2009-05 MAY

1 First day back in Hawaii after our big trip to Scotland. We had a wonderful morning at the tide pools...	2 Ben took a swim, then a nap :)	3 Nice view for a nap, huh?	4 Sam swam and swam.
5	6 Underwater smiles!	7 Double-shaka fun!	8
9	10 Cute boys. Ben is getting so big!	11 He wants to be JUST like Sam!	12 This was a fun day - first a hike, then a swim with all our clothes on (it was HOT!), then shave ice for lunch! (Poor Daddy is at work missing all the mischief!)
13 We stopped midway through a run to go for a swim. Ben was asleep in the stroller, so we also had some time to do watercolor paints with ocean water and limu for brushes. Sam's picture turned out way better than mine! We had such a great time.	14 We're swimming and pretending to be turtles, then we look up and we see a honu looking right at us! What a privilege!	15 Ben woke up to enjoy the fun :)	16 Building the cacti lanai for Mother's Day, one brick at a time! We all worked hard!
17 Pavers down, now time to decorate!	18 We got a cute little table at the Exchange and Dave got me flowers for mom's day. I woke up on Sun morning to a fruit plate and flowers with my boys!	19 Sunday we decorated with lots of cacti that we potted in little planters we found down the street - people put out things they want to get rid of on the curb, so you just stop and gather! Very nice to reappropriate the found items.	20 We especially enjoyed turning this bamboo pole into a planter for a vine. Dave and Sam found the pole at the beach at our last Easter Egg Hunt.
21 The lanai at dusk...	22	23 Enjoying a glass of wine together after the kids went to bed. Dave is doing school work just about every evening, so having a little "date" place to go when he can sneak away is super nice.	24
25 Butterfly votive holder...we raised a lot of butterflies here this year!	26 Out on a run!	27 And more running, through the ironwoods!	28 Can you see the color of the water out past the canal? I am not often compelled to stop and photo, esp with a cell phone camera, but sometimes the water against the sand is ridiculously beautiful.
29 On our way to a romp in Kathy's backyard. This is Michelle's Jeep with all the kids having a great time!	30 Little walker's first steps!!! He was doing it easily before I could reach my camera. By this time he was a bit over it. But you can still see what he's doing!	31 My friend Christina and I after a brief rendezvous on the beach with the kids. Nice to see you!!!	32 A photo from my friend Christina from a previous visit to the birthing stones. Thanks!
33 Snorkeling with Sammy at a beach on base. What a great time! I still can't believe how fun it was to swim with him at my side, looking at all the fish together. We kept popping our heads up to chat about this one or that one :)	34 That's a wrasse in the background - he cleans other fish. The ones in the foreground are convict tang I think.	35 A school of fish swimming by.	36 There they go! Shallow water and clear skies make for good viewing.
37 A huge sea cucumber. About a foot long and probably 4" diameter!	38 A friend of mine snorkeling for the first time! Yay!	39 There she goes!	40 Ben was napping while we played :)
41 Then he got up to romp around, too - this is a shell phone :)	42 Hello? Can you hear me now?	43 Yes! Hi, this is Sam!	44
45 Sam's painting - he did this the week before while we were out running. We did some painting together - watercolor fingerpainting mixed with ocean water. This is trash we picked up from the beach to save for such a project. I like it! Nice job, Sam!	46 This is a word Sam always says - he is going "notomoto!" a lot - so we asked Holly to write it out in Japanese to see if it means anything. As best we can tell it's not a Japanese word...not yet anyway.	47 The pendant is from a friend of mine who travels frequently to the Republic of Georgia - she is a PhD Epidemiologist who works with doctoral students in many Eastern European and Central Asian countries. The pendant was made by one of her students, so she brought it home to NY and when we saw each other a few weeks ago she gave it to me. Gorgeous! THANK YOU!	48 Trying to take a picture of it is difficult with my little helper also interested.
49 Sam took this one :)	50 My crew :)	51 Dinner with mom's friend Carol, who happens to own the cottage mom rents when she's here in the winter. Hi Carol! Thanks for the foot-long fruit roll! Too funny that Sam and Ben's Nana and PopPop also sent foot-long fruit rolls in a package that arrived the same day!	52 From mom's fridge...a sampling of important moments.
53 I drove this Jeep Commander home on a test drive, arriving home just as Dave got home from work. He had no idea what I was up to, but the boys and I went truck shopping (the Xterra is awesome but not very roomy inside for carpooling with friends, or touring with visitors). The Commander seats 7! Nice...but not right now. (Can you picture Dave's face as he came out to greet us?)	54 Sam playing ukulele with his hero, the legendary Eddie Kamae!!!	55	56 Here's my big guy biking aaaallll the way around the fish ponds - just over 4 miles. I was pushing Ben in the single. We had a great time! Some good challenges for him to grow into on this trail, but overall just the right kind of mountain biking experience for him.
57 A hike up in the Pali overlook area.	58 Sam said "Mom, this looks like a SKULL!" Indeed!	59 Love this tough-guy face :)	60 Beautiful flowers by a kahawai (running stream).
61 Love the sparkle of sun in the forest.	62 Looking over the Pali.	63	64 And "pali" means cliff.
65	66	67 Look mom, two eyes! (Edamame eater!)	68 We spied "LJ" in roots, too - Lanikai Juice!
69	70	71 A kahawai :)	72 Love this tree.
73 Mommy being crazy - this is "tiny ghost" (how we refer to Ben - a little, almost invisible guy who moves furniture and makes strange noises). Tiny ghost didn't want to get into the trash can, so "he" decided to mess with the boys during breakfast.	74 Mountain biking for Ben's birthday picnic. I'm still sick with pneumonia here, feeling totally awful with fever rising like clockwork at noon, but wanting to give the boys a good time.	75 Ben looks like he has the plague here, too, but he doesn't. Just thinking hard about his birthday cupcake :)	76 Finally back in the land of the living! We went to tide pools yesterday and had a wonderful swim. These pools are too rough in the winter but are perfect in summer! Sam is really swimming well on his own - actually swimming, not swim-running or dog-paddling. He loves to jump off the rocks into the water, and look for fish. I love when he invites me to come snorkeling with him - one of my favorite things to do!
77 Bristle blocks from Aunt Debby! Yay!	78	79	80
81 Ben helping Aunt Angel build his ride-on toy!	82 This is from Gramma (I think he's calling you "Amma" mom!). Big hit with BOTH boys!	83	84 Another beach day . . .
85 and beach nap :)	86 I'm bigger than the truck!	87 Off to the water...	88 Snorkeling with daddy this time!
89 We went bumper boat riding over the weekend. Sam gets his own boat now!	90 And mini golf after bumper boats! Dave and Sam are so cute playing golf together.	91	92 Sea Life Park was fun!
93 We want to do this sometime.	94 And another beach nap!	95 My snorkel date is going to show me around :)	96 Very tired big boy on the way home :)
97 The boys and I decided to take a trolley ride in Waikiki on Fri...kind-of an adventure finding out where to pick them up.	98 We're on!	99 From the trolley...Lots of surfers out there.	100
101 Picnic lunch outside the Hale Koa afterwards, then we decided to walk on the beach, which led to talking to surfers and plotting more adventures, then to a swim...and finally home.	102 And dug tunnels!	103 Our friend Alan came through Hawaii enroute to riding a submarine back home to WA. Here we are tasting some Scotch and hanging out. He looks asleep, but he's not. He's plotting what to write in our guest book.	104 See!?
105	106 At the tide pools on base - a bit rough out there today but Sam and Dave snorkeled around.	107	108 Sam's first snorkel swim!
109 Snorkel buddies!!! I love to sneak out with him while Ben is napping :)	110 A late picture entry from Giji - our Easter Egg Hunt :)