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!