Haleiwa Metric Century

Last Sunday we headed on up to Haleiwa on the North Shore to do the Haleiwa Metric Century Ride. We got there early to get the bike set up and get us all ready to ride. We started to draw quite a bit of attention right from the start. We headed out before the mass start, not wanting to deal with all the riders in close proximity to our big bike. It was a nice cool morning, in fact the boys were a little chilly but I thought it was perfect riding temperature.

We stopped at the first rest stop (we stopped at every rest stop to keep the kids happy...) had snacks and drinks and had more admirers of the bike. I got someone to snap this photo of us all on the bike.
Things were going well and the kids were entertained with all the new things to see since this is not a route we normally ride, so at each rest stop we decided to keep going instead of turning around to go back and finish. Here we are at the final turnaround point, the halfway mark of the ride in Swanzy Beach Park. Beautiful views of the mountains and the quad leaning against the fence below.
The ride didn't quite go so smoothly after that, we broke a spoke shortly after the turnaround point and had to stop for repairs, and cookies for the boys. We got going again after it was all fixed up and had a pretty smooth ride after that. I really didn't hear any complaints out of Adam and Cole until we got to around 53 miles (out of 58). So at that point I got out the stash of suckers that I had hidden away and that kept them preoccupied for the last 5 miles.

So this was Cole's first big ride and he did great. 58 miles in total (so it was actually a little shy of a true metric century, which would be 62 miles). Not quite up to Adam's longest ride - he did 75 miles in the century ride last Sept. So we'll have to see how many miles we can do this year in the Honolulu Century - I guess we'll shoot for 75 with Cole and see how it goes.

Here are a few more photos from the ride...

Cole with cookies from the rest stop

Adam and an orange from the rest stop

A pic from on the road - Cole in front of me and Dan in front of him

Camping

We went on our first camping trip with the boys this past weekend. We went with some other families and had a great time. We only did a one-nighter since we wanted to be home to go to Easter service on Sunday, but it was a good test run for camping with the boys. I had a great time relaxing and the kids really had fun just running with all the other kids until they were exhausted. It was great for them to pretty much be able to run free with nobody checking on them.
The campsite itself was absolutely beautiful. We were at Ho'omaluhia Gardens, they have large grassy areas to camp on, reasonably close to the parking lot and decent bathrooms. We had a little rain the first night, and I think if we ever got some heavy rain we might be a little soggy in the morning. But we only got a little damp on this trip.
I still can't get over how pretty the whole gardens were and that we got to camp there. We'll definitely have to go back the next time the group heads out there or maybe we'll organize a few friends and head back over.
We had a nice Easter morning - early church and then the kids hunted for their baskets. The rest of the day has mostly been rainy so we've just hung out and relaxed.
Now it's back to reality, school and errands and all that fun stuff again tomorrow.

Here are some photos from the camping trip...

It really was this green!

The kids were playing Hot Potato

The older boys were working on starting a campfire

March Musings

Well, as usual another month has passed since I've blogged. Time just slips by and its another month before I know it.

This month we finally tried the box-car races that are right by our house. Talk about fun! Those little cars go pretty fast down that first hill. You roll them up a little hill to start and then let them go and try to stay in your lane around all the corners. At first, Adam was afraid to drive his own car but then he got brave and he did great. Some of the other kids there were driving off into the grass but Adam was speeding around the corners and kept it right in his lane. I don't think I'll hand over the car keys quite yet though...

Dan and Cole (car on the left)

Adam posing on one of the boxcars

The starting hill (Adam-middle car, me and Cole, car on the right)

I think Adam beat us on that run...

Other stuff this month, we helped out to put on the MOMS club Easter Egg Hunt. Here are Adam and Cole helping to stuff eggs. We had about 450 stuffed eggs in the kitchen by the time we were done.

We also took our first rides on the quad this month. I don't have any pictures of us all on the bike yet, but here is Dan with the bike at one of our rest stops along our ride.

More pics to come since we just got back from a great camping trip. It was soooo beautiful there!

Menehune Chocolate Factory Tour

For our 'Furlough Friday' activity through MOMS Club, we went to the Menehune chocolate factory for a tour. I had never heard of this place before someone set up the tour, but it was pretty great. The kids got a little talk about how chocolate is made and where macadamia nuts come from, etc. Then each kid got dressed up in an apron and hair cover and went to work making their own chocolate covered macademia nuts. Then, they had all the free samples you could eat. It was kind of like torture for me since I gave up chocolate for Lent, but they did have a few non-chocolate things I could sample! I would highly recommend the tour, it is worth it just for the samples! They put the kids' candies they made in the freezer and then before we left, each child got their candies back all boxed and shrink-wrapped. Pretty awesome!

Showing the 10lb chocolate bricks that they get in to make the candies with...
Getting ready to make their own box of candies...

A whole room full of kids in aprons and hair nets is pretty cute!
Chef Adam and Chef Cole
Now we're on to the sampling part. It turns out, if you let my kids eat as much chocolate as they want, eventually they stop eating it on their own before they get sick. I was actually surprised...
The rows of sample bins...
The finished masterpieces.
So if you happen to be on Oahu, take the tour!

Family visit fun

My sister Connie and her husband Steve came to thaw out in February from frozen North Dakota. So we had a good time being tourists around the island for a few days. We only seem to make it out to do these things when people come to visit. We headed out to the west side of the island for a nice sunset.
At Dole plantation to see the pineapples...
Visited the beach on the North Shore.
Cole decided to make some snow angels (the poor deprived kids - they can't make snow angels)
And Adam caught a pretty good wave on the bodyboard
Adam had his birthday while they were visiting too. My baby is 6!
We took a hike up to Makapuu lighthouse to see the sights on the windward side of the island and do some whalewatching. I actually saw some whales this time, but they were far out and so hard to get a picture of.
So we'll have to see who we can get to come out and visit us next.

Likeke Falls hike

We did a hike up to Likeke falls in February. We hadn't tried the trail before and it took a little hunting around before we found the trailhead. Once we were on the trail it was a nice, easy to navigate trail. The vegetation along the trail was beautiful, lots of wild ginger and heliconia. Here is us early on in the hike.
The trail was nice and even and not muddy at all. So it was a very pleasant hike. I think the falls were about 0.75 mi into the hike. We checked out the falls and then continued on the trail for a ways to see what was ahead. There were more gorgeous plants, plus some stands of bamboo if I remember correctly. We turned around so the kids wouldn't get too tired on the way back out. We probably hiked a little over 2 miles in total.
Here is a picture of the falls, not large but very pretty.
Adam enjoying himself on the hike.
Dan and Cole
Some of the ginger that grows wild all along the trail.
We'll have to try to check out some more new trails again sometime. Oahu has so many different trails I'm sure we could live here for a long time and not try them all. Just have to get the mileage up of what the kids are willing to do now.

Winter in Hawaii

We've been enjoying winter here, Hawaii style. Cole and I were out trimming the palms in the yard and Cole started playing with one of the big fronds. I told him he looked like a peacock, so he started posing for me. Here is my little peacock...
With MOMS Club we went to Moanalua Gardens. It is a nice little park, very quiet and secluded and they also had a very nice koi pond. I think the group of us fed the fish at least 10lbs of koi food that a couple of the moms had brought. The fish actually stopped begging for food the kids fed them so much.
Also in Moanalua gardens is the 'Hitachi Tree'. This tree is the actual one used in the Hitachi ads (http://www.hitachi.com/hitachitree/en/). Apparently they pay royalties to the owner of the tree for use in the ads. Tour buses come full of tourists from Japan and they all get their pictures taken with it. It is a lovely tree, but I'm not sure what the big deal is all about.
Some days here can be a little chilly here (I can hear you laughing!). When I say chilly, I mean that you might not want to put on your swimsuit and stand in the breeze while you're wet. You're probably ok if you're not just coming out of the water :) It was warm enough this day to break out the slip n slide. Maybe the pictures can thaw you out just looking at them...
Adam's been taking tennis lessons for a couple of sessions now, but he still hasn't made it out of the beginner class. His coach said that his swing is now good enough but he has to get a little more focus. He's the one who is usually looking at the birds flying by rather than the coach. He is just not my little athlete. That's ok, I certainly was no athlete when i was a kid either - at least not in the 'organized sports' capacity. Cole will start the same beginner class next session, so we'll see how they do together. Maybe a little brotherly competition will give Adam some motivation to pay attention. :)
Well I have a bunch of good photos still to post, I'll try to get busy and post more. For now, I think I need to get some shut-eye. Night all!

Green Eggs and Ham

For the past couple of weeks, Adam's class has been practicing doing 'Green Eggs and Ham' by Dr. Suess. On Friday, they had their big debut. It really was cute. Adam's line was 'I do not like them Sam I Am'. Since that comes up several times in the story, he gets to say it several times. He did a great job, all the kids did. There was an outside dramatic arts program that came in and worked with the kids. One of their big goals was to get the kids to step out of their comfort zone and get past their fear. So none of the kids looked scared or talked soft when they got up, so the people must have done a good job with them.

Like a good mom, I took a video:

Yes, MIA again

I really, really don't know where time goes some months. Here it is, more than a month from my last post. Well I got a new computer, so that ate up some of my time getting things transferred and everything set up just the way I like it. I have no idea what I did for the 3 weeks before that. Let see...

I did a parent-child preschool class with Cole during winter quarter. He had a really good time being in a classroom with other kids. Part of the program was a field trip and we went to a watercress farm. It was really interesting. Watercress is a salad-type green that grows in (surprise, surprise) water. It has an interesting flavor, it kind of reminds me of radishes. It is tasty stuff, fairly popular around here. Anyways, on the tour we got to see how they grow and harvest the watercress and got a bunch at the end to take home.

Adam really wanted to go to the Children's Discovery center, so one Furlough Friday we headed down there. We spent four full hours there and I'm sure they would have stayed longer but the place was closing. Below are Adam and Cole doing winter - Hawaii style (sledding and ice fishing).

They had tons of dress-up, role play areas for the kids. Here is Adam passing judgement on Cole (I'm sure the verdict was guilty...)
And here are my two little news anchors
They had a ship that you could raise and lower the flags on, load and unload cargo with a working hoist, ring the bell, it was great fun for them.
Adam enjoyed the Japan theme area

We've been keeping plenty busy,I'll certainly try to update more soon!