I think I was made for summer.

Walter has been dreaming of the day when he can where tennis shoes outside again and run fast on the sidewalk. He asks about when he can, when it will be warm again, and when summer is daily. The other day he told me this out of the blue. I'm not sure where he's heard this before, but it reminds me how he listens to and catches everything!

Since I, too, am dreaming of summer, here are a few photos from my grandparents home island and their neighbors, the Hindu's.

Below are pictures of the Hindu temple being built on Kauai. They import each piece of granite from India and hand carve every piece. The photo of the tools are all the tools the carvers use, pretty amazing!

To Happiness

My wonderful grandfather, Charles A. Armstrong, passed away on Saturday at 4:40 a.m. in Kauai. I was blessed to be able to be with him the last ten days of his life, as I left on Friday afternoon to return home. Our good-bye has been playing over and over in my head since I left. He was so weak and had barely spoken any words for the better part of my time there. When I went to say good-bye, he lifted his arm to hug me and told me he loved me in the sweetest, truest voice. Its hard not to hop on a plane and get back to my grandma and parents. They are all in my heart.

My grandpa was such a powerful, loving presence. He held my grandma on a pedestal (rightfully so!) and showed his family nothing but love and acceptance. He was smart man but more than that, he was a true artist.

Their neighbors are a Hindu monastery and temple. The guru who founded this monastery searched all over the world to find where to put this temple and found the foothills of Mount Waialeale on Kauai to be the perfect setting. My grandparents also searched high and low to find the right place to build their home and around the same time that the Hindu's began building their temple, my grandparents began building their home, about a 1/4 of a mile away. I could go on about the amazing hand carved temple, but what I also keep coming back to is how my grandpa found such a powerful place to live. The energy and beauty there is quite something. I was able to visit the temple when I was there and one of the monks talked about how the guru encouraged all monks to do something creative with their hands in addition to their studies. It struck me as I having been working on getting back into some art of my own and then I thought about my grandpa and his woodworking. He made us wooden toys (that my boys still play with) along with many other wonderful things. Most recently he became a master of the lathe, turning bowls to perfection.

My grandpa loved to see you smile and believed deeply in the power of positive thinking. We enjoyed many wonderful times together and special meals together as a family. At nearly all of these, he would raise his glass and toast "To Happiness."

To my Grandpa, to Happiness!

I am a Razorback!

In honor of Jer's cousin who is a Razorback and our time living in AR, we received a fun gift from Jeremy's aunt and uncle this year...matching Razorback gear! Owen is quite proud of the fact that he lived in Little Rock for a while and tells me he remembers swimming in the pool in his lady bug quite a bit. (Could it be that he's seen this photo a few times???)

Walter is just extremely proud of his shirt. Though we all enjoy sporting them here and there, he often turns into a Razorback hog when he puts his on. (A darn cute hog, that is.)

Mom, there is no more soap!

A few days ago Walter decided he wanted a bath. I got him all set up and in addition to his bath toys, he decided he also wanted to play with the two brand new, full, bottles of kids soap I had just bought. I told him that was fine, but not to open them until I was in there and ready to help clean him up. Well, you can see where this is going...about 5 minutes later he yelled this to me. He had dumped both large bottles out into his bath and was squeaky clean.

Christmas was lovely. We had all sorts of celebrations with lots of family and enjoyed some time with some great friends, too. Best of all, was having the boys off school and Jer off work for two full weeks. It was perfect! There was lots of ice fishing, sledding, game playing and too many gifts. We are certainly lucky.

My highlight was going up to International Falls and spending time with my grandma. As you may recall, she was diagnosed with ALS last year and it is certainly harsh. It was wonderful to have some time hearing her talk about her old work (something she always used to want to talk about!), giving her a good foot bath and massage, and so great to see her banging out some "Roll Out the Barrel" on the piano. She is so sweet, it was hard to leave her.