Happy 10 Year Birthday To Our Ohana!

We did it...we made it 10 years!

It has been quite a ride too! The roller-coaster of life has taken us on some steep climbs, deep lows and many many turns--some expected and other VERY unexpected. We have laughed--that full body laugh until your gut hurts and you are out of breath. We have cried--from tears of joy to the 'ugly cry' tears of hurt and guilt. We have served, we have been served. We have disagreed, often. We have agreed, often. We have failed. We have succeeded. We are not perfect, but we try. We have loved.

It is that last sentence of this anniversary of our family that I want to focus on. We have loved. We have loved in deeper and more meaningful ways than we thought possible 10 years ago. A few days ago I found myself watching Lady Hiva as she concentrated on serving so many people in our church congregation. As the senior female leader of the congregation, she has a large responsibility on her shoulders. I was struck with how beautiful she is both inside and out. Now, that may sound like a trite, cookie-cutter statement from a husband on an anniversary. However, it is something deeper than that.

She would tell you, in all humility, that she feels like she is not a great leader. But I think that is part of why she IS a great leader.  She is constantly finding ways to serve others--both large and simple. She is constantly thinking about ways to bring love to other's lives. I know this because I have seen lives transform with her ministrations. I have know this because I have seen MY life transform. Her love for me--and mine for hers--has buoyed us through some hard times when we did not know how we were going to make it. It also makes the memories so sweet. I am completely thankful for her and all that she quietly does for so many around her.

As we prepared for this day we remembered our trip to Europe and that was fun. We decided that Lucky Dragon and Pachita Koala Bear are such an integrated part of our 10 years that we wanted to celebrate with them. So we went swimming until we were so exhausted to swim any more. Got ready and went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and rounded out the evening with a stop at the Lego store and Sees Chocolates.

To say that I am grateful to have our little family--quirks and all--is an understatement. Happy Anniversary, Lady Hiva! Here is to the future!

Derby Car Built Out Of Rubbish

Our little Lucky Dragon loves the Disney Cars franchise. Always has and he loves all the cars they sell. We have all sizes. He also loves Demolition Derbies, so Cars 3 was a perfect movie for him it combined both loves.

He has all of the demolition derby cars from Cars 3 and can name them by name. When Saratoga Springs did a "Drive In" movie to watch Cars 3, Lucky Dragon wanted to make his car look like one of the Cars 3 cars. I mean, nothing else would make sense, right. He went back and forth on which car he wanted and finally settled on Fishtail.

So I took a box out a few boxes from the rubbish, some tissue paper and some duct tape then added in an hour of time and we had us a Fishtail for him to join the car show and drive in.

Lucky Dragon was so excited about his car. He had my phone and took photos as we built it. What a kid. He also coached me about the details that I needed to add to make the box look more like Fishtail. He is quite descriptive about what he wants and is completely verbal about where he feels I am not meeting expectations. (I thought it turned out pretty well, considering I was doing it with rubbish and had a Koala Bear being helpful by crawling all over me when I built it)

His car looked amazing in the car show. There were so many creative vehicles. It is amazing to see what people can make out of some rubbish! What a fun family nice to spend together.