2009-03 MAR

Ualakaa and Moleka trails 13 images	Pu'u Ma'eli'eli and Byodo In 61 images · 1 video	Pacific Aviation Museum 40 images · 1 video
Judd Memorial Trail 29 images · 1 video	Last hike with Gramma 30 images

1 Ben asleep while Sam plays at the playground :)	2 But now he's up and ready to make (I mean MAUL) new friends!	3 Writing notes to each other for "freeschool" - preschool at home. I guess that day was day of M :) I asked Sam to write me a note, so he wrote the bottom letters. I asked him what the note said and this is what he told me. So sweet.	4 Out to lunch with mom (Gramma!) celebrating getting our cars fixed. Mom is great about always finding a reason to celebrate! Ben and Sam certainly didn't mind. Guess what is on their faces!
5 Full immersion celebration!	6 Wow. I'm still laughing almost three weeks later as I upload these!	7 Sam really loves a book called Cactus Hotel, sent to us by CC (one of his dear aunts). It is a HUGE book but so well written. We look for cacti all over Kailua while we're out running, and this is one of the great specimens.	8 Out on a run - looking at the cactus in the previous picture :) Both are pointing!
9 We call the bare buns "biscuits" and have "biscuit races" to the bathtub each evening. We discoved "breakfast biscuits" this particular morning! So cute! Look at how strong he is! His whole core is just ripped with muscles. You should feel him climb around on you. Unbelieveable.	10 Out on another run - "holo holo" - and sending cell phone pictures to daddy :)	11 At the Children's Discovery Center with our friends. This is a great place - three floors of all kinds of activities.	12 I get totally overstimulated there but the kids love it. He's watching bones move while pedaling with Gramma.
13 Lunch afterwards by the ocean. We brought Sam's bike so he could ride without training wheels down the hills. We also gave his buddies a turn :)	14 There goes Anneliese!	15 Dancing with an octopus outfit! He really loves putting on a show - here you're up against a blue screen so you can see yourself on TV (where Sam is looking).	16 There's the TV - and Sam as a fish studying himself.
17 Not sure what this is!	18 Sam giving Ben a ride in the Jeepney :)	19	20
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29	30	31 Out on a hike with mom - thwarted attempt to cross Nuuanu Stream, but it was pretty anyway!	32
33	34 So we were still hankering for a trail and went to the Tantalus network. This hike smells soooo good - like eucalyptus.	35 Funny faces came out!	36 And more!
37 Collecting pine cones and all manner of seeds to bring home and plant. Dave is really wondering what will actually take seed and grow. One of those mammoth trees? A Cook Pine???	38 Lots of buttons now on his pack - I'm trying to keep up with drawing the buttons for hikes we recommend to our friends so the little ones can earn their peakbagger buttons.	39 A little seating area for lunch.	40 And more horsing around :)
41 One of four little maidens that we released last week! Mom brought home more than just leaves one day ... :)	42 It's beautiful every time. Never ceases to amaze me.	43	44 There she is just coming out!
45 Our pineapple is growing and growing!	46 Over at Aiden K's house for dinner and pirate sword fights! The boys had a blast - thanks again, Michelle!	47 The kids' table :)	48 Here we are out to dinner at Casablanca in Kailua - this is the Swamp Romp gang (minus Sue who had family in town) and our friend Vicky to the far left. Then mom, me, Amy, Kathy, Cathi, and Michelle. We had a great evening! And Dave did fabulously solo with the boys :)
49 Ben saying "Good morning, doggie!"	50 See this book? The little guy at the bottom left of the page? Ben LOVES that little guy for some reason. He will open the book specifically to this page and open-mouth kiss the little guy, saying something in Benglish very earnestly. I would love to know!	51 Reading "Storms and Hurricanes" with Daddy. Sam is a born scientist. He wants to know all about everything. This is a pretty dense book, but he'll ask for specific pages and make sure you don't miss a word. He doesn't care that it's not a "story."	52 Out on a hike last weekend through Koko Crater. I was really impressed with this spot - much nicer than I anticipated. Lots and lots of cacti! That was the purpose of our visit - to see BIG ones like in his Cactus Hotel book.
53 Ah ha!	54 And a baby one! Cacti grow very slowly. This little six-inch specimen might be 5 years old or more!	55	56 Barrel cacti.
57 Pointing at another big one across the way. Kate - see the new clothes? THANK YOU!	58 A cactus tangle!	59 This one had a goatee!	60 Blooms...
61 Sam picked this flower out for me - a plumeria. There's a huge grove at the entrance to the botanical garden. Will have to go back when the trees are all in bloom in a couple weeks.	62 There were peacocks at the garden, too. Dave really makes an astonishingly good peacock call. I tricked him into recording one (I found out later he knew what I was up to, but please excuse the poor video - I was trying to be stealthy).	63 Trade shower over the ocean on the drive home. I never tire of seeing the beautiful oceanscapes and cloudscapes this island offers us.	64 Out at Honey's at the Ko'loau Golf Club on Sunday evening. This is a remarkable place where you can hear the Hawaiian music legends jam in an ohana setting. It is so special.
65 Joe Cool this morning on our way to Tripler AGAIN for a visit to a nephrologist. All my tests are continuing to come back normal. Just stay better hydrated while running, they say.	66 In the waiting room - in a "bunker." (We see bunkers from WWII around here all the time on our hikes.)	67 Hanging out with Holly while I finish up work - she comes over twice a week from 3pm-5pm to spend some time with Sam and then manage Ben for me when he wakes up. She is also teaching Sam JAPANESE! See what they're doing? Wow! He is a quick learner.	68 Writing the sound "AH".
69 More Japanese lessons in a little workbook we made for him.	70 Sea glass in our bathroom - taken for Aunt Kate.	71 And with a hibiscus from our garden...great colors here!	72 Ben at the Y's Childwatch program.
73 Sam out riding the dunes!	74 There he goes - way down at the end!	75 Ben laughing at Daddy :)	76 And crawling down to the ocean like baby honu!
77 This is White Plains beach - a great place to surf.	78 Here are the waves and all the surfers.	79 Down past the people you can rent a cottage - Barber's Point beach cottages. You have to be DOD, though.	80 (He's not under the water, just yet!)
81 Stirring up soup!	82 This is a hilarious interview that I did with Sam after some good biking. He describes his route (two circles with a straight line between them, like a BONE) and at the end says "SPEAK ITALIAN!" I am not sure why he says that...	83 Out on another beach walk with the family to a remote part of base. Shell hunting!	84 Lots of crevasses - Hawaii style!
85 I am fascinated by these old old shells. Would you call them fossils? They're embedded in the lava rock, which makes me think they got caught when the lava was still soft, just after the explosion? Whenever that was? Would a geologist or naturalist set me straight if this thinking is totally flawed?	86	87 Walk softly, but carry a big...	88
89 Sea salt sparkling in the sun.	90 Nice arrangement, eh?	91 Made some new headers for the blog...	92 View out to Flat Island.
93 The view from our turnaround point on our run, back toward Kailua Beach.	94 Dave challenged me to capture what we see here on an average day, to give you a feel. So here is Kailua Beach Park, about halfway through our run. At this point Sam gets out and runs up and down the dunes, I do some pushups, and then Ben sits on me while we do situps.	95 Sam and I decided it would be ok if the stroller took a little spin on its own down the hill...look at Ben's face. I think he realizes it's not so good if he can see MOM. That means someone ELSE is driving - or NOT driving! He has his foot up to find a brake I think!	96
97 Sam running to mommy - this is what Gramma sees when she meets us in the park.	98 Pointing out HIS park where he first learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. This will always be a special place.	99	100
101	102 Can you feel the sand?	103 Ironwoods in the breeze.	104
105	106 This is the technique used to capture every drip of milkshake!	107 Um...Ben decided he didn't like salmon about a month ago. So...after working on it several times, I decided that the next day he'd get salmon for breakfast, salmon for lunch, and salmon for dinner - we'd see just how convinced he was that he didn't like it. (It sounds waaaayyy more austere than it really was - we had leftovers and it's sooooo good that I ate it for breakfast and lunch as well!). By lunchtime, he'd decided it wasn't so bad after all. Look at the detritus frmo the night before, though. He would calmly pick it up, then just calmly drop it to the side of his chair. Then he'd toss some over his right shoulder. Then he would inspect each bite if I tried to hide some...	108 At the commissary! Ben moves his arms right and left like a real driver! Then he studies Sam for technique. Sam is able to use that right hand for anything - thumb, phone, etc.
109 This is what Dave is reading right now.	110 Mom took this picture of our home at night. Thanks mom!	111 Sea glass for Aunt Kate's bathroom project. Glad this assortment is working! I misted it first :)	112 Racing Gramma!
113	114	115 Eating like a "doggie" - spinach was another fun family food experience :)	116
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