To the Beach

After Colin got home from school we all headed to Ko'Olina to the lagoons there for some snorkeling and just fun in the water. As always by the beaches, there were great climbing trees. The lagoons are normally clear and smooth as glass, but the waves crashing into the wall and splashing over stirred up alot of sand so the snorkeling while good, wasn't great. But there were three turtles that came to visit us and we had fun playing football and playing in the sand. Colin was doing great on his boogy-board practicing his balance. Check out the video at the end to see the waves pouring over the side of the lagoon.

North Shore and BIG Waves

Up early today and dropped Dave off at work and headed for the North Shore and BIG WAVES! There were some spectacular ones, but because of the Kona winds coming from the Big Island, the wind was coming onshore and the waves weren't building any wall, they were just falling flat. The surfers quit by 11:00. The trade winds are supposed to come in later this week and they should be really good next week so we'll try again! Had a great lunch in Haleiwa and then headed home. Got laundry done and some good time with the boys and family!

To Lyon's Arboretum for a Hike and Photo Shoot

We decided to head up to Lyon's Arboretum since Colin didn't have school today. It was a great morning! You will note the two photographers! Colin is getting quite good and he really has a good eye. We walked up the trail to Inspiration Point. There was a white Macaw that would fly screaming through the forest occasionally. Lots of beautiful ginger plants and a really special bat flower (the purple one) near the visitor's center. Headed home for lunch and a quiet afternoon. We're all still a little jet lagged.

Presents everywhere!!

Actually we were the first two up this morning...but others followed soon after. Those presents were calling! Didn't take us long to open them! Lots of wonderful things...games and puzzles, books, binoculars, legos for Colin, Playmobile toys for Ryan, just all sorts of wonderful things. Then Dave made a wonderful breakfast of jelly pancakes...small round ones with jelly in the middle...yum!!! The rest of the day was spent just having fun!. The Baird's went across the street in the afternoon for a birthday party and Jean and John walked the neighborhood with Riley. You could learn to love getting exercise around here! After some football and great soup for dinner, we all headed for the sack pretty early!

Santa left gifts here too!

The Baird family arrived about 4:30 pm on New Year's Day, a little bleary eyed, but pretty sharp considering the very long day they had. The boys found the bigger presents that Santa had left here for them, per their request to leave all the big and heavy gifts in Hawaii and bring the rest to New Jersey. Santa did a great job. He left some soccer goals as well as a bowling set. There were also new presents under the tree and everyone got to open one present that night. We had pizza for dinner and pushed ourselves to almost 9:00 to try to begin the time change adjustment. (5 hours) Note the Norfolk Pine Christmas Tree. Quite delightful...certainly shows off the ornaments well. All were ready for bed tonight!

Arrived at Jill's on the evening of Dec. 31

We arrived after a very long flight from Dallas and brief taxi ride from the airport to a very cheerfully decorated house! The picture doesn't do it justice. It was also balmy with a slight breeze which carried the perfume of the flowering trees to our noses--80 degrees AND a full moon to boot. However, it was an empty house..no people, no Riley. But, we weren't ready for entertaining...we were ready to eat something and hit the sack.

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas with Gretchen and her dog Mason. Best Wishes to all.