Tide Pools - Kona Trip Part 2

March 5, 2010

Warning.. this is a lot of pictures!

This was the view from our balcony. We were right up against the shoreline. It was amazing!

At night the ocean waves came right up against the rock wall. It was amazing to see the difference between high and low tied.

Sophia was so excited to go check out the tide pools. James loves to help Sophia.

Very excited kids!

This is right by the car. It was so fun to be so close to everything.

We walked all over the lava rock tide pools to look for crabs and things.

Sophia was loving walking on the rocks until she saw her first crab. After that she wanted to be carried the rest of the time.

Sophia and Sterling

Daniel and James exploring.

This crab is already dead. The crabs that are alive are either black or gray. Once they die they turn orange. There were tons of them all over the place that were already dead, but either they hold on really tight and stay there when the tied comes in or they turn orange pretty fast.

We walked all over the rocks and found..... a sea turtle.

The lump in the water in the middle is a turtle.

There is a closer look at his shell. He wasn't very good at posing for me. I even asked nicely for it to turn around and lift up his head, but just like my kids he had a mind of his own.

He did turn around.. but didn't lift up his head very well.

There.. he showed you his left leg!

Everything was so beautiful!

There is another turtle in the water.

When the tide comes in all of these rocks are completely under water. It was so amazing to me to see all of this.

Daniel slipped on the slippery rocks and fell into the water and got his pants and shoes wet. Luckily we hadn't even left our hotel yet so we went upstairs and got him some new pants and socks.

There was a sea cucumber (top left kind of rust color) and lots of sea urchins and crabs.

These were really cool they looked like a cross between sea urchins and star fish and jelly fish.

They were everywhere!

That was our balcony, the parking garage then the 2nd floor, we were on the third floor.

James and Sterling searching for wildlife.

After searching for a while we were on our way. We were going to go to a Sea Horse Farm and check out what they had to see. When we got there we realized that we had to be there at a certain time to get the tour and we had an hour to kill. So, we went to another tide pool area to play that was just down the street from the Sea Horse Farm.

Sophia and Daniel took off their shoes and socks to get into the water to play in this small tide pool. There were lots of hermit crabs and things in this little area.

This was a neat little area that had this circular rock area that would fill up with water when the waves come in and then spill over the rest of the tide area. When the waves went back out it made this beautiful waterfall.

More little waterfall.

The lava rock had some of the neatest patterns in them. I could have walked around exploring for days. It was so neat to have the lava and the sea tide pools.

To me, the Big Island is much more the quaint Hawaii that I think of when I picture Hawaii. Even the touristy areas are not nearly as touristy as on Oahu. We only stayed on the Kona side and didn't make it to the Hilo side of the Big Island but this trip was really nice and laid back.

Sophia got even more wet in the water and so we took off her pants so she could play. We hadn't brought swim suits because we were going to the Sea Horse Farm, so why not just get in!

Kicking and playing and looking for creatures... can it get better than this?

There were little dried salt pools all over that were so cool looking.

There were some of the coolest tide pools. These are the things that I think of when I think of all the snorkeling videos. When we went snorkeling on Oahu it was all dead coral and not many colors but these little tide pools had more color and cool coral in them then I had ever seen in person.

The porcupine urchins were all over.

I know this was a lot of pictures but I wanted to capture every minute of it. It was a much needed vacation and it was so relaxing and exciting to look in all the tide pools and see all the things. Believe it or not I didn't post all the pictures I took, I took lots more!

I'll post the Sea Horse Farm and the rest of our trip tomorrow!

Kona Trip - Part 1

Our ward put together a Temple trip. The Laie Temple is closed for at least 18 months for renovations and the closest temple is the Kona Hawaii temple on the Big Island. This is the first time we have gone to any of the other islands in Hawaii and we were really excited. We were only going to have a few days, we flew out Thursday night and flew back on Saturday night, so it was a short but highly adventurous trip. There are so many fun things we did with a lot of pictures so I am going to break it down into several different blog entries so I can post more pictures.

The kids were so excited to go to the airport. Sophia was too little when we flew last summer to remember it so this was the first time she remembered going to the airport or being on a plane. She loved all of it. The Honolulu airport is very small and doesn't feel like a regular airport and the Kona Airport is even smaller. This is right by where we were to board the plane and it was the perfect jungle gym for the kids to climb and play on while we waited for our flight. Our flight was full of old people and tourists so our little family stuck out pretty well.

Anything the boys do Sophia tries to do to. She did pretty well but didn't dare go much past where she could safely jump down, which was just fine with me. The flight was only 45 minutes but I was still hoping they could wear off some of their energy before we got on the plane.

Sophia and Daniel were so excited. As soon as they sat down Sophia got on her seatbelt and began playing with everything within her reach. Thankfully the seat in front of her was occupied by Sterling because she was putting the tray up and down and bumping the seat almost the whole flight. She thought this by itself was a great adventure.

Sterling and James sat in front of us. James has the emergency safety card in his hands because he read over it several times and was getting every last detail from it that he could. He is my safety man. He is all about the rules and things you can and can not do. He was much more calm for this flight than our flight to Utah in June so that was nice.

For some reason my camera wouldn't capture the amazing sun. Here it looks like a regular sun going down but it was bright orange, it was so amazing. This is the sunset when we landed in Kona. On Oahu we don't get to see the sun actually disappear with the horizon very often, most of the time it goes behind a hill or buildings, it was really neat to watch it dissapear into what looked like the ocean.

The black in front of the ocean is all the lava rock that covers almost all of the Big Island. It was amazing to see everything with lava rock around it and the things they would build and do with the lava rock.

Tsunami Evacuation - Feb 27th, 2010

After the Earthquake in Chile a Tsunami Warning was given for Hawaii. We were given the choice as to evacuate or stay put but the bridge to and from Ford Island would be closing and once we made our decision there would be no changing our minds. We would either be stuck on the Island or stuck off of it for the remainder of the day. We had planned all morning that we were going to stay home and ride it out but at the last minute Sterling's boss called and convinced him that we needed to leave. I didn't want to go, but what an adventure it turned out to be.

Lady tied to Ursula's van

We went up to Aiea Trail State Park, along with all the rest of Oahu. We had talked to our neighbor earlier that morning and that is where they had planned to retreat to. So once Sterling decided we were leaving we thought we should go find them.

The kids thought they had gone to Heaven. There were trees and all kinds of things to climb and collect, sticks to make swords out of, bugs to be found. What could be better than that?
(Pictured in the tree: Emma Pratt, Philip Keith, Paul Keith On the Ground in Blue: James)

Emma, Philip, Paul, Daniel working on their "boat"

This was the view of Ford Island from the park we were at. It was pretty "voggy" so you can see the bridge pretty well but Ford Island isn't very clear.

Philip, James, and Paul what more could you ask for?

Did someone say we were evacuating and we should be worried about something.. cause this is pretty fun!

They were up in the tree for over an hour.

How many different ways can YOU hang in a tree?

Once they finally came out of the tree it was on to the bug hunt. James found this baby praying mantis. It was pretty neat.

Daniel, after being in the tree for hours came down to get some water. He is clearly all sweaty, it was a pretty warm, humid day. Daniel can't resist making faces for the camera. You can see behind Daniel all the 72 hour kits and games and food stashed in our truck to ride out the evacuation process. We weren't sure if the tsunami was going come and if it did if it was going to be bad enough to get up to our house. We didn't know if we were going to be allowed back to our house so we had enough stuff to last it out for a while. We did learn a few things that we need to add to our evacuation list and we were blessed that the tsunami didn't come. For now we just call it a day of adventure and a good trial run if we do ever need to be ready in a short amount of time.

Fabulous Ocean Find

On the day of the Tsunami Warning, Feb 27th, Sophia, Daniel, Lady and I went for a walk on Ford Island down to the community center and the water to get out of the house for a while and to watch all the ships leave the harbor. I found this big shell. It was so cool. Daniel was so excited he carried it all the way home for me. Sterling looked up on line how to clean it up. Now it is almost all opalescent and very pretty. I think I liked it better brown like it is hear in the pictures but it was pretty stinky. After soaking it in bleach for about a week it is almost all clear of the brown growth and all white and pearly white. It is pretty cool. I will post more pictures when it is all clean.

The great Lego figure is only to show how big in size the shell is. Daniel was kind enough to lend me his Lego man to help show how big it was.

Primary Talent Show

February 26th, 2010

James played "Firefly" and did a really great job. He was the very first performer and started the show off with a bang.

Daniel played 3 Little Kittens in his first performance ever. He did a great job! He hasn't officially started piano lessons yet but Sterling has started working with him on the basics at home.

All the nursery age kids did a fabulous maraca presentation. They were so cute and so excited to be on the stage. There were 5 or 6 little kids and they were all having a great time. At the end when the audience clapped for them Sophia's eye lit up like she was so excited she made that happen.

Sophia is the tall blond with no shoes. No shoes has become her trademark!
The talent show was such a great idea. The kids really had a great time. There were about 20 different kids who performed anything from cool bike tricks to ventriloquism to karaoke. There were lots of other kids who displayed their art work or made cookies and cakes and things. It was only the kids in our primary (of which there are more than 100). It was a really fun night!

Baseball man Daniel (and other adventures of the day!)

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Daniel couldn't be any more excited about being on a T-Ball team. He is all about the team and whenever he talks about his friends on his team he always says "He's my teammate". He thinks it is so great to belong to something. He is 4 years old going on 10.

There are 15 kids on Daniel's team. They are the Tigers and they are a fun little team.

Daniel is up to bat.

Sterling is the team coach. I am not sure which boy is having more fun!

Run Daniel!!!

Daniel lining up to give the opposing team a high 5 for a great game.

Does baseball get better than this?

The parents from the other team made a great bridge over the kids that they could walk through and the kids all thought that was so cool. T-ball is taken pretty seriously by the locals here. I just keep reminding myself that these kids are only 4 and 5 years old. I just want Daniel to have a good time!

After the baseball game we went straight to a birthday party for my friends baby who was turning 1. In Hawaii the big tradition is to have a huge party for the 1st birthday. Tiffany knows how to throw a great party.

The party was at the Grenfell Pool on Pearl Harbor Naval Base. My kids don't like to swim at the beach but they love the pool. Even though the water wasn't super warm, they loved it!

Sophia loves to play in the water.

Sophia was being so cute in the water with Sterling, I didn't get pictures of the boys in the water. It is hard to have a sister that is so cute I only took pictures of her that day. It wasn't intentional, it just happend. Sorry boys I promise to be better next time.

Even though she was cold..... we had to take her from the water kicking and screaming. She would stay in the water the whole day if we let her. She is my little mermaid.

Our friends Tiffany and Sean had a great birthday party for their little girl "Jady Lady". Tiffany made this way cute cake and had an amazingly fun 1 year old party at the pool with a bounce house and enough food to feed 20 more people. My kids were in Heaven!


The rest has nothing to do with the busy day, except that it happened on the same day.

After we came home and got the boys in bed Sophia begged to have her nails painted. Sophia loves to have her fingers and toes painted. She is a tough girl but also a very girly girl!

She is so good to hold still while I paint her fingers.

She is growing up so fast!

Great Aloha Run

These are kind of blury, but this is what Sterling sent me!

Sterling ran the Great Aloha Run on Feb 15th, 2010. He finished 72nd out of 20,000 people. 51:46 pace 6:21 per mile. He finished 6th in his age group out of about 1000 people. He beat his goal by 3 minutes. ONLY 3 WOMEN BEAT HIM!!!! (for some reason that was important to him!) I will post a picture of it when it arrives.