Whale Watching

March 12, 2010

Starlet Whale Watching Tour

Before the whale watching tour I had been razzing Sterling. He had only seen brochures for whale watching rides and they always show amazing shots of huge whales breaching. I told him that this wasn't Sea World and the animals aren't trained to do that every time a boat comes by. I bet Sterling $1000.00 that we would not see a breaching whale. I assured him we would see the fin or a spout or something but not a breaching whale.

Paul, Sophia, and Patrick waiting to pull away from the dock. All the kids were so excited to go on an adventure together!

Paul, Patrick, Daniel, James, and Philip looking out the window and Sophia climbing all over everything. They are all like siblings. They all spend every available moment of each day with each other. They are such fun kids.

Finally on our way. We were all watching to see if we could see any dolphins or whales in the water. Mr. Phil had returned from Iraq only the day before so it was a great adventure to welcome him home.

We found a group of whales, 3 adults and a baby.

This was the baby breaching. We were so surprised to find this baby. But this was not good enough to fill the $1000.00 order. I needed the full on adult breaching to fill the bet.

This was one of the 5 or 6 times the adult whales breached. Sterling had the camera and he was going to be sure to get a good picture so he can get his $1000.00 to spend on whatever he wants.
Yes, I stand corrected. Whales really do breach for tour boats, well at least ours!

My friend Tiffany and her little girl, Jady Lady (Jaden), went on the tour with us.

After seeing the whales we had to turn around to go back and on the way back we found a huge pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. The dolphins were jumping and being so playful. Sophia loved the dolphins because the action was a little closer and a little more consistent.

It was such an amazing whale watching and dolphin watching experience.

We found out afterword that the company that owns the boat is shutting it down at the end of March. So if you want to go, now is the time! There are lots of other whale watching rides out there but this one was so educational and fabulous, it would be hard to replace.

Packer family enjoying the whale ride.

Fabulous Keith Family!

As Mrs Cat says this video is the whale giving Sterling a serious high five for the great jumps and the money collected!

Cinnamon Comes Home

I found some more pictures on our old camera that I thought I would add.. better late than never!

Sterling holding the puppy. He doesn't get many turns because the kids always have her!

Sophia holding Cinnamon. I had to add this because it wont last long.

Cinnamon is growing so quickly.

*** Original Post ***

On Sunday Morning, March 7th, 2010, Daniel, Sophia, and I drove up to pick up Cinnamon. I would have taken more pictures in the car but my camera took this one picture and then the battery died.

This picture says quite a bit. Daniel was so excited to finally have his cute new puppy. Cinnamon came in and started licking his face, it was pretty cute! We stayed in the car because it was raining and Stephanie wasn't quite ready for us. It only took and hour to get up there instead of the hour and a half it took last time because we went so early in the morning. Her husband brought Cinnamon out to the car for us to play with while Stephanie got some things together. We played with Cinnamon for a while she was so cute and Daniel was in heaven. He held her the whole way home. Sophia wanted to see her but didn't want Cinnamon to get on her.

James was so excited when we got home with Cinnamon. The boys didn't want to put her down!

Daniel and James passed her back and forth for quite a while.


Daniel loves his new puppy.

Cinnamon hadn't had breakfast yet when we picked her up so we got to feed her when we got home. The boys were so excited about everything she did!

She needed a bath! The boys were more than willing to take her back and dry her off.

She is so little.

She was born on Jan 10th and is growing pretty quickly.

Cinnamon got tired out pretty quickly.

Sophia was pleased just to watch her sleep!

She didn't sleep by herself for long, she got up and went to cuddle with Lady. Lady has been so good to be a comfort to her. They cuddle and play and Lady is pretty protective of Cinnamon. Hopefully Lady will teach her the rules of the house and how to go potty outside pretty quickly!

Cinnamon is little but ferocious!

Kona Temple - Kona Trip - Part 6 (final)

The whole reason for the trip to Kona was our ward temple trip. We went to the Kona Temple on Saturday, March 6, 2010. It is a small temple so we had to schedule our appointments. It was so nice that other families were there so all the kids could play together while the adults were in the temple. Two adults stayed with all the kids. It was so nice to go to the temple after such a long time. Our temple in Laie has been closed for more than a year so this was a great trip for all of us.
James will be 8 in September so I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of him at the Temple. He was such a good sport. He HATES to have his picture taken.

I am not a great photographer and he needs a hair cut, but this is the best we could do.

This is the only part of this temple that stands apart from the other mini-temples, the cool palm fan plants. I am pretty sure that is their official name!

You could either have us up close or the temple in the background, not both!

Sophia

Daniel

I tried to get a picture of James at the front of the temple but he was really done by this point. So, no picture of James at the front.

After our temple session we had a few hours to kill before we had to be to the airport. Sister Alkire and her son came with us because her flight was the same time as ours. They had flown in that morning and didn't rent a car so they came to explore with us. We went to McDonalds to pick up some lunch and then went to the park to eat and let the kids blow off some steam. We found this really great community park that had lots for the kids to do.

Sophia is at the top of the stairs. The top kite looking things are for shade. This was a very clean, fun park.

She was tired, we had woken her up so she could get out and play before going to the airport.

What a cute girl!

She loves to climb. This was a great playground. It had something for everyone!

I like this picture of Sophia through the tunnel!

Daniel playing 'peek-a-boo' through the climbing wall.

So Big!

He was so proud he could climb to the top.

After playing at the park we went to show Sister Alkire the tide pools that were close to the airport since she hadn't seen anything on the Big Island but the temple. It was lots of fun and Daniel was such a great tour guide to show her around. We went to the same tide pools we had been at the day earlier so Daniel knew his way around.

After a mad dash back to the airport and checking in the rental van we were on our way home.

This isn't a great picture.. but here is Sophia, Daniel, and Sterling getting ready for the plane to take off, we were heading home!

The only picture James would allow, sort of!

We had such a great trip. It was so nice to go and relax and enjoy nature. We can't wait to go back to the Big Island. It is much more slow paced and amazing to me than Oahu!

That, to me, seems like the mystique and quaintness of Hawaii.

Looking for Manta rays- Kona Trip - Part 5

Friday, March 5, 2010

After swimming we went for another adventure!

Some people in our ward had told us about a place at the Sheraton where from the shore you could see manta rays in the water. They had gone out on a boat to snorkel with them.

We thought it would be great just to see them from the shore.

We went to the Sheraton to see what we could see, we saw some beautiful sights, but no manta rays.

The sun set was spectacular. The sun was actually glowing orange, for some reason my camera couldn't capture that. Even this is pretty.

James walking on the lava rocks to get closer to the shore to look out.

Sophia and Daddy walking around waiting for the sun to go down.

When the sun went down the Sheraton turned on their lights along the rocks. It was so pretty and as it got darker the water became so clear and we could see right into the water. We saw several schools of fish and lots of rocks, but not manta rays.

We waited and waited, the kids had had enough waiting.

There were so many cool colors in the sky that night and it would change every 10 or 15 minutes.

On the way to the car James spotted this huge spider. It was pretty creepy.

James loves creepy!

I love this picture with my cute boys looking at the water so intently waiting for the manta rays to come.

We had such a busy Friday: tide pools, sea horse farm, swimming at the hotel, dinner at Bubba Gumps and looking for manta rays. It was such a fun day! After it all we went back to the hotel for a movie and bedtime for the kids!

Swimming at the Hotel - Kona Trip - Part 4

After the tide pools and the sea horse park the kids wanted to come back to the hotel and go swimming. One of their favorite things about staying in a hotel is the pool!

The water was a bit cold so it took them a while to get all the way in.

This wasn't a very big pool but my kids would be happy with a 5 ft square pool. Anything bigger than the bathtub will do.

Sophia loves to jump in off the sides, over and over and over again.


Daniel was perfecting his belly flop. He was hilarious.

Daniel would do his whole monologue before his great belly flop attempts.

James wouldn't let me take his picture so I had to sneak them when he wasn't looking.

Sophia and Daniel are little fish. They love the pool!

Jumping, splashing, swimming, what could be better!

Her face says it all... She loves to jump to daddy.

This little girl has daddy wrapped around every little finger.

Here is a great video of Daniel doing his pre-jump show and well practiced belly flop. My favorite is the nice dog shake at the end. He is the funniest kid!