Kite Flying, Kiting, Kitification?

Yesterday was a great Family Day! We started by sleeping in, breakfast, and then off to pick up our Angel Food order. I tell you, Angel Food has been such a blessing to our family by way of providing an affordable alternative for grocery shopping. So a big "Fa'afetai lava" to Lika and Jason for letting us know about Angel Food. After we put our new found bounty away, we went to visit the Master Clubs' Regional tournament (which was being held here at the St. John's Building on the Campus). Barbie had several current and former students participating in various activities from the Young Preacher Boys, to Music Ensembles, to Basketball shooting, to Arts and Crafts. It was very exciting for all the young people, and Barbie got to see some people from her old school out in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.
After our rounds at the Regionals we sped to lunch. "Sped" - it was lunch, but not just any lunch: it was Santino's. For those of you who don't know what Santino's is (which is probably everyone but Res because it is not a national chain), it is a great little pizza and sub shop. It is not just the fact that we like to eat there, but we were also meeting some dear friends of ours for lunch. When we go there, I can pretty much narrow the menu down to one of two items: the Islander Steak Grinder (which is what they call there subs because these types of subs were first sold to immigrant workers at the shipyards who happened to be welders and grinders, hence the name of the sandwich) or the Carribean Pulled Pork Grinder. Now they both have there pros and cons. In this corner, the Islander has teriyaki steak strips with bits of pineapple and sautee'd onions with a helping of both provolone and white american cheese on a good roll and then finished off by toasting it through a tunnel oven at 475 degrees. Yummy!!! And in the other corner the Pulled Pork is kind of like a Kalua pulled pork with this not-so spicy mustard sauce and sauteed onions with provolone and white american cheese sent throught the Tunnel del Fuego (I thought another description of the tunnel oven might be redundant). And the winner by knockout, and still champion: "The Islander Steak Grinder." Barbie got an order of their fantastic Garlic Cheese Bread with a side of marinara sauce and both Dianna and Jarod got slices of cheese pizza. A very successful lunch.
After lunch and a nap, we found a store downtown called Ever'Man a health food and organic grocery store just to browse. A lot of interesting stuff, but a lot I didn't know what to do with. Example, Tofu Steaks and Tofu burritos................... Okay, we went in there to look at their selection of ground flour. I had no idea there were so many different types of flour. I for one was overwhelmed.

Well, after the health food place, we set out for the beach to try our hand at perhaps a new family hobby. Kite flying. Now you understand where the title comes in. It was a Red Flag day, but that was okay, the kids don't like the waves and the cold of the Gulf anyway. Luckily, we were there to harness the power of the wind to fuel our imagination in order to soar to new heights. Our kite we got is a 3D WW1 bi-plane. I have to say that having never flown a kite before, it was more work than I thought it would be - not in a bad way at all. It wasn't a challenge to get the kite airborne, but to keep it there. So much fun. Barbie got to unspool the entire spool as she flew the kite. She is definitely the best flyer in the family. When we first got started, Barbie and I took turns playing "kite retrieval expert" -getting the kite out of the water and back into the air. Whenever the plane would corkscrew and dive into the water, Dianna would yell, "Man overboard!!" It was very cute. Well, we had fun.

I hope that the Arkansas Family had a good trip to Austin and a safe trip home. Hope you all have a great week and remember that we love you guys. Here are some pictures from our weekend. Love you.

Barbie making strawberry jam.

Jarod found the flat of strawberries. Dianna with one of her latest poses for the camera. Dianna and Daddy flying the kite. Our bird of fancy. Man overboard!!