Merry Christmas from the Bardwells!

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Probably Not. . .

Micah, tonight as he was putting lotion on his dry skin eczema spots:  "I think I'm getting leprosy!"

Ladies Man

Micah has two girlfriends at school.  We've tried to explain many times that he can't call two different girls his girlfriend.  We've explained it may hurt their feelings to be one of two girlfriends. We've explained that he can either pick one to call  his girlfriend, or he could just call both of them his really good friends.  We've explained that you don't really need a girlfriend in Kindergarten anyway.  He is not having any of it.  When I ask him to pick just one, he picks them both.  When I ask which one he likes more, he says he likes them both the same.

I tried again this weekend:  "Micah, when you are older, then your girlfriend will become your wife.  And you know that you can only have one wife."

Micah:  "Well, then, Dakota will be my girlfriend, and Deanna will be my wife."

Problem solved.

You mean fog?

Eli:  "What's that stuff called when it's blurry outside?"

Trick or Treat!

Here's my favorite pirate:

And my favorite planet!

 

Belated Cousin Visit Post

Several weekends ago in September, the boys got to host their cousins for an overnight stay!  Kyler and Kale came to visit us while their parents got away for a night.  The boys were SO good together!  I even told Kedron I could be persuaded to have 2 more kids if I was guaranteed that they'd always act as good as these four did (however, since there are no guarantees we will not be going that route :).

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE little boys in jammies?  Here they are:  Kale (2), Kyler (5), Micah (6), and Eli (4).

The next morning we went to the park!

This was a REALLY tall slide; so Kale and I did a practice run together before I let him try it with the boys.  Can you see the delight on his face?  He obviously wasn't intimidated by this big slide. . .

And my favorite pic from the weekend:  The boys were playing with some nerd glasses.  Kale wanted to wear some too, but he put them on upside down.  What cute nerds :)

Thanks, Kyler and Kale, for coming to visit!

Young Man. . ..

Micah, while listening to the song 'YMCA':  "Did you know that's a REAL BUILDING?"

Kicking Off The Soccer Season!

Micah and Eli are doing soccer for the first time this fall.  After Game #1 today, I can report that it's simultaneously entertaining, heartbreaking, amusing, and frustrating to watch kids this age attempt to play soccer.

Here's Micah with a kick:

Here's Eli, right before his foot slipped off the ball and he landed on the ground.  Love that tongue!

Highlights of Game #1 include Micah screaming "We got a goal!" for all to hear, when, in fact, the OTHER team got a goal, and Eli kicking his shoe right off his foot after he kicked the ball.  I think in the wrong direction.

Eli's 1st Day of Pre-K

The last of the Bardwell men is off to school for the year.  Eli started at Whittier also (Micah's school) in the pre-K program yesterday.  

Eli decided a week ago that he was going to be "a little nervous" to start school.  Yeah right.  He just heard his brother was nervous and has to do everything the same. . .

I mean, does this kid look nervous to you?

Here he is at school, very excited about having his own locker!  What is it about this locker that makes him look so grown up?

He sure didn't appear nervous as he bolted into his classroom.  I had to remind him to come back and give me a hug :)

Micah's First Day of KINDERGARTEN!!

Can you believe Micah is big enough to go to Kindergarten?  After spending 6 years with this child at home, I can :)  Here he is, in our traditional 'front porch step' pose.

 Micah and Daddy

 No surprise - he had a GREAT day!  His teacher is Mrs. Brommel, he had some kind of cookie for a snack, he had 2 recesses, and could name 5-6 of the kids in his class.  AND he had music, since "it's day four and on day four we have music."

Way to go Micah!

My favorite pic from the Balloon Classic last week

Hawaii Part 6 (the final post)

OK. . .despite all the glowing things I've written so far about this vacation, it was not all perfect.  So let's talk about the worst experience of our trip:  snorkeling.

We set out with high hopes on Sunday morning, for a 3 hour, 2 site snorkel.  The boat ride out was very fun and fast - nothing like the sea wind whipping through your hair to make you feel cool!  We happened upon a huge pack of dolphins (probably 100 or more) and they did some tricks for us.  All good so far!  We got to the 1st site, got our gear on, got in the water, swam around beautiful coral and fish - everything was great!!  So let me just summarize the rest:  both Ked and I ingested salt water, and from our experiences (and at least 3 others on board) it takes only a little bit of salt water in your body to make you feel VERY nauseated.        So by the time we made it to the lovely Kealakekua Bay (the best snorkel spot in the state, and reportedly it has the 'dropoff' that inspired the one in Finding Nemo), we were both really too sick to enjoy it.  We did take some pics on a non-digital underwater camera so we can't post them.  We drove home and spent the rest of the day in bed. . . and that was our Sunday in Hawaii!!

On Monday, our last day, I finally convinced Kedron to visit the most difficult place on the island to pronounce:  Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (Poo-oo-hoe-NEW-uh  Oh  Hoe-NOW-now).  This is an ancient place of refuge, and it turned out to be a fascinating place. We happened to arrive at the start of a park ranger talk, and hearing her explain the cultural significance of this place made our visit very interesting.  The ancient Hawaiians had very strict religious beliefs, which included 4 major gods, 100+ lesser gods, and many forbidden practices (if something was forbidden it was called 'kapu' by the Hawaiians).  For instance, males and females couldn't eat together. Females couldn't eat any foods sacrificed to the gods, which included bananas or pork.  If did something that was considered kapu, the punishment was death, because the Hawaiians believed that the gods would send a tsunami, famine, etc, if the 'sin' wasn't atoned for.  So, yes, a woman could be killed for eating a banana.  IF a rulebreaker could flee to one of these places of refuge around the island, a priest there could perform a forgiveness ritual on the person and all would be OK.

Once the Hawaiians realized that this belief system didn't work, most of the places of refuge around the island were destroyed.  This one remains because it holds the remains of several royal Hawaiian figures.

On our last day, we also spent some time in Kona (which was the only part of the island that actually seemed crowded with tourists; though the city had had a marathon the day before so we wondered if that was why). Our flight didn't leave till 9pm, so we got to watch one more sunset before heading home.

We don't know if we'll ever make it back here, but we completely fell in love with this island!  Aloha, Hawaii!  

Hawaii Part 5

On Saturday we headed to the biggest must-see attraction on the Big Island:  Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  I wouldn't say this was the most action-packed place on the island, but it is truly the most intriguing.  This place was like no other I've ever experienced. We again traveled the winding Saddle Road across the island, which provides a beautiful view of Mauna Loa - the biggest (though not quite the tallest) volcano on the island.  Actually, it is the biggest volcano (volume-wise) in the world!  The entire Sierra Nevadas could fit inside the land mass of this volcano.

After our 2 hour drive, we made it to the park.  We stopped at the Visitor's Center to get maps and watched a cool movie about how the Hawaii Islands have formed (it's very cool; I can explain it if you're interested so ask me!!).  After that, we were off to the Kilauea - the most active volcano on the planet.  It has been erupting constantly since the 1980's.  Of course they don't let you get too near the lava, but seeing steam coming out of the Halema'uma'u Crater was pretty cool!  Apparently at night you can see the glow of the lava, but we didn't hang around for that due to our long drive back.

 It was kind of raining, so we decided to drive down to the coast on Chain of Craters Road.  It's hard to describe the diversity of this place.  First we drove through lush vegetation:

And then a few miles later, it is desolate and covered with black lava.

We learned that there are 2 types of lava, and the Hawaiians had names for each:  a'a (pronounced ah-ah), which is very rough, rocky, and chunky (pictured above at the bottom left of picture); and pahoehoe (puh-HOE-ay-HOE-ay), which is more smooth.  Here's some pahoehoe:

At the end of Chain of Craters Road, we saw this archway formed from lava. It used to be solid rock but the crashing waves knocked out the middle, forming the arch.

 My favorite part of the day (and possibly our whole trip) was our hike around and through the Kilauea Iki Crater.

The black part you see above was formerly a lake of lava!  It erupted in 1959.  My understanding (which is at least somewhat correct :) was that it wasn't a constant blast-type eruption, but a 'vent' eruption - where the lava kept coming up and then receding back into the earth, and then coming up again (kind of like a bad plumbing situation??)  The hike took us around the top rim, and then down across the dried lava lake.  Here we are, ready to cross the surface:

See the steam coming out of this hole?  Is this an eruption waiting to happen?  Fortunately for us, no.  Even though the eruption stopped over 50 years ago, and the dried lava is firm, it is still hot deep down.  When it rains, rainwater runs down the cracks in the surface, comes into contact with the heat, and steam forms.  Again, this place is like no other on earth!!

It's fun to see this new life emerging from so much destruction.  Apparently broken down lava soil, known as cinder soil, is quite fertile.

 

The entire hike was 4 miles and it took us right at 2 hours.  We had to descend 400 feet down (so think maybe a 40 story building).  Here I am just before the hike back up.  We were prepared for a terrible hike, but it wasn't that bad!  It was all shaded, and the temps that day were probably in the high 70's.  I have to say, Ked and I would be in great shape if we always got as much exercise as we did on this vacation!

Hawaii Part 4

On Friday, we woke up bright and early and drove up to the north Kohala part of the island for our Zipline Adventure!  Neither of us had done more than 1 zipline attached to a ropes course before, so we were excited!

The course consisted of 9 ziplines, several bridges, and 2 rappelling points.  It POURED rain for the entire first half of the course, but still we had a blast!  The course was nestled in a forest so our views were beautiful.

The last zip was a 'double' zip so Ked and I could race - of course he won with more body weight :)  If it weren't so overcast, you'd be able to see the ocean at the top of this pic.

Next up - a wonderful plate lunch (mahi mahi for me and pork for Kedron) and then the King Kamehameha statue.  This was the king who united the Hawaiian islands, and he lived on the Big Island; plus his birthday celebration had just happened, so he's kind of a big deal, we found.

Then it was off to the Pololou Valley overlook.  Interestingly, this was maybe 5 miles away from our zipline location and they got no rain at all.  Gotta love Hawaiian weather.  This might have been the prettiest overlook on the island, but it's hard to compare mostly equally beautiful places, we found! This one was not quite as easy to capture on film.

We hiked down the black sand beach.  Black sand is common on the Big Island; it's a result of residual lava breaking down and washing back up on shore.  This was also not a place for swimming due to strong waves and rip currents.

The hike down to the beach was kind of treacherous and difficult. Before our descent, we'd seen a young, fit couple coming back up, barely sweating (they had more of a 'glisten' about them) and I asked them if it was worth the hike down.  They said yes, and in fact, they'd gone down, then up over the next ridge, and all the way back.  WELL, give that couple 10 years and maybe they will huff, puff, and sweat profusely on the difficult walk back up like we did!  It was by far the most difficult hike of our trip. I'm glad we did it, and now I won't be doing it again!!

Hawaii Part 3

Here are some more pics from our drive down (and back up) the Hamakua Coast.  We took a 4 mile 'scenic road' detour and were not disappointed.

We stumbled upon Onomea Bay, which was gorgeous!  We quickly found out that photos don't always capture the natural beauty of this island.

 We hiked down to the bay - definitely NOT a place to swim with the roaring and crashing waves!

Further up the coast, we spotted  Laupahoehoe (lau-puh-HO-ay-HO-ay, we got pretty good at the Hawaiian pronunciations this week!) Park.  This was the site of a deadly tsunami in the 1950's where over 20 schoolchildren were killed.  We drove down to the park and could tell this was where the locals hung out.  It was VERY windy, though, and their tents were quite interesting.  They would have a regular tent and then another tent-like structure over it, either like an army tent or one of those big enclosed picnic tent things. Guess you need double the protection from the wind!  Again, swimming was discouraged due to the waves, yet several local kids were enjoying the water in the boat ramp area.

Next up:  Waipio Valley- at the northern point of the Hamakua Coast.  Now THIS view was spectacular!  While all the views are amazing, this one is actually one of the easier ones to capture on film.  Hiking down into the valley was discouraged due to the spiritual significance of this place;  several island kings lived here years ago.  Currently there is a commune residing in the valley, and you must be invited down into the valley if you want to explore.

 Kedron had not yet even entered the water by this point in our trip, so it was time to check out a beach!  The Big Island is not really known for its spectacular beaches, as it is the youngest of the islands and beaches have not had as long to form due to erosion, wind, waves, etc.  In addition, it is hard to find a white sand beach on this island (more on that later).  But Kedron found us a good one here:  Hapuna Beach.  This was probably the best overall swim spot; some waves but not unsafe ones, great sand, and the absence of jagged lava rocks :) Can I just say, though, to the women of the world:  If you have handfuls upon handfuls of skin and various tissue spilling out from over your tiny bikini bottoms, it might be time to consider a one piece swimsuit.  Let's keep in mind that we all look better in clothing that fits us properly!!

After a full day, we were ready to relax a bit.  We ventured to a nearby resort that has a free Polynesian show, complete with fire dancing.  And, of course, coconut bras :)