Pie in the Face

The kids and I were able to join Joel for a Thanksgiving lunch celebration at work today. Six lucky people were chosen to receive pies in the face based on votes by their coworkers. Joel received the most number of votes because of a voting war that he got into and lost. People then got to bid on who got to put the pie in their face and Asher won that bid! Well, I don't think anyone was about to bid against a 4 year old. Asher got to make the pie which consisted of mustard, syrup, ranch dressing, ketchup, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. A coworker helped him throw it in Daddy's face while I snapped some lovely photos. Asher LOVED it! Anna was a wreck crying on the sidelines...she was so upset for him. Everyone thought that was so cute. It was disgusting but Joel was such a good sport. Even after a shower and good nose blowing, Joel says he still smells mustard.

We are enjoying a nice Thanksgiving to ourselves tomorrow which we are really looking foward to. It took me awhile to get over my grumpiness of being so far from those we love but we are still going to have a great holiday. We are so thankful that we have each other and for all that God has given us. We are going to celebrate with some parade watching, Joel is deep frying a turkey...YUM, and dessert with friends. and we plan to start decorating for Christmas on Friday! We hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

7 Random Things About Me

I was "tagged" on a friend's blog to list 7 random things about myself. I have just learned what "tagged" meant...must be a blogging term. I thought it would be fun so here it goes.

1. I have a gumball obsession. I cannot pass a gumball machine without putting a quarter in. I don't know how or why this started but having kids makes this a difficult habit because they always want quarters for the machine now.

2. I can't stand the sound of people popping their knuckles. It gives me the willies and makes me want to gag.

3. I could sleep until noon if my life allowed it. I was always told that as I got older that my body wouldn't let me sleep in anymore but oh I can still do it.

4. I LOVE popcorn. I can eat a whole large popcorn at the movies by myself. Some have learned that I get my own popcorn bag from the microwave because there won't be much left for anyone else (sorry Dave!).

5. I have long hair right now because my husband loves it. Ever since he has known me, I have had short hair and he never really had an opinion on it. I grew my hair out after Anna was born after laziness and now he has an opinion :).

6. I really really miss Dunkin Donuts. They say America runs on Dunkin but Hawaii does not because it isn't here!! Maybe I should open my own? There is no place here to find a good cheap cup of coffee. French Vanilla with skim milk only please...

7. I miss college because I miss studying, taking tests, learning, and being challenged. Yes, I am a complete nerd. Of course I miss the fun stuff too but I love studying!! I am jealous of Joel and his online classes right now. I am thinking about maybe taking some classes once Jesse gets a little older.

I hope you have enjoyed learning more about me. I now "tag" Laura Beth Rhodes, Sandra Libby, and Hillery Gaiser.

The Thorsons vs the Volcano

Hello again!! I know it has been awhile. Life without a computer is killing us. Our computer was shipped off, "fixed", sent back and still didn't work, so now it is shipped off again while we use a computer on loan from Joel's work. Anyway, we are back now from an absolutely fabulous vacation!! We had such a wonderful time on the Big Island. The things we saw and experienced were so different from anything I have ever seen. I hope the pictures allow you to grasp some of it.

Anna and Asher heading off to the airplane for our trip. They did not go to sleep until around 10pm the night before because they were so excited. We heard them in their room giggling and whispering. It was cute.

A black sand beach. This was my favorite experience. The black sand is created when hot lava hits the ocean and is shattered. The sand is really just as soft as regular sand, but a regular beach doesn't have the cool lava cliffs.

Making smores in our cabin. We loved having some cold weather and made a fire every night.

Jesse spent a lot of time in the backpack for our hikes but he didn't seem to mind.

Next to Asher is a "petroglyph"...images and stories carved into the lava.

Here is some lava pouring into the ocean. This was about as close as we could get but it was still pretty cool. Far off we could also see the river of lava flowing down the moutain.

Behind this beautiful family is the crater that used to be a lava lake (in the 1980s). We did a 4 mile hike down into the crater and across it where we got to see the actual vent that spewed lava. Anna and Asher did the whole hike by themselves and we had such a great time. It is amazing to walk on land younger than you?! Weird, huh? The smoke way off behind is another crater erupting at the present time but most of the lava is travelling underground.

Hiking through a "lava tube" which is a cave or tube created by the lava flowing under the ground which we learned is how it most often travels. We were able to hike down into this tube and turn off our flashlights to experience the darkest dark we have ever seen. Asher was so brave-you really couldn't even see your hand. Anna refused to go down but that's OK.

More black sand. This beach was created by a new eruption in the 1990s...again, land younger than us.

Swimming in a hot lava pool. It was like being in a hot tub. Ocean water was flowing in one side so you could hear the sound of the waves as you relaxed. I could have stayed here all day.

It was a great trip but Anna and Asher were sooooo excited to go back to our house with toys. The whole time they kept asking where their toys were. However they are still talking about all the cool volcano stuff. Maybe it will be their earliest memory.

Another one bites the dust

You may have noticed that I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much as normal. That is because our computer has officially crashed after giving us problems for 2 weeks. I am now sitting at my neighbor's computer...do you realize how much we (I mean me) depend on the internet!? Our computer's warranty expires on Nov. 14 so Joel has frantically been working with Sony to determine if it is a virus or hardware issue. As of now, it looks like a hardware (woo hoo) so we are shipping the computer in and keeping our fingers crossed that a new one will be coming back to us for FREE!! In the meantime, you might not be hearing from me very much. This is very sad because I am in picture overload!!! So I will just to explain the week's happenings as best I can for your imaginations. Buckle your seatbelts because this is going to be a long one!

MONDAY: Joel took the day off since it was Anna's actual birthday and we had a family day at the beach. We had such a good time. Asher snorkeled for the first time and Jesse went into the ocean for the first time...both thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. Jesse would splash the water into his face, suck his breath in from the cold, and do it again over and over.

TUESDAY: We carved our pumpkin and toasted pumpkin seeds. A word of wisdom to those who may be carving pumpkins in Hawaii in the future-DO NOT carve your pumpkin until the day before Halloween. As the week progressed, the fruit flies, mold, and smell grew...it was disgusting. Then I figured out that we never experienced this before because it is normally cold when we carve pumpkins. Our neighbor got a good chuckle when he told us he learned this lesson last year.
PLUS Jesse turned 6 months old. He is not sitting up yet but he is crawling. Yes, the boy is a mover, we can't believe it and nothing is out of his reach much to Anna's dimsay. Oh, we new she would get payback for messing up Asher's detailed car lines.

FRIDAY: Threw the moldy smelly pumpkin in the trash (in he morning) candle and all. Halloween is an issue for Joel and I in that we still have not figured out our footing on how to handle this holiday. We both grew up not celebrating so we don't think about it until it is on top of us...then we tend to avoid it until the next year. And soon we discovered it is impossible to avoid while living on base...the trick or treating and invitations to kids parties is mass mania. We had already decided to let the kids dress up and walk to a nearby carnival for the evening. So off we went with Spiderman and Sleeping Beauty, but it turned out to be trick or treat time so we let them hit a few houses on the way to the carnival and decided we will figure this out next year. The carnival was a blast. Asher rode everything and Anna only got brave at the end and rode a race car ride with Asher, which they both loved. I have a GREAT picture of then laughing and screaming as the race car whips them around the corner. We also got to see a flying trapeze act. The kids were mesmorized-it was awesome. And I love carnivals for one thing...FUNNEL CAKES!! We let them play a few games and Asher actually won a stuffed animal. We couldn't believe it.

SATURDAY: Asher's last soccer game and he scored 2 goals...WOO HOO!! Then coach Joel gave the boys trophies. I have a great picture of him with the team and their trophies. Asher carries his around and tried to sleep with it last night. He was so proud of himself. We also ran 17 miles as part of our marathon training. It was supposed to be 18 but Anna started screaming potty and we had to cut the last mile out. We were still pretty pleased with the accomplishment. We are over halfway through our training and have one super long run left (20 miles). Believe it or not-the kids do awesome on the run. We have all enjoyed the time together (and crashing afterwards). Asher and Anna took turns playing "Sleeping Booty" and kissing each other to wake up for an hour. It was adorable.

And lastly...we leave for the Big Island on Wednesday. Asher and Anna can't wait to go on the plane and see the volcano. We are staying for 4 nights. While planning this trip we realized that we have never been on a family vacation together-just us. It is usually spent visiting family or doing the trip with friends. We are all really looking foward to the trip. Plus it is supposed to be cold there this time of year. Yeah!! Break out the jeans and sweatshirts...it might actually feel like fall for a little while :).

So I hope you enjoyed the ride. I don't know when I will be back...probably sometime after the 9th and still without a computer. Boy, will I have a ton of pictures to post once we get there!!