Beach Car

If you hadn't heard, we bought a little beach car. It's a silly little VW Beetle and we are having fun with it. Gas is super expensive in Kauai and so we wanted something that gets good mileage, we wanted something we could buy for cheap, and we wanted something fun. Our little Beetle fits the bill. We keep it loaded up with the boogie boards and beach chairs and use it as our fun car. I also use it to drive back and forth to work (about 54 miles a day) because it's better on gas than our Ford. I think we will never be able to get the sand from our feet vacuumed out of it, but we don't care.

This is a view of the NaPali Coast taken from a look out at Koke'e. This is the closest you can get to the NaPali Coast unless you take a helicopter or boat. The day we went the air was really "voggy" so the view is hazy. "Vog" is a smog-like mist that comes from the volcano on Big Island and it looks like you're in a cloud. You can't smell it or anything; it just makes the air hazy.

At Koke'e we saw lillies growing wild. I took pictures because I knew I had certain daughters who LOVE lillies.

There were also hydrangeas growing EVERYWHERE. It's cool to see things growing wild outside that I've only seen in houseplants and floral shops before.

So, So Sad!

Look at our sad, sad swimming pool! Closed for repairs for two weeks. Joey is going through swimming pool withdrawal.

Oh, The Humidity

A while back I mentioned on my blog that there was an unidentified fruit in our yard, then later I mentioned that it was passion fruit, or liliqoi (I'm not sure I spelled that right). The plant now has blossoms on it and they are amazingly beautiful. I know, I'm always saying that things on this island are amazingly beautiful, but it's always true. This island is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! Here is a picture of the passion fruit blossom from our yard.

Don't you agree? Amazingly beautiful?

On to the humidity topic. It's probably common knowledge that Hawaii (tropical jungle) is more humid than Colorado (high altitude desert). It's especially humid here in the so-called winter. There are some things about the humidity that I really like and some things that I don't care for so much. Some things about the humidity that I like:

* I can breathe better, less stuffy nose.

*My skin is softer. I have not put lotion on my hands one single time since I moved here and in Colorado my hands were so dry in the winter that they would crack and bleed.

*Bottles of stuff like soap and sunscreen that have a pump-top don't get a dried-up blob on the end of them that makes the pump not work.

*Wet wipes stay wet, even in the hot car, even in the hot car for weeks and weeks.

*Amazingly beautiful plants grow everywhere.

Things about the humidity that I don't care for very much:

*Gum gets really gross in my purse. It gets wet and sticky. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but when you try to open a piece, it sticks to the wrapper and looks and feels like ABC gum.

*Food gets soggy. We have all our cereal, crackers, stuff like that in plastic containers in the cupboard to keep them from getting soggy.

*My hair is straight and when I curl it, it goes straight again after about five minutes.

*Mold grows in the shower if you don't clean it often enough. Yuck.

*Towels get stinky if you try to hang them up and use them more than one day.

*Hard candies liquify and melt into their wrappers and on to the counter tops.

*If you set a glass of cold liquid on any surface, you end up with a huge puddle of condensation. We even get a puddle underneath the glass table, clinging to the upside-down surface (does that make sense?).

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve we drove down to Poipu Beach and spent the day there. We had a great time relaxing, soaking up some sunshine, and swimming. We waited all day for New Year's Eve fireworks.

We have never been so close to fireworks before. It was awesome! We sat in our lawn chairs on the beach and watched the display.

It was really cool to see the reflection of the fireworks in the ocean and how the waves lit up when the light hit them. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the water.

The weird thing was that I kept thinking it was the 4th of July, not New Year's Eve. It was warm and we were sitting there watching fireworks and people were barbecuing and it just felt like the 4th of July. Very strange.

The coolest thing happened while we were at the beach. We saw whales! There were at least three or four whales going along the coast. We saw them coming up for air and blowing their blowhole-things and one flapped its tail. It was an amazing experience. Then, when we were on the beach waiting for the fireworks, I saw a shooting star. I haven't seen one of those since I was a little kid sleeping out in the back yard. It was just an amazing day.

When I went to upload the pictures from my camera, I found that Joey had taken pictures of some of his Christmas toys. Here is one of his Lego creations. Thanks Jessie and TJ for the GREAT Lego set!

Oh, what fun!

Christmas Eve was not like any Christmas Eve we've ever had. Mike, Joey and I went to the beach and had some boogie-boarding fun! On the North Shore of Kauai, the waves are stronger in winter and we got beaten by the surf. The ocean was angry that day, my friend.


I was all excited about the waves until one picked me up, knocked me off my boogie board and slammed me down to the bottom of the ocean (only about 4 feet deep, but it was still scary). When the surf tried to take off my swimming suit, I decided to sit out for a while, even though Mike was getting a great laugh.


These pictures are all mixed up, but this is Mike on Christmas day in his new Hawaiian shirt I got him.

Mike and Joey chillaxin' in the afterglow of Christmas dinner.

Back to the beach on Christmas Eve. Here is Mike enjoying the view of the pounding surf.

Mike and Joey enjoying the board.

Oh, what fun it is to have a Hawaiian holiday!

Church Christmas Party: Hawaiian Style

Gotta love the church Christmas party! Ours was last night. We hoped for a great time and we were not disappointed. The kids did a great program portraying the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
There were tables full of great food. Our branch president cooked kalua pork and chicken, poi (yuck, but don't tell any native Hawaiians that I said that), an oriental chicken-and-noodle dish, and rolls. The rest of us brought salads and desserts. We had haupia (yummy coconut pudding/jello type stuff), a salmon dish with tomatoes and onions, lots of fresh fruit, and a huge abundance of high-fat, high-suger desserts - YUM!

After the program we had an open mic and several little girls performed, including this little cutie.

My favorite thing of all was when these two men played Hawaiian songs on the ukulele and guitar and sang. Then two girls from our branch performed an impromtu hula. It was wonderful!

I thought Joey was going to be a wiseman, but I was surprised when he came out on stage with top billing: Joseph himself. He looked so cute.

Missionaries always add to the fun. The Haole (white) one is from Idaho.

Our beloved branch president, President Koga, who did the cooking.

Look closely, there's Mike and Joey enjoying the food and fellowship.

Feathered Friends

There are so many things to love about this magical place called Kauai, but our feathered friends are one of my favorites.

These beautiful birds are called Brazilian Cardinals and they always hang out near the pool. Joey has started bringing crackers outside with him so he can feed them when he goes swimming.

Mike almost got one to eat out of his hand today.

Kauai has chickens EVERYWHERE!!! I love them. They are at the airport, the hospital, the school, the church, the mall, the grocery store, everywhere. Here are some in our yard.

A mama and her babies in our yard.

This mama had nine chicks and we fed them cracker crumbs so they like us now.

Here she is looking into our house, waiting for food. Her chicks are all hidden under her belly.

There are chickens at the beaches.

I think it's really funny that we lived on a farm in Colorado and we had no chickens for the last several years. Then we move to a condo in Hawaii and every morning, we wake to the crowing of roosters. A lot of people here complain about the roosters, but I absolutely love the sound of them. They don't wake me up anymore; I guess I'm used to them. I love to listen to them crowing and to the clucking and chirping of the hens and chicks.

You might be wondering if there's chicken poo everywhere, but there really isn't. Maybe the nightly rain washes it away, I don't know, but it really isn't a problem.

I love the chickens!