You have GOT to be kidding me...

Today will go down in history as the SECOND time in my naval career where the detailer has dropped a bomb in my lap and made a run for it. (Aside: The "detailer" is the guy sitting at a desk at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee who decides where you are going for your next tour of duty.)

The first time this happened was just after we moved to the DC suburbs for my last shore duty. We had JUST bought a house in Ashburn, VA, about 20 miles outside the beltway to the WEST of DC. Our household goods had JUST been delivered. I hadn't even reported to my new command yet. Then I received a voicemail from the detailer that went something like this: "Yeah, hi, Kevin, congratulations! You're the submarine force's nomination for the flag secretary position at the Naval Academy. The USNA offices will be contacting you to set up an interview with the admiral. Oh, and I'm going on leave for the next two weeks, so I'll talk to you when I get back. Hope it goes well, bye!" Nice. Input from the service member neither required nor desired. There was a week or two there we were really stressed out and wondering if we were going to have to pack our stuff up again and move to the OTHER side of the beltway so I wouldn't have a two hour commute to work at Annapolis. Luckily, I didn't get that job. The detailer dropping that in my lap without even asking what I thought and then taking off on leave just really drove me nuts.

Fast forward a couple of years to this very afternoon. Remember the detailer has recently told me I'm staying in Hawaii. Although we didn't really want to stay in Hawaii, we have come to terms with this and were moving on. We stopped shopping for houses on Realtor.com. LW started working on reservations for our timeshare vacation in January here in Hawaii. LW started making a long honey-do list for things she wanted to change around the house since we were staying for a few more years. I started working on some of those tasks over the last couple of days - like moving furniture around two nights ago. Last night, I cancelled our reservations in the Navy Lodge. I had made reservations for us as a placeholder for the last couple of weeks I expected us to be on the island before transferring, but I didn't need them anymore since we were staying.

So I get this email from the detailer this afternoon...

In essence, it said something to the effect of, "Yyyyyeah, hi, about that job in Hawaii I was going to send you to? Yyyyyyeah, not so much. Admiral ___________ called and picked someone else by name he wants to take that job, so that's off the table. Well, I'm going on leave now through next week, so give me a call the week after next and we'll see what we can work out for your next set of orders."

Um...

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think I must really be a pessimist at heart.

Case in Point #1: All the past week I've been trying to focus on the positive aspects of staying in Hawaii, but I was still grimacing over the fact that I really didn't want to stay in Hawaii. For example, I was really annoyed the other day when I was drooling over all the HD channels available now on Dish Network, only to find out that you can't get most of them in Hawaii.

Case in Point #2: Now, again, am I trying to focus on the positive aspects of NOT staying in Hawaii. We didn't WANT to stay in Hawaii in the first place. Still, my thoughts are in turmoil right now not knowing where we're going next. At least when we thought we were staying in Hawaii, the path ahead was clear and we could plan accordingly. Although the path wasn't the optimum path / not the path we had chosen, at least we knew which path we were taking and where we were headed. Now, that's all out the window. It's like we've discovered that previous path was washed out by a landslide and there's a heavy fog set in for the next week, so we just have to sit and wait until the fog lifts (when the detailer gets back from leave and I get some orders) to start evaluating the new path we're going to take and making appropriate plans.

Keep in mind, we're about 2 months from wanting to have our household goods and our car packed out and shipped off the island if we're heading back to the mainland, so it would be NICE to have ORDERS so we could reserve the move dates we want. Summer is a big time for PCS (Permanent Change of Station) transfers with a lot of people moving, so a lot of the move dates are already reserved at this point - there are only just so many moving companies on the island.

Argh this is frustrating. I know the Lord has a plan for us... I just wish we knew what it was.

I'm going to go make those Navy Lodge reservations again...

Hawaii it is then

Well, after several rounds of negotiations with the detailer, my attempts to go back to the east coast have failed. We're staying here in Hawaii for shore duty. Although it's not what we wanted, it's actually a good thing for several reasons:

- It's not Japan. (That was the other option on the table, and I just didn't think LW would enjoy living there.)
- We don't have to move.
- The boys can stay in the same schools with the same friends.
- It'll be a good job for my own professional development.
- The job will involve some travel to other submarine home ports, so I'll get to visit family in San Diego and the PACNORWEST periodically on the Navy's dime.
- We don't have to move.
- I can continue to wear all these Hawaiian shirts I've bought. Have you ever been somewhere on the mainland and noticed when someone from Hawaii walks into the room? They always wear some sort of aloha shirt and stick out like a sore thumb, because nobody else on the mainland wears them.
- We can continue to make money on Hawaii COLA (Cost of Living Allowance).
- We don't have to move.
- Friends and family can continue to come stay at the Blunoz family B&B free of charge.
- We can continue to forget what really bad weather is like (our prayers go out to those suffering from tornadoes and flooding right now).
- We don't have to move.
- I can volunteer to do more with the cub scout pack.
- We'll actually get to USE the new swimming pool and community center they're building our our housing area.
- We don't have to move.
- Malasadas.
- Fruity tropical drinks with little paper umbrellas and a pineapple wedge in them.
- We don't have to move.
- I get to say "aloha" more.
- LW can't spend any money at Target or Kohls or any of those other stores she loves back on the mainland. :-)
- We don't have to move.
- We have a couple more years to explore the other islands - next up we'd like to go to Kauai.
- You all get to read more blog posts about our adventures around Hawaii.
- We don't have to move.

Uh oh... Now LW is writing a new honey-do list for me to do around the house since this is no longer just our temporary home.

Saturday morning odds and ends

I hate being sick. LW hates me being sick. She'll get the same bug and she'll have a managable cold for a couple of days and be over it. LW says I'm pathetic and I look like I'm on my death bed. For me, it always takes like two weeks of coughing and hacking my brains out. I really hate being up until 2 a.m. coughing and then being dead to the world when my alarm goes off at 5:30. LW also hates it when I sleep through my alarms. She doesn't fall asleep as easily as I do. I'm ready for this head cold to go away.

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In browsing the blogosphere last night and this morning, I found a couple of really good writers sharing stories of their parenting adventures. I found I could relate to both Dad Gone Mad and Sarah and the Goon Squad. They're both very talented writers and fun to read, although Dad Gone Mad is a little foul-mouthed. I found Dad Gone Mad because it was recommended to me by my Google Reader, and then I found Sarah and the Goon Squad off a link from Dad Gone Mad's t-shirt sales. Anyway, if you need a laugh or two, check them out.

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Chances are we'll be heading to the East Coast again in the fall. The detailer sent me a list of five jobs to consider.

First choice is in Norfolk:
Pros:
- Close to many navy friends who are also stationed there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- It's a very career-enhancing job, too, but as a result I'm one of four guys applying for the job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church with friends of ours from church in San Diego.
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- Long work hours and traffic.
- No Jamba Juice or Robeks.

Second choice is in DC:
Pros:
- Close to friends from our last shore duty there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Manageable cost of living - size of house we can afford is dependent on how far outside the beltway we live.
- It's a very really cool job, too. The detailer said if I don't get selected for my first choice, then I'm his top candidate for this job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church. "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came..."
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- DC traffic.


Third choice is in Groton:
Pros:
- Closer to friends in NY.
- MUCH closer to family in New England. LW says my MIL would kiss my feet if we went there. LW is from Boston and I was stationed in Groton when we first met. We haven't been back to Groton since then.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- The job would certainly help prepare me for my next sea tour if I go back to sea again.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...
- Non-existent traffic / easy commute.

Cons:
- This job would involve sea time, riding lots of other boats and spending time away from my family. Again - good for my professional development, but not so good for my family.

Fourth choice is here in Pearl Harbor: See previous post for pros and cons of staying in Pearl Harbor.

Saturday Evening Stew

A smattering of odds and ends to tell you about tonight.

Snow... er... Carpet Angels

After seeing the patterns that the vacuum cleaner leaves on the carpet, YS decided to improvise a Hawaiian version of snow angels. He calls them [YS]-Angels. It's funny watching him waving his arms and legs back and forth on the carpet. I wish it actually left an observable impression like snow angels do that I could photograph.

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Latest Technology in Making Pillow Forts

The Lucky Wifey wrote a post about building forts as kids. I know, I know, I had fun building forts when I was a kid, too. As a parent though, it's frustrating to not be able to find a place to sit in the family room with all the dining room chairs, sofa cushions, blankets, and miscellaneous other stuff all piled in heaps to make forts.

This morning, I woke up and came downstairs to find a new variation on the pillow fort...

That's LW's laptop and my laptop side by side making one wall of the boys' new "video game fort."

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Chuck Rationing

With the writers' strike putting a big damper on our favorite TV shows, LW and I were really excited to get a double-dose of new Chuck episodes this week. We decided given the overall lack of new episodes to watch though that we should ration ourselves and not watch both episodes in one night. LW checked and double checked to make DARN sure the DVR was going to record both episodes though.

During the first episode, I saw an ad for the Chuck spy games on the NBC website. The games are okay, nothing to rave about. The Nerd Herd car is pretty hard to drive, but maybe that was the point of the game. I think the "I Spy" game was the hardest (find the four things that are different between two VERY similar looking pictures of Buy More store shelves).

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Another Bullet for the "Con" List for Staying in Hawaii

Bugler, sound taps please. (If you live here in Hawaii, you may want to get a tissue box before you read any further). I sincerely regret to inform you that the ONLY Einstein Brothers Bagel Bakery here on Oahu has closed. That said, there aren't ANY places around here to get a good bagel.

Friends of ours who were stationed here previously tell us there used to be Dunkin Donuts here, but they closed before we even arrived on the island last summer. When I got up Friday morning, I was starving, but I refrained from eating so I could go to PT. I got to the gym and was running on the treadmill when they showed a Dunkin Donuts commercial on the TV that seemed to last forever. [Cue stomach noises: gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.]

That's one of the disadvantages of getting satellite TV here in Hawaii... You have to endure the homesickness induced by commercials for Target, Dunkin Donuts, Olive Garden, etc...

On a positive note though, LW did find Dunkin Donuts coffee at the store this week!

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4-Year Old Birthday Party

Today we had YS's birthday party. It was controlled chaos as you would expect. I thought it was pretty funny that YS announced to LW and I a day or two ago that he wanted ONLY BOYS at his birthday party. LW was like, but YOU invited J, can she come? Oh, yeah, J! And you asked C to come, do you still want her to come? Oh, yeah, C! The list went on and on... Off the top of my head, I think there were 7 girls and 3 boys on the guest list. YS and ES evened out the boy-girl ratio to 7:5, but the boys were still outnumbered. I just found it odd that he came up with this "only boys" proclamation when so many of the kids he enjoys playing with are girls.

LW got the "cake" from the Commissary, and it was REALLY GOOD! I say "cake" because it was really a whole bunch of cupcakes, but they were all frosted over the top to make it look like a regular cake (see picture below). It turned out to be quite messy as LW and I were pulling the wrappers off the cupcakes before putting them on plates, and the abundance of frosting was getting all over our hands. Even so, it was delicious!

You probably can't tell from the picture, but it was a Backyardigans cake. One of the other dads and I were commenting on how frustrating it can be to have the Backyardigans theme song stuck in your head all day at work.

YS quote of the day: "I'm four, so I can jump high now."

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Bedtime Stories

Every Friday, ES goes to the library at school and gets to check out two books. He ALWAYS picks out at least one military book. I've been surprised by the wide selection of kids' military books they have. They've got first-grade level books on just about every type of military aircraft or vehicle you can imagine.

One of ES's current library books is on the Army Rangers. I've been very impressed with what a good job ES is doing in reading. He blew me away tonight when he read the sentence, "Usually this means solving difficult problems in stressful situations, such as simulated combat conditions." No help from me, he just read it. His spelling word lists for school are like "was", "does", "goes", "their." It's a lot easier recognizing words and reading them or sounding them out than it is to recall their correct spelling form memory I guess.

We got to a hard word that ES didn't know: reconnaissance. He asked what that was. I explained to him it's just like a reconnaissance satellite takes pictures of where the bad guys are (he's familiar with this concept from my last shore duty job at the NRO). Rangers go out on reconnaissance missions, not to fight, but just to take pictures or observe where the bad guys are and report back to the generals so the generals can decide where to send the Army. This lead into a discussion about how the Rangers have to be stealthy and quiet so they can sneak behind enemy lines, close to the bad guys to see what the bad guys are doing. ES giggled and said, "So the Rangers aren't allowed to laugh." I asked why not, and he said they would want to laugh because they were able to sneak up on the bad guys without the bad guys knowing the Rangers were there watching them, but they can't laugh because then the bad guys would hear them and know they were there. Ya know what, son? You're absolutely RIGHT, they CAN'T LAUGH. I suppressed a laugh myself and continued reading the story.

Decisions, Decisions...

I just don't know what the right answer is. [Cue music - The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"] We're "in the window" to start negotiating with the detailer for where we'll go next. Should we stay in Hawaii or should we move on elsewhere? So far, the only job the detailer has offered me is here in Hawaii on the COMSUBPAC staff. We're just not sure if we want to stay in Hawaii.

Why do I bring this up, you ask?

We reached another PCS / New Duty Station milestone today. We took both boys in to the dentist for a check-up. We went to a children's dentistry office over in the Pearl Ridge Mall on the recommendation of several of our neighbors. This place was AWESOME. Every member of the staff had the patience of a saint. Our boys HATE going to the dentist. It takes a lot of comforting, cajoling, bribery and threats just to get them into the car much less out of the car much less in the door to the dentist's office. The staff at this place had children's dentistry down to a science, step by step making the boys understand what was going to happen before it happened, showing them what they would do with the tools on their fingernails before they stuck the tools in their mouth and started on the teeth. When the boys wigged out or were uncooperative, the staff were extremely nice, understanding, patient, and comforting.

After the dentist's office, we gave ES his choice of where to go for lunch. I was having a major Chick-fil-A craving... but alas, it's a LOOOOONG plane ride to the nearest Chick-fil-A. :-(

ES chose Wendy's for lunch. Thanks to my Chick-fil-A craving, I tried getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy's to try and satisfy the craving, but it just didn't do it for me.

Okay, so all that being said, tonight LW gave me a detailed summary of her reasons for wanting to stay in Hawaii:
1) We hate moving.
2) We have an AWESOME dentist to take the boys to.

Yep, that's it. I suppose you could add to that the living in "paradise" thing, snorkeling, hiking, etc. The job the detailer offered me here I think could be fun and interesting at least.

Why, you ask, don't we want to stay in Hawaii / why would we like to move back to the mainland? Well, just off the top of my head, and in no particular order of importance, here are ten reasons for us to leave Hawaii:
1) Be closer to family and friends - maybe the same city to see them on a regular basis, or at least close enough they can come to visit.
2) Be able to take vacations to visit family and friends or to our favorite places like Lake Winnepesaukee without spending all day on an airplane with two small children and then spending a week going through the jet-lag time-zone adjustment, just to turn around and do it again coming back to Hawaii.
3) Not pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school because the local public schools are abysmal.
4) Cost of living. ($5 for a gallon of milk?)
5) Changing seasons.
6) Bigger houses for less money. I really miss our house in Virginia.
7) Get our nice dining room, living room, and home theater furniture out of storage.
8) Hawaii drivers drive us nuts.
9) Target.
10) Chick-fil-A.
10 1/2) Chicken biscuits at McD's (sorta goes along the same lines as 10 above).

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Shifting topics, today was our first session back with the PT Nazi since we got back from our Christmas stand down. Aside: For anyone who hasn't read my previous blog posts, we do Command PT three days per week, but on Wednesdays we go to Bloch Arena and have a personal fitness trainer lead us through some interval training, and he always kicks our butts.

This morning, he led us through a great workout as always, but he wasn't too hard on us. He warmed us up with five minutes of jogging in place - alternating knee-highs and butt-kickers, and led us through stretching out. Then he led us through a series that went something like:
Pushups, unassisted situps, squats, lunges, running the bleacher steps hitting every step.
Pushups, Russian twists (in a sitting position with our legs out in front of you, twist your torso to the left and touch the ground, twist your torso to the right and touch the ground, repeat), running laps around the basketball court.
Pushups, squats, side lunges, dips, running the bleacher steps two-at-a-time.
Pushups, crunches, scissor kicks, flutter kicks more laps around the basketball court.
All this lasted for an hour, and we really worked up a sweat. It was a good workout. I wonder what my legs are going to feel like in the morning though. Our COB is a stud though. I couldn't believe as I was driving home tonight, I saw him out in his PT gear running along Nimitz. I guess the PT Nazi didn't dish out enough PT this morning for the COB.

There's one thing I don't understand about my body and PT though. Using my heart rate monitor during our PT sessions, I notice that when we go out running, my heart rate gets really high, but I don't seem to be out of breath and I don't seem to sweat a lot. When we do the interval training though, my heart rate is a lot lower, but I'm always out of breath and sweating profusely. Why is that?

RANT: Driving in Hawaii is Driving Me Nuts

My good friend EP told me that it's a major milestone when you can complain about living in paradise.

One of my favorite quotes from Hey Shipwreck is, "When I get out of here I'm going to a training command, because it must be really nice to do absolutely NOTHING." I'm now going to modify that to, "When I get out of here I'm going to work for Hawaii Driver's Ed, because it must be really nice to do absolutely NOTHING."

WHY don't they understand the concept of NOT BLOCKING THE INTERSECTION here??? To make matters worse, the traffic lights are HORRIBLY timed, or just simply NOT timed AT ALL. People here MAKE the traffic worse than it has to be, because they keep blocking the intersections. If there ISN'T ROOM on the other side of the intersection for you, I DON'T CARE if your light is GREEN, then DON'T pull out into the intersection and block it!!! Am I being totally unreasonable in this expectation?

Of course, on those occasions when I get up to the intersection and realize there's no room on the other side, I stop to keep the intersection clear, and the people behind me get all pissed off and honk at me for not going.

Then there's the whole shaka thing that drives me nuts, too. It doesn't matter how egregious someone has been in cutting you off or making a right turn from the left lane right in front of you, they think that if they give you the "hang loose" hand sign, then that makes it all okay. "Aloha spirit" - thbbbbbbt! :-P

WARNING: Tangent Ahead

This all got me to thinking. I grew up as a Navy brat. Yes, yes, I know that the traditional or technically correct terms are "Army Brat" and "Navy Junior," but I also know I'm not the only one who thinks "Navy Junior" sounds really stupid and always preferred the term "Navy Brat."

There is such a large concentration of Navy bases and commands in San Diego that you really can homestead there. My mom loved San Diego and never wanted to leave, so my dad did a lot of cross-pier transfers from one ship to the next. We spent almost my entire time growing up in San Diego, except for four years up in Long Beach (a whole 2 hours north of San Diego).

It was always heart-braking to have childhood friends move away when they got orders to their next duty station. I remember asking my mom why they had to go off to far away places like Norfolk, and then why didn't they come back to San Diego after a while. My mom explained to me that there was a difference between "east coast" people and "west coast" people and that some families just preferred to live on the east coast. As I grew older, I learned the stereotype that west coast Navy people were much more laid back and easy going, and east coast Navy people were much more formal and even "stuffy" or "uptight." I always thought of myself as a west coast type of guy.

Well, when it came time for me to head off on my own Navy career, I knew I would be moving every couple of years, and I wanted to see what life was like in other parts of the country. The Navy sent me to Orlando for Nuclear Power School and then to Charleston for Prototype. I volunteered for a boat out of Groton for my JO tour, and the detailer was only oh-so-happy to oblige (I guess nobody else ASKED to go to Groton).

It turns out, I really loved living in New England. I love Mystic, CT. I love Boston. I love going up to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I loved the changing seasons, especially the fall foliage and the snow in the winter. [Aside: I sun burn easily, and I kind of have an aversion to the sun in general. LW makes fun of me because I spend like an half-an-hour lathering up with sun-block lotion before we go out to the pool or the beach.] Then we got to go to Virginia, and we absolutely loved living there. My wife actually prefers VA over CT because the winters aren't as harsh and she doesn't have to shovel as much snow (because there is some strange universal law that it has to snow when I'm out to sea, so she's the one who has to shovel it all).

Now, as I find myself living in "paradise," complaining about the "aloha spirit," and wishing we were back in Virginia, I ask myself, "Self, have you become one of those stuffy formal "east coast" people?"

One thing's for sure though. My body has adjusted to the climate here. I normally have the thermostat in my car set at like 77 degrees. While my family was here visiting from Oregon, each time I got in the car after one of them had taken the car somewhere, I found myself shivering from the cold and looked down at the thermostat to see they had set it at like 65 degrees.

Oh, and when we picked up Nate to take him to dinner two nights ago, he did a double-take and commented on how tan we all are.

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Shifting topics... I don't know if anyone noticed that I didn't report my WW results last week. You could easily have predicted my bathroom scale results based on the lack of exercise reported on my PT log and all the good food we ate over the holidays with family members visiting. I gained back 2.6 pounds over the holidays, but it could have been much worse. At least I'm still at an overall loss since I started WW, and now that I'm going back to work, I will get back into our Command PT routine and be able to plan what I eat and not graze so much on holiday goodies laying around the kitchen.

Week 6 Summary
Result this week: 2.6 pound gain (over two weeks)
Cumulative Result: 2.6 pound loss
Average Per Week: 0.4 pound loss per week

LW has made some really good dinners for us lately that were both healthy and delicious. One of my new favorites that she's made a few times is Baked Shrimp in Lemony Garlic Sauce. First ES decided he liked it on a previous run (he gave it the high praise of declaring it, "NUM NUM!"). Then, this time, YS shocked us by not only TRYING it (this was a monumental achievement just getting him to TRY something different), but also LIKING it and EATING MORE! It turns out this one is actually a WW recipe, and it's only 4 points per serving.

Another new one LW made that was a big hit was spaghetti with ground chicken meatballs from a Rachel Ray recipe. One would THINK given YS's addiction to chicken nuggets that it would have been relatively easy to make the "jump" to chicken meatballs. OMG the fuss he made! He refused to try it and pulled the "I don't like it" routine, to which we gave the standard, "You aren't allowed to say you don't like it until you've at least tried it" response. YS wanted a dinner roll, so LW resorted to Uncle Dave's tactic of putting the chicken meatball inside the bread like a sandwich. Will wonders never cease? He tried it and he LIKED IT. After that, he actually sat there and ate the rest of his meatballs without the bread.

Still getting used to Hawaii...(I fixed the links)

How is it that I'm enjoying Sam Adams Octoberfest tonight, but it's like 80 degrees outside? Have I mentioned that autumn is my favorite season back on the east coast? My mother in law is here visiting and she said the trees were starting to turn color when she left Boston. My lovely wife (LW) and I got married in Boston in October. I wanted to have a parade across Boston Common as part of the wedding to enjoy the fall foliage, but somehow that idea fell through the cracks. It actually ended up raining on our wedding day, so the parade wouldn't have worked. We took our visiting family members on a bus tour of Boston the next day though.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about enjoying life in paradise. I took some leave this week since my eldest son had a school vacation. Yesterday, we went down to the Hale Koa pool. It was amazing to both my eldest and youngest sons swimming like fish and totally fearless in the water. When I left them here in Hawaii in June before I flew back to Norfolk to drive the boat around through the Panama Canal, they enjoyed going to the pool, but didn't really like water on their face or go in without floaties on their arms. Now, they're both jumping and swimming and diving down to pick toys up off the bottom.

There are lots of things I look forward to doing around the island as long as we're in this tropical environment. ...but I'll still miss the changing seasons.