Long lost update!

Wow, time for a new post!  I'm sorry that I've missed so many weeks!  We've been having a very busy but fun summer (though it's hard to remember that it's summer here since it's always summer here and we find we get the months all mixed up!)  Hana has been on a 2 month break from school (they only have June & July off here, for some reason.) and it's been fun to have her home during the day.  She and Aya love to play together and get along really well for the most part.  We are also lucky because they have lots of wonderful friends close by that come to play often.  Lots of good families here!

Aya started preschool mid June with a lady in our ward (church group) here in Kapolei and LOVES it! She looks forward to it every Monday and Wednesday mornings.  She is also thrilled that her best friend is in the class with her and that they get to carpool together.  Aya still like to pretend she's a baby kitten often, eats applesauce and Greek yogurt like crazy and loves to draw and color.  Looks like we'll need to get some more applesauce from Costco in Utah (they don't sell it at our Costco here so my mom so kindly brought 4 jars out when she and Dad came out) and paper in bulk!

Aya all ready for her first day of preschool. She decided a pink, fluffy dress was in order for the occasion with a little prompting from sister.

Stopping to smell the hibiscus on the way...

So happy to have her best friend in preschool with her!

And one more...Aya loves to dress up (thanks for bring those out, Aunt Lisa!) Here she told us she was a "Wood packer Princess"  Not sure what that is but looks pretty great!

Hana is really learning to swim well and swims under water better than I do!  I'm learning a better technique from her ;)  I've never been a very good swimmer so I'm taking advantage of living across from our pool and a short walk from the beach to practice real swimming and hopefully get better.  She's really been enjoying going to the city library to pick out books and reading them at home.  She's into The Magic Treehouse series right now and really likes when I read her "Little House in the Big Woods" (though I have to skip the parts when Pa goes hunting because she doesn't like animals being killed! ;)

Our beautiful Hana

Lots of fun playing outside (notice Aya's wild dress up outfit & Hana's tutut-that's how we roll.)

I've been very diligent about my exercise and work out 6 days a week.  Sometimes I'll do the zumba, hot hula, yoga on the beach or other classes offered to the residents here at Ko Olina or sometimes I'll just run, swim or lift weights on my own.  This has really helped with my Dysautonomia and has been such a blessing!  I'm also working really hard to lose the weight I gained when I was forced to lie in bed/on the couch all the time from being so ill.  I'm happy to report that I'm down 2 sizes with 1 more to go!  (Sorry, just had to share that because it's been such a struggle!)  I have the happy but awkward problem of having all of my clothes be too big now but not wanting to buy new ones until I reach my goal.  One thing that has really helped me with this is myfitnesspal.com (thanks, Diana!) It really helped me to see what MY body needed and didn't need in order to start losing weight.  So for any of you out there struggling with your health goals, you should check it out!  And really if I, the girl who could barely walk to the mail box she was so sick for so long/screwed up blood sugar/metabolism/major fatigue and weakness conditions can do this, you can too!  Just remember that you have to take things one step at a time and not burn yourself out emotionally or physically!

Going to church at the historic tabernacle in Honolulu with one of Geoff's classmates.  Thanks, Keiko!  Hope you're having a great time in Japan.

OK, enough about me!  Geoff finished his first semester at UH and did awesome with all A's!  Constantly amazed by my boy.  (I have to brag for him because you know he'll never do it!)  He is off for the summer and we've been really busy doing work for Dragonsteel online and, drum roll please...working out starting our new business!  I'll write a whole blog post about that soon but things are looking like a go!  We've  been researching for months, have investors (that came to us-such a miracle and blessing!)lined up, business plan completed and have turned it in to Ko Olina to get the stamp of approval.  We hope to hear back soon and get things rolling!  Yay!  We'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well!  Can't believe we've been in Hawaii for 6 months now!  Fun, amazing adventure for sure.  Love you all!