Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Rauchs. Sorry I don't have much energy for more information - with the pregnancy, unpacking, daily life, and Christmas preparations I'm spent.

Honolulu Zoo

Chris starts work today, but we had him all to ourselves last week. One fun thing we did was go to the Honolulu Zoo. Zeke got to see his first zoo animals (except that he's seen an elephant). Fun was had by all.

We also had our first day at church yesterday and we were pleased to see many familiar faces and friends. It's good to be home!

Hello Hawaii!

Here are some photos of the boys helping load the moving truck and playing with some of their cousins in California.

I just wanted to post that we're safely in Hawaii and settling in nicely. On our way here we had wonderful visits with our family in California and ate way too much food. We think we may have already found a place to live that has a guest room, a big yard, and is walking distance to the elementary school & grocery store.

Things I will miss about Massachusetts: my friends, my cozy house, the sound of the train whistle, our quiet/friendly neighborhood, and the library's great/free children's programs. Massachusetts wasn't ALL bad, but I'm sure glad to be back here in Hawaii.

Lobster Hurrah

We decided that we'd better have a lobster dinner before leaving New England where lobster are so fresh and plentiful. So we borrowed a friend's lobster pot, Chris and Silas put the lobsters to sleep while Zeke watched (see photo), then into the pot of boiling water they went. Chris got splattered with lobster guts while extracting the meat, a sacrifice I appreciated. We all really liked the lobster, except Zeke who wouldn't even try a bite.

Tree Hugger

Silas climbed his first tree this weekend! Do you see that dark spot at the top of the pine tree... that's him! He went up and down so many times that he got confident enough to make the tree sway back and forth. For those of you who have been to our house, you could look him in the eye from the play porch.

Family Visit

Grandma & grandpa Colgrove came with my sister Heidi and her 2 month old daughter for a weekend visit before we take off. The boys were delighted to have family here. I was delighted to see how much they fussed over the baby girl. Both boys were gentle and sweet with little Izzy, so I'm hopeful that they'll be just as good with Keilah.

Halloween

Silas opted for Luke Skywalker again and Zeke is King Arthur. We had a fun church Halloween party on Tuesday night, then Friday morning there was a Fabulous party at the local library, followed by the traditional neighborhood Trick-or-Treating after dark. Our neighborhood doesn't get many kids, so they're VERY generous with their candy in an attempt to have fewer left-overs.