Fall is Fantastic!

Wow...is it really November 1st already?  October was a busy month here at the D'Amico house.  I finally got around to downloading all of the pictures and videos, but came to the conclusion that I'm not "super mom" in the picture/scrap booking department.  Oh well!  Good intentions? 

So, great grandma Mimser came for a visit.  She and Darby met for the first time, which meant that 4 generation pictures on the beach were a MUST!  We had some birthday party action, Fall Festivals, the Waimanalo Pumpkin Patch, the MAG 24 Halloween Party, and of course HALLOWEEN!!!  Tony and I have come to the conclusion that our weekends from here on out will just get more and more busy with Darby activities...I don't mind that ONE BIT!

Hale Koa Beach Birthday Party Action

 All wet from watering my plants. 

 Dressing in all of her new clothes from GG Mimsy and Great Aunt Heids.  She's such a GIRL!

 Grandma's IN TOWN!

 Harvest Festival

 GG Mimser and the Darbs hangin' out.

 PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!

 In Hawaii they serve Shave Ice at the Pumpkin Patch instead of Hot Cider...

 The Corn MAZE was definitely her favorite part of the morning.

 Still waking up from her napper.

 Yay...FAMILY PORTRAIT!

 The tea set from GG Mims.  I love how babies squat...to cute:)

  A hard day at school.  Just chillin' in dad's big icky chair!

That's right!  NO BOYS ALLOWED!

The Halloween Hat Parade at school.  I think we're too PC to do costumes now-a-days...what's up with that?  Darby LOVED the hat she made (wouldn't take it off), and probably was the most excited kid in her class about the parade!  I think she spotted me in this picture?

Here she's yelling, DADA! DADA! and pointing to the helicopter in the sky.  Dad's so proud!  I can't forget to mention how much she loves football as well.  She hands us the remote on Saturday and says Ba-Da (Football).  That's our girl!!!

 Now it's time to paint their pumpkins...

 She doesn't lack in focus...that's for SURE!

 Izzy and Darbs

 MAG 24 Party.  Our little SOCK MONKEY!!!

 SHE LOVES THE BOUNCY HOUSE!!!  Good training for balance :)

 Doing the bean bag toss with dad.

 Woody was sweet on our sock monkey.

I couldn't resist :)

 Darby killing time before we go out trick-or-treating.

 She loves her buddy Harper the Spider.

 What a cute little spider :)

 You gotta go out on the town in the Radio Flyer!

 Heading down to "Historic Bancroft" for a pre Trick or Treat party.  Fall in Hawaii:  Ocean view, flip flops, shorts, and aloha shirts.  Oh yeah, and iced "roadies" in Halloween cups.  No hot cocoa:(

 Hitting up for candy...

 Ending the night watching all the cool costumes come up to the door.  Darby did get a little scared a few times. 

The end!  Happy Fall!

I think Halloween was a success!  Our last one here on the island...

BSU Soccer in Hawaii

What a weekend! A little bit of blast from the past mixed with some envy, but mostly just a fun change of pace! The BSU girls soccer team came to town to beat up on some UofH Wahine. This was the first conference game and boy did Boise represent. Friday night under the lights...final score 4-0. Tone and I got a babysitter so we did a little bit of celebrating with trainer "Chavez" and some friends after the game. Chavez was a former classmate of mine and the student trainer for the wrestling team back in the day when Tony and were student athletes. Now he's livin' it up as the soccer head trainer. Like I said...blast from the past!

I took Darby to their practice on Thursday before the game, which was a lot of fun. I miss that intensity every now and then! Being a fine tuned soccer machine is behind me...that's for sure! However, that practice and that game definitely motivated me on a different level. Darbs took a LONG nap after running around chasing soccer balls and playing in mud.

The finale to the weekend was Saturday at Kailua Beach Park. We hosted the team, coaches, trainers, and parents on our side of the island...the awesome side! Since they weren't scheduled to leave until the Saturday red eye flight, I thought it would be fun for them to get out of Waikiki and spend the afternoon surrounded by white sand and crystal blue water. Tony and I provided some food and drinks, packed up Darby, our boogy boards, snorkels, frisbee's galore...ready to enjoy a day in PARADISE!  ALOHA!!!! Hopefully everyone had a good time and full bellies!!! (I forgot how much soccer players eat...luckily there was enough to go around!)  Oh yeah...thank goodness they won!  Saturday would have been much different with a grumpy head coach Steve! 

The team, trainer, coaches and the D'Amicos...we snuck in on this team shot :)


Assistant coach Mark, and trainer Chavez sunning themselves. I thought it was funny??? (Chavez is his nickname from back in the day.)

This was where the girls camped out for about 4 hours. Hotel towels and cool travel carry on bags with their numbers, cluttering the beach. I wanted one!

The spread! I had intentions to decorate, but this plan was kind of last minute. You're looking at some kalua pig, fresh Dole pineapple, Korean chicken, rice, Taro rolls, and pasta salad. Thank you Kailua Food Company for the splendidly good meat!!! I did the rest courtesy of Costco.

 

Darby LOVED watching the girls play frisbee. 

Darby hangin' with Stephanie.

She HAD WAYYYYY too much fun!  Some of her friends came to our little shindig and of course their toys were much cooler than hers.

What a great Saturday!!!  We ended the day crashing on the couch watching DVR'ed college football.  PERFECT! 

GO BRONCOS!!! Leave the WAC as 2X CHAMPS!

Our "Sea Stallion" Stud

Last weekend the Blue Angels were in town performing at Kaneohe Bay.  It was pretty sweet watching them fly over the house all week...despite the constant nap interruptions. 

Friday Darbs and I loaded up the stroller and spent the afternoon watching all kinds of coolness - from aerobatic planes to speedy, sleek Raptor jets.  However, the best part of the day was watching Tone and some of his comrades fly the mighty Sea Stallion, CH 53-D.  They did their thing, entertaining the crowd with a little war simulation that kept us on our toes :)  Darby did pretty well with all the noise and kept pointing to the sky saying "dadda" whenever there was some sort of aircraft flying high...(she wasn't a fan of the earplugs though).  My camera had little battery juice, so unfortunately I didn't get a ton of pics.  I DID capture most of Tone's act on video...something to look back on! 

Darby was LOVIN' the freedom to run around the flight line...up and down the bleachers.

 There he is...FLYING over the BA's...scenery couldn't be more PERFECT!

Loading up the troops.

My friend who lives up on "Hill Top" took this picture and sent it my way.  What a FANTASTIC day of flying.



Life is Good

Tone and I were a little nervous about Boise State being on the cover of the College Football Preview...the curse of the cover.  I suppose the curse has been broken?  Monday's win against VaTech couldn't have been sweeter!

Cliche yet so true..."Once a Bronco, Always a Bronco!"  That has even deeper meaning for a former student athlete...I know my "peeps" out there would agree :) 

So, with Monday starting out the week in grand fashion, the mood around our house has been rather upbeat.  I was driving behind a jeep today with a tire cover that read "Life is Good."  Touche!  I also just came across a nice little positive note while doing my evening blog reading.  I'm surrounded by good joojoo, so I'll go ahead and pay it forward!