Home again

I arrived home 12 hours ago to wet, windy and cold weather! It seemed exceptionally bad since the last 10 days I've spent in warm, beautiful temperatures. My trip with mom to Hawaii was great. We stayed at a great hotel that was just a 5 minute walk to the beach and we were upgraded to a bigger room with a kitchenette which was a nice surprise.

We were pretty busy each day but managed to get to a beach for at least 2 hours a day. We visited the Dole Plantation, Pearl Harbour, Hanauma Bay (snorkelling), Sea Life Park, the zoo, Diamond Head (twice), two catamaran cruises, a luau, and of course we did lots of shopping. My favorite activity was just floating around in my tube in the ocean. The water is so warm which is quite the opposite of here. I must of spent hours doing this. I enjoyed running along Waikiki beach early in the morning watching the surfers and running through Kapiolani Park looking towards Diamond Head. It was just beautiful! Now it's back to reality. Here are a few pictures of the trip. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of sunrises or sunsets but I still took lots of pictures. 500 to be exact!

My last few moments in Hawaii. I just hated to leave the hot tub. I really should look into getting one for home!

We attended the Chinese lantern floating on Memorial Day. There were 40,000 on the beach and it was beautiful. Here are some of the lanterns floating out in the ocean.

This picture was taken as we hiked up Diamond Head. I really enjoyed this hike so we did it twice.

In Hanauma Bay I went snorkelling. I'm not a great swimmer so I didn't go out very far but there were tons of beautiful fish in fairly close to land.

We took the trolley tour out to Makapuu beach. The waves there were huge so I didn't go out in the water but I enjoyed lying on the beach (wearing my 45 sunblock). We also visited the Sea Life Park across the road and watched the dolphin show.

I must have taken 25 pictures of flowers at the Dole Plantation garden. There were lots of beautiful plants and everything was so colorful.

We visited Waikiki Beach several times and it wasn't too crowded especially early at morning and later in the evening. I did the outrigger canoe ride one day while at the beach. No one was wearing life jackets because he said the canoe couldn't tip over. I can only do the doggie paddle and am kinda nervous in the ocean but he assured me I'd be fine. We were way out in the ocean coming in on the first wave when a surfer got in the way so we had to go side on to the wave. Our boat got swamped with water and the next thing I knew I was paddling in water that was at chest level! The boat (except for the outrigger part) was completely submerged in water! We had to get out of the boat and hold onto the outrigger while another guy bailed the boat out. Here we are in the middle of the ocean, me who can't swim without a life jacket! I didn't panic until a big wave hit us and I nearly let go of the outrigger. Anyways, the bailing didn't work and we had to paddle back into land with our boat under water the whole way. It was quite the adventure but I'm still alive to tell the story!

Waikiki beach taken from the top of Diamond Head.

I took this picture especially for Joanne. She's the one who recommended I try shaved ice and boy was it good! It was so good that Mom and I shared two big bowls like this one. The shaved ice was covered in fresh pineapple and the second one we had was covered in strawberries. Yum!!

This was taken out the luau. The food was great and the dancers were fun to watch.

This picture was taken on the fireworks catamaran cruise. Every Friday night, the Hilton sets off fireworks and they were beautiful to watch from out in the ocean. I'd highly recommend doing this cruise to anyone going to Hawaii any time soon.

Pearl harbour. This picture was taken out on the Arizona memorial.

12 hours from now!

In just 12 hours from now, Mom and I are boarding the plane to head for Hawaii. Can you tell I'm excited?? We will be travelling for 24 hours by the time we get there but it will be well worth the long journey. We have a fireworks cruise booked for Friday evening and we are doing a luau one night as well. We have tons of things planned are we're hoping to have some time to just hang out at the beach. We get back at midnight on May 30th and I go back to work on June 1. What a nice break! I'll definitely post some pictures when I return.

I could have kicked myself this morning when I forgot to bring my camera on our early morning run. We ran a different trail along the coast and watched the sunrise. It was amazing as usual. I should get some nice sunrise and sunset photos in Hawaii as well.

While I'm away, I hope that more families receive their referrals. I always love to read the stories of how/when families receive their referrals. A blog friend just received her referral for a 12 month old beautiful little boy on Thursday. I was thrilled for her and it makes me look more and more forward to when it's our turn. It will happen eventually and that's for sure so I'd better enjoy travelling while I can!!

One Year!!

Today marks one year since we received ICAB approval. I can't believe that the time has flown by so fast! I was initially hoping to hear something by Christmas, but it seems that things are slowing down so we will probably wait for close on two years (hopefully not too much longer than that though). I started to write up my one year update letter to ICAB when I realized that I really had nothing at all to say. Nothing in our lives has changed over the past year, so what was I to tell them? I decided not to do a letter because of this. What boring lives we lead!!

There haven't been many new referrals lately on the Yahoo group which is kind of discouraging but hopefully things will pick up again soon. We are now 2.5 years into the process which is unbelievable. As I wait, I continue to take lots of pictures as I run in the morning. Here are some of my latest pictures. Enjoy!

I know, I know, you are sick and tired of seeing more sunrise pictures, but I just can't seem to help myself! There was another beautiful sunrise this morning so here are a few more pictures.

Just a few minutes before sunrise.

What a beautiful sunrise. The sun came up so quickly, it was just amazing. I forgot to take off my safety vest again. I'll never be hit by a car!

The sun is finally up!

Here are some of the row houses in downtown St. John's. I just love how they are all different colours.

I leave for Hawaii in 8 days!! Thanks goodness because we had snow/flurries here most of yesterday! I'll have to post some pictures of Hawaii when I get home, although I'm sure that they won't be nearly as nice as Newfoundland (ha, ha)!!

A few more pictures

Today was another beautiful day so I took a few more pictures. I promise that after these next few pictures, I will give it a rest for awhile. The problem is that I just love sharing pictures of the fantastic sights that I see each morning. You've got to say that Newfoundland is pretty amazing!

Early morning run

On Friday morning as I was running I got this great idea. I run outside all year round and each season is so beautiful that I thought that I would take some pictures during each season and then do a scrapbook. Now this will be a year long project but it is definitely something that I will enjoy doing. On this mornings run, I decided to take my camera along and start to take some pictures. This was the perfect morning because the sunrise was just amazing. I just thought that I'd share some of the beautiful sights that I enjoyed on my morning run.

I took this picture after running uphill for 10 minutes so I was pretty tired and shakey which you can tell by looking at the picture. It's a little blurry but it's a view of St. John's and the harbour as the sun is just starting to rise.

We then took a trail that followed the ocean and we could watch the sunrise the whole time. It was beautiful.

This picture was taken on top of signal hill. All you can see if my reflective vest. I'll have to remember to take if off next time.

The sun is almost up! What a great way to start your day!

Every morning when we run, we pass this tree and I always think "wow, wouldn't that make a beautiful picture". Well this morning I finally got my picture and isn't it beautiful? It was actually the sight of this tree that inspired me to start my scrapbook.

At the end of our run each morning (on nice days), we sit on this bench and enjoy the lake and the ducks and pigeons. Another fantastic view! That's it for now, but I'll keep adding pictures as I take them.

Yearly update letter

Now that we are approaching the one year point since ICAB approval, I was wondering if we should prepare an update letter to send to ICAB saying what has happened in our lives in the past year. Some people do this, some don't. I'm wondering is it worth the time and effort? Will it make any difference anyways? Just wondering what everyones thoughts were on this issue and what you guys did at this stage. Thanks.