Mommy's little helper

The other day when I was preparing some things in the kitchen, Noah decided to be quite the helper :) He had a great time spinning the salad for me (although I think it actually hypnotized him for a bit, haha).

He also found Noah sized "oven mitts", which he was very excited to show off!

Daddy's cover

Noah was having a great time the other night putting on Ely's cover (the hat for one of his uniforms). He was pretty cute walking around saying "work, work".

You can also see Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings winning their 3rd Olympic gold medal in the background, whoohoo!!!

We need a new plan...

Shortly after we got here, Noah figured out how to open the chain link fence in our backyard. It wasn't a huge deal because he usually only tried to go out it if one of us were with him and most of the time if he's in the backyard, someone is out there with him. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and one afternoon when Ely went inside to use the restroom, Noah decided to go mow around the neighborhood on his own. Needless to say, we had to get a padlock for the gate, especially since the street is right outside our yard.

Well, the padlock has become superfluous...

Freedom!!!

Finally, after living here for 2 months, we have a second vehicle! After countless searches on Craigslist, we finally found a 4x4 four door pickup that fits our needs (i.e. it is in nice condition, fits a carseat, and can be driven on the beach!) Until a week ago when we got the truck, Noah and I were essentially stuck on base. Luckily, the playground, pool, and ocean are all within walking distance of our house, but after awhile it's nice to get a change of scenery!!!










The first thing we did on Monday with our freedom was attend a parent and tot gymnastics class! It's pretty much just 40 minutes of free play in a gym, but Noah loves being able to run all over and jump and swing on things :)

Air Noah

After going on the "roller coaster" a few times, Noah decided to start going backwards! Such a little daredevil

Fun at a new park

Here's a little story to give you an idea of how "small" the island is: last Sunday morning I went on a long run with a friend, and by the time I made it back home we were too late to make it to our church for mass at 8:30am, which is the only Sunday service they have. So we were going to try and make it to mass at the next closest church (30 minutes away) at 9:45 but we realized we still didn't have enough time for all of us to get cleaned up and ready in time. After an extensive search of Catholic churches on Kauai, we found only one church on the entire island that has a service on Sunday evening (none of the churches have a service later than 10am on Sunday)! Unfortunately for us, the one church service that we could make was an hour and a half away...But it ended up being a great church and we got to see a part of the island we hadn't explored yet :)

Anyways, it was a big change for us since our church in Jacksonville had 4 different mass times on Sundays with several other churches within half an hour offering even more options! But this church had a really nice playground that Noah thoroughly enjoyed and the people were very friendly!

Hodge Podge

Here are a few photos I took on my phone that don't necessarily merit their own post but are worth sharing :)

Watching Saturday morning cartoons :)

One of the neighbor boys had a science themed birthday party at the park, and Noah got to go watch them shoot rockets.  I think for the next 5 days after the party Noah mentioned "rock-eets" at least once a day!

He's growing up so fast ;)

Ely took us to the spot on the base where the sea turtles always go!  They are very protected here on the island and watched very closely.  The cones in the background are marking two nests where the babies will be hatching soon!

Summer Olympics 2012

We had our own Summer Olympics here on base which Ely and I both participated in (with Noah acting as our official cheerleader and mascot).

The Opening Ceremonies were held at the pool (after a couple of the kids completed a torch relay through base housing).  They had a few silly competitions at the pool before the actual "games" throughout the two weeks.  Noah had a great time on the inflatable airplane :) 

This little girl kept wanting me to take pictures and videos of her, haha

We knew one of the challenges was going to involve shooting baskets so we went over to the basketball courts one morning to practice.  Noah and Daddy ended up spending most of the time racing across the court!  Noah currently is obsessed with racing.  He will get into "racing stance" and say, "Ready, set..." but he waits for one of us to say go, haha.

Noah also had a good time "running" with the jogging stroller

One of the competitions involved hitting some softballs in the FREE batting cage we have on base! Noah had a great time with the helmets :-)

Safety first!

Noah with Daddy after the swimming competition

 The Closing Ceremony

Ely and I both got second place overall for the males/females respectively based on our total scores from all the events!  Not to brag, but I actually tied for first!  Unfortunately for me, the tie breaker they had us do was a swim-off (right after the other lady had just kicked my butt in the swimming competition!) :- P   Ely and I each also won individual gold medals!!!  We had a great time and won some gift certificates to the restaurant on base!

The overall male medal winners on the podium (Noah had to be front and center, too!)

Apparently, Noah decided he was the ultimate champion!!! 

Look out Michael Phelps, Noah is coming for your medal record ;)