2010-06 JUNE

Alli birthday

40 images

IMGP2041  We started our trip up to the North Shore with some snorkeling. Mary was able to snorkel for the first time and spotted some fish despite our big fish (Sam) "herding" them around as he dove. In this shot, Sam and I are out for a swim, and saw saddle wrasse in middle with trumpetfish to left (four feet long and fast! couldn't catch him in my frame!). I think the lower fish (below saddle wrasse) is a brown surgeonfish due to the lavender fins. Also, I think I saw a juvenile orangeband surgeonfish, which was very surprisingly completely yellow and looked almost like a tang. I was confused until I looked it up at home. IMGP2043  A Christmas wrasse. This is a cleaner fish. IMGP2049  A Hawaiian lizardfish - very cool how they can completely hide in the sand then scoot out, forming a cloud of sand. IMGP2058  I think this is a whiteband surgeonfish schooling with a bunch of convict tang.
IMGP2065 IMGP2066  Then on to Waimea Bay. Figured conditions were perfect for a jump, and there's no better time than with a couple youngsters visiting. My cousin Mike and his wife Mary were game for the parking lot waiting game, then when we bagged a spot I figured it was a sign that were gonna do it. Here I am taking the plunge! I was super nervous as I am not too keen on falling from heights, but the actual event was not nearly as big a deal as it felt at the time, high on the rocks. You wait for a swell to come in then jump right behind it to get max water depth. IMGP2068  Ben is pointing to "Da rock! Jump da rock!" Apparently I had quite a cheering section - Sam kept going "Jump Mom! Just GO!" I wasn't up there long sizing things up - I really wanted to get back to my cuties in the sand, so I jumped after about a minute of speculation. On the way down I actually had time to think, which was a little scary. Very encouraging to have my cuz in the water waiting for me and a Hawaiian grandpa who was coaching his 9 yr old granddaughter (guessing on age but in any case she was much younger than me so no way was I not gonna jump). IMGP2072  That's Mary leaping! Yay Mary! (She's in the foreground stepping out.)
IMGP2079  And Mike looks like he's at attention even in the air! Go Mike! IMGP2082  Awww! Good times! IMGP2083  Love you guys! IMGP2092  Ah- margarita afterwards :)
IMGP2094  Mike and Mary preparing a great meal - chicken ala Mood (bacon and cheese stuffed into chicken - yum!). Sam dubbed it "cheese horse fountain" - as in, it's got tons of cheese coming out like a fountain and it's as big as a horse! Thanks guys! IMGP2096  Doctoring the cheese horse fountain up with bbq sauce. IMGP2097  And sitting down to dinner! Sorry Dave had to be in Guam, but we froze some prepped chicken ala Mood for you! IMGP2099  Tallying up Pennies for Peace using the awesome container Aunt Debby sent us. Getting close to $40 in pennies already!
IMGP2105  Kaniakapupu ruins at dusk - a quickie little hike before Mike and Mary caught a space-a flight to California. IMGP2108  Love the bamboo forest. IMGP2112  And out to a waterfall... IMGP2137  Biking along the Maunawili Ditch trail (Ben and I are trailing behind by stroller and foot, trying to keep up with Sam!).
IMGP2141  Funny face time! IMGP2143  Love you two! IMGP2150  Can you find the other islands? Check the faint mounds on the horizon, just to the left of the stick poking up. That's Maui, then to the right Moloka'i (I think!). Photo0055  Out for a jog to Farmer's Market, the evening after a 4 mile bike/trail run! This kid is nuts! But finally his quads felt a little sore :) He has not noticed any soreness on any of our adventures yet. Hard to believe with all his hiking and climbing!
IMGP2151  Thanks for the new clothes Aunt Kate! Lizard likes them, too :) IMGP2153  Here he is! IMGP2155  Some interesting clouds at Kaneohe Bay. Turned into a beautiful day. IMGP2163  The clouds moved on and the boys enjoyed boogie boarding in calm water with their friends, Jonah and Rinnah (not pictured).
IMGP2168  Out for a snorkel with Dave and Ben in the kayak and Sammy alongside me. These are some cute butterflyfish, and some studying up I found that the darker yellow one pictured here is relatively scarce on O'ahu. IMGP2176  From top to bottom, convict tang, oval butterflyfish (more often found on Kauai) and then ornate butterflyfish. IMGP2178  Hi guys! The sun popped out briefly to capture these moments. 2010-June Butterflyfish  Here's a movie of the butterflyfish hanging out in their coral home.
IMGP2183  After studying and comparing this guy to the books, Dave and I concur he's sailfin tang. IMGP2188  Sam found a good jumping rock :) IMGP2189  My escorts! Thanks for watching over us in the big ocean! IMGP2190  Sam has a whole range of funny faces he likes to try on, especially when countering an admonishment. It is SO hard to keep a straight face, and many times I don't :) Funny guy!
IMGP2192  Here's another one. IMGP2195  And styling his hair after snorkeling. IMGP2197  yes, indeed! IMGP2198  One of Dave's great salads...
IMGP2200  And salmon for dinner! IMGP2202  Serving it all up in style. I have it pretty good! IMGP2203  Sammy caught a green lizard! He's been watching this guy for days. IMGP2205  And was thrilled with his capture!
IMGP2210  Very long tail! IMGP2212  Relaxing with his lizard friend :) IMGP2217 IMGP2226  Dave says this is what the lizard saw just as Sam pounced :)
IMGP2238  Out on a funny hike on a pig trail, which ended up being fun despite not going anywhere special :) IMGP2240  My little piggies following the trail. IMGP2244  And finding a vine to "rappel" down was pretty cool! Cool enough to take Daddy back to "pig trail playground" later the next week :) IMGP2245  "Just like Uncle Tom!"
IMGP2251  We found a pristine trash bag to stow the trash we'd collected at the "trailhead". IMGP2257  These neat guys showed us another trail up to "King's Chair" (very steep and slippery - can't believe we went all the way up totally spontaneously, following our great guides!). Then they did some bike tricks for us. IMGP2260  I know this nice guy's mom - but I didn't realize that until we saw her coming out the door! Small island! IMGP2262  One of the guys even grabbed ice pops for the boys!
IMGP2263  Oooooh! Trail mix and an ice pop! What could be better? IMGP2266  Thank  you very much guys! (See the rock nearly at the top of this little summit? That's where we were.) IMGP2268  The next day we went for a jog in Lanikai then cooled off in the water. Nice! IMGP2272  Dave has this picture on his new Blackberry as his wallpaper.
IMGP2274  Look at mah faaaace! IMGP2275  Just liked all the colors here - slippahs, shorts, trees and blossoms all seemed to coordinate. IMGP2284  Lost in thought for a minute. Also liked how Sam's shirt coordinated with the blossoms. IMGP2294  At the Bishop Museum later in the week - guess this was a good week for da boyz! Learning about erosion, which later helped explain how that tragedy happened in the Arkansas campground which was situated in a canyon where the water rose very quickly.
IMGP2296  Controlling an ROV with the joystick - Sam was able to drive it into this cave (to right of aquarium) just like the ROVs on his BBC documentaries. Pretty cool! IMGP2297  Swimming on Friday at a new cove Kathy told us about! That's Sam way out there with a friend's husband, exploring and looking for turtles. IMGP2299  Ah ha! Found one! Thanks to Kathy for watching Ben while Sam and I sneaked out! IMGP2307  Little raccoon butterfly fish, bluespine surgeonfish and moorish idol from L to R.
IMGP2313  Bird wrasse. IMGP2316  Humuhumu (reef triggerfish) and brown surgeonfish together. IMGP2329  Hello honu friend! IMGP2341  Kids were feeding it lettuce so of course it came right over for a nibble!
IMGP2343  Hi Kathy! She is moving to WA but we are lucky enough to most likely move there in May/June next year so we'll be roaming around again together. IMGP2344  Ben with Caleigh. IMGP2346  Little fishers! IMGP2353  Dave found this neat shell - one we hadn't found before - and it had a hermit crab in it (so we tossed it back into the tide pool).
IMGP2355  A low tide day at North Beach, so we scoured the lava shelf while waiting for the water to rise and bring fish in. IMGP2371  Back to pig trail playground to show Daddy! IMGP2373  Good rappelling practice :) IMGP2374  Hmmm...this could lead to only one thing.
IMGP2375  This! Both were negative. New Picture  Thanks to Molly, I'm getting to do backyard CrossFit workouts! Photo-0003  Smoochie to you! The next few are cell phone shots. Photo0056  Out on beach cleanup with base conservation. Thanks for organizing, Liisa!
Photo0058  Funny boys :) pig trail  Pig trail smiles! IMGP2489  Daddy taking pictures of fishies now! IMGP2492  Grown-up bird wrasse.
IMGP2500  Raccoon butterflyfish. IMGP2503  Humuhumu! Lots of 'em here! These fish (most of them) were the size of a football or bigger. IMGP2507  Young parrotfish feeding on coral. IMGP2508  Daddy snorkeling as the storm figures out where it wants to go. We are looking up the Waienae coast from this vantage point.
IMGP2509 IMGP2512  Dad and Sam heading out for a last swim. IMGP2515  And Ben getting very skilled on his boogie board. IMGP2522  Out for a swim after a busy morning taking care of the GTI's clutch!
IMGP2527  Sam swimming... IMGP2532  And getting hugs from mom :) IMGP2540  Attempting a new trick: handstands. IMGP2541  On the way home - this series of pictures makes me laugh!
IMGP2542  Ben holding a little yellow ball - we seem to keep collecting these small balls - trash-turned-toy. IMGP2544  Look at my face! IMGP2545  And this one! IMGP2546  And THIS one!
IMGP2553  Daddy relaxing at night...finally. Father's Day eve. IMGP2640  Sam diving down 5 ft to fetch a lizard Ben thew in for him (not a real one!). IMGP2644  Crazy faces - under water now! IMGP2665  This guy loves to jump! He gives it all he's got and makes a HUGE splash.
IMGP2675  Sam-shark sneaking up on Dad-and-Ben time. Ben is stomping on Dave. Man we miss him when he's gone. Both of these boys are really getting too big to mess around much with mommy! IMGP2684  Sam just jumped over them. You can see how much he's been jumping - there's a pool on the concrete! IMGP2689  Now we're at the beach cottage for just a one-night getaway. It was going to be grown-ups only if we'd been able to get away while Mom was still here to stay with the boys, but Dave kept traveling to Guam and even New Hampshire so I had to move it four times. This is the one night we go, so we all went! They were bouncing and bouncing with excitement :) IMGP2694  Sharing a little snorkel time with mommy while Dad and Sam are out following a humuhumu.
IMGP2696  Our beach cottage was right on the cove. Love the three palms :) It's a relatively humble cottage but so refreshing. IMGP2699  Packed up some beers, snacks, and salmon that Dave had already cooked nicely for dinner. IMGP2700  The truck is 8 years old now, and still going strong. Dave's GTI (well, it used to be mine until his commute became longer) has a bad clutch which is being fixed as I type. Go truck, go! No repairs, ok? IMGP2704  Beers at rest.
IMGP2707  Sun on its way down. IMGP2710  Dinner time! IMGP2713  You know where he got this face! He's building a new "cottage Lego set" - a cheap Long's one :) IMGP2714  And Ben is having fun...playing hide-and-seek where he shouldn't be!
IMGP2717  Peek! IMGP2718  Dinner! Hungry guys. IMGP2720  I think this is morning now...I was a little groggy, too. I got up multiple times due to thumps in the night. Wasn't sure if someone had rolled off the bed or walked out of the cottage! Ben slept on a new cot right next to Sam and was fine all night, no rolling. Sam got up to chase turtle down, who had fallen onto Ben's cot. So I guess I did hear some heavy Sam-feet stomping around after all! IMGP2721  Beautiul over there in the morning.
IMGP2722  Liked seeing our palms on the water. The little ripples flickered in the waking sun. IMGP2724  Dave cooking - and if you hear music, it's Beethoven's 4th on my iPod. IMGP2725  After-egg-scramble naps! They pretended to be asleep until I mentioned going on an egg-scramble-ramble around the coves. IMGP2727  So off we went on a walk.
IMGP2729  And found a bunker or two. Dave set this shot up - thanks babe for a great vacation! Enjoy Guam ;0 Photo-0007  Two boys eating popsicles after the funniest night we've had in a long time. Ben ran all the way home from Farmer's Market in slippers! With me and Sam trailing right behind with stroller, trying to keep up while dodging fire hydrants (which Ben had to stop and sing loudly into thinking the thing sticking out was a microphone), chickens scooting away, found an egg nestled in grass two houses past the chickens (was it Chuck the Chicken Duck's egg?), dogs wooooffing loudly...it was crazy! But we laughed all the way home as families peered out at us every now and then from their kitchens or porches :) That Ben ran more than a mile - truly. He loves to run! 2010-June Sam swim test IMGP2821
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