Hawaii

In May we went to Hawaii for a week and we have been meaning to post about it ever since.
We stayed in Kona on the Big Island. It was amazing, the weather was perfect and everything was so beautiful. We went all over the Island trying to take it all in (It would take months to actually do that). Here are some of the places we went.

These lizards are all over the place, this one hung out by our condo.
We were able to do a session in the Kona Temple

Both of these were taken at the Botanicle gardens near Hilo It was full of exotic tropical flora and fauna. they also had some beautiful talking parrots.

We found this park on our way to breakfast one morning Tiana wanted to stay there all day (I really dont know why this park wasn't packed- I want to transport it home)

A guy told us about this beach by a community for multi-millionaires. You have to go through the community (and through the guard station) to get there and its kind of hidden so there were only about 20 people at most on the whole beach.

It was so nice. there was plenty of shade, a nice grassy area, a huge natural wading pool, and lots of coral so the snorkling was pretty good, especially because of all the......

.....Turtles! We must have seen 10-15 Sea Turtles while snorkling at this beach and after a while they started to come up on shore.

It was cool to see them on land but they were pretty boring. It was much more fun to watch them swim.

We went to watch the lava flow into the ocean but we could only get within 200 yds. The trail that leads to it was cut short by a cooled lava flow that had run through just 8 days earlier and had also taken out the viewing station.

The trail went right through what used to be a subdivision. It turns out some people think its a good idea to buy plots of land in a lava field (with no water, electricity, roads, etc) and build houses on them (with no permits). We talked to some of these people- they are different.

On the north side of the Island we went to a black sand beach tucked in between two cliffs.

We then continued on the trail and it took us up the other side through some very dense jungle.

This is looking back from the oppisite side. We figure we were about 300-400 feet up by this piont, but it was hard to tell.

Our last evening before we had to head to the airport we ate at a restaurant on the beach. There was a band playing with a Hula dancer. They played traditional Hawaiian songs with some Eric Clapton, Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffet, etc, mixed in. We ate and listened while we watched the sun go down. It was a perfect ending. We're ready to go back.

Thank you so much to Tiana's parents for sharing their time share with us!!

Poppies

With all the rain we got this spring, the poppies went crazy. We took all of these in the pass between Safford and 3-way. The one below shows snow capped Mt. Graham in the distance. We just wanted to share these hope you all enjoy them.

Boys

Deans first attempt at photography

Dean, Cole and cousin Mathew riding in Dean's Christmas present (Yay Craigs List!)

We are glad when Mathew drives because, although he is getting better, Dean runs into things and gets stuck alot

Dean asleep in front of the kitchen sink for some reason

Dean asleep while playing with his Batman motorcycle

I should get an award!

... For being the WORST blog updater!

Vernon really wanted me to put up pictures of our finished basement. It's been done for a long time now. Well "done" is being used loosely here. We still have paint touch ups and cocking and door handles, lights, and the entire bathroom to finish (to name a few). But it's finished enough that we use it all the time!

The white wall is our projector screen. It's 9ft tall. We LOVE it!

Also just because I love this picture... One day when Mathew (cousin) came over to play he found this plaid "blanket" and was trying to cover himself -to hide under but he couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I saw him and asked him why he was playing with Uncle Vernon's pajama pants. He looked at me like I'd gone crazy and told me he's hiding under a blanket. I laughed and tried to convince him that it was not a blanket they really were Vernon's pajamas. He was very skeptical so I put him in one pant leg and Dean in the other. I'm "pretty" sure he believed me after that.
P.S. These are actually very large pajama pants even on Vernon... just for the record.

The one that survived

We finally had a kitten that survived to adult hood. I was pretty excited! Shiskabob was super sweet and was really good with our kids. And she had 4 little kittens (technically she had 6 but one was still born and one... read on) and was a great mom. She was even nice to Cole after he sat on one of her babies and killed it. We gave two kittens away once they were big enough to a great little family with 2 kids. So we still had 2, an orange cat and a calico- I was pretty excited.

Now, I have never really been a cat person. I always thought they were snobby and kind of annoying, but apparantly I had become somewhat attached to Shiskabob. A couple nights ago we are assuming a coyote came into our garage where Shiskabob and her kittens sleep and trashed the place. There were patches of fur and poo streakes everywhere. My desk drawers were pulled out and the unopened bag of cat food was torn into. It smelled and looked terrible. We found Shiskabob down at the end of the street half eaten and no sign of calico kitty. Orange kitty was hidden pretty good and apparently stayed out of the fight. Other then being skittish and lonely she seems fine. I actually cried! (I couldn't believe it myself.) It might just be because I'm a little extra emotional lately but who knows. I miss Shiskabob and it makes me sad to think that Orange kitty had to see it. I know there just cats, and I know Orange kitty will probably forget all about it, but it was still a sad day for us.

Cousins are fun

Megan got a new fancy camera and took these two really cute pictures.

Alright I'm done posting for a little bit now. I need to take some more pictures before I post again. We finished our basement and added some more color to the outside of our house. So when we finish up I'll post again :)

Arrrrrr Mateeees

So these posts are in no particular order. Sorry about that- but I dont want to take the time to organize them.

In October some time we went to the County Fair with Tyrel, Megan, and Allie. It was a lot of fun. Tyrel tried to do the rock wall and almost did it. Dean and Allie rode the Merry Go Round a few times and loved it.

and as you can see Vernon joined them on this little train ride. It was very entertaining.

We also went up to Mt. Graham to play in the snow. Dean HATED it at first but then I put my scarf and gloves on him and he ended up having a blast.

And this is Halloween. At the Trunk or Treat. Dean and Allie were both pirates. And sadly I dont think I ever got a picture of Cole. But he was cute in his Turtle/Dragon outfit (thanks Bonnie)