Politics

I'm in the middle of watching yesterday's republican debate. Is it just me or is Ron Paul just a little off his rocker?

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Last Sunday we headed to Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park with the Drurys. It was a really cool place and I hope we'll be able to make another trip back before we move to the other side of the island. If I remember correctly, there are three volcanoes on the big island. Two are active and one is considered dead or extinct...whatever the volcano lingo is! :) It was amazing to see the steam rising out of the earth and think about the hot lava under the surface. We didn't actually see any lava but maybe on our next visit!

Steam Vents: 

There were quite a few steam vents along the side of the road. In the picture above they look like clouds. Across the road from here there is a spot where you can stand directly beside one and feel the steam. When we walked through I think Tyler thought he was being burned alive even though it wasn't really all that hot. He wouldn't go near the steam after that.

The little boys were just happy to walk around the amazing landscape. Tyler and Josh went off looking for dragons and ran and yelled to their hearts' content. They definitely got a little crazy and I'm so glad Tyler has his buddy Josh here to be crazy with!

We must have had luck on our side the day we went because we saw the most beautiful rainbow! It was so big no matter how far Gordon ran back to try to fit the whole thing in the view of the camera he couldn't get it. The pictures here really don't do it justice. It was amazing! In Gordon's words that rainbow alone was worth our $10 fee to get into the park!

I guess we couldn't get too lucky though. No pot o' gold at the end of this rainbow! Just an active volcano!

Thurston Lava Tube: This place was totally awesome as well! It reminded me a lot of the caves we've been in before and then you remember that you're not walking through a cave but a tube made by hot flowing lava! It was getting pretty dark outside at this point and obviously the lava tubes were dark inside as well so I wish my pictures would have turned out a little better...

Outside the lava tube: We thought we'd take one last family pic before we lost the light completely. Josh and Tyler are rarely apart when we're all together and they are usually being silly- hence the hand waving. Oh well! At least he was saying "Cheese!" while he did it! :)

Entrance into the lava tube:

(If this picture looks a little odd it's because my flash was reflecting off the moisture in the air. It wasn't actually raining but it was so humid the light reflected off the mist. I've never had that happen before. Weird!)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the boys holding hands. The trail was relatively steep and in an effort to keep them from running and completely wiping out we made them hold hands with someone. They chose to hold hands with each other. (Again with the weird flash reflection! Aargh!)

It will be fun to make another trip back and see some of the things we missed. I really want to go back and take one of the hikes they have. Next time we'll be a little more prepared with jackets and pants. Who knew you needed those in Hawaii?! All-in-all we had a blast and were able to check another thing off our list of places we need to see before we leave! Thanks for coming with us Drurys!!


Funny Note: Nancy and I collect souvenir travel pins and whenever I go anywhere I have to see if I can find one for us. The one museum we found that sold them was closed when we got there so we decided to stop and see if the "Volcano Village" located close to the park had anything. We did find a gift shop full of souvenirs. We found one pin in that whole store and what did it say on it? "Harley Davidson, Las Vegas, Nevada". WHAT?!?!?! I'm still confused by that one... Please someone explain!

A Sunday Walk

There's a little trail out the back of our apartment complex that goes into the rainforest. I've been curious where it leads to so a couple of Sundays back we decided to take a little walk and find out...

It led down to a very quiet and very rocky beach. It was beautiful! Tyler wanted to throw rocks in so badly but as you can see below, it wasn't the most kid-friendly beach in the world. I nearly had a heart attack several times when he almost threw himself off along with his rock. It did have beautiful view though!

Finally!

I've been trying to get my camera to connect to our new computer and finally figured out it was just me that was being retarded... Anyway, here are some pics from our time here in Hawaii thus far.

We started our time here by spending a few days on the island of Oahu where we went to the Pearl Harbor memorial, the Polynesian Cultural Center, BYU-Hawaii, the Hawaii temple and Waikiki beach. It was a blast having a little family vacation before the madness started!

Tyler slept in a "big boy bed" for the first time and didn't fall out!! Yeah!! (I was kind of losing sleep over the transition from crib to bed and it totally turned out to be wasted energy. He's been completely fine!)

Pearl Harbor:

It was H-O-T the day we went and Tyler was not in the mood to pose for pictures so I told him he wouldn't get any ice-cream unless he smiled for this picture. Not one of my better moments and that’s probably what I’ll think about everytime I look at this picture but at least he smiled!

This one man submarine was crazy to see. It's hard to imagine anyone actually getting inside knowing they are going to die. I can't even imagine!

Tyler's reward for posing for pictures: ICECREAM! Probably the highlight of the day for him next to riding on the boat to see the USS Arizona.

The little boys thought this boat ride was the coolest thing. We had to wait a few hours to ride the boat but a day in the hot sun was definitely worth it!

Waikiki Beach:

Unfortunately we got there after the sun set so we just let the boys dig in the sand. Tyler LOVED the water and the sand and the rocks and pretty much everything at the beach. I'm hoping we can find another sandy beach to go visit at some point during the summer. The little boys had a blast!

The Hawaii Temple:

This was definitely one of my favorite parts of our time on Oahu. I love this temple. Both the temple and the grounds are gorgeous!

The Polynesian Cultural Center:

Nancy and John on the canoe ride:

Tyler loved fishing. They put a little piece of food on the end of the line and the fish would swarm. It was pretty fun to watch. I love his facial expression in this picture.

The show:

This was definitely the highlight of the day. Tyler thought the show and the fire dancers were amazing and kept saying, "Wow!" He still talks about it.

We had a blast on Oahu! I'm so glad we took the time to have a little family vacation before the work begins!


P.S. As you may have guessed, I did not get a tattoo. At some of the villages in the PCC they had stamp tattoos so when we took Tyler to get one I lifted his leg and they quickly stamped his tattoo on before he really knew what was happening. He got the saddest look on his face and just started to cry like we had marked him for life. So, in an effort to help him see that it was supposed to be fun Gordon and I got one as well. He was alright with it then although I don't think he ever really loved it. As sad as it was to see the look of betrayal on his face, I'm hoping his view on tattoos won't ever change!