New Years in Hawaii

This is just a taste of what goes on in Hawaii on New Years Eve.

Big Island Trip

We had a fabulous time on the Big Island last week. Our friends from West Virginia, Brad and JoLynn Mitchell along with our friend Caleb, from Georgia all got to go with us. We stayed at Kilauea Military Camp which is only about a mile from the active volcano! We were very safe though, even if it blew---we were really hoping it would! Above is only one picture from our trip; I have put lots more on my Face Book account. Feel free to pop over there to view them all. Find me as Melanie Brantly Smith.

Waikiki

We've been thoroughly enjoying our visitors, Sadie and Kristen! A few days ago we all took a trip to Waikiki. They were hoping for some surfing lessons but the waves were non existent that day. We had a lot of fun anyway hanging out at the beach and strolling around Hilton Hawaiian Village. Here are some pictures...


Kathryn, Kristen and Sadie make the famous POSE at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (notice the statues in the background)

Now Callie, A.J. and Kathryn take a shot at it...

Callie "hangs loose" on the beach.

Sadie is on the phone..."Hey! Guess where I am right now!!"

PENGUINS! Surprise! I bet you didn't expect these little guys on Waikiki! They make their home in the warm tropical waters of Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Go Warriors!!

Nothing like a WAC title to bring me out of non-blogging status! Harry, Kat, and Austin went with our church to the game on Friday against Boise State and had a blast cheering on the U of Hawaii's prized team. We are amazed at how excited this whole state is for their team. After the game, the youth group made its way down to the field which is where this lovely picture was captured. The guy in the middle (with the tongue ---a very Hawaiian thing to do) is Kat and Austin's good friend Ross.

I'm so sorry for not keeping my blog updated. My intention is to start up again and try to catch up on all that I've missed blogging about in the past 6 months or so. SO MUCH has happened!! We've MOVED locally for one thing. Another big event was the Mexico Mission trip that Kat and Austin took over the summer. We've also had several other blog worthy activities this fall. Read on to the following post for a quick recount!

20+ Foot Faces

This is the term for how big the waves were the other day on the North Shore. We took a trip (all of 20 minutes to get there!) to see the action. The traffic was stopped heading to Sunset Beach, so we settled for Haleiwa. We had a picnic lunch and sat and enjoyed watching the crazy surfers and the pounding surf. Just another day in paradise~Wish you were here!

Big Island Trip part 2

Here are a few more pictures from our trip (read the post below to fin
d out more about the trip) The top picture is what we saw as we drove down the mountain on "chain of craters" road. These are steam plumes generated from all the lava entering the ocean. The other two pictures (of Kathryn) were taken on the southernmost point in the U.S. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

Big Island Trip part 1

While Kristen was here in November, she, Kat and I took a quick trip to the Big Island. We left before sunrise on Monday and came back after dark on Tuesday. Let me tell you, we packed in the sightseeing during those two days and we only saw about 1/4 of the island. We stayed in Volcanos National Park in a cute little cabin. The top left picture is of one of the many craters of Kilauea, which is still erupting (but not at this site.) The top right picture was taken at the end of "chain of craters" road where lava ran across in 2003. We hiked about another 1/4 mile from this spot over the black lava rock to a spot where we could see the red lava entering the ocean. We timed it so we would be there as the sun went down. It was an experience of a lifetime! The bottom left picture shows the red parts that we saw. Believe me, it was much more spectacular in person! The last picture is of a black sand beach where we stopped along our travels to eat our lunch.

We had a visitor!!

We had our FIRST visitor! Kristen, Kathryn's friend from West Virginia, came to see us and stayed for two whole weeks. Having her visit cave us a chance to do lots of stuff. On Kristen's birthday, we went to one of our favorite restaurants and then walked the streets of Waikiki. Kristen, Kathryn and Austin took an oportunity to pose with this statue while we were there. The picture of Kristen and Kat is when we were on the North Shore watching the sunset and the turtles.

Hello Mr. Turtle

Isn't this cool? These giant sea turtles just hang out on some of the beaches of Oahu. In early November, we drove to Alii Beach, in Haleiwa to watch the sunset and hopefully see the turtles. This one kept us company the whole time while several others were swimming in the shallow waves. The kids couldn't help but recreate their own turtles in the sand.

What's Shakin'?

It's been a few weeks since our famous earthquake and I still haven't taken the time to blog about it! Sorry about that. Instead, I think I'll just post what my dear daughter blogged on her myspace. So, take it away....Kat!


First of all we are all okay! This morning started unlike any other morning. I was asleep in my bed when I felt my bed shaking gently. I thought err Callie is shaking my bed! so I put on my evil morning face and no one was there so I just thought it was my imagination. Then I pulled the covers over my head when my bed started shaking violently, I sat up and looked around my room and it was shaking. I just thought "wow an earthquake this is interesting" I could hear our poor bird going crazy and his cage rattling and also the pictures rattling on the wall and just as it had started it stopped. At first I thought "What! I'm the only one who felt this?" then mom emerged from her room and we realized that we were the only ones to experince this epedimic. then about 10 minutes later we felt another rumble under our feet which was even cooler than the first one mostly because I was standing up but it didn't last that long. The pool also got some wave action. Something that it probably thought it would never experience. Though I will admit that it was neet to see it a rockin'. We didn't make it to church because we had a state wide power outidge(sp)! Then just as our area was getting power we heard a BOOM dad said "Well there goes our power" We were out of power for over 12 hours! The farthest mom and I went was to the Grocery store which was exciting. It was the first time I have ever shopped in a store without power. We had to use my cell phone for light so that we could see! The neet thing about this place though is that everyone was calm. At the store they only took what they needed. The guy in front of us was tellin the cashier how there gonna grill and party today. LOL yes this is one laid back state that is for sure! The island that was hit the worst was the Big Island. One of Maui's highways was shut down and the rest of us were without power. My Family survived on hotdogs and tunafish! and I made it to book #12 in A Series of Unfortanent Events! so that was the Smiths day in Hawaii

You put the lime where?

(A tribute to our Crossway Family!) Wouldn't you know it that we have a huge coconut tree in our front yard! For those of you who might be wondering the coconut's significance in our family: At our church in Georgia, Crossway Fellowship, we participated in a lip sync constest over 3 years ago and have never lived it down. The song was "You put the Lime in the Coconut" and the lip sync featured my wonderful husband doing a sort of "jig" that only he could do. It was classic.

Now, we can have all the coconut juice we want! This coconut tree in our front yard is very productive. In fact, it's such a successfully productive tree, that we are frequently reminding guests to NOT park underneath it. We are also always on the look out for children who might tarry too long under the bomb dropping tree as they go to get the mail.

Thankfully our landlord's brother came to the rescue yesterday! This brave man climbed the tree and hacked down all those coconuts. After watching him for over an hour, we now believe that this job should definitely be on the "World's most menacing jobs." While working on the task, he kindly took a short break to open one of the coconuts pouring out the juice for the kids to taste (not the tastiest of beverages right out of the fruit, much better chilled.)

So what became of the "fruits" of his labor? Well...coconuts...of course! We have a dozen or so of the things in our front yard now! They are all sitting there in a row waiting for the Smiths to figure out how to crack open the darn things. In fact, Harry wants to "harvest" all the meat out of them, dessicate and dehydrate the coconut, and then freeze it for the future so that we'll always have the fruit on hand to go go with...what else...but limes, of course!

Bird Watching

Callie, A.J. and I are taking "Zoology" this year. This particular course is on the Flying Objects of the 5th day. We are spending these first weeks learning all about birds. Some of the activities suggested in the course involve setting up bird feeders, baths and houses. We've put out the feeders so far. It is so much fun to sit in our den and watch all our new feathered friends visit our yard! We bought a Hawaii Bird Guide and are checking off the birds we see. The bird in this picture is a Java Sparrow. Although we think they are strikingly handsome, the birds are regarded as a serious agricultural pest in Hawaii, a threat to rice fields and other crops. Click on the "Bird Watching" title above to see more info and a good close-up picture of the Java Sparrow.

I'll try to get pictures of other birds that visit and post them too. Oh, and a special thanks to Richie and Kellie for the porch swing feeder. It is the favored feeder in our yard!

A rainbow!! This appeared right out our front door on Saturday. We see them all the time, but this one was really neat: full and bright! What a great reminder of God's promises to us!

Historic Honolulu - Field Trip!

On Friday, we took advantage of a Walking Tour in Honolulu to see Historical places we studied about in our history that week. Here, the crew is standing in front of one of 3 statues of King Kamehameha I. The second statue is on the Big Island where the king was born and the 3rd is in Washington D.C. We saw many places on Friday and enjoyed actually visiting the places that we read about.

Callie at the Homeschool Beach Day 

A.J. and Austin (look in the ocean for him) on Waikiki Beach 

A.J. and his new friend at the Homeschool beach day 

Kat meeting new friends at a Homeschool Beach Day Picnic