What a great two weeks!

Hi all,
We are having a blast with my brother Justin and his wife Kari!! The girls began school full time...and I am adjusting to life with no children at home!! We also have been all over this island as tourists...and we even saw Barack Obama...TWICE!!

So first of all, Grace started 4th grade. She is having a great time and they even made a music video the first week that they will use for Open House. Her teacher really seems to be engaging and energetic with her teaching style. The best thing for us is that Grace has made a smooth transition. This being her fourth school in 5 years, she was very apprehensive and a little scared. But she made friends right away (as she always does) and is loving it there. She even made it onto the student council! Grace is also loving her swim team! She swims three days a week from 3-4:30. It is quite a lot of work, but she is excelling and I think this confidence boost has aided in her smooth transition with our move. She now feels like she has other kids who love what she loves and this gives her focus and something to work for. The Olympics have given her an extra boost...she is a big Michael Phelps fan right now.
Maddie and Emma are in the same kinder class...we requested that they be and they honored it. I think that with our move, they just needed each other for one more year. Their teacher can already see their distinct differences and strengths. Emma is more outgoing and Maddie is more reserved and will not speak up. I don't think she can get Emma to be quiet (don't know where that comes from !!) They are so cute with their backpacks and lunchboxes. They are at least a head shorter than all the kids in their class. So all the kids bend over to talk to them and think they are these cute little toddlers....don't know how that will affect them...:-) But after the second day they said, "Do we HAVE to go to school AGAIN!!" Justin told them that it would be this way for the next 17 years. They were not happy! They were ready for a "rest day", so today being a Hawaiian holiday worked out perfect.
So I have been playing tour guide while Kari and Justin have been here. I'm thinking of hanging out my shingle!! :-) I love discovering new great places to visit on the island. We try to stay away from the "touristy" spots that are really just money traps...and we venture out on our own. Let's see, we have been to all of the Windward beaches, we went to the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor (what an experience!!), we have hiked Diamond Head ( at record speed!), we went to a birthday party/cookout (where Kevin had an allergic reaction to the ahi poke (raw tuna) and immediately began to swell..and had to take 3 benadryl...needless to say, he was out for the night!), we've been to swim practice where we got in the pool with our two other little fish, we took a trip to the North Shore where we saw gorgeous beaches, giant sea turtles (Honu) in the wild at Turtle Beach...you can literally swim with them, although by law you are required to stay 5 ft from them, we watched people jump from the cliffs at Waimea Bay, and we had lunch at Cholo's on the famous North Shore. We are hoping to go back next week to take paddle surfing lessons. Now for the COOLEST part ever....we went snorkeling with Barack Obama!!! Okay, first some back story....actually, let me begin a new paragraph...this is too great to include here!! :-)
So here's the scoop...last week, we were at the beach where we always go. A man who lives there stopped to ask us if we had seen Obama. We told him no, that we didn't know he was here. He said that he was staying down the street and that he had seen him walking on the beach that morning. So a few days later, we went back to the beach with some friends and we went down further. We set up camp, the kids started boogie boarding...acutally, we spent most of our time picking up man-of-war jellyfish. But anyway, we looked over and saw police guarding this house on the beach. There weren't a lot of people out there, but a few people had cameras and then we saw the paparazzi. We kept seeing these men (who we deemed Secret Service) coming in and out of the house. A few even walked down our way...one guy walked out of the house, and down our way. He went past, then turned around and stopped to chat...we knew who he really was, but we figured he was just checking us out to make sure we weren't dangerous...please, five ladies, two men, and 10 kids...we were harmless. He started by asking us how we were and how the water was. We told him it was great except for the jellies...and blah blah blah. He was kind and said he was going to get his suit on...needless to say, he disappeared into the house and we didn't see him again. We never said anything about Obama and didn't ask him any questions...we were playing it cool. Actually, we were trying to respect Obama's privacy, by not gawking and being obnoxious. We just thought it would be neat to see him as we were enjoying the same beach. Well, he never came out so we packed up to leave. A reporter tried to chat with us but we told him we hadn't seen anything or talked to anyone (we kept the Secret Service guy to ourselves). So we left.
Now here is the great part.....we had been seeing Obama's whereabouts all week on the news. So as Kevin, Kari, Justin and I were dropping the girls off at school yesterday and heading to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling, Kevin made a wisecrack about how he bet Obama would be snorkeling today too. I said yeah right, that is too touristy for him to do and can you imagine how crazy that would be to take a presidential candidate down into that former crater for a simple snorkeling trip....we all rolled our eyes. Well, I'll be darned that if we didn't get down the steep hill and onto the beach that Kevin didn't say well there he is. Honestly, I saw a small group of people with lifeguards around and thought someone had been hurt or bitten by a sea creature. I'm like, yeah right, Kevin said, no, there he is. He was with his family and it looked like some friends and other family members. They were right there!! So we found a spot on the beach, put our stuff down, and got into the water. There were Secret Service there, but nothing too noticeable. However, I did notice the big black SUV that is never parked down there. People were being very respectful and giving them their space...but it was really cool to see him with his kids and his wife. He really was here for vacation and was trying to make it as normal as he could. There were no cameras, no paparazzi, they looked just like a regular family, except that they had Secret Service and lifeguards on surfboards surrounding them out in the water. We went on about our business of seeing lots of cool fish...it really is like swimming in an aquarium. But we saw them leave and it was just a really awesome experience to see him as a normal person who is a husband and a dad. No matter where you stand on the political side of things, seeing a man who could potentially be our next leader being a normal person who loves his family was a great opportunity. I truly pray that whoever it is that takes the American reigns does so with compassion and clarity on helping America recover from these messes that we are in.
As for my continuing tour guide job, we still have a luau to attend, paddle surfing lessons, and a few more trips to the beach. I am now on my way to pick them up from Waikiki where we put them up for a night at the Hale Koa hotel (the military owned one) so they could have a kid-free romantic night away in paradise. This is all for now...I'll add more pics later.

God Bless,
Corry

Coming Up: Emma and Maddie signed up for Cheerleading...rah, rah! and I try to figure out how to live life without children attached to my leg!! Until then....Love ya!!