Ring Around the Rosey

It's Friday night and we Erickson's are VERY bored. Oh, the memories we're creating! LOL

Savings Account

Since I was pregnant with Mariah, Will and I have been talking about opening a savings account for her. Then came Brinlee and we talked even more. And, well, 10 years later, I finally did it. SAD! (that is took this long)
I have actually been putting money aside every single month for a little over a year now for each child. Today, I put that money into 5 different accounts with each girls' name on their own account. I divided it up so that the older 2 girls have just a little more to start with than the younger three. These next 8 years are going FLY and Mariah will be off to college before we know it.
I also talked to the gal at the bank about having another account to start saving up for weddings. This one won't be a top priority, but just knowing that I have a little bit put away will ease my stressing mind. She said that I could come back and talk to their financial advisor about all my options.
I am open to all suggestions! :D

9 am church

So, apparently, since our ward is so absolutely

GINORMOUS,

they have been "forced" stay in the 11

am time slot for church. This allows them full use of all

the larger rooms for classes, etc.

This year someone,

somehow worked it out

that we are able to go at the

9 am time.

Most people seemed pretty excited.

Others were grumbling and unhappy.

I am neither here nor there.

There are pros and cons to every time slot for me.

Anyway, we haven't been privileged to attend

our ward since "last year" since we were in HI for

2 weeks. Will had to work today, so he

was off and gone by 6. I got up and fed the

kids taking account of the time, until it hit me that

"OH. GEEZ!

We have 9 o'clock church!!!"

This was at exactly

8:01 am.

UUUUUUgggggHHH!!!

I literally threw the 3 middle kids

into the shower while Roxelle sat on the potty.

Got them out and helped Mariah hurry through.

I was, by some miracle,

able to get them all showered, dressed

and hair fixed by 8:25, and then I had to shower.

We got ready to leave at 8:50 and it was only

then that I realized that I am supposed to

teach today.

Now, (I sheepishly admit), I have prepared a lesson or 2

during the 2nd block of church and that is

what I would have done, except that I

didn't have the new manual for this year.

We arrived at the church at 9:05

and planned on sitting in the foyer until after

the sacrament so that we could occupy

the benches that the priesthood uses for passing the sacrament,

but it seems that there quite a few people aren't

accustomed to the earlier time slot and

there was actually a bench available!

We've been blessed for a good long

while to have Will attend church with us.

The kids aren't perfect with him there,

but at least we can tag team if needed.

Today was one of those

"I really want to drag all 5 of you out of this chapel and hide"

kinda day.

Our friends,

Mike and Arianna Rees,

who just moved into our ward a

couple of months ago, spoke today.

Arianna talked about (of all things)

"The JOY of motherhood".

LOL!

That was all I could do.....laugh at myself.

Thankfully,

only 1 of the 2 lasagne's that

I made to take to the priest/laurel activity

on Friday got eaten, so I didn't have to

think about dinner.

KAILUA!!!!

Obama is GONE and we finally get to go to our FAVORITE beach park in Kailua. It's called Kalama Beach park and it's a total diamond in the rough.

On the way out of Ewa, we stopped at our old favorite 7-Eleven on the corner of Ft. Weaver and Renton Rd. The girls each got a slurpee and I got a bigger one for Will and I to share with Roxelle, but as you can see, we didn't get much of it. LOL!

She is in HOG HEAVEN!! (Ross)

One of the things on our to do list was to go up to the Pali Lookout. So we drove to Kailua over the Pali Highway. We absolutely LOVE this place. The wind is amazing up here. We have some pretty unique memories of this place and today we got another one. (see below)

And it's ALWAYS freezing, no matter the temp
everywhere else.

When we pulled into the Pali Lookout parking lot. There were emergency vehicles everywhere. At least 2 ambulances, 2 fire engines, and 5 HPD cars. When we got to the top of the lookout, there were emergency crews all over and a news station. The bottom half of the lookout was police taped off and there were emergency climbers all hooked up and looking over the edge. I wish I could've gotten a pic of just how steep and far down it goes.

(Just tonight on the news we learned that an 80 year old O'ahu man was there with his wife. She watched as he climbed through the safety rail and walked along the rail on the other side a little ways. Supposedly he lost his grip and fell to his death. The rescue crews had to climb down 250-300 feet and it took them over 3 hours to carry his body back to the top. Such a senseless tragedy! So sad!)

I got chicken skin as we walked down the path to our favorite beach. I LOVE this beach. I miss it SOOO much! I wish we could go there every single day until we leave. The ocean was pretty flat, but just enough for the girls to think they were catching some "sweet waves".

Can you tell why they call it "Turtle Rock"
(way in the background)

Mariah caught one!!

So did Brinlee!!!!
(I was so excited for her I wasn't
watching my camera..LOL)


Sandy baby!

Gorgeous water!


At the end of the day.....you get to go home with some "beach hair". YEEEES!!!

Shopping

Today, we really did need to stay out of the sun, so we decided to go shopping at the Outlets in Waikele. I didn't have anything good to wear to church tomorrow, so that is mainly what we were shopping for. We scored some awesome winter weather wear at Old Navy. I got some cute sweaters for $10. They had their $80 Wool Pea Coats for kids marked down to $20, too. Such a smokin' deal!!
After shopping we ran a few errands and then went to Dave's Ice Cream. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! Heavenly! It was everything I remember it to be. :)

Will and Brinlee ordering

Sharing!

Mariah and her coconut shave ice... (ooo, but she has pumpkin
flavored ice cream under it. MMMMM!)

Such a GOOF!

Roxelle trying to steal a bite of Asia's with the

spoon in her hand (she had just pulled it away

when I snapped the pic, so you can't tell she

has one in her hand)

OOOOOO!!! Dave's Ice Cream is the BEST!!

Tonight, Kauwe and Kapua wanted to go out one last time before he leaves on Monday. We kept all the girls here so that they can spend some quality time together. It’s going to be so hard to be a single mom for 4 months. 5 girls is a lot of work!!
I decided it would make tomorrow morning easier to get ready if I braided the girls’ hair tonight. We are going to try and take some family pics at Ko’Olina in the morning before church. The meeting starts at 1, so we should have plenty of time if we can get through the morning o.k. I didn’t think it would take as long as it did to braid 8 heads of hair, but at 10:15, I was just finishing up. (We started around 7). It will be worth it in the morning though. I’m exhausted today. I need to get some more sleep! (Sleep, schmeep, right?! We’re in HAWAI’I!!!)

Beach

We had planned to stay out of the sun today since everyone got fried crispy yesterday, but the Kai's had decided that they were going to pack up and go to the beach, which happens to be a rare occurance. So, we decided to go, too. Brinlee went with a rash guard on and a warning to stay in the shade as much as possible. We went to Ko'Olina, AGAIN, cuz Obama is still here for the holidays and our favorite beach in Kailua has been shut down because that's near where he's staying. :( BOOO!

Sweet Sisters

Fun in the sand

Baywatch? LOL j/k

Friends


Random shots

Not sure of the big scary sand turtle

Do you like it? NOOO! Do you like it?? WAAAAAHHH!

Tiny surfer girl! (Aleena)

Naysa (Sweet n Spicy!)

Upset because she was told to stay out of the
sun for a little longer.
"BUT, hmph, it's NOT faaaaiiiiirrrrrr!"





Kauwe let them each take a turn launching off his shoulders.

Her beloved coral

Roxelle and Kristy