting if I don't portion it out, it's so good.

Next it was on to the fondue.  We did a basic vegetable broth as our cooking liquid and I prepared beef tenderloin and chicken breast cubes as the meat dippers.  I also served pre-boiled bite-size potatoes, broccoli, and four colors of bell peppers to dip.  On the side was the Sturzinger family take on California Pizza Kitchen's Waldorf Salad; mixed greens, granny smith apples, green grapes, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and papaya seed dressing.  Sooo good!!

I also made several dipping sauces for all of the cooked food.  Soy-wasabi sauce, which is exactly how it sounds, some soy sauce with some wasabi mixed in.  Lemon Teriyaki sauce, which is soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and ground ginger.  A mustard sauce, which is mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream, and a dash of worcestershire sauce.  A horseradish sauce, which is horseradish, green onions and homemade whipped cream. This was my first time making my own whipped cream, I did it by hand - no cheating with the stand mixer - and it was easier than I thought.  The last two sauces were just store-bought BBQ and ranch.

Then on to dessert, which everybody was waiting for.  We did a chocolate caramel dipping sauce with a ton of dippers.  There were Krispy Kreme donuts, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, and raspberries.  There was also supposed to be pound cake, but I forgot it in the freezer.  Oh well, just means I have an excuse to have a mini-fondue party with my neighbor Heather with the leftover chocolate.

To top off the night, my friend Andrea (who I knew from Panama City) was on the island for work and was able to make it.  Her husband is in the Navy and is currently deployed to the Persian Gulf for 6 months, so it was nice being able to include her in our pre-deployment festivities.

All in all, it was a great night.  Good food, good friends and a whole lot of fun.

2nd Brigade's Deployment Ceremony

Even though Eric already left, Marcus and I went to his unit's official Deployment Ceremony.  This is where they officially ready the units for the deployment.  The 25th Infantry Division's band marches in front of the units to signify that they are ready to go into battle, the 25th ID's Commanding General inspects the troops, and then their colors (flags) are cased to ready them for transport.

Here's a panoramic shot of the entire ceremony.

This was the band marching in front of the brigade.

This is Eric's Company.

This is the entire brigade.

Afterwards, they had a party at the conference center here on base.  It was okay, but the best part was that I won two tickets to the Champagne Brunch at the Hale Koa that Eric and I just went to before he left.  I was just going to give it away since he is already gone, but then I realized it doesn't expire until next September, so maybe we'll go out for my birthday after he gets back.  It's a nice little something to look forward to.

D-Day +1 (and 2)

The day Eric left, things went pretty well, and I started thinking this wasn't going to be too bad.  Marcus went to sleep at 8 that night, so I got to hang out with my neighbor for a little while and just relax.  The next day, however, I got to pay for Marcus going to bed so early.  He decided to wake up at 6:30 (normally he doesn't get up until at least 7:30, sometimes 8).  I don't know if he thought "Without Daddy here to do it, I'm going to have to wake Mommy up early" or what.  Eric had gotten into the habit of waking me up at 5:30 when he left for PT and I was looking forward to finally sleeping in.

Last night, Marcus fell asleep at 7.  I was sure he was just going to take a short nap and then wake up again as he has been known to do.  He did wake up once, but put himself right back to sleep.  This morning, he woke up at 5:30.  I'm not sure that I like this trend.  I'm actually glad that he woke up when he did today though, because about ten minutes later I had an MP (Military Police Officer) pounding on my front door.  It seems that they found a little girl, probably about 2 or 3 years old, wandering around in front of my house with a sippy cup and they thought that she was mine.  I had actually never seen her before, so I wasn't much help, but they did eventually find her parents.

I just hope that Marcus doesn't try to go to bed at 6 tonight.  I'm thinking that this bedtime trend might be due to the fact that Eric used to play with Marcus at night and keep him stimulated until bedtime, whereas I tend to keep more of a mellow environment.  Or, it's just because his first two teeth are coming in.

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend was Eric's last here in Hawaii.  He wanted to hit up the beach one last time and then go to Buffalo Wild Wings.  We sure are happy Marcus likes the water.  He loves hanging out in his inner-tube.  

Then it was time to say good-bye to Eric for a while.  We're all grateful technology has come so far in the last few years.  I don't know what we'd do if we couldn't talk to him occasionally.

Back on Oahu

Once we made it back to Oahu, we decided to hit Waikiki Beach for some fun in the sun.  

Even though the big boys thought the water was cold and were afraid to get in past their lower legs, Marcus was anxious for some water fun.

After the beach, and honestly the real reason for the drive down to Waikiki, we hit up Mac 24-7.  It was recently featured on Man V. Food on the Travel Channel and it looked too good to pass up.  Everything they serve is huge, like these pancakes that we shared.  It's 3 pounds of pancakes and 1 pound of toppings.  We opted for bananas, chocolate chunks, and peanut butter.  They offer this as an eating challenge for one person in 90 minutes, but the three of us couldn't even finish them together.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 4

Day 4 on the Big Island had Eric going on a 15 mile hike along the coast and me and Marcus visiting the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory.  We got to learn all about how Macadamia Nuts are harvested and watch the chocolates being made.  We also bought some candy of course.  When we got back to Volcanoes National Park, Marcus and I hiked 1 1/2 miles out to see the Petroglyphs drawn on the lava.  When Eric finished his hike, we all headed up to the Hilina Pali Overlook.  

The view from the overlook.

We were pretty high up.

After dinner, we drove out to Pahoa to see the active lava.  Our camera didn't take very good pictures of it, but it was pretty cool to see the lava both where it was coming out of the cone and also where it was hitting the water.  

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 3

Our third day took us outside of the park.  We headed south along Volcano Highway to Black Sand Beach to look for sea turtles.  We had brought our snorkel gear with the intention of swimming with sea turtles, but forgot that the south side of the island is the most active wave-wise in the summer.  Needless to say, there was no snorkeling to be done.  We did see a sea turtle though.

Next we headed down to South Point, the southern-most point in the United States.  Before we got there, we made a stop at the Punaluu Bakery for malasadas and bread pudding.  We picked up a loaf of sweet bread too.

Of course, it wouldn't be a vacation for Eric without a hike, so then we hiked 2 1/2 miles to Green Sand Beach.

This is the view from the top of the cliff overlooking Green Sand Beach.  It's pretty treacherous getting down there, so we didn't actually go, but maybe next time when Marcus is bigger.

On the way back to the cottage, we stopped off at the Volcano Winery where we got to sample some tasty wines.  They had one made from Macadamia Nut Honey infused with green tea.  The honey is not actually made with macadamia nuts, but instead the bees collect the pollen from the macadamia nut trees.  This wine would go great with chinese food on a hot day when you don't want hot tea.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 2

Our second day started early with Eric heading out on a 10 mile hike to the Napau Crater.  Marcus and I chose to go on a 3 mile hike up the Pu'u Huluhulu Cone.  Both hikes started at the same point, Marcus and I just had to pick Eric up down the road at the end of his day.

The boys in their cool shades before we started.

This is where we said goodbye to Eric.  We were able to see him again when we got to the top of our cone and he was hiking through a large lava field.  He didn't know we were there, so he didn't get a picture of us, and he had the camera, so we couldn't take a picture of him.

Once we picked up Eric, we decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road to where the lava meets the ocean.  Marcus and I got to stand on some lava that had gone completely over the road.

Behind Eric and Marcus is the Holei Sea Arch.  It's lava that has been carved out by the ocean waves.

On our drive back up to our cottage we stopped at this crater, which I can't remember the name of now.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 1

For Eric's block leave prior to deploying, we went to the Big Island for a week.

Here's a picture of Marcus on the flight over.

I looked at this trip as a chance to relax before we were separated for a year, while Eric looked at it as an opportunity to hike all day.  We stayed at Kilauea Military Camp, which is right inside Volcanoes National Park.  We decided to stay within the park for most of the week rather than trying to drive all over the island.  This allowed Eric to go on some hikes while Marcus and I could relax in the cottage or do some shorter day hikes.

We got there on the afternoon of the 1st and headed straight to the Jaggar Museum.  Here are some pictures of the Kilauea Caldera from the museum.

Next, we headed to the park's visitor center to figure out which hike we could do right away before the sun went down.  They directed us to the Kilauea Iki Crater.  It was pretty cool as we got to actually hike inside the crater.

This is a picture of Eric and Marcus looking out at the hike ahead of us.  If you look closely, you can see the trail through the crater (the light line pointing toward Eric).

Eric and Marcus inside the crater.  Yes we had to climb back up to the top of that ridge behind them.

Once we finished the Kilauea Iki Crater, we realized we had enough time to go to the Thurston Lava Tube as well.  It's basically a cave made from hardened lava.

Eric and Marcus about to head into the Lava Tube.

Eric and Marcus inside the Lava Tube.

After the Lava Tube, we finally headed to KMC to check-in and check out our room.

Hawaii State Fair

Before we went on our vacation to the Big Island, we decided to check out the Hawaii State Fair.  Eric and I were a little disappointed as it was really more of a carnival than a fair, but Marcus was enamored with the Fire Ball.  He just stared at it going around and around.  It was free for Military on the day that we went, so it was at least worth the money.

Crawling?

I'll let you guys decide if this counts or not.

Video of Marcus crawling