2007-06 (JUNE)

Father's Day weekend 9 images

1 Sammy has been very busy digging in his garden. Here he is digging out the gravel from a little patch of garden we gave to him. He and I worked very hard one afternoon clearing several hundred pounds of gravel.	2 Then we went to the nursery and he picked out plants. He loves caring for his plants.	3 Especially the watering part!	4
5 Making "rain"!	6 And getting mommy!	7 A baby lemon!	8 And a baby lime! The first fruits on the trees I planted about 6 months ago. So exciting!
9 A gardenia by the deck.	10 Sammy playing pirate on a "date" with mommy. See the sword and bandana?	11 Some fun at the tide pools.	12
13	14	15 A new outfit from Aunt Diane and Uncle Richie!	16 More work in the garden. See the little ramp to the left? His cars and trucks like to drive down there and park.
17 Sam learning to jog - no kidding! He picks a pace that he can hold for a while and moves his little arms. This is on base where we run on some trails by fish ponds. We always look for a huge puffer fish we've seen a couple times.	18	19 Stopping to check out some little groundcover plants. He chose the same ones from the nursery for his garden after recognizing them from this trail run.	20 Finally - a Saturday morning at the beach with mommy and daddy!
21 Notice, daddy is drinking coffee and Sammy is making some for us.	22 That's Sammy's friend Bridget - she is 4. And her dad Brendan is just coming in on the far right side of the frame. He took a swim out to Flat Island. Leo is with their 11mo Greta, but out of the picture. We enjoyed hanging out with them.	23 And Sam is looking up at Auntie Angel in this picture! She and Sheena came to visit us. Sammy actually invited Angel. He likes her a lot. I asked him who should come with us and he said "Auntie Angel!"	24 There's Sheena - she's a friend of Angel's family and is here to stay for a month. She was here last summer when we arrived. It feels like we've come full circle now!
25 We finally went to the zoo! Sammy is excited to see a heffayump!	26 Baby elephant statue looks very real. He really checked it out :)	27	28 Nostrils!
29 Off to the next exhibit (yes, we're all slathered in 50 SPF and there is a good amount of shade, and good breezes).	30	31 My two men...	32
33	34	35	36
37	38 fascinating...	39 Such interesting trees here. So many blooms!	40 Wow! Have you honestly ever seen a tortoise dropping?! Or even wondered? Quite large...indicative of their high-fiber diet.
41 Galapagos tortoises.	42 Check the bark out.	43 Look what Dave got us - Sammy got a baby zebra, and mommy got a ... tortoise!	44 Sammy picked some grass for baby zebra.
45 He's feeding him lunch before naptime.	46 An early morning adventure to the North Shore...Sammy is drinking his "coffee" - Ovaltine. We were on the road by 8am, headed to a hidden beach over a mile down an incredible dirt road. First we stopped for coffee and breakfast at Dave's fav haunt, the Coffee Gallery.	47 Oohhh - good coffee!	48 There's the truck. A few wasps were very interested in our bright beach gear. Once they figured out there was no tasty pollen they pretty much left us alone. Strange remoteness here. It's hard to find a place this solitary on the island. Very rugged.
49 Awesome shells and beach glass...	50 Sammy liked it! We snorkeled for a bit and when the waves got rough we headed out to another beach - Shark's Cove - for more snorkeling.	51 I told Dave to take a picture of the road, but this in NO way does justice to it. I think of myself as a fairly fit person. On my run today I was really wondering why I was stiff after just snorkeling. I finally realized it was from bracing myself against the amazing rolling and bouncing we did on this road. Wow.	52 Shark's Cove - really great snorkeling! Busy - this is a weekday morning and we barely found a parking spot. It's vacation time. Everything is busy. But if we were to come straight here vs 4-wheeling next time (!) we'd have no trouble.
53 This is a goatfish.	54 Not sure what this is - my friends love to SCUBA so I'm sure I'll hear some suggestions :)	55 Parrotfish! I tracked this guy for a while but he is skittish. And fast. And big.	56 Christmas wrasse. Love the colors!
57 A whole bunch of surgeonfish feeding on the reef.	58 More surgeonfish - we think the goldrim surgeonfish.	59 The illustrious spotted fish. Not sure about this one, either.	60 Whitebar and orangeband surgeonfish. These were frames captured from my underwater camera movies. You would probably get sick watching it but if you want me to email it to you, just let me know!
61 Even though it was busy, you can find plenty of water to yourself. It's a preserve, so there are tons of fish. We had SUCH a blast. Sam is learning to snorkel by experimenting with peeking through the mask into the water. He wants to look for treasure chests left behind by pirates...	62 After lunch, we're all tired.	63 Somebody crashed on the way home and stayed asleep for close to 3 hrs. We even moved him to his bed to finish up his nap. Then we went to sleep for a short nap! What an adventurous weekend :)	64 Tito Pig and Tita Bear sent Sammy some pirate gear!
65 He's got the looks down, doesn't he? But he was concerned that the pirate didn't have pirate shoes on. Since we're in Hawaii, I explained it's customary for pirates to not wear shoes so they can easily sneak up on people and steal the treasures ;)	66 Look at that face! This is not coached! I swear! I just suggested he go outside and mommy would take a picture of the little pirate. He says he's Captain Patch - from one of his books. I couldn't believe he wore the patch with no problem. Didn't even trip as I fully expected he would.	67 Aaaaarrgh, matey!	68 I think I can cut the grass with this sword!
69 Nice, huh?	70 Learning to wield it like a professional pirate :)	71 Cool urchins found at Laniakea beach while we were on turtle guarding duty :)	72 Two friendly boys who kept bringing me specimens to check out and photograph!
73 Sea cucumber, which I did actually bring myself to hold. Sammy liked how slippery and soft it was.	74 Sammy's new friends - they belong to one of the other volunteers. They were so nice to Sammy and played with him for a couple hours.	75 Making more stuff with our sand kitchen gear. I think pancakes and chocolate chip soup were on the lunch menu. All made with sand, tiny pine cones and other natural materials. Very organic and low fat.	76 Cool dude :)
77 This is Woolly Bully I think - and that is a rock behind him, although it looks like another turtle hauling up.	78 Playing with a new Jeep Rubicon from Auntie Angel. I REALLY want to get in this Jeep! Sammy and I are talking about getting us one. A used one. After we trade in the Xterra. First we'd have to send Dave away for a while...not gonna happen ;)	79 I love this shot - little buddy playing in the tide pools at Kailua Beach on Friday evening. We try to spend "aloha Friday" there during the late afternoon when the sun is less intense. Dave brings pizza to us when he gets home from work. This time it was actually chilly with the high winds. The little wetsuit is from Gramma Oli - she found it in NYC. He's holding his "big red car" in his left hand. So between the water and the car, he's got all his favorite items in reach!	80 Giggling like crazy while dunking big red car (BRC).
81 Very high tide, so lots of fun to romp around in the waves.	82 Our new friend Dana - she has been a good buddy since her husband went away on some deployment somewhere 13 hours from here. That's all we know. She's tolerated some impromptu dinners at our house and returned the favor with a fabulous burger and home made potato salad last night. She also shares a love of carrot cake. She's the one who made some from scratch for my birthday. Now Sammy always asks for carrot cake...	83 Sammy likes this picture. He said "I'm looking up at the sky!"	84 Wow! Big wave! He likes to body surf in. Sometimes he is more coordinated than others :)
85 This was fun...high winds, tired and cold kid...and carrot cake on a tippy plate! Thank goodness for a few extra hands!	86 Toward the end of the feeding frenzy he lost one bite to Dana's doggie - Schnucky (have I spelled it right this time, Dana?) who is lurking below. He was soooo upset. He dropped his fork in frustration then completely lost it. We salvaged another bite for him then promised to have more the next night. He actually walked the cake down to Dana's house when we got home after a little convincing and a few drops. The frosting peeled off nicely against the plastic cover so we could get it the next night after those burgers I mentioned :)	87 Stretching out on the marsh trail. This is becoming a weekend tradition - we go for a family run and Sammy gets out to run some of it. Last weekend he ran about 1/2 mile straight through!	88 This weekend he was more interested in pushing the stroller and jogging, just like mommy :)
89 "Ooops! I had another accident!" He's laughing :)	90 And is very proficient at regrouping for another go.