Preschool

Way up high on my list of reasons why I dig summer is the fact that I get to volunteer at Trevi's preschool. Hog heaven, that place. I get to play with a bunch of adorable kids, watch Trevi interact with his friends, and steal great ideas to put to use in my own classroom. My hands were often too dirty to hold a camera, but I did manage to capture a few moments.

Officer Trevor commandeers a dump truck:

The boys make a lake:

Trevor learns the important skill of scraping off excess butter:
The blueberry bread is from Costco, by the way. I must go there and get some (once I get over my paralyzing fear of ten-gallon tubs of mayonnaise).

Dominoes

Trevor has a beautiful and much-appreciated habit of picking activities in the morning that require nothing of me but my presence. He just wants me to sit on the couch ("But you can fill up your coffee first, Mummy.") and watch him do something. Sometimes he gives a full play-by-play, and other times he gets lost in concentration. Today was a concentration day. I sipped my Kona blend and smiled at the little man in front of me.

By some amazing luck (and freakishly surgeon-steady hands), he managed to set up an entire string of dominoes without one accidental collapse. After knocking them down (intentionally), he repeated the task. Perfect again.

He did this over and over again, and he was so pleased with himself that he actually asked me to take a picture of him (which is completely unheard of). So I did.

Slow and Steady:

Proud as a Peacock:
By the way, Trevi is seen here modeling his souvenir t-shirt from Hawaii, which I should have bought in the next size up. Guess I'll have to go back and get another one.

The El Salvador Gang

Today we were treated to a lovely poolside dinner and lots of catching up with some of our favorite people in the world. Chicas, we absolutely need to get together more often, if only to quote from American JA and laugh at our husbands (sorry, guys) :)

Ten years ago, we were a bunch of freewheeling teachers in El Salvador, sipping piña coladas while lounging on floaties and listening to obscure disco on Radio Laser. Oh sure, we worked our nalgas off....there was great dedication to the pedagogical cause when we weren't floating....but those were some good old days, let me tell you.

Of course, we've got plenty of good new days going as well. The main difference is that these days, our lounging is occasionally interrupted by one of these folks:
We've all done some excellent work in the years since we left Escuela Americana, I'd say.


PS: Who can resist a picture of kids in goggles?

More Bonfante!

I've blogged about Bonfante before. We've been there many times, and we'll go there many more. I take less and less photos every time we go, because I started to think that it was a bit weird to have nearly identical photos year after year. But I just discovered that it's actually rather cool. A few cases in point:

Running under the waterfall in 2006:

Running under the waterfall in 2008:
It kind of looks like the kids changed their clothes, and Chad traveled in a time machine.


Posing in front of the talking vegetables in 2007:


Posing in front of the talking vegetables in 2008:


Trevi falling asleep on the ferris wheel in 2006:

Trevi pretending to fall asleep on the ferris wheel in 2008, to recreate what happened in 2006:

Me smiling and oblivious as the caterpillar ride begins its nauseating circles in 2006:


Me riding under protest in 2008:


Bonfante has a relatively new water play area, but the kids spent less time playing there than the time it took for them to change in and out of bathing suits. In any case, brief fun was had.

Water dumps down from above by the bucketful.
Trevor watches from a safe distance as Clara endures the deluge a few times.

He joins in.

Mikey likes it!

And no trip to Bonfante would be complete without a few car rides, and plenty of time spent watching the trains go by.
I should also mention the bird show, which featured a cockatoo named Martha who could operate her own miniature bike, scooter, roller skates, and shopping cart. I'm not really a pet bird person, but I can understand how one could be a pet bird person, especially if your bird could perform cool tricks. The kids loved it.

Bye 'til next time, Bonfante!

Clara Hamm?

Folks around here are getting pretty excited about the impending start of soccer season. The city even has a parade to kick off the new season (pun totally intended), and hundreds of kids must be doing exactly this in their backyards about now:
This will be Clara's first time on any kind of team, and she is showing a subdued, faintly visible enthusiasm for the whole thing, which peaked slightly when she saw how cute she looked in cleats and shin guards. Darn cute, I must say.
Her first practice will be on Thursday, and she'll be playing with some of her buddies from school, so I anticipate a steady increase in enthusiasm from here on out.

And I just can't NOT include this pic showing Clara doing some sort of Phoebe run:
Goooooooooooolllllllllllllll! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol! Goooooooooooolllllllll!!!!
(Please blame the previous outburst on Univision and Telemundo.)

The Remote Control Motor Boat

For the longest time, Trevi has been asking, very specifically, for a "remote control motor boat to drive around in the pool." Since we don't have any gifty occasions during the summertime, we couldn't really justify complying with his request (even though I started to really want one too). Then, I realized that we could get one as a "souvenir from Hawaii". Perfect. We never really had any intention of buying it in Hawaii. Instead, we figured we'd wait until we got home, and pick one up with a Toys R Us gift card that I've had kicking around in my wallet for a few years.

So, we got Trevor some real souvenir type things like a t-shirt and a Hawaii magnet and whatnot, and then we all took a trip to Toys R Us for the piece de resistance. Here is our little mariner taking his new Zodiac for a spin:

And here he is an hour later, when the battery compartment had filled with water and the boat had stopped working forever:
Trevor and I were not completely surprised, since we had read a bunch of online reviews about several boats in a similar price range (i.e. cheap), and some reviewers had warned of leaks and subsequent malfunction. Trevor summed it up best when he said, "Mummy, I guess we should have listened to those people when they said 'Don't waste your money on this piece of junk!' "

Hawaii

I think Chad would agree with me in saying that our trip to Hawaii was every bit as excellent as we had imagined it would be. Chad gets the credit for all of the planning; he pored over guidebooks, scoured the internet, and booked everything. His work paid off. It was smooth sailing from start to finish.

Before I give you the Reader's Digest version of our Big Island getaway, you may want to go to kaparadio.com and listen live to their broadcast of the latest Hawaiian hits. We listened to it in the car so often that we could practically sing along (in Hawaiian) by the end of the trip.

Okay, these photos are not even remotely in chronological order, but I think they capture the spirit of the whole adventure.

Chapter 1: Lava, Lava Everywhere

We walked on some extremely new land. We preferred hiking on Pahoehoe lava rock (the smooth, ropey kind), to a'a lava rock (the sharp, jagged stuff that tore my flip flops to shreds).
Everybody writes messages in white coral on the black lava rock. So here's our graffiti:

Here we are trying not to injure ourselves as we pose for a self-timer on the brutal a'a:
Kilauea Caldera has been putting on its current show since March.

Half of Volcanoes National Park was closed for safety reasons, but we were able to hike along a ridge and look down on former flows, like the Kilauea Iki crater.


Then, we hiked down and across the whole crater. There were steam vents everywhere, and the ground was warm to the touch. I kind of like this picture, even though all I'm dong is stacking some rocks so I can perch the camera for a self-timer.

And here's that self-timer:

That night, we drove out of the park, and went to the place where the lava was flowing into the ocean. We had to hike out (across more lava rock, naturally), and we were actually leaping around like gazelles, because we were lava rock experts by that point.

Here's what we saw when we were as close as the officials would let us go:

We sat there for about 4 hours, just watching the colors change as it got dark, then watching the lava shoot up into the air.

Words and photos (especially with my lack of photographic skill) certainly can't do it justice. It was unbelievable. We just stared and stared (and tried to ignore the loud people around us talking about things like porcelain veneers and botox).


We dabbled in spelunking as well. There are lava tubes all over the island that you can hike through, and we checked out a couple of them. One was super touristy, and the other was slightly off the beaten path.

Here's a view looking back at the "skylight" (the place where part of the tube collapsed, and where you can enter it):

And here we are, posing for yet another self-timer in the cave. See how it looks all bright and shiny in there? It's completely pitch-black-the-darkest-thing-you've-ever-seen. You had to shine the flashlight to find exactly where to place each step as you moved. This brightness is all the work of the camera's flash.


Chapter 2: Sand, Snorkels, and Sandwiches

We spent a few days just sitting on the beach. We took picnic lunches with us, and various layers of sun protection. We snorkeled everywhere we went, and had lots of good fish viewing and amazing coral landscapes. We even got up close and personal with a couple of sea turtles. The beaches were beautiful and practically deserted (thanks to the best guidebook in the universe).

I took this very cheesy photo of myself as we hiked back from the beach across the a'a. Please note the ridiculously large sunglasses.

Chapter 3: Waterfalls

We took a spur-of-the-moment drive to the Hilo side of the island to check out some of the famous falls. Here is Rainbow Falls:
Pretty, right? Well, we had seen its picture in the guidebook, and were expecting to hike out to some gorgeous corner of nature. As it turned out, we just had to hike to the corner of a parking lot to get this view. Still pretty, though.


Chapter 4: Dolphins!

This was crazy. Something I will never forget. We rented a kayak to paddle across Kileakekua Bay to the Captain Cook Monument, where there was supposed to be good snorkeling, and a chance of seeing spinner dolphins.

Here are a few of the dolphins:

And here is Chad seeking membership in the pod:

The bay was PACKED with dolphins. We kayaked and swam with them for three hours. They came right up to us. Incredible.

Finally, we paddled all the way across and stopped for lunch. Here's our lunchtime view:


Chapter 5: Hawaiian Sunsets

Since the air was so full of "vog" from the volcano, the sunsets mostly amounted to the brief appearance of an orange ball in the sky, which would disappear long before it made it down to the horizon. The only postcard sunset was on our first night there:

Gosh, there is much, much more to tell. I may add a few more chapters to this tale at a later date. Until then, I will leave you with a few more items:

1. My hair goes all lovely and wavy in a humid climate. Hawaii hair is good.
2. I bought a ukulele.
3. Mango daquiris are absolutely delicious.
4. The Luau at the Kona Beach Hotel is nothing like the Luau on the Brady Bunch.
5. Miloli'i is an interesting place.
6. I enjoy saying humuhumunukunukuapua'a.
7. Ramen noodles taste the same in Hawaii as they do here.
8. Don't waste your money on Donkey Balls...even out of curiosity.
9. We should have taken our petzls. Really, you should always take your petzl.
10. KAPA is home of Hawaii's music.
11. Vacations are a good thing.
12. Happy Anniversary, Hun. Mahalo plenty for ten years of pahoehoe, and hardly any a'a. (but lots of ha ha)
13. Where shall we spend 11 days for our 11th anniversary? :)

Aloha!

July 18th will be our 10th Wedding Anniversary, so Chad and I are celebrating by spending 10 glorious days in Hawaii, starting tomorrow! Instead of blogging, I will be hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, watching volcanoes erupt, and eating macadamia nuts.
I might possibly squeeze in a bit of blogging, but it will be tricky with all of those macadamia nuts in my hands.

The Masterpiece, cont'd

We hauled out our collaborative canvas today, and made some serious progress:

The yellow train tracks were a joint effort. Trevi came up with the idea, and Clara provided the long reach.
Chad and I had a go as well, although my additions are indistinguishable from Trevor's.

The painting isn't finished yet, but I can already tell that it will be hard to decide which way to hang it. This way?

Or this way?
Our wall is going to be so happy.