The Nakalele Blowhole (part 5)

Wednesday September 10th,

Just a few miles past Slaughterhouse Beach on the upper north end of the island around mile marker 38, we stopped for an adventurous hike to the Nakalele Blowhole.  Before we decided to stop at the blowhole, we drove a few mile past because we were informed that the view was magnificent.  We do agree that the view was outstanding, but for me, I was scared spit less.  I have a bit of a fear of heights, and the wind was blowing fiercely and it is a straight drop off down to the jagged rocks of the ocean.  Donald kept poking fun of my scaredy cat behavior but I just let it roll because I remained on safe dry land.  I have no idea how high up we were from the water, but my guess would be at least 100 ft. or so.  When you look down at the water it was practically  crystal clear and the boulders looked like they were barely beneath the water (but we know they were much deeper than that).

After taking in the great view, we headed back to take the trail down to the blowhole.  The hike wasn't too bad, steep here and there, but very manageable.  Once we got down to the blowhole area, it was like acid rain had fallen all over the place.  I guess the spray and water from the ocean has effected the lava rock in such a manner it looks like it was drenched by acid rain.  Anyway, back to the blowhole.  We were lucky enough to go at a time when the water was really shooting up.  From what we read, depending on the surf and the tide, will depend on if you get no shoot up from the blowhole, or if it shooting as high as 80 ft.  When we were there, it was probably shooting up about 50 ft.  I was actually kinda glad it was not in full force and height because what we read indicated that sometimes when the water shoots up the earth shakes all around and just trembles.  The thought of that kinda freaked me out, so needless to say, I was slightly relieved.  The spray from the blowhole was cold and windy - that is why you see me standing with my arms out like I am crazy or something.  By the time we left that area, we were completely soaked from head to toe.

Donald and I kept talking about how cool Trent and Kolby would think the blowhole was.  We decided that if we ever bring them to Maui, that is a must see experience because it would totally rock their world!

'Iao Needle and sunset surfers (part 4)

Sunday after church and a nap, Donald and I set off to go hike the 'Iao Needle. We enjoyed the paved walking trail, and then discovered there was a rocky trail off to the side and going up. We watched a couple locals hop the railing and we decided to do the same. We climbed the rocky ridge trail along the side of the mountain for about a mile until is became too over grown to weed thru. After coming down the mountain, we fallowed the paved path to the river/stream and discovered MORE exciting and unpaved trails. We hiked all along the boulders and banks of the river. We saw several locals swimming and playing in the fresh pools. I wish we had our swim suits on because I would have loved to take a dip as well.

It was very cloudy and overcast at the Needle, as you can probably tell from these pictures.

One of the locals who was hiking the area told us that these two waterfalls are RARELY ever seen. They are so far away they must have been gushing that day in order for us to see them.

Some of the trail was rather steep and was narrow is spots. My legs were getting scratched up and my thighs were killing me from the angled trail.

Here's the creek/river/stream - whatever you want to call it!

After your husband has taken the 50th shot of you that day with different scenic backgrounds, you get a little creative your expressions for the camera.

Donald and I kept joking around by saying "SCARY!" There were several things we saw on our trip that we assumed Tanner would have responded with "scary" so we took it upon ourselves to do it for him. So here we are, documenting us saying "SCARY!"

After leaving our hiking adventure we drove half way to Lahaina and decided to stop and watch the sunset. We chose a spot with our kids in mind. We watched a group of surfers ride the waves as we enjoyed the sunset. It was a lot of fun to just take it all in. The wind was blowing pretty strongly and you can really tell by some of the pictures. Donald took a few AWESOME shots of the waves, so I included a few of those pictures as well.

The focus on these surfer pictures is not the best. They were actually rather far away and of course, constantly moving.

Check out the wind force as this wave is curling forward.

I love how the light and wind and water all work so well in this picture. Donald loves that it is a double wave shot!

Awwww, sunset! The sun is shining down on the sail boat as it drifts by.

an evening in Lahaina (part 3)

Saturday we sent the late afternoon and evening in the town of Lahaina. I read in our Maui Revealed book that "Lahaina should be viewed as an event, not a place. You DO Lahaina. You go there to shop, eat, walk and gawk." So that is exactly what we did. We loved visiting different art galleries, going into different boutique shops, visiting the larger than life banyan tree and enjoying dinner at the waters edge. We ended our night with the entertaining show at Warren and Annabelle's. This is a comedy magic show and we laughed so hard my jaw hurt.

This is Banyon Tree Park - an incredible must see tree that encompasses an entire park. There were lots of different kinds of people selling crafts, paintings, and souvenirs.

This pictures does not even begin to show the vastness of the size of this tree. As the branches would grow larger, heavier, and longer, they would then root into the ground and come back up again like a tree trunk - but it is all the same exact tree!

Donald and I enjoying dinner at Kimo's on Front Street. The food was great, the view perfect, and the famous Hula Pie was to die for!

Donald is a bit greedy, don't ya think?

These next pictures are kinda messed up, so I am sorry for that. Here Donald and I are at Warren and Annabelle's Magic Show. We were one of the 4 couples chosen as victims, I mean special participating audience members.

Here I am holding up a lemon that I just cut in half. Inside the lemon was a 100 dollar bill that had been burnt to ashes and belonged to a policeman in the audience. I tried to pocket the lemony bill, but my integrity took over and I returned it to the rightful owner.

Road to Hana (part 2)

First a few tid bits.

The best resource we had for our trip was the book MAUI REVEALED by Andrew Doughty. If you are planning a trip to any of the islands, I would totally recommend it to all and anyone.

Wednesday we did a kayak snorkel tour with MAUI ECO TOURS. We loved it and had a great time. I was amazed with how much my hip flexers hurt from the rowing and balancing, but it was well worth it. We did 3 snorkel dives and saw several turtles, lots of other fish and beautiful coral.

Thursday we hit a few beaches and relaxed. We rented some boggy boards and had a great time.

Friday we spent the day exploring the adventurous and famously known ROAD TO HANA. This is an extremely winding, scary, beautiful, exciting drive. Without any stops along the way, I think it would take about 2 hours to get to Hana, it took us at least 6 hours because of all our stops. We loved stopping along the way to enjoy the sights, the waterfalls, the hiking and the banana bread. It was already 3:30 p.m. when we made it to the 7 sacred pools. The weather was very windy and rather chilly. We ended up hiking for 2 miles (each way) all the way up to the top waterfall of all of them. It was enormous! Sadly, it was late enough in the day that we were not able to do much more at the 7 sacred pools. We ended up running half of the trail down from the waterfall because it was already starting to get dark. We drove the road home with the top down on the convertible as the sun finished setting. It was beautiful to watch as we went around the cliffs and the different backdrops the road presented at sunset. Once it was completely dark, I just kinda stared up at the sky as I watched the stars begin to appear and become brighter and brighter.

(What a beautiful drive. It's a good thing we don't get car sick.)

(this is the coast line of Ke'anae Peninsula. It started to rain on us, but it was beautiful.)

(Enjoying the banana bread at the Halfway to Hana stop. 2 thumbs up in approval.)

(The Upper Waikani Falls, or better known as Three Bears Falls. We had to hike to these falls and kinda scale a wall a bit and do some boulder hopping, but it was invigorating. )

(for some reason I can not remember the name of these falls. We had to kinda scale along one side of the water (which was difficult) in order to get close to the bottom part of the falls. We met a few other couples here and worked together to figure out the best way to get across.)

(Wailua Falls. Pretty large waterfall, we ended up getting rained on so we did not stay long.)

(Wai'anapanapa - and black sand beach. The black sand here was formed from lava and water smashing into each other causing the fragments of black sand. I also found 6 large rocks to bring home for my "hot rocks".)

(Donald and I standing inside an old lava tube at black sand beach.)

(Donald is acting like the EXTREMELY tall bamboo along the trail up to Waimoku Falls has him trapped. This hike was 2 miles long, and while we were hiking thru the bamboo it was very dark because of how tall the bamboo was.)

(Here I am wading across a rushing stream in order to get to the waterfall. At first I was kinda nervous because no one else was around and I was unsure on if we were really suppose to cross, but once we were in the water, we were good to go and continued along the path.)

(check out how small Donald is as he is being dwarfed by Waimoku Falls at the top of the 7 sacred pools.)

One thing I do regret is that we were not able to to spend any time enjoying the pools at 7 sacred pools. I wish we had taken an additional day and went back to do more hiking and spend a few hours at the pools. Instead, we chose to do other adventures that I will write about on another day.

Paradise on Maui (part 1)

After leaving LAX at 6:30 a.m. we had a very long flight and arrived in Maui later that same afternoon. We were greeted with our beautiful leis and went and picked up our sporty convertable. The first place we hit was the local Costco, to where we were met with over priced food. After our jaw dropping check out, we headed to our condo. We rented a 2 bedroom unit at Menehune Shores in Kihei which I found after doing a ton of researching on vrbo.com. Our unit was on the 3rd floor and had a fantastic view. Our goal was to go out to dinner that evening and watch the sunset and relax, however, we were so pooped that we just grabbed a bite from the fridge (thanks to Costco) and crashed around 8:00 p.m.

This was a view of the sunset from our lani when we finally realized how late it was. Can you tell how full of energy we are?

This is the view of the ocean from our bed.

Our breakfast view from our lani. I loved how the ocean would just light up and sparkle.

We enjoyed walking along the beach by our resort. Here I am walking towards our condo, the picture cuts off before you would see where our room was

(It is the next row of windows.)

A rainbow we saw as we were driving to Lahaina.

Sunny California

During our 2 week trip/vacation, we went to Southern California. We were able to spend time with family, friends, go to the beach and the temple.

Thursday night, we got into LAX around 8:30 p.m. we picked up our car and headed to Fullerton to stay the night with Don Sr. Friday morning, we got up, visited a bit, and headed off to San Diego to go to the temple. We did one session and participated in some sealings. After the temple we headed to my sisters house. We did a double date that night, going to Sweet Lumpy's for some yummy BBQ and then over to their bishops house to watch a movie in the backyard.

(Rick, Jolene, Camille and Donald at Sweet Lumpy's in Old Town Temecula)

It was awesome weather and we enjoyed our evening. Saturday morning we played ROCK BAND on their WII and I was the lead singer. Of course I should have my own record deal but I am way to talented for something like that. What I really want to know is why I have no problem jamming out to Bon Jovi at home, but once it is in a game I am a total dork!

(other band members are Bryant and Parker)

Saturday we also went shopping and I got some HOT shoes! Later, we went and checked on our home, I went to lunch with my girlfriend Jana (Baja Fresh) and then we went went to Souplantation for dinner with Wade, Sabrina, Jacob and Taniel Anderson. Sunday we went to church, saw a few old friends, and then one of Donald's old college roommates came over with his little growing family. Monday we did a Lowe family gathering at Huntington beach for the day and just relaxed. Tuesday, we left for the airport at 3:15 a.m. and surprisingly it only took us a total of 30 minutes to get there. (I swear that must be some kind of a record.)

I will hopefully FINALLY get tothe Maui stuff tomorrow - cross your fingers I succeed!

Happy Birthday Tanner.

I can't beleive Tanner is already 3 years old. It is amazing how time just flies by in the blink of an eye. Today we were able to have a really low key birthday dinner with my parents and Tanner just kept talking about how it was his party. It was really cute to watch how excited and happy he was. The only problem was getting him to actually eat his food! Nonetheless we had a nice evening and Tanner had a ton of fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FAVORITE TANNER!!!!

Here's a video clip of us singing happy birthday to Tanner. He just cracks me up all the time. The 2 bad things about the clip are: 1. that it is grainy because I used my camera, 2. that the main voice you hear singing is ME, bleck!

I had to rush her to the doctors . . .

(this actually happened yesturday on the 19th)

Today is Donald's birthday, and he wanted to go over to the church parking lot and spend a few hours playing roller hockey, ride bikes, play baseball, etc.

{here in Mississippi we have an insect call a fire ant. these are related to the WASP family and they bite/sting and they are killer. as a matter of fact I got a fire ant bite the morning we left for our trip, and my whole foot swelled up and it ached and hurt so bad and the itch was HORRIBLE. This pain and discomfort usually lasts about a week.}

back to story: So we were over at the church and Brook and Tanner were playing by some pine trees. about 10 minutes later she came wobbling over to me like she was itchy on her foot. I roller bladed over to her and immediately took off her skirt and her shoes and made sure no ants were on her. Her feet were covered with bites, as well as several on her legs and a few on her hands. My mom quickly put some itch ointment on all the bites on her lower body. We stopped our hockey game and took a break for some drinks and snacks. about 15 minutes after Brook got attacked (those evil evil evil ants) I noticed her face getting blotchy as well as her ears being fire red. about 5 minutes later her whole body was red and blotchy and swollen. Her whole face and eyes were so badly swollen. Then she started with a weak cough. we IMMEDIATELY packed up the kids and all our stuff and sped home. I called the doctors office as soon as I got in the door. The doctors and nurses were still at lunch for another 20 minutes. I told the receptionist kinda what was going on, and she promptly spoke with someone. She said that she would advise me to go to the ER. I asked if I could just do a walk in appointment if I was there at 1:30 (which was in 20 minutes) they said they could squeeze us in as a walk in. I ran out to the car to leave, and Donald and my dad were giving her a blessing. We took off for the doctors office. Once we got there, we waited in the waiting room for about 2 minutes till we got called back. We saw a nurse right away. about 10 minutes later our doctor came in. He checked her breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. He had the nurse get her a shot of adrenalin for her allergic reaction. The doctor examined her some more, and suggested that we have her stay in the hospital overnight for observation. He was concerned about the secondary reaction that some children have that can sometimes be fatal. After talking with the doctor and weighing out our situation, we decided that we would bring her home. The only benefit the hospital would provide is she would be hooked up to an IV and if she went into shock, the nurses would be able to administer to her immediately whereas if we are here and she goes into shock, it could be fatal. So, once we decided that we would bring her home, the doctor advised us of what we could do at home and what to look for.She is now asleep in her crib and on about 4 different medications. Poor thing has been thru a lot the past few hours. We will have her sleep in our room tonight so that we can check on her every hour. If she is going to have a secondary reaction, it will manifest its self within the next 30 hours.

UPDATE: Brooklyne has been doing well and I think we are in the clear. She has definately needed her medicine regularly, but as long as we stay ontop of it, she has been doing great. We have an appointment with the allergist on the 29th.

WE are BACK!

Sound the alarms, because we are back in town! We had a great time on our 10 year anniversary trip to California and Maui Hawaii. I will hopefully be getting lots of info and pictures up this week to share with everyone.

OH, and on a side note, tonight at dinner Kolby kept hitting the table, chair, his leg, etc. When I asked him to stop hitting things, his reply was "MOM, I am practicing!" I of course asked him what he was practicing, to which he responded "My DANG IT!" So there you have it, my son practices the way he is going to say DANG IT.

RED SQARE = LOUD NOISE

****** this story took place the morning we left for our vacation ******

My children must feel the need to let their presence be known at the preschool. If Brooklyne is not having a fit of a day, and if Tanner is not being feisty and unruly, then Tanner must get creative and pull the FIRE ALARM!

Yes, that is right, my child, my perfect innocent angel child, pulled the fire alarm at preschool today. When I went to pick him up at noon, the teach seemed to lecture ME, that I need to teach him not to pull fire alarms. Well, I must say, in his defense, the fire alarm was at a small child's reach, was a bright red square in the wall, and had this handle that just SCREAMED "pull me"! I mean what inquisitive child would turn down such an offer?

Of course the fire department had a truck half way to the school before they found out it was a false alarm. I told Tanner it was not a good choice to pull the alarm and to not do it again. (With that said, I secretly think it would be a hoot if he pulled it the last week of school -aren't I evil!?!?!?)