July

Wow, yet another month gone by.  Of course there was no school in July so we spent a lot of time trying to stay busy with both kids home.  We did some Christmas in July crafts (complete with Christmas music) since I had picked up a Shrinky Dinks kit dirt cheap on clearance.  The kids really enjoyed that one.  They wanted to put up the real Christmas tree, but I drew the line there.  

I bought the kids a couple 'Dig a Dinosaur' kits with dinosaur bones embedded in plaster, and they're still working on that one.  It is a fun activity, I think Cole and I have spent the most time at that one.  

For MOMS Club, we headed to the firehouse.  It was a great tour, they took us through EVERYTHING.  That tour must have been over an hour long (with kids from infant to school age) and the kids had such a blast.  Then to top it off the firemen handed out coupon books with a bunch of food coupons including free Happy Meals, so we had lunch included with our tour.  Bonus!

The coupon books also had a coupon for the Dole Plantation Maze, so we headed up there to do the maze again.  I had done it with the boys a few months back and I think we found 5 of the 8 stations hidden in the maze. This time we found all 8.  I think it is easier the second time around :)

Waimea Valley

Finally the blog marathon is almost over, I've almost caught up to the present day!  Last weekend we went to Waimea Valley on the north shore.  We had never been there before, it was a beautiful place.  It is a huge botanical gardens which has a path to a waterfall at the back of the park.  The waterfall has a pool at the bottom that you can swim in, they have a lifeguard and everything.  The water was a little chilly, so my kids wouldn't go in past their knees or so.  I figured they'd want to go swimming!  Oh well.  


It was a pretty nice place to visit.  The kids got tired on the walk out since it was mostly uphill.  But then when we got back to the entrance gate when we were done, Adam said 'How did we get back here so fast?'.  So I guess he didn't mind the walk back so much.

Random stuff

Just a few more random updates.  I finally am NOT the MOMS Club president anymore, so I've had a bit more free time to do crafts (and blog!).  I finally made Cole's fabric painting into a pillow - he had done this picture in a Families for R.E.A.L. preschool class back in winter, and it turned out cute.


We did a beach day last week and when we were at the Ko'Olina lagoons, we saw the Black Pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!  It was pretty cool.  Someone said that Johnny Depp was not on the island yet for filming, so I guess no use in trying to swim out to the boat.  I love coming across random filming while living in Hawaii.  While we were at the beach I also tested out my new underwater camera.  It worked great, I got a little Samsung and am very happy with it so far.  I tried taking pics of the fireworks around the neighborhood with it too, the shots were interesting.  


Adam started some 'Sea Monkeys' (aka brine shrimp) last week, he looks like such a little scientist carefully measuring out their food.  I'm afraid the Sea Monkeys had a bit of an accident though, no survivors.  Adam was reaching for something across the counter last night and knocked the container over.  He was pretty upset about it, although the mourning was short, he was over it by this morning. :)

Dinos at the Mall

We went to see the dinosaurs at the mall a few days after we got back from vacation.  It was also the day after I went to the midnight showing of 'Eclipse', so I was a LITTLE tired but I figured I could handle following the kids around the mall so they could hunt down all the dinosaur exhibits.  It was pretty fun, and better yet its FREE (unless you stand in line and shell out the $4 to ride the mini train around the dinosaur exhibit - no thanks!).  Of course it did cost me lunch at the mall, but then again I was tired and didn't have to make lunch :)

Catching up

Wow, I looked at the blog and realized I'm almost a month behind.  I guess that's what happens when it's summer break and you go on vacation for a while.  

We headed to MN for a nice vacation, it sure was a change in temperature from what we were used to.  When we got to MN, first we drove through torrential rain to get to Silver Bay and then when we got up there it was 58 degrees and raining.  A little bit of a change from 80 and sunny every day!  It was actually nice to be cool for once though, I didn't mind getting a chance to wear my jeans, I almost never wear them here!

The boys had a good time at the playgrounds there, by the lake and doing a little walking on the trails.  We were there to celebrate my parent's 60th wedding anniversary (a little early since it is actually in November), so we had a nice dinner with all my siblings while we were there and we took some family pictures.

On the way back we spent the night at my sister Kathy's and I also had a chance to catch up with an old friend from undergrad who I hadn't seen in about 15 years.  It was a lot of fun to see him and meet his wife and family.  Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that undergrad was THAT long ago already.  I'm getting old!


Well I'll have to sift through more pictures and see what else I've fallen behind on blogging.

Scrap Layout

Pineapple paradise

Shortly after we moved here, sometime around the fall of 2008, I planted a pineapple top cut from a pineapple we got at the store.  It slowly grew out in the backyard and now FINALLY we have a ripe pineapple! 

I was getting a little worried that this little guy would get ripe while we were visiting MN. I would hate to wait 18 months for a pineapple to grow and then miss out on it!  Well yesterday we went ahead and picked our pineapple.  

We cut it up after dinner tonight and it was really sweet and tasty.  One of the best pineapples I've had, so I guess it was worth the wait.  Now supposedly in another year it might produce another one, that's a long wait!


But our banana tree has decided to produce a bunch of bananas, so in a while we'll have some more tropical fruit.  We have a dwarf apple banana tree that I put in last spring.  Apple bananas grow all over here, I don't know if you can get them outside of Hawaii but they are very tasty.  

Here is the flower pod that will produce the bananas.  You can just barely see the baby bananas way up underneath the outer petals in the pic below.  

Not sure how long it takes the bunch to grow, but I'll have to keep a close eye on it.  Them I just need to wait for our papaya tree to get bigger and I'll have some fresh papayas too.  Gotta love Hawaii!

Last day of Kindergarten page

A day on the bike path

Since we spend so much time on the bike path here on the weekends and also since we never know how long we'll be here or when Monsanto will tell us it's time to move on, I decided I should chronicle a typical day on the bike path so we remember what it looked like.


Here we're just starting out, looking out over the golf course across the street.

As we head down through the neighborhood, we go past Adam's old school...

Here's a shot of me and Adam taken from the bike along the way

Once we get down through the neighborhood and under the freeway, we head down to the Pearl Harbor bike path.  The start of the bike path begins near a 'convenience dropoff center' i.e. a place to drop your trash that can't be picked up curbside.  Then it runs along the back of some properties in Waipahu  (a different part of Waipahu than where we live) where there is a small canal with fish and ducks in it.  Many of the yards have chickens, roosters, and ducks living in them.  You can see the canal in the pic below and the bridges from the yards over to the bike path.

Once we get past the residential section, the bike path runs right along Pearl Harbor.  Here's a view of the Mid Loch, which I think is basically a ship graveyard.  These ships don't look like they've seen any action in a long time from the amount of rust on them...

A shot of Adam on the bike.

Further along, we come to the taro patch,

And the watercress farm that are alongside the path.

More pretty views of Pearl Harbor looking towards Ford Island.

This is nearly at the end of the bike path, our turnaround point.  You can see the Ford Island bridge towards the left in the picture.

And it seems that a ride wouldn't be complete without a stop to fix the bike.  This time a jammed chain.  But we were off again shortly.

Now I hope in a couple years or more we can look back at the bike path pics and say 'Hey, I remember that!'.  Because who knows where life will take us next.  It would be nice to know!

Scrapbook Fun

I've finally had time to play with Adobe this week and finished a layout.