Leprechaun hunters

Look who I found in the school office!  I love the day when our kindergartners go on a leprechaun hunt.  They start in their classroom, where the sneaky leprechaun created chaos.  He made a mess!  He knocked over chairs!  He dumped out crayons!  Then...he left a trail of green footprints through the school, ending in the library, where the children found gold chocolate coins AND the librarian, tied up with shiny green shamrock wire.  Oh my! There is my favorite orange bearded leprechaun hunter at the far right of the picture.  Sometimes there is no better job in the world then teaching children (and playing with them too!)

Turtles and whales

The view from Kaena Pt to the other side, the north side

Notice Susie's hands-on-the-hips-'cause-there's-no-room-on-my-belly stance?

Watching for spouts

Watching for tails

Hiwa hiwa and me!  On the beach together!

Walking to the north shore Sunset Beach to see the  Epic Big Waves!

Luckily TBTE knows us and that we would be MOST excited to see animals, so on Boxing Day, we drove to Turtle Beach, which has an official Hawaiian name that starts with an 'L' and has lots of vowels in it, but I don't remember it.  We had already seen a turtle or two pop their heads up and smile at us at the day before in the Ko'Olina lagoons, but Susie wanted a close encounter of the third kind for us.  There were still vestiges of the storm causing big waves, but the sky was blue and the drive through the pineapple fields was peaceful.  There is a point where you come over the hill and spot water and think, yay, there's the ocean again, I haven't seen it for 15 minutes and it is back!  Hiwa hiwa. a 200+ pound honu (green sea turtle) was resting quietly on the beach.  I know her name because the Honu guardians were out and they know the turtles by name.  This one had a tracking device attached to her shell and so they know that at one time she dove as deep at 570 feet!  Wow!   Susie talked to the garrulous man for quite a while and got all the info on how to become a guardian herself.  They are volunteers who keep tourists from doing stupid things like trying to push the turtles back into the water or sit on the turtles.  But it was ok to take pictures...just not too close (hence the red rope you see). http://malamanahonu.org/
Now.  Whales.  Our last morning in Hawaii, and TBTE didn't have anything planned for us, so I asked if we could make one last trip up to Kaena Pt to look for whales and TBTE were happy to oblige my last request.  Driving up, we once again spotted the mysterious albino mongoose and having seen it twice now, had to name it.  Haole.  (look it up). Joe dodged lots of the dumb little chicken-like birds called Franklins (odd name.  I don't think it is a Hawaiian word...).  At the top we watched for  a while and my heart was sinking in disappointment and Susie said, "Well, I think whale watching is a bust today" when what to my wondering eyes should appear but A Spout.  And I SAW it!  Joe had binoculars (TBTE remember) which he let me use and I watched as not one, not two, not three, but FOUR or FIVE whales played in the water.  Breeches, tails, flippers, spouts...we saw it all.  Finally.  Not only whales, but a huge, beautiful Albatross flew by.  It was a good last morning.  I can't wait to go back!

Hawaii part 3

The boat harbor at the Marine base at Kanehoe Bay where we rented the boat.

Ready to go out to the reef and sandbar for snorkeling and SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard)

Susie driving

Fishing, Hawaii style

Snorkeling and SUP boarding

Floating in the ocean

Beautiful water and our shadows at Kailua

The amazing day of snorkeling and swimming at the sandbar and reef in Kanehoe Bay.  Susie and Joe promise to take all their guests on this same expedition, ending with lunch at Kona Brewery in Honolulu. You should all be buying your tickets now!  This is where we watched a huge green sea turtle swim under the boat we were sitting in.

Hawaii part 2: Polynesian Culture Center and Luau

The Lizard's eye rock

Susie's cute baby bump

Playing games: spinning nut tops

Father/daughter pic

coconut tree

We wove palm fronds to make these cute fishies

Oh, yes, making fire without a match!

Playing with spinning sticks

Watching the kids play

MMM. Hawaiian barbeque.  Chicken long rice.

We had passed on the Polynesian Culture Center when we brought the kids to Hawaii.  It was expensive and we had limited time to see and do all that we wanted to.  But this time, The Best Tourguides Evah (hereafter referred to as TBTE) found great discounted tickets through their military connections and it seemed a good way to do the luau thing.  So we set off to the other side of the island, stopping at beaches and parks along the way to "take pictures" ( otherwise known as "stop to pee").  We had been warned to eat before going inside, so decided this would be a good time to experience the local cuisine, the Hawaiian barbeque fast food chain called L&L.  I had Aloha chicken long rice.  This was a bowl of translucent noodles in broth with strips of spam, chunks of chicken and a fried egg plopped on top.  Not bad and very filling.  The PCC was a very wholesome day of family oriented activities and dwellings from all over Polynesia.  "OK, family, watch this, family.  Family, do you like poi,family? Family would you like to try this,family?" I thought at first that punctuating their sentences with the word,"family" was a Fijian trait, but all the employees, who were students at the nearby BYU campus, did the same thing, so I think it must be a Mormon encouraged instruction.  It was a fun day, ending with a luau buffet of not very impressive Hawaiian food.  BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...!  After dinner we went to a huge theater to watch the Fire Dance show...and that was worth the price of admission.  No pictures allowed...so you will just have to take my word for it that the music and dancing was fantastic.  TBTE then drove us sleepy people home to enjoy a good night's sleep after another day in paradise.

With a full heart, I offer you...Hawaii! pt 1

This is the view Joe has EVERY day from his job at the top of Kaena Point.  This was Christmas Day, and this is what a stormy Hawaii Christmas looks like.

No jungle on the west side of Oahu.  You can see Kaena Point in the far distance.

Beautiful winter waves

NOW we are on the jungle side of Oahu.

One perfect plumeria

Enjoying Hawaii and each other

Oh, such wonderful memories!  The best part of the trip was being able to just sit back and relax and let Joe do the driving.  Although Scott followed our route on the map from the front seat, he wasn't navigating.  Susie and I were in the back, visiting and maybe planning where to stop next and eat.  We had such a lovely time and two thoughts kept popping into my head.  One: It's December!  And I am warm!  And it is SNOWING at home!  Yay me! and Two: So many people disparaged Oahu when we said we were going there. All I can think is that they never left Waikiki when they visited Oahu...there is so much splendid beauty, pristine isolated beaches, variety-- jungles and cacti!, wildlife.  We never set foot in Waikiki and didn't miss it at all.

Waianae, Nankuli, Maili on the westside are very different from Kailua and Haleiewa on the north.  Here is where the regular Hawaiians live...ramshackle houses, local Hawaiian barbeque fast food, barbed wire and barred windows...I may be poor and jobless, but I can spend my days on the beach!  It is also sunnier and drier on this side.  Susie and Joe's neighborhood is tucked away under a huge volcanic rock hill that reminds me of Iceland (volcanic is volcanic I guess) with sidewalks and well groomed small yards and loads of hibiscus and plumeria and bouganvilla spilling over the white fences.  It is about a 15 minute walk from their house to the beach, which is small and littered with trash (west side after all) but still offers that clear turquoise water and white foam.  Just look out, not down and it is paradise. Joe has about a, oh I don't know 20 minute? drive up the coast, to the end of the road and his perch above Kaena Pt.

Our first order of business was to go whale watching.  So on Christmas Day we headed up to Kaena...there was a storm brewing, so the waves were big, the spray fierce and the sky low.  There was this weird optical illusion that the ocean was actually reared up into a wall, ready to fold down from the horizon, and Ponyo style, chase us down the road!  As for whales, it wasn't my day. There's one, I kept hearing, but when I looked, I couldn't see anything.  I seemed to just miss seeing every spout or breech.  We went inside and checked out Joe's office and I stepped off a step that I didn't see and fell hard.  It was definitely a BAD WORD moment.  There seemed to be at least three times during the fall that I thought I could save myself, but I landed on my knee.  It hurt too much to be embarassing.  All I could think was FIRST DAY OF VACATION!  I spent the rest of the day limping in pain, very worried that I had injured myself enough to cramp my vacation activities, but I refused to give in, kept walking (slowly) and finally listened to Joe when we got home and followed RICE--rest,ice,compression and elevation (and ibuprofen) and when I woke up in the morning, it was BETTER! Moral: Listen to Joe!

After Kaena, we visited the lovely resort area of Ko'Olina, which was the location of the Marriott Susie and Joe called home for a month while they waited for their house to be ready.  Ko'Olina has a very nice beach park along the coast, with four lagoons to swim in and a picturesque walking path connecting them.  There is also a big Disney resort and it felt very festive.  We said hello to the rays in the Marriott's pond and watched the sunset as we walked back to the car.  Susie was so smart that before we left in the morning, we put a pot roast in the crock pot and had a yummy Christmas dinner waiting for us when we got home. Mele Kalikimaka!

Newtown tragedy

" I can't imagine what those families are going through," I keep hearing people say.  And I keep thinking, I can imagine it.  I can imagine because we have been through it too.  And there are probably hundreds of other families who have lost children this week, and every one of their losses is as great as the the loss each family in Newtown experienced.
"Senseless tragedy"  is also a word I have heard over and over.  But...every child's death is senseless:  cancer, car accident, drowning, chiari malformation...all senseless in the eyes of the families who have lost what is most precious to them, their child.

I know that I am sounding insensitive here.  Really I am not.  I am deeply grieving the loss of those children and school employees.  I would gladly have thrown my body over any one of my students to save their lives.  But I do know other families out of the public eye are also grieving tonight, and I grieve with all those unknown broken hearts too.

As a teacher of 7 year old children and as a grandparent who lost a deeply loved (not quite) 6 year old grandson, the wounds are deep and fresh.

Thankful for...

Today is Thanksgiving.  And all month everyone has been posting their daily little thanks.  I think friends, family and health are pretty well covered.  So, I am thankful for my electric tea kettle, my electric mattress pad, my Uggs, my Kindle, my Droid, Sirius radio and GPS in the car,  DVR, and this little laptop.  Oh, I can see frowns of displeasure forming on your brows.  We are not supposed to be thankful for THINGS, we are supposed to be thankful for those intangibles that we have no control over.  If all those things disappeared from my life, I would miss them, but I would be fine.  And if the intangibles disappeared from life, my family, friends and health, I would be in crisis.  But, we are living in amazing times.  We have so many THINGS that make our lives comfortable and fun and interesting, it would truly be a shame to not acknowledge how lucky and grateful we are for those things.  Every time I get in the shower I give thanks that I live in a day and age when I can turn a nozzle and stand under a streaming fall of hot water.  To say nothing of the essential luxury of an inside toilet.  A car with HEATED seats, for gosh sakes.  How amazing is that?  I LOVE them on a cold morning.  I am thankful for the creativity and ingenuity of the human spirit, all that brain power that has gone into the little things that make my life wonderful.  All of which is a reflection and gift of the Great Creator.  Thank you.  Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow.  Praise him all creatures here below.  Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.