Happy memorial day!

Thank you to all of the soldiers, men and woman who risk their lives to protect our freedoms. thank you to the families of those soldiers who worry and sacrifice their spouses or sons or daughters to fight for our country. we were part of that community for 3 years and there is no way to truly understand the sacrifice until you have lived it. when matt got the phone call that he was going to iraq i bawled, almost hysterically. i couldn't imagine him going to a war zone, how would i talk to him, i would miss him horribly and it was dangerous. it turned out to be an even harder time than we expected when jon died while he was gone. i think that is the hardest time we have ever had. matt couldn't help at all and he didn't get to say good bye to jon in the ways that we did but he had his own private memorial playing IZ songs and looking at the picture jon had taken and sent matt that now hangs over our bed. so this memorial day is for remembering the soldiers who fight for our country, for the ones who have lost their lives in battle and for our loved ones who we miss dearly. happy memorial day!

at the airport when matt returned home from iraq.

p.s. pioneer woman has awesome "coming home" pictures on her blog!!

memorial day

well everyone had the day off so we decided to head to the beach to meet friends and kiley and caleb would meet us there later. we were trying to get to castles. the traffic was horrible, we finally got to foodland at pupekea to buy some food to take with us. the power was out so the stoplight was out and they were only letting a few people into foodland at a time. so skip that. from there there is really no where to stop so we went to the kahuku sugar mill convenience store and bought hot dogs and a bag of chips, very exciting! one good thing was that there was a woman outside that is always there selling jewelry, she had a great turquoise ring for ki for very reasonable so that was good since she lost her favorite one in the robbery.2 hours later we got to the beach to a gloomy day but the kids were ok and matt surfed a little. then it started to pour. we all packed up and everyone headed to the mozo's house but we had baxter, we were all sandy and wet as was our stuff from the rain making the sand stick to everything and my toe had sand caked on the part that the toe nail is missing so at 2:00 we just went home which took over an hour with the holiday traffic.  such is our luck lately but it's not getting me down yet:)

                                           Baxter loves riding in the car and going to the beach
                            anela and her friend made beds in the sand and covered up to stay warm
these are the cutest babies! chalei belonging to sara and baby Jason belonging to rachel (formerly runnels girls). it is so hard to believe. when we moved here the runnels kids were all young teenagers now sarah and rachel are married and have babies turning 1 and isaac is going on his mission in july. it is fun to see everyone grow up and have thier own families!
                                  sarah and chalei, she loves being in the water and so stylish!
                  this is what it looked like in the sky to begin with and got worse from there. 

On another note, i am very grateful to the men and women who serve in our armed forces. for their sacrifice to their families to be away at war, sometimes losing limbs, mental damage or loss of life. i am proud that matt served his time in the mililtary and so grateful that he was safe and that we could gain an appreciation for what the military does for our country. i salute those who have lost their lives and remember them at this memorial day time. thank you.