Ben's Wedding

I finally got the video uploaded! Now I can talk about the wedding that happened some time ago.


A couple of weeks ago, my little brother got married. He is the youngest one in our family and the last one to get married. All of my brothers and sisters were there (not all of their kids though) and it was great.

So happy!

They got married in Kristen's backyard since Barbara hasn't been a member of the church for a year yet. It was pretty crazy getting the house ready but once we did, it was beautiful. We were able to borrow the decorations from a friend of a friend and two other friends did the food and the pictures. It was a small, simple affair with just family.

Here is the group I grew up with. We joked that Ben should sit on my mom's lap.

After the ceremony, we all had dinner. Then, after dinner we took the pictures. I love the idea of eating before the pictures. That way, no one minds how long the pictures take because they have already eaten. We had to kind of hurry with the pictures though because the sun was setting. The light was beautiful though so it was worth it.

The complete group. There is definitely a complete feeling now that we have our last sister.

On the spur of the moment, we grabbed shaving cream and toilet paper and decorated their car. Then Alec got some bird seed so we could throw it at them as they left. It was so much fun. Anna really got into the birdseed. On the way back to the house, she was throwing it over her head while walking. It was really funny. Here they are making their getaway.

Pineapples

Before we came here, we were having a conversation with someone about pineapples. I don't remember who we were talking with but none of us knew what the plant looked like. Well now that I'm in Hawaii, I know and can tell you. Jason's parents have some in their front yard and they look like this:


Crazy little plant isn't it? I think I've mentioned how well things grow here. To plant these, they took the top off of a pineapple they bought at the store, put it in some water until it started sprouting then put it in the ground. I don't know how long they take to grow but I'll let you know when this one is ready to eat.

Waponi Wu (Little Island with a big volcano)

(Joe Versus the Volcano) In this case, it's the little volcano on the Big Island. The other day we went up to Kilauea which is, elevation wise, the shortest one on the island: only 4000 ft. It's one that is erupting and where you go if you want to see lava flow. Sadly, there is no actively flowing lava now. It's about 30 miles from here so it's easy to get to and nice to walk around. It's chilly up there so it's a good place to go to get away from the heat.

This is the main crater. When Jason's parents moved here, there was no smoke and you could hike and drive all the way around it. You could even go down to the edge of the crater. I guess it's not so safe now. Now, there is always this stuff coming out of it. I don't remember what the gas is but it's toxic and they had to close off half the path and road. When there is a lot of it in the air, they call it vog. Fortunately, it generally blows away from us and either towards the ocean or Kona. Poor Kona.

We walked along a road that has been closed off and is now just a walking path. The jungle is working on reclaiming the land and there are sink holes along the way.

Anna is saying "Cheeeeeeese!"

After that walk, we went to a different part and walked along a different path. Behind Anna is a rock outcropping. This is a place where there was a little short eruption in the 1950s that spewed rock and ash and lava and made a cone separate from the main cone and crater. The ground is all lava rock and you can go down there and walk along it. That used to be a lake of lava (I don't know if that was in the 50s too or longer ago) and you have to be sure to stay on the path. There can be pockets of gas (we saw some coming out, it's behind Jason) or just empty spots that can't hold your weight and you would fall. I don't think you would fall into lava but let me tell you, you don't want to fall onto lava rock either.

A Warm Ocean

Jason helping Anna walk on the uneven rocks.

As I mentioned, Anna is loving the ocean here. On Friday, we went to some tide pools. They were a bit different because it was all made up of lava rocks and some of them were really deep.

Up to my waist in the tide pools.

I didn't see many sea life in them but there were people snorkeling so there must have been some. The water was totally clear so that I could see the bottom no matter how deep it was. Which was good because the bottom was very uneven and I had to be able to see where I was going. Even still, I fell a couple of times and my legs are all scraped up and bruised. Lava rock: 2 Ellen: 0

Jason's parents opting out of going into the water.

Picture from the car of the dry side. It kind of looks like California.

The next day we went over to the other side of the island to go to the beach. It was kind of funny to drive up and over because we went through the dry side. It's pretty strange to go from lush jungle with palm trees to desert complete with cactus.

When the sun came out, the water was the most beautiful turquoise.

Then we went to the beach. There were several people but not crowded so that was nice. Poor Anna tripped and fell on the sidewalk on the way to the water and scraped up her knee. We were a bit worried about the salt water bothering her open wound but after a little while she was ok with it.

Happy in the water.

She loved the waves. We took her out past where they were breaking and just enjoyed the swells and that was fun.


She didn't like getting splashed (who does?) but other than that it was great. She was even willing to have me hold her out so she could pretend to swim. I was impressed with how well she can move her arms and kick.

Helping Grandpa

Anna spent some time on the beach making a sand castle with Grandpa complete with a tunnel. They even found some flowers to beautify it. The waves got it by the time we left and crashed the tunnel but the other two sides were still there.

Anna building up the tower.

A couple of fun days with only a little bit of sunburn on my back to remind us to put on sunscreen (Anna is unscathed, maybe she has her daddy's skin).

Hawaii

The largest volcano, Mauna Loa. It's active and slow flowing.

Remember when I said we were going to Hawaii but never said when? Well when is now and while it was going to be for a measly three weeks, the Lord decided we needed to move here instead. So, we have moved completely out of Kristen's house and moved into Jason's parents' house. We just couldn't take those extremes in weather in California and had to go more mild.

Our new home.

We flew in on Wednesday. It was a 5 1/2 hour flight and Anna did awesome. We had to wake her up at about 4:30 for our 7:30 flight but even so she did mostly great through the airport. She didn't like having to put her backpack on the belt to go through security but was better once it came back out. I realized that with all of my preparing her for the move, I forgot to prepare her for the airplane. Oops. I kind of explained what was happening before it did so she was a bit more prepared. When we were getting ready to take off, she said her baby was scared so I had her hold him and 'he' felt better. She didn't have any problems with her ears and fell asleep once we were in the air. During her hour and a half nap I realized I didn't take anything for me to do. I figured she would take up all my time. After she woke up, we watched Dora, colored, played with toys and explored the plane.

Our backyard with banana trees along the back and a bunch of palm trees. Palm trees don't have the dried, yucky parts that they have in California.

We are on the Big Island in Hilo which is on the wet side of the island. It is very lush and has rained a couple of times each day since we came. It's beautiful and warm and humid. The island is all lava rock under us so there are black rock walls for fences or on the front of houses and black on the side of roads.

We even have random black rock outcroppings in the yard. I wondered if that made it hard to grow things but apparently all you have to do is put a cutting in the ground and before too long you have a tree.


Along Hilo's coast, they have all park because in the 60s there was a third or fourth tsunami within 20 years. After that one, they decided to keep the coastline clear of buildings. One part of it is a really cute Japanese style garden that we walked around and visited a cute little island off our coast called Coconut Island.

Anna by one of the figures. For some reason, she started waving her arm and going up and down as if she was a ballet dancer at a barre. I have no idea where it came from but it was funny.

This sign on Coconut Island cracked me up.

Jason and Anna in the water off Coconut Island.

They have a little bit of beach and some sheltered pool areas that Anna loved playing in. The first time we went, she wasn't wearing her swimsuit so Jason said she couldn't get in the water because she would get her shorts wet. So she walked to me and asked if she could take her shorts off. We went back later with her swimsuit on, she didn't want to leave. Although we are not on the beachy side of the island (our coastline is mostly rocky and Kona, the other side, is the sandy side) I have a feeling I'm going to be down there a bunch in the near future.

Grrr

I have a post talking all about my little brother's wedding but the stupid video won't load on it. This is starting to get annoying. Since I've been totally in the mood to blog, I'll just have to move on with what else I have to say and we will get back to the wedding.

Teaching the boys croquet. It was a hit.

A week and a half ago now, Kristen and her family went on vacation. They left the day after school got out so that was a bit crazy (note to self: if given a choice, give yourself a week after the kids get out of school to go on vacation). The resulting silence was deafening. It's so strange to be here without them. On Sunday, Jason and Anna were both taking naps so I was the only one awake and just felt really alone (they even took their dog so I didn't have her at my feet either). I was telling Jason that when we get our own place, we don't need anything this big.


About a week after they left, my brother Josh's family came to visit. That helped to liven things up a bit (fortunately not too much as everything is intact). I didn't seem to take any pictures while we were out and about playing. Oh well. It was a whirlwind three day trip before they went off to see Megan's parents. It was so nice to be able to have them stay here with us. There was plenty of room and they couldn't ask for a better place to come home to at the end of a long day playing what with the trampoline and swing set. Josh was even able to watch the US win to advance in the World Cup with the projector on the wall.

They crack each other up.

Now we are back to the silence. Poor Anna is not particularly enjoying it. The first day after Kristen's family left, she asked where Baby Luke was. I explained he was with his family in Utah. Another morning, she said she was going off to play with the boys. In my half-awake stupor I said ok. She came back before too long saying the boys were hiding. One afternoon we went upstairs (where we don't usually go when it's just us in the house) and she thought we would see Eric. She did better with Josh's family here but now she is back to being sad with them gone too. Poor kid. Who knows how it will be when we go to Hawaii at the end of the month (before Kristen's family gets back). Then we won't even have Brennan around the corner. So far I've just been trying to play with her plenty and explain things as they come up.

Haircut

The other day, I cut Anna's hair. It's been getting really long and scraggly looking. Even when it was brushed (which was hard to get her to agree to), it looked like it needed to be brushed. I tried to get her to say that she wanted Kristen to cut her hair, with the hope that she would sit still for her, but she wanted me to do it. Nathan suggested we have get watch Dora while I did it and it worked great. She held totally still the whole time I was futzing with her.

So now she has a totally cute, short haircut. Now, watching her run around makes me realize how badly I need a cute, short haircut.