Tsunami scare

At 12:07 p.m. today I had Kyleigh go upstairs to retrieve my charging phone so I could call Russ to see if he was coming home for lunch. I saw that I had 11 missed calls. When I saw Rusty's name as all the missed calls I immediately called him back. He has NEVER called me that many times. He told he had received an email on his phone that there was a tsunami warning for 1:11 p.m. He wanted me to get on the weather service website and check for updates and specifics. What can you do in 1 hour and 4 minutes to prepare for potential disaster? Maybe fill up a few water bottles and start praying. That's not enough when I have a family to protect. I am again resolved to improve my food and water storage.

P.S. The watch was officially for the Samoan islands but could have been as far reaching as Hawaii. The watch had since been cancelled, but an advisory is still in effect. I guess we won't be going surfing tonight.

Family Home Evening

For family home evening tonight we had a lesson on pioneers. This is our log cabin treat, built out of fudge bar cookies.

I found a new favorite family home evening blog site. Check it out at nataliesfhespot.blogspot.com

Awapuhi Hike.

Kyleigh and Katelyn love awapuhi. Awapuhi (ava pu hee) is a natural conditioner. You squeeze the bulbs (without breaking the stems so they can refill). The thick liquid that comes out of the bulb can go right onto your hair. They love to smear it in their hair until they are dripping the snot like substance down the backs of their necks. It is in season right now so we promised Kyleigh we could go on a hike just to harvest awapuhi. I even bought a funnel. We went on the Kuilau hike, an easy 2.5 mile round trip hike with lots of guava and awapuhi. We filled all of our bottles before we reached the half mile mark then decided to keep going to the top. Once at our destination we played tag in the grassy field and ate banana bread at the covered picnic tables.

We ate lots of natures treats on the way. To reach the strawberry and lemon guavas Rusty holds Kyleigh up and she has to stay "stiff as a board." Luckily this is a game Rusty has played with the girls since they were tiny and now it is coming in handy. Kyleigh has to keep her legs straight and Rusty lifts her up over his head so she can pick the ripe guavas.

This was Katelyn's first hike hike. We have wondered when she would decide hiking might be more fun that riding in the backpack. She hiked 3/4 of the hike, or about 1.8 miles. I guess it's time to start planning her first backpacking trip.

Still under 30

I have only one more year until I hit the big 30. As for right now, I am still under 30! This year the girls picked out some very special gifts for me. I got...

- a bell for my bike. Katelyn is quick to say it is just like the bell on her bike and KyKy doesn't have a bell.
- yahtzee score card refill pack. Rusty and I have always loved yahtzee. One summer in college we played atleast 5 games a day. I just this month beat the high score, a record I have held for about 8 years. I got 4 yahtzee's in one game for a score of 619 points.
- dish cloths. I have gotten so much flack for my holy dish towels that even my kids thought it appropriate to buy me new dish cloths for my birthday. I have to admit that I love them.

Rusty got me a watch and a contraption to practice my golf swing. He also took me to my favorite sandwich shop. We got dinner to go and had a picnic and fed the fish at Kauai lagoons. My favorite is to put the bread in my toes and the fish nip at your feet. We also went to the movie, the time travelors wife. Mike and Holly made me a delicious pasta dinner with lime pie for dessert and gave me an ebay gift card. I'm still trying to decide what I need off of ebay. My mom and dad sent me a fun card and some money with strict instructions to buy something completely frivolous. Merrill and Nancy sent me a fun package with some shoes, a necklace, a shirt and tons of neccos.

I had a great birthday, with no pictures because it is usually me manning the camera and I can't take pictures of myself. I'm O.K. with turning 30 as long as I get another fun birthday.

A fun weekend

A few weekends ago we had the idea for an appetizer night. We invited all of our friends over for a potluck appetizer dinner on Friday night. Good food, good people. Can't go wrong with that. Nic and Heidi stayed at our house that night and the next morning we went kayaking up the Kalihiwai river. We attempted to make it to the waterfall you can see from the highway but found it harder than expected. We plan on trying again but taking tennis shoes to hike up the river the last little way to make it to the waterfall. Despite not reaching the waterfall we had fun. We saw only one other kayak and enjoyed the peaceful river.

Saturday night we went to the Kauai County Fair. I love the fair. It has been bred into me. We watched the "circus," rode the ferris wheel, went to the petting zoo, met Smokey the bear and the firedog, and looked at the fair entries and exibits. The food at the fair here is not like back home. No tiger ears, corn on the cob, or homemade bread. Lots of rice, saimin, kahlua pork, and malasadas. We ate at subway before we went.

I still love the fair!

When they grow up...

When Kyleigh grows up she wants to be a... Doctor, Costco stand person, or a hiking guide.
When Katelyn grows up she wants to be a... Bear.

Kyleigh's 6th birthday!

August 26th rolled around again. It comes too fast. We had a small party for Kyleigh's 6th birthday. Mike and Holly and the Giles family came over for dinner, cupcakes, and a golf ball hike. Kyleigh got to choose all of the above. We had taco salad for dinner, with doritos instead of tortilla chips ( a specific request). We had spent a bunch of time on the internet to find the right cupcake to make. We found a random recipe for cupcakes with not all the way cooked cookie dough inside, and a cute froggie cupcake pattern. The cupcakes were a combo of the two. The kids loved them and they had fun creating their own frog cupcakes.


The golf ball hike was a huge success. I don't think anyone had been on our route for awhile and all the kids ended up with a huge bag of balls. We opended presents after the hike and she loved all of her presents. We gave her a new bike. She told us that she wasn't sure if she wanted one because she wanted to be able to ride her old bike without training wheels before she tried on a bigger bike. We got her one anyway and a few nights later on her first try on the golf course she rode from the tee box to the flag without any problems. She was so excited. Who knew that all she needed was a bigger bike? She was so surprised that her knees weren't hitting the handlebars and it didn't hurt to ride a bike. She is getting too big too fast. Happy Birthday Kyky!