Saturday, May 26, 2012

O'ahu Trip

Tom had a two day project on the island of O'ahu. These are the pics he took on his phone. One of these days we need to make a family trip there.


 Nice park in Honolulu
 This guy was exercising with this heavy log of driftwood...

 Where Tom had dinner...
 He was happy with the prices and the fresh food...





Friday, May 25, 2012

School is Out and Our Daily Duck Egg

Do you see me doing my happy dance? School is OUT! Hooooo-Raye!!! I'm celebrating the freedom, the days where the kids can sleep in, the boys playing and engaging with Stella, the suppers I can make without having to think if they will be good for lunch leftovers at school, the added help we'll have around the yard (hello ulu'he you will be pulled up and put to good use as a mulch), and the adventures we will take!
(Stella and the Egg Photos taken by Reeve)
 We have been gathering one duck egg a day fairly consistently now for the past couple of weeks. In the morning there is usually one egg right at the edge of "duck lake" on our driveway. One egg. That's it. We have three laying hens, and I am wondering where the other two eggs are hidden?!? Or, could it be that they are taking turns and rotating who will be laying the egg each day?
 It is a mystery!
 The eggs are large with large yolks.
Just two pics that Tom took while he was in Honolulu this week. I'll post more later, but they haven't all uploaded. Our connection speed is very, very, very slow. These were both taken from his street-view hotel room. He said the lines at the restaurants were so long!


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wrapping up at School, Hula Show, & Night Volcano

Last night we went to Reeve and Kyle's "Closed" House in their classrooms. It was a potluck and most of the families were there. The students produced their yearbooks and they were distributed. Each class had an Awards Ceremony. Kyle's Award was titled: "Oh My Gauss, that was Rayediant." Kyle's teacher explained how he and Reeve's teacher were very impressed when Kyle re-worked mathematician Carl F. Gauss's (1828) Equation and Kyle simplified it for the class. Kyle's teacher said that Kyle likes to rework all the math equations, he was a budding entrepreneur (Reeve & Kyle's Juggling stick business is called Rayediant Fun) and that he was a fun guy to have around. Below Kyle is working on his last school project (a presentation on juggling sticks) and Reeve is studying for his final exams on our way to a Hula show at Volcanoes National Park. 
Reeve's award was titled: "Unbridled Pencil and Cognition Sharpener" I think the first part was an inside joke. Reeve was in the most "Top 5" categories for best scores in all his subjects. We also watched video interviews of each of the students. It was a great way for the kids to wrap up the school year. Today they wind down by cleaning up, putting the finishing touches on a video yearbook, and time to autograph yearbooks. Tomorrow is a Fun Day at the Main Campus for their last day of school. Then they have 9 wonderful weeks off before it all starts again (all too soon imho!) on July 30th!!!
 It was a fairly clear night when the Volcanoes National Park had a free Hula Show, so we had our dinner and traveled the 24 miles up to the Kilauea Visitors Center.
 It was an interesting show.

 Reeve took some videos...

Then we went over to the Jagger Museum to look at the awesome glow of the Halema'uma'u Crater. It is completely amazing that we live so close to the world's most active volcano! How often do you find yourself saying, "Oh it looks like it's going to be a clear night tonight, let's go up and see the Volcano!!".   
 Reeve took the above and below picture of the glowing lava lake.
 The following pictures were taken by me. I had put the camera on the rock wall to stabilize it. 

 The little white dots in the pic above are stars. It was a crystal clear night and about 57F at the Crater, which was 10 degrees cooler than our place 24 miles and 3200ft below the crater.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Random Day by the Ocean

It has been hot here lately. Normally we get enough cloud cover and passing rain showers that temps stay in the low 70s during the daytime. Our "winter" temps happen at night...on a beautiful star gazing clear night temps can drop to the low 60s/high50s. Okay that doesn't "sound" like winter temps, but try waking up in a house (with no insulation...just a plywood wall...not even drywall) that is 59F when you wake up. Our house in winter, in WI, was several degrees warmer than that in the morning. When you get used to certain temps here it is amazing how slight variations feel like huge temperature differences. 78F now feels very HOT to me...so much so that after we picked the boys up from school we have gone to the pool or to the ocean. The pool is amazing...it is free. I actually did some lap swimming because Tom came with us and watched Stella. This summer Stella and I will take a Mommy and Me swim class there. The boys did not want swimming lessons this year.
It is difficult to see in these pictures, but on the one lane road we take to the ocean we were behind 3 skateboarders cruising there way down to the sea. Right before we get to the beach it switches back to 2 lanes.

The boys and Tom went boogie boarding.
Below...Kyle, Reeve, Stella

Stella and I explored tide pools. Then we went in the ocean. Then into a large tide pool that was very warm and shallow. She was able to put her head under water and had fun pretending to hear listening to the mermaids.


It felt great to cool off in the warm waters. The boys had a great time on their boards and when we came home we had decided we had enough family exercise to skip our evening mile walk.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Pana`ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens

Nearly a month ago Stella and I went to the zoo with our friends. I used Reeve's camera and he likes the date stamp on the photos. The Pana'ewa Zoo in Hilo has lots of peacocks roaming the grounds. This guy was especially majestic.
 Stella (purple skirt) and her friend looking at Namaste', a white Bengal Tiger.



 The zoo has a nice play area for the keiki.





A fun time spent with good friends!