Hana and the Parrots

We went down Hana Highway (to the town of Hana). One of the coolest things I have ever seen is these rainbow eucalyptus trees. Between mile marker 6 and 7, there is a forest of them. It's hard to appreciate in this picture, but you can see the green, red and blue in the trunk. Absolutely amazing and a wonderful creation of God.
There were plenty of beautiful waterfalls.

My favorite part of the trip was meeting the parrots. They are hilarious! They squawk and carry on, but they were very obedient. And very hot!

Many cool pictures were taken this day. I love all the vivid colors!

Home from Hawaii

Well, it's 1 a.m. and I can't sleep. Figures. I took too many naps today. We got in town at noon and were greeted by L and g&g. I wasn't real tired this afternoon and was ready to fall asleep at 10 pm, but somehow got my second wind. So I thought I'd start on my blogging. I'll try to keep my posts interesting so not to bore anyone. I really should have blogged daily while I was there, but I was too busy having fun.

So this first picture was taken from our hotel patio. Fourth floor, garden view studio. As you can see, we had a nice view of the ocean. The amazing thing about Maui is it's always sunny and when the sun rises at 5:45 am it shines into the room. We went to the beach a couple times and had fun. We walked the shore picking up interesting rocks.

We arrived Sunday night, and got up Monday morning at 1:45 am to go to Haleakala Crater. We headed up in the van about 3:30 am. It took 90 minutes to go from Paia to the top of the Crater (for our spot it was 9500 feet). We stood in the cold (38 degrees with 15 mile an hour winds) for 20 minutes before the sun rose. The view was breath taking. And one of the amazing things is how the clouds start flying when the sun comes up. The ride down was exhilarating. We voted it #1 activity of our trip.
We visited the Maui Plantation one day. It was really interesting. We took a tram ride to see the various plants/fruits produced in Hawaii. Sugarcane and pineapple used to be a staple for Hawaii, but it's predicted that in 7 years they won't make either (all being done in Costa Rica and the Philippines). This first picture is of the Kona bean (aka coffee beans). Very cool how they are a plant and change from green to red to brown.
Did you know that pineapples grow on the ground? I didn't before doing research on our trip. It was interesting to see them growing as a bush. We bought a Maui Gold pineapple and enjoyed it when we were in Maui. It was very sweet.
Here is a typical picture of Maui. Beautiful coast and blue ocean. It is very calm in the morning and by afternoon the trade winds kick up. It never rained more than 10 minutes the whole trip. We often felt that we were in California on Pacific Coast Highway except that there's not much land between the street and the ocean. The houses even had the California feel.
That's all for now. I've got to get some sleep. Back to work at 9 am.

Aloha!

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I've been so busy vacationing. We've been here for 5 days and so far we've...
*biked down 7500 feet (Haleakala Crater)
*went to another island (sailed around Lanai)
*saw hundreds of fish(snorkeling)...and saw dolphins (mommas and babies)
*drove 50 miles and 600 curves (Hana Highway)
*felt the weight of six parrots on us (Garden of Eden)
*been bitten numerous times(damn mosquitos followed me here)

No pictures right now...we need to head off to Lahaina to eat dinner (at cheeseburger in paradise, no less) and shop a little. I'll try to post with pictures later. We're having a wonderful time.

The Countdown

L's with g&g (I'm sure having the time of her life). I'm all packed. I need to get dressed for Kay's party tonight. And I think I'm ready. Ready for some blue ocean, sandy beaches and some time with my honey (wink, wink) and my books. Wish us luck that things go smoothly!

She can swing!

L loves to play on her swing set. We've been working with her on "pumping" so she can swing by herself. And today, she accomplished that. She was so proud of herself!

A Day of Fun

Yesterday, we drove up to Jeff's parents and then to Topeka for a day of fun. We shopped Kohl's out and had a ton of fun. Mom and dad in-law had fun shopping and bought lots of clothes. L had fun, of course, playing in the clothes racks. There were a few platforms and she got on one of them and started (pretend) guitaring. She cracks me up! Afterwards, we hit Barnes and Noble and then had a great dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I love that place. Good food and not really expensive.

My boss has been away for two weeks (he got back yesterday). I got all caught up at work (which was wonderful) and I think I did a decent job while he was away, but I'm glad he's back....partly because that means only another week until I'm on a gigantic plane to Maui. Yea!! We signed up for a sunrise bike ride down the Haleakala Mountain (10,000 feet). I can't wait!!!

Rainy Day Fun

I came home from work today and heard giggling and screaming. I knew L and Jeff were playing but thought they were in the house. Nope...no one in the house. Then I heard the noise from the backyard and thought to myself, "really? It's raining outisde". And there they were, running out in the yard having a great time getting wet. Two happy people having fun.
L was so excited to play outside and stomp in all of the puddles. A great way to embark on a dreary day.

Play time

L really got into playing this weekend. She pulled out all of her Little People and had fun making an entire city. She has a pet groomer and everyone got a bath...even the zoo animals!
Then she moved on to the dog dominos. She lined them up and talked about all the dogs.

Finally, we got out the wedgits. This toy she received from grandma and grandpa. It's really cool. We all had lots of fun building things with it. Jeff made a frog and a dog.

Movie Reviews

We went to the drive in Saturday night (one of our favorite summer hang outs) and watched Hancock and Get Smart. Since they both had received mediocre reviews, I thought I'd give my opinion on them.

Hancock was great. A new role for Will Smith and a very cool twist in the middle, we really liked this movie. The action was great and the movie paced well. Charlize Theron was criticized for overacting in one review and I have no idea what they're talking about. She was great. Three stars from us.

Get Smart was even better. We love Steve Carrell and combined with the funnies of Maxwell Smart, this movie delivered. It was everything I hoped it would be. Humorous with all the cool "toys" this movie moved quickly. The age difference between Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 didn't even bother us. Four stars from us.

We are looking forward to seeing Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D and Batman in the next couple of weeks.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a nice 4th of July. The weather was great. Not too hot and no rain.

We started the morning off by going to the Old Manor Parade. It's a nice, simple parade. We didn't get many pictures because the camera battery died. I loved the politicians.
We had wonderful meals. Lunch included cold fried chicken and baked beans. Supper was steak, twice baked potatoes and corn on the cob. L LOVES corn on the cob. She ate all of hers and half of her dad's.
After dinner, we walked over to the neighbors and shot off a few fireworks. L really loved the sparklers. She repeatedly asked for them. Too bad because we didn't buy many since she didn't like them last year. One thing we did get lots of were poppers. L thought they were great. She can't throw them well, so she resorted to stomping on them to make the "pop".
I have lots of cool fireworks pictures, but alas, blogger cut me off on pics. Here's an awesome one with my Canon. I'll post some others tomorrow. Have a great night!

Summer Kitty

Reggie's in her "good"phase right now. She can still play it up even if she is an old(er) gal.