Carmen Leolani White: Hello again....

Aloha everyone,

What a crazy few months. I noticed our last post was back in February for the Team Carmen golf tournament on Saturday March 7th. It is hard to even fathom how much has changed since March.

Coincidentally, Saturday March 7th, was also the day I left to begin work at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, in Dana Point, California. At that time, our intent was for me to travel back and forth from California to Hawaii while Trevor finished 1st grade. He was doing so well at Parker and Jake was adjusting tremendously. We felt that it would not be great to interrupt all this progress with a move.

The Lavaman 2016, took place this year on March 29th. We had another strong showing from Team Carmen, with Carri, Darren and myself traveling from California to compete with the team. As a team we raised over $25,000 for LLS and brought our three year Team Carmen total to $112,000.

It did not take Heather and I long to realize that being apart was really tough. We made the decision to bump our family move to California up from early June to early May.

I was able to find us a nice home in a really great area of Laguna Niguel. Close to everything, including work and the beach.

It has been terrific being so close to Carri, Darren and Jenny now. We have had some fun family times, beach days and nice dinners.

It did not take us long to become Annual Pass Holders at Disneyland, which is only a 30 minute drive from our house. Long Beach Aquarium, Science and Discovery Center and the Ocean Institute have all been big hits.

Heather was amazing in getting Trevor into some incredible camps to keep him busy all summer. Mad Science, Pirates Camp, Ocean Institute, Golf Camp, field trips to the San Diego Zoo were all on the agenda for Trevor.

Part of the tough decision in leaving Hawaii was to seek out improved health care options for little Jake. We loved Parker School, but we also wanted to see if there were other options for education. We are happy to report that we have been rewarded in making this tough decision.

Orange County and LA is full of great health care an education options. We are so fortunate that Jake was accepted into the Los Angeles Children's Hospital world recognized Craniofacial program lead by Dr Magee, who has traveled the world with "Operation Smile". He has even spoke at the Shanghai Hospital where Jake had his lip and cleft repairs done and may even know some of the Doctors who saw Jake. It was so reassuring to hear from Dr. Magee that Jake's surgery was done extremely well and that there are no issues we need to worry about, in the near future. #1 for Jake the next year is speech, speech, SPEECH!

We were also extremely lucky to literally of won the lottery in having Trevor accepted into a terrific Charter School called Community Roots Academy. It has a unique way of teaching called "project based learning" that seems to work perfectly with how Trevor thinks and learns. It has been so wonderful for Trevor to be accepted for who he is and have teachers who help him to soar to even greater heights. We have seen such a positive change in him since he began this new school.

Jake is going to an amazing little preschool two days a week, called Community Seedlings (affiliated with Trevor's school). Heather also has Jake busy with his Speech Therapy, Music Together and other fun activities!

Trevor is back into Soccer and doing really well. He has also been doing great with ice skating and hockey. He has only been on skates for a few month but is doing great!

I have got myself back into playing hockey as well. It has been hit and miss trying to find a team but it should all work out soon.

Heather has found a Tap Dancing class, which is so cool!!!!

We have been fortunate to have a lot of out of town visitors since we arrived in May. Wendy, Jack & Elle, Kelly, Jed and kids, Ally, Laurent and kids, Auntie Debbie, Jenn and Nick and Grandma & Grandpa White

Our family had some sad news this summer when Roxy become suddenly sick and passed over. Unfortunately, Roxy had been living with a few tumors on her liver but she showed no signs of any pain or discomfort right up until her last day with us.

We have a few important days coming up for our family.

Jake will be celebrating his third birthday on October 8th.

October 9th is Carmen's third angel day.

We are looking forward to celebrating these incredible days as a family.

I hope our next post will be a lot sooner!!

We love all of you.

Team White

Below....is a collection of images, in no particular order;