Cole and Nora's Pictures

While I was able to spend a lot of time with Mack and Sydney trying to get pictures, it didn't work out for me to spend the same amount of time with Cole and Nora.  I still got some pictures of them, though.  Here's one of each of them. 

Waimea Valley and the North Shore

Wednesday was my last excursion with Anna and kids before I left.  Mom came over for a few days on Tuesday, so she was there, too.  We headed up to the North Shore and stopped at Waimea Valley.  It's kind of like a botanical garden with a path winding up the valley to a waterfall that you can swim in.  The weather wasn't the best--it rained on and off, but it was still nice.

As we entered the park we saw a little pig which turned out to be a wild one that had been adopted by one of the park employees. It was a so cute.  Apparently it's going to grow to be huge, though.

I didn't take many pictures going up the trail because of the rain. At the top of the trail is this waterfall.  You're allowed to swim in the pool below.  I decided not to--it still wasn't very sunny, even though the rain had stopped--but Cole, Sydney, and Mack did.

Here's the brave threesome and some other people beneath the waterfall.

I took more pictures on the way back down.  The tropical flowers there were just amazing. 

These last two flowers are banana flowers.  Very weird looking. 

We all enjoyed seeing these Hawaiian moorhens.  Apparently they're an endangered species.  There was a little family of them there. 

It was fun to watch the chicks try to get across the pond. 

After Waimea we headed on down the road to a shrimp truck.  Shrimp trucks are plentiful on the North Shore.  They're these rather dingy looking trucks where you can get shrimp covered in garlic and butter--yum!  We made quick stops to look at a few things on our way home.  Below is an arch off the coast on the North Shore. 

This is Chinaman's Hat--another unique island. 

Sydney's Photo Shoot

Last week I also did more work on taking photos of the kids.  Here's a few of Sydney's pictures.  This is the same area as Mack's pictures.

Ko Olina

Last week we spent some time at a resort over on the south-west side of the island.  Ko Olina is quite a fancy place, but they have four lagoons that anybody can swim in.  So we just went for the day.  I walked around to see all the lagoons. 

This was "our lagoon."

Nice place to spend a few days?  I can only imagine it's pretty expensive.

...and my "artsy" shot for the post. 

The Other Side of Life in Hawaii

My month in Hawaii is almost over.  I realize that from what I've posted you may have gotten the impression that all I've done here is play every day.  That's not the reality, though.  We get out and play, but I've been living in a family that has to do lots of normal, everyday stuff.  I try to help where I can.  Those things don't normally lend themselves to pictures, though.  Trips to the commissary (grocery store) don't make good pictures.  It's been good for me to experience life in a busy family with four kids.  I get opportunities to help with things that I didn't have back home--like reading to somebody or watching the baby.  I also do a little bit of my own school and try to keep up violin some.  So while those things don't really get on to my blog posts, they are happening.