Camping summer 2009

Here are some pictures of us camping at Bellows Air Force Base. My great friends, Amanda and Josh, allowed us to come to their ward camp out.
It lasted for 5 days. What ward camps out for 5 days? We were so lucky. Everyone helped us on our first family camp out. Josh and Amanda cooked the best food. The ward rented this slip and slid that the kids had a blast on. Just imagine camping with no mosquitoes, no dirt, no wet morning dew. That's camping in Hawaii. The kids did not want to come home. On the last night the ward buried meat and taro and other weird things I had never eaten. There was a dance and a karaoke night. Fun, fun, fun.

This is our Home School PE class at the beach playing tug of War. It was a very hot day. Our PE class meets every Tuesday morning at the gym or field. With PE, swim team, sports camps, and just playing outside the kids get tons of exercise.

Aloha. Alex and his friend Carter went to the beach to play while I waited for the other 3 kids to finish swim team.

Mongoose

The boys in the neighborhood found a cage with a trapped mongoose in it. He was a viscous little thing ,but starving to death. We fed it some canned beef from our food storage. We guess it was pest controls cage but it was fun for the boys to check it out for a while up close.

Sunday afternoon. We went out to our neighbors' daughters graduation party. The view was amazing. I took a few family pictures. I'm always torn about Hawaii. I love it for the beauty and tranquility. But, at the same time I feel not at home. I feel antsy like I'm counting down the days to when my vacation is over. Not really wanting it to be over, but anxious to get back to life. I don't know why I have never been able to just feel like I live here. We are most likely moving next year this time. I am sad to say goodbye and go back and forth about really leaving or not. One thing you can't beat in Hawaii is good pictures to make everyone think your crazy for ever leaving. They are deceiving. Maybe I should start taking pictures of the parts of Hawaii that are never recorded.

Amelia's first swim meet. She has been on the swim team for 6 months and swam in 3 events at the meet. She was so confident and did everything correctly. Gwen and George are also on the swim team, but they did not swim at the meet.

Na Pali Coast.

To see this beautiful coastline in Kauai you need to take helicopter or catamaran. I'm scared of helicopters, so we took this 5 hour boat ride out. It was gorgeous, and we saw whales, dolphins, and turtles. The captain drove right up to a waterfall and put the boat under it. The kids got wet. On the way home we hit lots of big waves and were drenched with salty ocean water. We thought jumping over the big waves was the best part. All of us were laughing when the kids flew a foot into the air after we hit a wave. The captain asked everyone to go sit down after that.

Kauai, HI. For a week we stayed on a very private beach, Barking Sands. We walked 40 minutes along the beach and didn't see a soul, but we did see one dead shark full of maggots, the kids had fun with that. The Navy cabins were really clean, modern, and well priced. The kids had such a good time playing in the sand. We didn't swim because there was a big danger sign that said, "Warning you could die!" Maybe I'm exaggerating, but a warning sign is enough for me. I am way too overly cautious sometimes.

After I cut Goerge's hair, Amelia thought of gluing the left over hair that was on the floor onto Alex's face. So these are real chops and a small beard made out of George's hair. Alex said, "I need an electirc guitar,"

Gwen and Amelia's birthday parties. Age 7 &11

The Place of refuge on the Big Island of Hawaii. This is a place that the Royals lived. Just behind a big wall was a place that if you could swim or run to you could be free from any crime you committed; even if you were an enemy. If you could get to the place of refuge you were safe. Don't take my explantation as fact, this is just as I interpreted the pamphlet.

A very big loss to us has been the closing of the Liea, HI temple. It is being remodeled for 18 months. It was a relaxing drive up the coast along the water once a month. We will most likely relocate to the Mainland before it opens again. The island hasn't been the same since. This is a picture of the temple with all of the paint taken off and its all gray and has scaffolding around it. It was built in the early 1900's, like around 1912, I think. So now we have to fly to the Big Island of Hawaii to go the the Kona temple. Aaron and I took a trip out there a couple months ago. These are the other pictures.

Saint Patrick's day. They are not only wearing green they are green. George started pinching Alex as he got out of bath because he had no green on or anything else. Don't be around for April fools' day you will be hiding, it gets pretty competative.

Study, study, and study. I may be the hardest teacher on the planet. Poor kids? lucky kids!!!



Amelia and Gwen dance once a week. Their teacher, Ms. D, danced for Juliard.

We are part of a home school coop which offers P.E., dance classes, standardized testing, holiday parties, educational classes, field trips and more. This is an inspiring field trip at Windward Community College where a Japanese bell ringers choir performed. The kids did so well in school this year. We attend a school called k12. I think the name is terrible because it is so uncreative, but it is the best school that we have found having a strong emphasis on history, science, music, and art. This year our nationally normed standardized test were administered by a professional tester from Virginia. I learned that my kids were well above grade level in every area. I was very pleased. I learned so much this year especially in grammar and history. I really enjoy this experience that I am able to have with my children. These pictures are more of our home school year.