Hot to Cold, Earthquakes to Blizzards!

It’s been a week since we left Hawaii, and I’m ready to go back! It is nice to be home though, and I’ve come back with a very grateful heart. Not only for the trip, but for the family time and for the time to refocus on a lot of new things. This past year has been difficult, but God did a lot of repairing over these past two weeks. It’s amazing how time away can open your eyes, mind and heart. In many ways it’s time for us to move on, and I’m very excited to see what direction God is leading us in. Scott and I are blessed with an amazing family and I could not be any happier!

Since we’ve been back, we’ve put up all of our Christmas decorations and I’ve been feverishly trying to sort and organize pictures. You know how sometimes one small project opens up a can of worms and turns into a huge project? Well, trying to get the Hawaii pictures uploaded, sorted and printed turned into organizing and printing almost two years worth of pictures! You know something’s up when your pictures come from Walgreens in boxes instead of the little photo envelopes. That’s OK though – it’s done and I feel much better!

So….now that everything’s organized, and I can’t leave the house because we’re sitting here in a blizzard, I have finally posted some pictures in this blog! There seems to be some irony in the fact that I’m using a snow day to post Hawaii pictures!

I tried to post a few pictures in the appropriate places starting with the beginning of our trip, so go back and have a look. I plan on posting ALL of our Hawaii pictures in an online album, but that may take awhile. I’ll put a link on my blog as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, enjoy the ones here!

What can I say?

Till next time,

Terri

So Sad To Leave

Well, I caught up with everyone at the pool yesterday afternoon and had a great time watching Scott and the kids compete for “Biggest Cannonball Splash”. Got some pretty good video! The competition was tough, but Scott came through with the victory! His comments on the win; “I’ve clearly established my dominance in the splash dive area.”

Bill lounging by the hotel pool – a well deserved break from school!

The kids playing in the pool

Scott and Katie by the pool (Resting up for the big splash contest!)

Later in the evening, we had our Thanksgiving at “Planet Hollywood”. A little unorthodox, but then so is our family! In fact, we seem to excel at the unusual. Just one more thing to be thankful for!

And now, the day we’ve been dreading is here. It’s time to pack up and go home. This was a perfect vacation and I’m so grateful for everything we were able to do. Most of all though, I’m just so blessed to have been able to spend so much time with our family. We’re an awesome team, and I can’t wait to see what God has planned for our future!

I had intended on posting pictures along the way, but never took the time to mess with that. In a few days I’ll go back and post some in the appropriate places, so check back!

Till next time,

Terri

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, after I met up with everyone at the pool Tuesday night, we stayed down there for awhile, then grabbed Bill and headed back to LuLu’s for dinner. Yep, twice in one day! I think it’s official – it’s my new favorite restaurant!

Dinner at Lulu’s!

Yesterday we decided we needed one last day on the beach, so we grabbed a quick breakfast at Burger King, and then hit the sand. Lots of swimming, snorkeling, and throwing the football around. After a few hours, we did the first thing that I can honestly say I hated. And the sad part is, it was my idea. We went out on a 1-hour catamaran ride. Everyone else loved it, and I would have too if I wasn’t terrified of Anna and Emma being swept into the water the entire time! They gave us two choices, sit in back on a seat where you don’t get wet (not much anyway), or sit down on the webbing in front where you get. Of course getting wet sounded much more fun, so wet it was! It was great for the first 15 minutes while we motored away from the coast. Unfortunately, once the motor was turned off and we were really sailing “out to sea”, the waves were huge! All 8 of us were constantly getting slammed in the face by HUGE waves while the boat slammed up and down. It was way too dangerous to stand up and climb into the back of the boat (by the intelligent people), so we just hung on for dear life. I wasn’t too worried about the big kids because they were lying flat and seemed pretty safe, but Scott and I needed to hold on to the little ones and I was sure they were going to be ripped out of our arms at any moment! As a matter of fact, we passed another catamaran that was rescuing someone who had either fallen or been swept off of it’s deck! (good news-they were O.K.) Anyway, many prayers went up during that hour, and we did safely return. The big kids thought it was a blast, Scott hasn’t said too much, and Anna and Emma and I are finished with sailboats.

All 8 of us on the “Death Boat” – note the clever thigh-hiding placement of the blue bag. Pretty slick, huh?

We’d had about enough at that point, and decided we all needed a little Coldstone ice cream. Much better idea than sailing! That was pretty much it for the day, other than a great dinner by the Aloha Tower. (More goat cheese!)

I have to say, this morning was the most unusual Thanksgiving morning I’ve ever had. At 9:20 am, I popped my head up and asked Rianne, who was in the next bed, “Did you feel that?” She said “no”, and I told her that my bed was just shaking. I didn’t think much of it, and went into the adjoining room where everyone else was already watching football. All of a sudden a news alert came on that said a 5.0 earthquake had just hit the north end of the Big Island! Fortunately, there was no damage and no tsunami warning, and I was relieved to know I wasn’t losing my mind! There was an emergency alert issued for the next hour that we think was in case of aftershocks. Thankfully, there were none!

We shook it off, (no pun intended!), and went to – you guessed it – LuLu’s for breakfast! After eating way too much food, cheap t-shirts were calling us, so we walked back to the International Marketplace to get some last good deals. And once again, everyone else is at the pool and I’m off to meet them!

Till next time,

Terri

Time's Going By Too Quickly!

Oh dear, it’s been a few days – I hope I can remember everything we’ve done the past couple days! When I left off on Sunday, we were eating Alex’s pancakes and just chillin’ We kept the day at that same pace, and hung out by the pool for a few hours. Late in the afternoon we decided to go for lunch, which actually turned into dinner, and we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Being late in the afternoon was perfect, because the restaurant is open-air right on the ocean and we were there for a beautiful sunset! What a nice way to end our time on the Big Island.

Monday morning we caught our flight back over to Oahu. This time we are staying on the east end of Waikiki. Since our room wasn’t ready yet, we dropped off all of our luggage and walked down to “Cheeseburger in Paradise” for lunch. (When all else fails – eat!)

We’ve been wanting to go to a luau since we got here, but have been dragging our feet on it because we couldn’t decide which one to do. We finally made up our minds and purchased tickets for the Sea Life Park Luau. They just started doing a luau there, so we were a little hesitant but thought that way we could kill two birds with one stone. Very good choice! It was phenomenal! We got there about an hour and a half early so that we could walk around the park and see the animals first. Once the luau actually began, they started us out with a flower lei and a family picture. Then we were led to an amphitheater where they spoke to us a bit about penguins and brought out the most adorable little penguin! He was sooo cute! They then led us into the dolphin theater where we watched an incredible dolphin show with lots of jumps, tricks, etc. Amazing creatures! Sea lions and more penguins joined the show too!

Then it was time to walk over to the meadow (ocean in the background!) where the actual dinner and polynesian show took place. The food AND the show were absolutely fantastic. Right off the bat, Anna and Emma got on stage to learn the “hula” with the cast and a few other guests. At one point later in the show, Alex got called up to “hula”, and then again towards the end, Katie was called to come up and “hula”. I guess when you have a large family, you have good odds!

Everyone of us enjoyed the luau so much, we talked about it all the way back to the hotel. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. I’m convinced God has had his hand on this entire trip because things keep working out perfectly!

Anna and Emma trying out the Hula at the Luau!

Katie shakin’ it!

Alex – Forget computers – go for the professional “Hula Dancer” career!

Today was scheduled to be the last day of the surfing competition on the North Shore, so after a yummy breakfast at LuLu’s, we headed north! After a quick stop at Best Buy to pick up the brand new P.O.D. CD, we made it to Haleiwa just in time! We were able to watch the final round of the men’s competition which was really cool. (If you want to see what we were watching, go to www.TripleCrownOfSurfing.com) Before heading back to Honolulu we stopped at Matsumoto’s for shave ice. I had what the locals recommend – Hawaiian shave ice (banana, coconut & pineapple flavor), with Azuki beans and ice cream underneath. It’s really an unusual combination – the beans are just that – beans. Alex and I were the only ones that tried it with the beans. He thought the beans were gross, I thought they were really good, and everyone loved the shave ice!

Now we’re back at the hotel, Bill’s doing school, everyone else is in the pool, and here I am typing! I’m going to go join them!

Till next time,

Terri

Circling the Big Island

Any day that someone else makes breakfast is a good day! Yesterday Alex made pancakes with coconut syrup for everyone for breakfast, so we knew we were off to a great start! We shoved off at about 9:00 am to circle the island. Our first stop was at Waipio Bay on the northeast coast of the island (our hotel is on the southwest coast). Classic Hawaiian scenery – black sand bay, crashing surf, lots of green rainforesty stuff, and high cliffs rising above! Akaka Falls was next on the agenda, so we headed south to Akaka Falls park. Akaka Falls is, you guessed it, a waterfall. And a beautiful one! There’s a short hike through the park to get to it, which was really really pretty – tons of foliage. Kahuna Falls, about a 100 ft. waterfall, is first along the path. Then comes Akaka Falls, falling 420 feet down a lush green backdrop into a quiet little pool at the bottom. It really was spectacular! Another one of God’s great ideas for creation!

Waipio Bay

The kids inside a banyan tree at Akaka Falls Park

Akaka Falls

Our family in front of Akaka Falls

By this time we were all hot and starving, and sure we wouldn’t make it the 30 minutes to Hilo for lunch, so we stopped in this really cute little town at the entrance to the park, and bought smoothies and cookies. Whew, we made it! All fueled up, we continued our journey on to Hilo. It was a good thing we stopped for snacks, because it took us over an hour to find a place for lunch! The first place we tried was out of business. The second was not open for lunch on Saturdays. Hmmm… Well, three times is the charm, because we ended up at a place called Cafe Pesto, and I think it was my favorite meal of our whole trip so far! I had a BBQ chicken pizza with cilantro pesto, and goat cheese, and then Creme Brulee for dessert. Pretty much my dream meal! (Oh yeah, and free refills on the Diet Coke. A rarity in Hawaii!)

Anyway, the search for lunch did lead us down a little street called Banyan Drive, that was really neat! It’s a street lined with Banyan trees that were planted as saplings by celebrities back in the 1930′s. Each one has a little plaque under it with the name of the “planter”, and the year it was planted. There were names such as Amelia Earhardt, Cecil B. Demille, Franklin D. Roosevelt, King George V, etc. Very cool! Then, it was back to the volcano park!

This was our day to see the lava up close and personal! To view the current flow, you need to drive down to the coast where the lava is pouring into the ocean, so we took the 11 mile drive down Chain of Craters Rd. One particular stretch of the road ran through a huge old lava flow, that Bill described as looking just like a post-apocolyptic scene. I think he was right – that’s exactly what it reminded me of! There was absolutely no color, no life, nothing. Just black/gray rubble in every direction with a mountain of the same color rising in the background.

We got to the coast just before sunset which was perfect. Since it was still light, we could see two huge billowing plumes of steam rising into the sky from the lava entering the ocean. At this point we were about three miles from the actual flow. You need to leave your car along the road at this point, and hike the rest of the way. The air is pretty yucky – thick and gritty, and and it smells like sulpher, or as Emma says, “It smells like eggs again”. There’s a ranger station at the trailhead, and the first thing I spotted was a centipede warning. Evidently centipedes like to retire to Hawaii as well, and really enjoy living in cooled, hardened lava, AND they all come out at sunset. So what do you suppose we were going to be hiking over? Cooled, hardened lava, AND it was sunset.

Is spite of the centipedes, on we went! The first 1/2 mile was along a paved road, so not too scary. Incidentally, the road used to be open all the way to the lava-ocean entry points, but in 2003 another lava flow covered the road, so now you need to hike over the hardened lava to get close to the current site. So, after the 1/2 mile paved walk, we hiked about 1/4 mile over the hardened lava (the part the centipedes like!) It was challenging with Anna and Emma, but they were tough!I kept my flashlight pointed at my feet at all times to be on the lookout for centipedes. (I may not recover from this!) The ground was real rocky and uneven, with lots of cracks and crevices, and it was pitch black by this time (the sky AND the ground). Definitely not a “friendly” place, but so awesome and so worth it! Now that it was dark, we could see a reddish glow at the top of the mountain from the crater where the volcano is originating, and at the bottom of the mountain, at the coastline, we could actually see the red lava pouring into the ocean! From this point now, it was approximately two miles in the distance, but it was still an amazing sight! We spent about an hour just looking and taking pictures, and then trekked back to the car.

The volcano/ocean entry point at dusk

Lava entering the ocean at night

I’m happy to report that I never did see a centipede. Rianne, on the otherhand, saw a dead one on the road as we walked back to the car. She was gracious enough to NOT tell me how big it was, and I never looked! From her reaction, I’m guessing it was huge!

Quite a day we had yesterday! So much of God’s awesome creative mind! It’s Sunday now, and our last day on the Big Island. Alex just made pancakes again, and we’re all just hanging around for right now. We’ll see what happens next!

Till next time,

Terri

Volcanoes and Black Sand Beaches!

Yesterday started WAY too early! We needed to get up at 2:00am to catch a 5:15 flight over to the big island. It was well worth it though! Since it was too early to check into our new hotel, we made the two hour drive over to the other side of the island. First we stopped at Punaluu Beach Park, the black sand beach. I’ve never seen anything like that! The rocks and sand are all black, and the water is bright bright blue! It’s incredible! We spent about an hour there exploring and taking pictures. We saw two sets of huge sea turtles sunning themselves on the beach. They are soooo cute! There were also black crabs scurrying around on the black rocks – not quite as cute, but very cool!

Sea Turtles on the black sand beach

Then we headed over to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. What an awesome sight! We could see Mauna Loa volcano in the distance, and drove up to the top of Kilauea, the current activee volcano. We got to drive around the crater and see the lava formations from past eruptions. 1983 was the last time it erupted from the top, but lava has been flowing out from underground lava tubes ever since. There is steam venting out from the ground in several places in and around the crater. Kind of gave me an uneasy feeling! The crater is completely barren on one side, and like a rainforest on the other side. After circling the crater, we went on a 1/3 mile hike through an old empty lava tube on the rainforest side. Tomorrow we are going back at night, so that we can see the lava as it spills out into the ocean.

An old volcano crater

Alex standing in a crater

We spent a few hours at the volcano park, had lunch there, and then headed back to the hotel. The new hotel is great! It’s not nearly as fancy as the Hilton was on Oahu, but our rooms are huge (condos), and we are SO close to the ocean! Sitting out on the balcony is like heaven, and we slept with the patio door open a bit so we could listen to the waves crashing.

This morning we all slept in since we had such a little bit of sleep the night before. It was really nice just having some “down time” today. The kids all swam for awhile in the morning and then we went into town for some lunch and a little shopping. We needed to buy yet another suitcase since we got hit with another overweight fee on the flight here.

We made it back to our hotel just in time to watch the sunset from our balcony – beautiful! The hotel has a grill, so tonight Scott grilled hamburgers for our dinner. I think we’re about to watch a movie now, so I’m off to grab a spot on the couch!

Till next time,

Terri

Outriggers, Heros, and Oceanic Flight 815

Yesterday was another beach day! Poor Bill had to stay in the hotel for awhile in the morning to work on school, but he met us a little later at the beach. We rented surfboards for a couple hours, and then rented an outrigger canoe. Way cool!!!! It was the 8 of us, plus two Hawaiian guys in the canoe. You paddle out hard against the waves, and then ride the waves in to shore. (I got the “queen” seat, so I didn’t have to paddle!) We got to ride waves in three times, which took about 30-45 minutes. It was so much fun! It’s amazing the way these guys know exactly how to read the waves and get the timing down perfectly.

(Notice the Queen in the back not paddling!)

Our family after the ride (Sunscreen on the lens perhaps? I know this picture quality is horrible, but I wanted to include it anyway since we’re all in it!)

After quite enough sand and sun and a little shopping in the International Marketplace, we went to Duke’s Canoe Club. (Thanks Larissa for the tip!) What a cool place! We actually ate at the “Barefoot Bar” section of Duke’s, which is a little patio restaurant right on the beach!

Bright and early this morning we headed to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and spent a few hours there. There was actually a 95 year-old Pearl Harbor survivor there! What an honor just to see him! We bought a book he had written, had him sign it for us, and took a picture of him with Scott and the kids. Definitely something to remember!

U.S.S. Arizona

Scott and the kids with Dr. Rodney West – a Pearl Harbor survivor!

From there, we drove up to the North Shore. There is currently a surfing competition going on in Haleiwa – the “Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing: OP Pro Hawaii”. Today was the start of the women’s competition and we stayed to watch for about a 1/2 hour. One of the biggest highlights of the trip so far – we saw Bethany Hamilton while we were there! She just walked right past us, and I’m so annoyed with myself for not talking to her and getting a picture of her with the kids! Bethany Hamilton is the girl that lost her arm in a shark attack while surfing when she was 13 years-old (she’s 16 now). Spend a little time on her website to see what an inspiration she is: www.bethanyhamilton.com. I’m so grateful to have someone like this for my girls to look up to!

After that coolness, we drove around the north shore a little more, and spotted the burned out fuselage of Oceanic flight 815 from “LOST”! How cool was that!!!

Well, that was about enough cool stuff for one day! We are back at our hotel now, packing for a 5:00 am flight to the Big Island – yikes! Time to get to sleep!

A Waikiki sunset!

Till next time,

Terri

Happy Birthday Rianne!

Yesterday was Rianne’s 14th birthday – what a place to celebrate! We decided to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, so we packed all our snorkel gear and headed out at about 8:30 with a quick drive-thru at McDonalds for breakfast. The McDonalds are few and far between here, so I’m having a little withdrawal! Anyway, Hanauma Bay was perfect. I stayed on the beach with Anna and Emma so they could swim and play in the sand, while Scott and the four big kids went out snorkeling. I’ve snorkeled plenty of times and it’s beautiful, but still always makes me a little nervous, so sitting on the beach was just fine with me.

Hanauma Bay

Life underwater!

We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the bay. They saw lots of colorful fish and a few eels (see nervous note above!), and took lots of pictures with the underwater camera. After we packed up and moved on our way, we stopped at the “blowhole” lookout which was really cool! It’s a stretch of coastline made up of layers of black volcanic rock. There’s a volcanic tube running beneath that you cannot see, but when the waves crash up on the rocks, a few seconds later a huge spout of mist and water shoots up through the top of the rock surface several feet in from the edge. Very pretty!

Rianne chose Planet Hollywood for her birthday dinner, so after swimming at the hotel pool for a while, that’s where we headed. The walk down Kalakaua Avenue to the restaurant is such a pretty walk at night – it was another one of those “eternity glimpses” moments! Can’t wait!

Till next time,

Terri

Climbing Diamond Head!

This morning was the last of Scott’s conference, so he was able to meet us for breakfast at a little coffee shop near our hotel. More yummy banana pancakes with coconut syrup for me!

After breakfast, we decided to climb Diamond Head. We had a slight delay when a bird pooped on Katie’s back and she needed to change her shirt. But on we proceeded! First of all, it’s really cool to drive through a tunnel right into the crater of the volcano. But then there’s the hike up to the top! In hindsight, it was really neat and totally worth it, but during the hike – oh my goodness! I thought I was going to die. It was so hot and I am SO out of shape! Fortunately Anna and Emma were really slow, so being the kind mother that I am, I “took one for the team” and hung back with them. Wasn’t that nice of me? Just a few details of the hike – 1 1/2 mile trail (round trip), 560 feet from the crater floor, uneven and steep terrain, first set of stairs-74 steps, second set of stairs-99 steps, third set of stairs-54 steps, and plenty of heat and humidity! Anyway, we made it to the top and the view was amazing! We took lots of pictures and then headed back down (much easier!). Smoothies and shaved ice were our self-awarded prizes at the bottom, and then we piled into the car and raced back to the hotel to get into the water.

Actually, once we got back to the hotel, I decided to walk back to the surfboard rental booth while everyone else swam at the hotel beach. I had pictures to pick up from surfing the day before and this seemed like a good time. I did catch up with everyone else eventually though, and we ended the day with pizza at the hotel.

Katie and Alex should be back upstairs with ice cream any minute now, so that’s all for tonight!

Diamond Head from the bottom!

The view from the top!

More from the top,

More from the top,

And still more from the top!

Till next time,

Terri

A Perfect Day!

What a perfect day today was! All I can say is thank you God for such good ideas as beaches, sunshine, waves, mountains, breezes, surfboards and suntans! This was one of those days when I think God was giving us little glimpses of what life will be like in eternity. Can’t wait for that!

Phil the surf instructor told us mornings are best for surfing, so morning it was! At 8:45 we hit the beach and Bill, Alex, Katie and Rianne all signed on for an excellent adventure with Phil! Anna, Emma and I parked ourselves nearby and watched as the four big kids learned to “ride some righteous waves, dude!”It was so exciting to see them actually surfing – they had so much fun and I was so proud!

Surfing!

Rianne

Katie

Alex

Bill

When the surfing time was up, we just spent the rest of the day hanging out on Waikiki soaking up the sun and playing in the sand and the water. Joel and Stacy met up with us, so we got to spend more time with them which was great!

All the kids with Joel and Stacy on Waikiki (That’s Alex buried in the sand!)

Finally, at about 3:00 when we were starting to feel like perhaps too much of a good thing is not such a good thing (translate-sunburn), the kids and I headed back to the hotel and met up with Scott. We decided to have dinner at Cheeseburger Waikiki again, and then walk back to our hotel for an early night. Tomorrow is Scott’s last day of the conference, so we’re looking forward to finally getting him out into some sunshine!

Till next time,

Terri