Hawaii - The Hike

A new event for us this trip was taking in a bit of the hiking that lots of people recommend when you go to Hawaii. The girls and I hiked up to see the Iao Needle, the last vestige of the West Maui volcano. It meant we got to spend a bit of time in the lush rainforest part of Maui, rather than just our favourite hangout, the beach. Poor Bob missed out because he was golfing. The girls fought over who was going to take pictures, and then the battery died. So we pulled out the video camera to take some bonus footage of the wild roosters prancing about the hillside beside the parking lot.

Our Needle impression.

Wild Roosters! Or is it: Roosters? Wild!

Hawaii - Snorkeling

We made it back to Maui and it was amazing once again. This time, we have an underwater camera, which means we can share a whole new perspective! I actually took a zillion pictures (estimated total!), so here are just a few favourites.


Yes, we look a bit silly in the gear, but it means we get a great view. Sarah was an excellent fish-spotter and had to direct her impatient mother to where she might actually see some fish...

Alison really struggled with the breathing tube, so she finally decided to go with just the mask and flippers. We thought she was ready to give up completely, until somebody mentioned that there was a turtle swimming nearby.

In this shot, photo number 812 of the turtle, it had turned itself around and was checking Sarah out! Later on, it came very close to Alison. I was a bit surprised at how patient the turtle was with the throngs of snorkelers invading its space. Guess it wasn't the first time.

I took lots of pictures of very colourful fish, but this guy is my favourite. He's Humuhumunukunukuapua'a and he's Hawaii's state fish. The name is Hawaiian for fish with a pig snout. I love the stripes on the back, too.

When we returned to the beach, Alison the artist created this sand sculpture of the turtle. She's very proud of her work, so she dug a small trench ocean-side to hopefully protect her masterpiece for a couple of hours, at least.

Hawaii by Alison

Alison posted on her blog. Check it out at Alison-mooke.blogspot.com

Birthday Season

Fall is birthday season. Some photos of the silliness:

Bob


Ed


Jeanna



Jack

We were so lucky to have a visit with Ed and Jack to celebrate our birthdays together. Jack got to try out a few Calgary activities in his short visit: Indian food, hotel waterslides, dog walking, bouldering, family room chess and a Stampeders game. Not bad for a weekend!

Water!

One of the things I really miss about living in Ontario is water! We got to have some splashy fun on the last couple of days of our whirlwind trip.


We spent a day at Aunt Loretta's cottage, which means jumping waves and incredibly delicious food. We didn't need to eat for a few days afterwards! We need to spend more time there.


The next day was Sam's 6th birthday, but he didn't join us in the pool. We discovered the joys of the underwater camera without him.

Angie's Wedding

It was a very exciting day when we received the invitation to my lovely cousin Angie's wedding. Not only was she getting married for real this time (babies kept getting in the way of their earlier plans), she was getting married at the very same place that Bob and I were married - The Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens! How exciting! And since the girls had not been to a wedding before (that they remember!), we decided to just had to make the trip.

In fact, there were several weddings at the gardens and we had a full tour of the place in order to find the right spot. The girls did get a brief tour of their parents' wedding spot before we had to leave for the wedding that we were actually attending. There we saw all sorts of relatives who had traveled from the other side of Canada to get to Niagara Falls, including the infamous Papa Les.


Angie's son Connor rushed up to her mid-walk and said, "I wanted to walk with you!" Angie told him that she still had more walking to do, so he joined her and his grandpa to meet his dad at the front. It was a very sweet moment. Not to mention how lovely and happy Angie looked, even though, in her words, she looked like a girl.



We had a quick tourist stop at the Niagara Gorge. Sometimes I forget how impressive that place is.


At the reception, we learned that young Mr. Sam Mauro had a talent for photography, so I renamed him PapparazSam. Here he is, plying his trade:




Alison was the life of the party. She danced up a storm, including the Chicken Dance!

Waterpark

After Marineland, I took the girls to see the Falls at night. It was quite amazing, but I didn't bring my camera. Perhaps Nana can send me a few shots from that night???

We stayed at a hotel with a waterpark. We don't usually do that, because the hotel is usually just a place to dry our ski stuff while we sleep before getting up very early and leaving. But this was fun! There was a big wave pool, several water slides and a hot tub, which I particularly enjoyed!




It was a lot of fun.

Marineland

As part of a whirlwind weekend in Ontario for cousin Angie's wedding, the girls and I flew out and joined Mary and the boys for a jam-packed weekend of stuff. Seriously, we did so much stuff, I have to put the 3 days into 4 posts. Keep tuned!

Day 1 - Marineland

The girls have witnessed approximately 73 zillion commercials for this place and were shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that not only is their Uncle a former sea lion trainer, but their mom also operated as cashier at the Beer Garden, serenaded daily by the Grammy-winning polka master Walter Ostanek. There's a lot of history there!

But really, the animals stole the day. The girls loved every minute. We watched the big top show,





and then went out to the Arctic area and actually got to feed Beluga whales. It was amazing!

Summer Vacation, Part 2: Collingwood

For the second part of our vacation, we flew to Toronto to hang with the family in Collingwood. Most of the time the kids built a fort in the basement of Gramma's house, but I don't have any pictures of that. It did take an incredible amount of time, I can tell you that much. Meanwhile, I zipped through the Stiers Larsson Millenium series.

We did get to spend some time in Mary's pool (fun! and salty!), go to a movie (Despicable Me - light bulb!), go to the beach, and come THISCLOSE to seeing a no-hitter at the SkyDome, pardon me, "Roger's Center" (seriously - it's a dome, call it that!)

Photo evidence:





Mackenzie went swimming in the lake! Woo Hoo!


Bautista at bat...

Brandon Morrow had to settle for a one-hitter when Evan Longoria hit a single up the first baseline with two outs in the 9th. Too bad... it was an EXTREMELY exciting game. Just look at us:

Update

The weather is no longer on fire. Unfortunately, the forecast is still not good.