Peace be the Journey

Orion's Minecraft Costume

2011-11-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

My blog is sooooo behind because of our move. I will backdate and catch up a bunch of stuff, but wanted to get this up as some people have asked to see a pic. :)

Horses and Cows and Pumpkins, Oh My!

2011-10-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

We decided to check out a small nearby pumpkin patch this year. There wasn't as much to do as at some of the big Westside ones we used to go to, but the kids still had fun.
Checking out the horse. There were several animals you could reach to pet.
And haybales to jump on.
On the way out to the pumpkin patch - these cows all in a row cracked me up for some reason.
Definitely in the all time favorite pictures category:These friendly horses were in the neighbor's field.
Time to get carving soon!

Newt Day!

2011-10-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Akasha and I have been making trips over to the Westside to clean out our storage unit, and I decided to do one coinciding with Newt Day at the big nature park over there. Got a picture of this fine fellow before they released him.Then we hit the trail as they had a nice loop mapped out with numbered stops.
"I love nature!" or something like that lol.
The queen of goofy faces.

My camera doesn't take very good pictures of moving objects, but the view down the trail was lovely.
Bitty mushrooms - I love fall in the PNW!
Akasha was very excited about finding each number on the trail.
Pretty fall leaves!
And more cool shrooms!
She was especially excited to find 10.
The funny thing was, it seemed like a big culmination to her, although there were actually 12 stops. We are such a 10 centric culture, especially around most stuff designed to teach kids how to count.

Posing with the fall leaves. Cute picture even though looking at it now she kinda looks like she is in position to go potty haha!
And a couple more shrooms. Yes I like me some wild forest mushrooms!

Hangin' with Bob

2011-10-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

We went to a big Lego event at the mall where people were helping to build a giant version of this Spongebob. Orion didn't want to help build, but we did visit the store and get some stuff of course. These master builders are pretty impressive!

Fall CA Trip

2011-10-16T01:46:00.000-07:00

This trip to California was a little sad for me because it was the first one without Orion. He is so attached to his daddy and decided he really didn't want to be away from him for so long. So we arranged for some babysitters for the hours Ron had to go to work, and I went with just Akasha. We were able to fly this time, which was nice, and we rented a car at LAX. I forgot my camera, so all I have are a bunch of crappy phone pictures, but better than nothing I guess!

I can't even tell you how funny I find this picture.
This is my dad's Uncle Vern, his namesake, and you can really see the family resemblance. But it looks like something straight out of a movie. The expression is just priceless!

Akasha wasted no time setting up lines...
She proclaimed this a race, but I am not sure where the start or finish was! She also used these same toys to make a line across the entire living room.

Meanwhile, back in Portland...
Ron and Orion went driving to do some exploring. Orion noticed this statue and really wanted to park and walk over to it. Joan of Arc in the middle of Portland! Who knew? Well now we do. Ron sent me this picture via text while I was in Cali, so I figured it belongs in this post. :)

I could not believe how HOT it was in CA in the middle of October. Like 100 degree hot! I was looking forward to alot of time outdoors, but most of the places I wanted to go would have been insane. So we decided to take a heat break at the beach! Bonus because we got to meet one of my friends from high school and her daughter. We went to the beach next to the Santa Monica pier, and Akasha had a blast!
Weird look on her face, but she was happy, I swear!
She spent like an hour filling up this watering can and sprinkling it on the sand.
Love this shot with the rides in the background!
We did go up on the pier for a bit and Akasha chose a taco truck from the gift shop. Hahaha, she has high aspirations! It was all great until she hurt her foot and was overtired on top of it. She started walking on her tiptoes and wouldn't even let me look at it, then needed to be carried or she was screaming. :( We got out of there and she took a car nap, then we headed over to see Sarah. I was hoping her foot would feel better after her nap, but nope - more tiptoes and screaming. She let Sarah look at it, though, and sure enough - a splinter! Sticking straight out even, so no wonder. Sarah pulled it out, and Akasha talked for days about how "Sissy fixed my foot" lol.

Trying to think of what else we could do to beat the heat, we went over to an indoor play place I remembered from when we lived in Oak Park. I was really sad to see my all time favorite falafel place had closed, but we had a good time at Jungle Land. Psycho smile...
Another just plain weird smile lol. I swear she makes the strangest faces when I ask her to smile!
We also decided it would be fun to go to the pumpkin patch around the corner, but had to wait until dark because it was so damn hot! I even dragged my dad out of the house. They had a petting zoo area, which I guess I didn't get any pictures of for some reason, and some carnival type games Akasha had a good time with as well. But I did get some shots of her lovin' on the pumpkins.

Akasha looks like she is following in her brother's footsteps as far as adoring these things.
And gosh my dad, gotta love him, what a crack up.
Pretty couple!
This hat was one of the swag things Sarah had. Adorable!
On our way home again...
Remind me to just stick her in a suitcase next time we fly!

There Be Cache Here

2011-09-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

I went to pick up some tables I found on Craigslist in an area I had not been in before, so of course I had to see if there was a nearby geocache. :D And see, this is why I love geocaching. This tiny waterfall is right along a pretty major road. Most people would probably never even notice it as it is set back a ways. But I got the enjoyment of parking and getting a good look at it. Another lovely surprise.

Westside Sites

2011-09-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here is something I will miss about the Westside:

This was taken right along the Tualatin Valley Highway! I know there are some nice open spaces on the Eastside, but the Westside has big ones all over, and many that connect for long distances along creeks. That is why you might see deer just walking along the highway lol!

This is something else amazing that popped up near our house this year:
That is a HUGE garden full of just about everything, that popped up along a hell strip next to the train tracks. No idea if just one person did it or the whole neighborhood, but love to see space being used like that!

What was in it...?

2011-09-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

When I was packing to move, I collected boxes from all over, watching for people who listed them on Freecycle. Not even sure where this one came from:

I just love it when stuff like this pops into my life. There could be all kinds of great stories connected to this!

Tree of Life

2011-09-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for just the right rug for the living room on Craigslist, but when I came across this one, I knew I had to have it! It isn't right for the living room, but will make room for it somewhere. It is an Egyptian version of the Tree of Life!

Future Artist?

2011-09-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

Just a nice warm day while I worked on packing and cleaning at the old place. Sending the kids outside with a bunch of paint ftw!

You can see a bunch of stuff loaded up in the back of the van for a run to the new place. All that painting wears a girl out. :)

What a Great Playroom!

2011-09-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here is what the playroom looks like after moving weekend. LOL, not very functional yet!

Frog Pond!

2011-09-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

We went to a friend's house for a birthday party, and they have this amazing pond full of frogs! They were so cute! It was a catch and release extravaganza!

New House Blessing

2011-09-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

I invited some of my mama friends over to do a house blessing with me before we move in. It was lovely to go room to room and collect blessings from everybody, and then we did the backyard too! Some of the kids had the best and cutest blessings. Here is the little altar I made:

Guess it was a long night...

Orion is Seven!

2011-09-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, where do the years go?! And seven somehow sounds so much older to me than six. Maybe I will feel that way about every year though. :) I wonder what this year will hold for him!

We had a variety of goings on for the birthday boy this year. He wanted a party at Chuck E Cheese and had a great time.
Kai was especially stylin that day.
I like this shot because it is all glowy. :) And Akasha looks like the face of anticipation.
Bloooooooooooow!
Getting a nice dose of gluten. :) I had enzymes!

Some present action.
Love friends who bring sibling gifts!
Some private gift time at home. Ron and Orion have been talking for awhile about getting some really high quality remote control cars. These should be alot of fun!

And then of course there was the pinata! Orion is such a huge pinata fan, but we have found parties with ALOT of kids and a pinata to be really frustrating. So we usually just have a super small group. Somehow I didn't get a picture of Orion with the bat!

Chaos!
There was much trampolining that day.
Triple horns, very impressive lol.
Orion spotted this little cake in the store and just had to have it. Really is pretty creative!
Love the 3 little monkeys all in a row. :)
The latest in high fashion.

New Place With Colors!

2011-08-30T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our new place. The owner was going to paint anyway, so he let us buy the colors we wanted to use!

This is the covered porch area in the backyard. Excited to have this feature!
The kitchen - faux marble is pretty tacky, but a nice sized kitchen.
This is the converted garage, which will be a playroom!
Living room, with moss green walls and freshly redone floors as well. They came out really gorgeous! I love the retro feel of this room and hope the furniture will complement that.
The blinding lime green that Orion chose. It is even brighter in person.
Akasha chose purple. :)
Huge master with two big closets!
View of the master from the other direction.

File Under: People Who Rock

2011-08-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

Also file under, Why I Love Portland
Yes, that is a dog in the sidecar, and for the record, he was wearing sunglasses. Aaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha!

Beloved 2011!

2011-08-15T00:37:00.000-07:00

I went to Beloved with just Akasha again, carpooling there with Tessi and Amma. Another awesome year! I am so glad this festival exists and that it has remained feeling true to its essence. It is so amazing to be surrounded by people who truly wish to connect with each other on a deep level. I also got to take a few cool workshops and found several bits of synchronicity with things I have been drawn to recently in my life.

I was happy that Solsara was back with their eye gazing workshops, and some really interesting stuff came out of that! There was a segment where you went to different partners, and whoever spoke up first told the other person something they saw in them. This one guy talked to me about how I was like a book that so many people have written in, but there are always more and more empty pages . I am STILL thinking about that and what it might mean! Then I had this intense reaction to this one woman I said had deep wisdom, but I just started totally crying when I was with her. It was a trip. I got to talk to her a bit later on in the weekend, but not as much as I would have liked. I hope she is there again next year!

I think my favorite new bit I got from one of the workshops was how different it feels if you eye gaze right eye to right eye versus left eye to left eye. Would love to experiment with that more! Oh, and my new musical love from this year is Rafe Pearlman. OMG, what a range and so ethereal. Makes me want to get on board with the modern times and learn how to download music and such lol. And now on to the pictures!

Parking sticker acquired at the offsite staging area and we are ready to go!
Tess is ready to get to it!
Here we come!
Blurry but cute. The camping was totally different this year. While parking was "onsite", it actually meant quite a long hike in using carts to haul your stuff. I wasn't really up to that, so took one of the spots closest to the cars. Which meant we had a bit of a hike to the main area, but it was nice because our camp area was so quiet at night when we were ready to go away from the music. And the path was lovely and lined with lights. Here is my cute little wood trekker heading to the scene for the first time this year.
Fascinated by a white parasol.
Akasha made friends with some teenage girls she just adored. You can see her with one of them on the right if you look closely. I really hope they are there again next year lol!
Akasha showed up with this beautiful piece I recognized because we had talked to the guy selling them. I was so worried she had taken it, but when I went to ask him, he had just *given* it to her because he said she was fascinated with it and it seemed like she was supposed to have it. I did give him some money for it, but I tell you, again, what an amazing group of folk!
This was the mat where the kids mostly played, and apparently the jugglers lol. This guy was alot of fun and was generous in sharing his stuff when he wasn't using it.
More trail walking. Yes, this is the trail. By the second day, the close by camping areas were pretty much full and people started putting up tents right on the edge of the walkway!
At camp, trying to get a pic of both of us. Darn she is hard to get to smile sometimes!
Although this is probably one of my all time favoritist goofy pictures of Akasha!
As usual, there were beautiful altars all over!
This is the guy that made the beautiful pendent. We met him because A was so in love with his dogs! One was a wolf hybrid, and they were both so sweet. Dogs are not normally allowed, but these two were in a training program. A loved on them all weekend!
They were very polite watchers of the music lol. I never heard them bark even once!
A dancing with my golden wrap.
I came across this guy making some impromptu art.
This gives you and idea of where he was going with it, but he added many more circles. Would love to play around with this pattern and method more. He told me it was very meditative to create.
And of course, so much amazing live art happening again.
Indeed...
More from the artists that were there.
Loved this altar.
And probably my favorite thing I saw the whole weekend:
This was attached to somebody's backpack, but I didn't see it until the last day. I feel like these photos capture so little of the whole experience. There are so many other things I am remembering that I wish I would have captured, but these are the images that were meant to come home with me. :)

Hardcore!

2011-07-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

Just had to grab a shot of my little punk rocker in training lol! This was during the prep for a huge benefit rummage sale I helped put together. The girl has good taste already!

A Little Break

2011-07-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Snuck away for some mommy and Orion time at a local park.

This particular park has a little stream running through it, and Orion was fascinated with the water walkers.
I love this park. Really wooded and old school equipment. Too bad all I have are a few blurry phone pics. :)

Nice afternoon light reflection!

Our First Trip to Breitenbush!

2011-07-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to go to Breitenbush for soooo long, so I decided to plan a family trip there. We went on the same weekend as the Natural Family retreat, which I thought would be perfect as people would be expecting lots of kids to be there.

I was a bit worried about getting our stuff over to the cabin, but it wasn't too bad with the carts. Only got this one blurry picture as we were going in.

The cabins were really nice! Like nicer than I expected for some reason. We had a separate room with a closing door and bed, which was prefect for getting Akasha to bed a bit earlier than Orion.
Hanging out in front of the cabin...
This rock sat alongside the path across from our cabin, and I thought it looked very much like an animal face.
Trying to get a shot of both of us. Little monkey wouldn't look at the camera!
Akasha and her nudist ways fit right in. :)
The "upview" from our cabin porch.
I really liked the Bath House sign for some reason.

Lots of various sites around the grounds...

There were flowers everywhere!

I also thought the lodge looked neat with so many colorful towels draped on railing.

Here I was trying to capture the bubbles floating up from the bottom, but it was hard because of the reflection. You can see them if you know what you are looking for though. :)
I love me some flowers coming up through cracks.

I think this is my favorite shot of the weekend:

I got a little time to myself one day, and went for a walk in the labyrinth. I really enjoyed it, although it was SOOOOOOOOO hot that day.
Near the entrance...
Also near the entrance...
Namaste?

She was actually standing near this little tree. She looks like she is praying to it lol. Both the kids were fascinated by how the little tree was growing out of the larger stump!

Overall it was a great trip. Ron had a massage he said was great, and I loved all the food. Ron liked some of it lol. The only real downer was getting chased by horseflies. :( Thankfully that didn't really start until latish on Saturday, when we encountered them right while in the hot pools! (Turns out they are attracted to heat). I have never really encountered them before, but people told us what they were and that the bites REALLY hurt, so both the kids totally freaked out. And then the next day they were out near our cabin and were literally like chasing us every time we went outside. Neither of the kids would leave the cabin after that. :(( So bottom line - would love to go back, but thinking not in high summer next time!

Random Cuteness, Part ?

2011-07-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to get this one in here for the record because it is so cute. I know I have titled several posts with this - not sure how many lol.

OCF 2011

2011-07-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

Finally going to start working on some catch up! I decided to take the plunge this year and camp at Zumwault since I know so many people who camp there, and it was alot of fun. It was just Akasha and me this year as Ron had too much work to do and Orion doesn't like to sleep away from him. So girl time at the fair!

Here we are driving in to Zumwault for the very first time!
At camp, Akasha makes herself at home at somebody else's table - it's a community folks!
Was happy we got to camp next to one of my friends and her amazing son. Although so much older than Akasha, he was always welcoming and patient with her.
Mah feetz iz durteh.
Happy faces on the bus!
Friday crowds heading inside!

Akasha ended up totally zonking out almost all day on Friday! Which made for a nice relaxing time wondering around.
This guy was giving a talk about making paper out of mushrooms - pretty neat!
Always lots of lovely visual stimulation at the fair!

And OMG Patch Adams was here this year!!! He was all the character I expected him to be!

And I got my face painted!
Somebody woke up!
And these are the things she wanted me to take pictures of. :)

Back at camp and time for some shenanigans!
This was the central area where folks hang out and cooked dinner.
Saturday we decided to just hang out at camp since the fair is so crowded that day. Alot of people do that. Here is Akasha and her queen.

Attitude!

Berry applesauce was a staple food of the weekend.
Oh my goodness, yummy babies to play with!
And oatmeal was the other staple food lol.
OMG a friend of mine made these homemade marshmallows with maple syrup and they were to die for. Must try at home!
I think Akasha would have eaten the whole bowl if I didn't enforce some sharing lol.
This is what we did in our tent at night as most of the other kids were in bed before her. :)
I went over to the bonfire just briefly. Akasha wanted nothing to do with hanging out around the fire, which was a bummer, but what can ya do?
Lovely moon over the beach.

I had originally not planned to go back to the fair on Sunday, but I changed my mind as there were some more things I wanted to do. At the beginning of the day, we were waiting at the entrance for a friend, and Akasha was very entertained my several folks. She LOVED this giraffe lady!
Sometimes the best views are straight up.

She also loved the "mingo". :)
But my favorite thing of this whole year was doing the Dances of Universal Peace on Sunday. What a great group of folks!

We went to one last musical performance that was lovely to cap off our weekend, and Akasha played with some bubbles.

Another great year come and gone.... Can't wait to do it all over again!

Fourth of July Madness!

2011-07-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

Decided on a "quiet" Fourth at home - or at least not fighting the madness to get to a show. Like in my childhood, we bought a huge box of backyard works and invited some friends over.

Earlier in the day, the kids got into the colored smoke bombs. I just love this photo because A looks like she is pointing a wand and shooting out her patronus or something lol1

The red was popular.
Some video of course:

And here are some pics of the nighttime festivities:

Lotus enjoyed the flourless chocolate cake, even if Jason did proclaim it to be "missing something... oh yeah, flour", lol.
Fireworks, A1, watching boy, happy girl. :)
Lotus is even better than the works!

Sparkler fun!

And of course some boffer fun...
And for those who prefer to wait for the movie version lol...

Dinner and Karaoke with my Homies

2011-07-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a girls' night out this year the day before my bday, and it was a blast. Good conversation and good food! I even had a designated driver (yay Barbara!) We started at Swagat for Indian food downtown, and then a few of us went on to karaoke lol!

Yeah, those 3 on the left are my Westside karaoke posse! We all came in the same car and they all put up with my bad singing. Although I am sad to say one of my favorite, old one hit wonders that people used to be happy to hear seems to be getting officially forgotten by the young crowd - dang!

Mini Golf for Kai's Half Birthday

2011-06-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Glad Nicole brought a camera because I forgot mine. Not to mention how talented she is and always gets amazing shots!

I love the motion in this shot, like she is falling forward. And it looks like she has absconded with somebody's ball and is running away lol.
This had used to belong to my mom. <3
Little Miss Serious.

Cute mama-daughter shots.aka

And more seriousness.
The cupcake zombies chasing Rachele.

Kah Nee Ta and Richardson Rock Ranch

2011-06-24T01:48:00.000-07:00

I coplanned a group trip to KahNeeTa to get a good rate, and we really enjoyed it for the most part! The set up of the lodge involved alooooot of walking, and the food choices were pretty limited and unimpressive, but the pool was great and the weather and scenery were lovely!

The view on the way there. Some of the mountains in the distance have snow on them!
Reservation horses.
Akasha loved the little waterslide! The blue slide in the background is officially the slowest waterslide in the world lol.

Kiddie pool!
The view from our balcony. Love those dessert skies, and you can bet the stars at night were amazing. We also heard coyotes howling!
Didn't get hardly any pictures while we were there, but here is another one on the way out. Hard to see, but those are a bunch of horses under that overhang.
Fiona riding shotgun. Or next to Akasha anyway lol.
Aaaaand this would be the sign Ron flew right by, going straight. The funny thing is, I took a picture of it!!! It didn't even register there was a left turn arrow on it. I just assumed Ron had seen it!
This would be us a couple miles out on the wrong road lol.
The detour really cut into our time, but we decided to go for it anyway. The right road has cows grazing all over with no fences. The kids were thrilled.
I might have taken way too many cow pictures lol.
Baby in the road!

View from the digging site. We went to the one known as Red Bed. There are several areas here.
So this is what a geode site looks like. In fact, many of the small rocks you see here are actually geodes that were already split and people didn't want I guess. Akasha liked this little hill.
Diggers at work.

Orion found this ring of rocks and thought it had something to do with an Indian ceremony. :) You never know!
View the other way.
Our haul! We got a number of a local guy who cuts and polishes. Will have to get on that when we get home!
Lots of lupine on the hills!
This was one BIG cow that we started to think wasn't going to move!
Freaky unfocused picture of said cow after getting up.
This one had fuzzy ears and I thought was extra cute.
At the office area. They have rocks from all over the world!
House on the property. Can you spot what is on the tractor in the distance?
Here, let me crop it in for you lol. Wish I had a good zoom and could have gotten a better shot of this!
Talked Ron into one quick cache as it was supposed to be a neat one. And it was! A shoe tree! And yes, the cache was in one of the shoes! The owner encourages people to bring more and move the cache around, but it didn't take me too long to find. Many of the shoes were signed! The camera battery died right after this shot or I would have taken more pictures!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

So this is what Ron spent all day putting together...

And yes, as you can see it was dark by the time he finished lol, but he claims that steak at 10pm was all worth it.

Akasha is Three!!!

2011-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Seriously, how did that happen? And three always seems so momentous to me, like not a toddler anymore, although I feel like I need a different word than preschooler. :)

We had a some friends come to Papa's Pizza, and it was a fun night! Look at this awesome GF cake from Robots Love Cupcakes:
And for the gluten lovers. :)
How cute is this?
Surrounded by presents and friends. Life is good. :)
Whadja get? Whadja get?
Upside down dolls!

Tie Dye

2011-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

I don't think I did a very good job this year, but that one on the bottom right was supposed to be a heart and didn't come out half bad!

Birthday Party for Rachele!

2011-06-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Had a little party for Rachele at my house. I do NOT have a future in cake decorating lol!What a nutty head.
This shot looks kinda feral to me.
"I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Secrets?
So I tried to suggest two sets of candles - one for the 10s spot and one for the 1s (like I put 4 then 2 on Ron's this year) but the kids decided we needed to use the whole box because it was close as we could get haha.
We somehow managed to get everybody a turn lighting.
Little faces all in a row (singing I believe).
And then despite my best effort to keep everybody happy, this turned into the Great Candle Fiasco of 2012. I don't want to talk about it.

Later that night, at least one little one was done for the day!

All in the Family

2011-06-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy with packing, and Akasha has really gotten into using her little laptop.
Looks like it was really important that baby Fiona saw this show too. Back up Fi, you are going to glaze your eyes over lol!

worst.gift.evar

2011-06-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hold me, I'm scared. I went to a party where there was a worst give ever exchange, and I think mine wins. I can't even think of a tag for this post.

Touchabubbles!

2011-06-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Kai came over to play for a bit today and we got the Touchabubbles out! (Thanks to Gavi, Akasha's LIG Fairy Godparent). Here they are not popping in the grass:
And not popping in A's hair lol.
Jumpy monkeys!

Life is Good 2011 - In Words

2011-05-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

As usual, after a bit of processing, I feel like I am left with so many things that made an impact on me - some are big and some are small, but all are worth mentioning. So here is my list, in no particular order...

The lady who smiled... - There was a mom this year I noticed the first day because she came to the meet n greet for new folks. She looked really unhappy, with kindof a furrowed brow, and I couldn't help but wonder what she thought of all this! I saw her a few more times in the first couple days, and she always had a frown on her face. I also made an effort to chat with her, and saw others talking to her a few times. And then it happened - a few days in, she was smiling, and it totally transformed her face and energy. I don't know what shifted for her, but the image of it has stuck with me.

Fire Alarms - This was the first year we had some fire alarms pulled, and the variety of responses to it was really interesting. I mean, there is no doubt it is annoying, but how do you respond if at all? The hotel was amazing. After it happened twice, they just called the fire department and asked them not to come unless they get an actual phone call. The girl at the front desk was kinda like, bunch of kids, what do you expect? But... the hotel also gets charged alot for false alarms. So what does our community do? They take up a collection to cover the cost. Some people didn't agree with this, but I thought it was touching and a huge message to the kid(s) involved. It reminded me of something I read about certain tribal cultures (wish I could remember which ones) that surround people with love when they have committed some type of wrongdoing. It is like they know there is some unmet need there, and by showing them they are worthy, they will be healed and brought into alignment with the energy of others. So, just, yeah... really moved.

That darn gluten - I feel like food is that one area I am always shifting. Are my kids really drawn to what they are sensitive to, making it impossible for them to listen to their bodies? Are their symptoms bad enough, dangerous enough, etc to warrant me controlling their eating? I am sure there are other questions I could frame around this. I wanted to do the let go and trust thing, but it really just doesn't sit right with me, at least when the kids are this young. What age is the right age to start totally letting go of food restrictions? Ah, another question. But anyway, I had a really interesting talk with a mom who has an older son with gluten issues, and they are pretty bad issues, but still she let's him choose. I had heard these ideas in principle, but somehow having that one on one time and hearing a real life story brought it home much more. In their case, she often found her son hiding in the closet with wheat products, or it would get back to her that he was eating them when out. Now she is a partner with him, so she knows when he chooses gluten, and also knows to expect the symptoms and isn't left wondering what the heck is going on. He usually only chooses it when he is involved in a group situation and that is what everybody else is eating. What it comes down to is that she firmly believes her son will consume less gluten in his lifetime this way than he would if she was *trying* to control it. Will I end up thinking the same thing about my kids when they are older? And at what age? Will they mostly outgrow their symptoms? Is gluten really doing lifelong damage to their insides that I have been reading about lately. Questions, questions, questions, but I am so glad to have this community and their stories to learn from.

There is more than one way to handle a problem - and the best way might not come to you at 2am when you have just found out about it. There is alot more I could say about this, but in the interest of letting sleeping dogs lie, I am going to leave it at that.

Orion expanding - Orion made several leaps this year. In general, he seemed pretty capable of being more on his own, although we still hired helpers to hang with him. There were two really big things that happened though. The first was that he got up on stage for the talent show!!! This is a kid who has never even watched it, let alone performed, but when I mentioned how much he liked showing people his cartwheels, he thought it was a great idea. Whaaaat? Goes to show - keep offering because you never know! His swimming also went off the charts. I really think the couple private lessons he had made a huge difference. is confidence has been much higher in general, but then at LIG, all of sudden he took off into the deepend without even telling me he was going! He swam all the way to the far end and back - pretty much a doggy style, but still - whoa! Even though his skills have looked good to me, he had insisted he can't really SWIM. Guess he changed his mind!

Funky Chicken - Or something like that. What was that secret dance folks agreed on to recognize each other if they came they night before? Well, it wasn't really needed lol! There were so many people already there on Wed, and we pretty much took over the lobby! I was so glad I went early as I got a chance to really connect with a few people. The best part was that I posted in case anybody wanted to share my room since I went with just Akasha, and ended up sharing with a mom and daughter I have met a couple times but not gotten to know as well as I would have liked! It is so nice to feel like I know them well now! I think the daughter is about 12 (I don't have a very good memory for these things, and indeed, they don't seem to matter that much in the unschooling world), and one of my favorite memories of the conference is staying up late with her that first night, whispering across the beds after her mom and Akasha had both gone to sleep. I think we talked until about 4:30am!!! And I have to say, I would rather talk to this "kid" than many adults I know, and I could easily say that about most of the unschooled youth! It is one of the reasons I knew we had found our community years ago!

Connections - again... Well, every year it seems I go in determined to talk more to people I don't know, and then somehow at the end, I feel like I didn't do a "good job" of it. I got off to a good start this time - I went to the Meet and Greet and tried to fix in my head the faces of the new or second year folk, I went to the Family Speed Dating, (and actually did think that was really great and may have set the groundwork for getting to know some folk), and I literally tried to smile at, make eye contact with and say "hi" to EVERY person I passed - and I am not exaggerating. But at the end of several days, I still found myself looking at pictures and names and thinking who IS that person? How can I have never passed them once? Is my memory really that bad lol? And wow, I didn't make that many "real" connections, *again*.

So I spent some time thinking, why do I keep ending up with this feeling year after year? Well, part of it is because I only hire childcare when I am wanting to go to a talk or circle chat. The rest of the time I was pretty much watching my 2yo which means not much eye contact and running off at any minute. But I also realized that, for me, there are two factors that seem to make a difference. The first is having a certain "subject of depth", if you will, that you can connect over. I have a few memories over the year that were as short as an elevator ride, but they stick out because of something significant that was talked about, and again, this year, somebody checked in with me about something they remembered from my past, and it turned out we shared much in common. So, the message is, don't be afraid to ask the big questions! But the other factor is time, just pure time baby. Having a 5 minute conversation in the train room about where do you live and how old are your kids is not going to mean you made a connection. Having several 5 minute conversations, something might start to build up, but it is going to take awhile. So the message still is, ask some big questions, even if you don't know much about the person yet! Will I remember this next year? Maybe I should just try to remember to read THIS next year lol.

But having said all that... I can also say that every year I have made at least one connection that "stuck" and deepened several more, including this year, so maybe that should be "good enough". :) I *am* to hard on myself I know.

Speakers and Chats - lots of great stuff, but I think our favorite would have to be Patty Digh. She had so many heartwarming stories, and her finger thing about perspective is going to stick with us for a long time. I have a feeling Ron and I will be giving each other a certain look and twirling our fingers at each other for years to come. Sorry if you have no idea what I am talking about. It is really hard to explain in words. Check out the audio if you missed her and maybe it will come across. Or have me show you next time I see you in person, whoever you are. Feel free to come visit any time lol!

And my favorite mental image goes to... A certain young boy, whom I think his parents prefer remain nameless, having a blast learning how to open various alcoholic beverages at a room party. I am sure all who saw it agree!

And last but not least - The party/wake in Mary's room the last night. When I heard her mother had died, my heart went out to her, and I thought, what bad timing. (As if death ever has good timing). I didn't know if she would want space or...? Then the word went out. Please come, she wants as many people in her room as possible. So I left the kids with a couple friends and went down for a hug and a few songs - yes, there were people playing live music and singing right there in her room. The whole thing was very touching, and again, what a community! I was left thinking how wrong I was, and what good timing this was, if there can be such a thing, to be surrounded by so many loving friends!

So another year has come and gone. I often write about Ron and what he got out of it as he doesn't usually blog himself. And there was "stuff" for him for sure, but he got stuck working alot, and also had some regrets about things he *didn't* do. So that was interesting.... Maybe I will encourage him to write up his thoughts. But in the meantime, I actually found he wanted to go to Good Vibrations! So that was a great surprise. We are officially a two conferences a year family. Wonder if/when we will step up to 3 or even 4?! Only time will tell. :)

Life is Good 2011 - In Pictures

2011-05-31T00:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, our fifth year at Life is Good - so unbelievable! And it was bigger than ever before, with even a new room added. I have lots of thoughts, but always like to get my picture thread up first, so here it is...

I can't freehand letters for beans, so I came up with this idea for a door sign and made it ahead of time. Orion had a blast helping me look for letters and deciding which ones to use.
Akasha was just in love with this little doggie. Somebody had given him a Snapple lid, and it looks like he is saying, "I just dare you to try to take it away." And indeed, he wasn't about to let anybody have it!
Once again I was fortunate to have some great kids help me out with watching the kids!
Akasha learned Red Light, Green Light the first night. Oh the power! And what great and patient friends to play with her over and over!
Running races with her buddy Zola.
Adorable!
Butt bouncin' down the stairs lol.
All sorts of fun in the balloon room!
Love it when the older kids play along. The littles are always so thrilled and entertained!
Both my kids fell in love with Hungry Hippos!
The Lego table! (And photographers capturing each other. :) ) While Orion isn't in this photo, he spent alot of time here!
I think this was the best year for homemade wares ever. I bought more than a few things!
Still happy to play with a train set.

But oh, the fort room was the biggest hit with Orion I think!

Last morning... this says it all.
The kids were pretty worn out, but we decided to hit the picnic for a bit. Didn't last too long but had fun hanging while we did. Love this picture of Amma pushing Tessi lol!
Wiggling up the slide...
Moments like these are what unschooling is all about. :)
And I had to include this pic of a friend's baby just because it is so darn cute lol.
Phew, another year, new friends, old friends, thoughts of adding another conference... love this life we lead!

Rapture Baby!

2011-05-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

We decided to have a spur of the moment rapture party at Rachele's old place on Burnside.

Look, some rapturees have departed...

...leaving us to engage in our vices in peace. I have such cool friends.
Ciara put on an old bridesmaid dress of Rachele's, which was amusing to all, although she looks like a melting witch in this picture lol.

As the night went on (read more alcohol consumed), the pictures got stranger and stranger lol.
Ciara has fallen and can't get up!
Now Ciara is dressing Akasha up in the gown...
Final shot of the night... Really? Still life with shoes and plastic animals? No clue who took this OR what they were thinking lol.

On the Way Home

2011-05-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

The kids were totally fascinated with this "tornado machine" where we changed planes in San Francisco. It was great they had a spot for them to run around a bit after a long flight!

Kona 2011 - Day 7

2011-05-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

We kept going back and forth on whether or not to do this seahorse tour, because Orion didn't seem that interested, but we decided to go for it as he usually ends up liking things once he gets going, and Ron and I both really like seahorses. :) They didn't allow any photography on most of the tour. They are also a business that sells seahorses, and I guess they do things differently and don't want their secrets out there lol. Not really sure, but I do know their seahorses were super friendly and social. There is one stop on the tour where you feed them, and they literally looked like they were coming up the top and begging lol. There was one area where you could take photos, and you can see how they like holding tails in this one:

Here they are live:

There was also a touch tank that had lots of hermit crabs in it.
Close up!
Here is the tank where they let you hold one!

Later that day I took a little drive to try and get a couple more caches. I drove down this one street because I was also curious about all the history in the area, and came across these burials just right next to the road!

And guess what was literally right across the street? Yep, a golf course. More side by side oddities. Turned out there were a heck of alot more burials here than I realized. On my way out, I noticed this sign:
Here was the battlefield. It is so strange to me that the Hawaiians have such a history of war and violence when they seem like such a laid back group of people!

We had a great farewell dinner the final night, but I will write about that in the foodie post. :)

Kona 2011 for the Foodies!

2011-05-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

OK, here it is.... The Foodie Post lol! I only wish I had taken more pictures of all the food haha!

I had used Tripadvisor and Yelp to research local restaurants, and had already fallen in love with The Lotus Cafe. From their pan asian menu to their solar panels to their emphasis on organic ingredients, what's not to love?! I was fully prepared not to make it in time the first night between getting our luggage and rental car, but we did! I was going to get one of the more unusual dishes, but when I started chatting with the gal, and she said they could make Pad Kee Mao, I decided to go for it. And Ron got his usual Pad Thai. But there was nothing usual about these dishes! I can definitely say I had never had either dish taste like these! The flavors mostly came from fresh ingredients, like galangal and lemon grass, instead of sauces. They were like the fresca version of Thai noodles lol! Really yummy, and if this place had been closer to town, we probably would have eaten there again.

The next day we decided on U Top It for breakfast (or more like brunch really :) ). It also had great reviews and wow, we were impressed! Their specialty is crepes made with taro! The amazing thing was that it was so casual and yet the food came out so beautifully presented! I had the Veggie Omelet and Ron had the Breakfast Club pancrepe. Another win! We came back here!

I don't think we went out to dinner that night as we were too late coming down from the observatory. I think I got a salad at Wendy's lol.

The next morning we had breakfast at the condo before heading out to Waipio valley and just had some snacks on the road until we came back to town for dinner. I was really looking forward to checking out Jackie Rey's, and I am SO glad we did. I think this was my favorite meal in Kona, and we would have never known about it as it was off the beaten path. They had me at an amazing and creative menu next to paper covered tables with crayons lol. But add to that staff that seems to genuinely enjoy children and comes to your table to play with them, a great wine list, and artistically prepared food - this place just ROCKED. Almost everything we has was from the specials for that night, made with their fresh catch, which was ono (and which we got to SEE because they like to take kids back into the freezer to see the big fish!)

I did get a couple pics with my phone, so they aren't great but here they are.... These were the crab cakes:
This was my dish:
It basically had all of my favorite things! Capers, sundried tomatoes, a cilantro pesto, feta cheese.... yum. We also had an appetizer that included like an ono sushi salad that was amazing, and Ron's entree was kindof an upscale fish and chips lol. There were round pieces of lightly breaded and fried ono over a purple sweet potato mash (which you can also see at the bottom of my dish). I would have come back here for sure if we wanted to have another expensive meal lol.

No exciting food to report the next day as our main activity was the night snorkel, so we just ate at the condo before heading over there.

The next day we went to Volcanoes NP and had a great Thai lunch in the little town of Volcano. We got back into town fairly late, so we decided to give the Kona Brew Pub a try, since a friend of a friend works there, and we heard the food was pretty good too! I had intended to stay somewhat low carb on this trip, but oh well, I pretty much failed with so much amazing food! I mean, how could I say no to a pizza named after Pele? The pizza here truly was amazing and lived up to its rep!

After our long snorkeling day, we wanted to go back to U Top It for dinner. We were there like an hour before their posted closing time, but they were closed lol. A true locally owned business, where hours are "approximate" haha. So we ended up at a place called Lava Java. We had heard it was really good for breakfast and planned on that the next day, and Orion liked the name and wanted to go there lol, but we found out they had dinner, so we just flopped and decided to do our second U Top It visit for another breakfast. Well, it turned out to be a great decision with great food, and once again, artistically presented as well. AND they had Wiki Stix for the kids to play with. This is a dang kid friendly town it seems! I had the macadamia crusted fish and Ron had the brie stuffed chicken - both were great!

So the one place I was dying about not getting to yet was Da Poke Shack. First of all, Poke is one of THE authentic Hawaiian things to try. Second of all, how often do you find a place that is nothing but 5 star ratings on like EVERY site? We were planning on a sushi place for date night, so I wasn't so sure I wanted raw fish for lunch as well, but I decided to dash in while I was out getting some caches and.... OH.MY.GOD. It was heavenly, and there were so many types! I tasted several and got small containers of two. Imagine the most delicious melt in your mouth chunks of raw fish, with a creamy dressing and some onions and other small veggies - it was kindof like the sashimi version of potato salad lol. The other one I got was seasoned with shoyu and something sweet. Yum!

And this brings me to our final out to eat meal.... We had wanted some good sushi and asked around, but it just so happened our waitress at Jackie Rey's new somebody who worked at a local place and gave us a friends and family 50% off coupon!!! I was worried it wasn't going to be a great place, but I read the reviews and it looked good. So Kenichi it was! It actually turned out to be perfect because they had much more than just sushi, so I ended up getting the duck comfit - yum! Ron was happy with a bunch of sushi. :) And the best part was that I had read about a ukelele jam (lol) happening at this shopping center the same night, and it turned out to be right in the plaza next to the restaurant, and we got an outdoor table so we could hear it! The place was really high end, with a great wine list, but still this was the look on our table:

LOL gotta love a wine glass on a beer coaster! And here is the beautiful dessert we got:
Ah Kona, your food was good to us, and this was a great farewell meal!

Kona 2011 - Day 6

2011-05-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

Warning! Huge post ahead! This was a long day!

I really wanted to make sure I got a chance to snorkel at Kahalu'u since it was so close to our hotel and supposed to be one of the best spots on the island, so I decided to head over by myself early, before the kids were even up! And I am so glad I did! Wow, it was amazing!

Here is the entry area - looks so unassuming. :)
Then you look under water and bam, fish everywhere! And SO much variety. I took about 100 pictures lol. Here are some of my favorites:

The colors on this one were amazing. Wish I had got a better shot.

This one had these amazing subtle colors. Picture doesn't do it justice!

Came across this little group and shot a picture before I even noticed who was down there under the rock.... Do you see it?
A moray! Glad I got this shot because when I got closer he popped back in.
Just when I thought I had seen every kind of fish, I would see another new type. These guys were a trip.
And then I spotted this guy! He had a crazy, long, forked tongue and was using his mouth to move really big rocks. All the fish moved stuff around with their mouths - never realized how handy they were that way - but this guy seemed stronger. I got video footage of him as well that I will add later.
I only spotted a few puffers. They seemed shyer than the other fish, and stuck close to the rocks and hid when I got near, but I did capture this little one. They are so cute!

Phew, totally like being in another world! When I got out, I stopped to talk to a Hawaiian guy who was working on an archeological site that was an old royal bathing area. What a character he turned out to be! I told him about some of the reading I had been doing about Hawaiian history, and he thanked me for taking an interest in his people, but was quick to say most of the interpretations are wrong. He started telling me the correct version of the Captain Cook story, which had to do with him first coming to the island during peacetime, and then returning during wartime. That was an interesting concept as I had always thought it just meant "if at peace or war", but it turns out the year was divided into sections, and all the tribes agreed to peace at certain times, kindof a time out lol.

We also talked about the surfing stone, where you are supposed to knock to bring up bigger waves. I said, "Does it work?" He narrowed his eyes and said, "Of course it works. Why you think people gonna stand around knocking on a stone if it doesn't work?" Ha! He rocked. But the most fascinating things he talked about were the stories passed down through his people that say the Samoans came from Hawaii, and not the other way around. He told me they were carried there by a series of tsunamis, and that there had been a recent archeological discovery of bones on one of the volcanoes that date back much earlier than they thought there were people there, so they are getting proof now. Really, who am I to argue with historical story tellers?

So speaking of history, next on the agenda was to go see a petroglyph area (and ahem, get the cache there). Ron had no interest, so I went with just Akasha. It was a longer drive than I realized AND a longer hike AND super hot! So we ended up in a bit of a rush as we had a snorkel trip on a boat to make it to later. Thanks be that Akasha was really into walking, because I am not sure I could have carried her all that way in that heat!

Some petroglyphs they had sitting out at the trailhead:

I thought these figures looked to be surfing. What do you think?
On the trail. There were lots of rocks embedded in the dirt, and Akasha fell a couple times, but dang, she was a trooper!
Coming on to the main area from the trail:
The area was a large flat expanse. We were there at the worst time for photos, with the sun directly above, but you get the idea.
I brought this travel bug that wanted to see the world, so I had to get a photo of it here. :)
There were several spots right on the trail that had petroglyphs as well. They were marked with these rings so people would hopefully not step on them.
Lots more here, but you can't really see them. :/
Akasha at the cache. Hmmm, what's under these rocks?
Another view of the area.
On the way back, I had passed this cool metal dragon sculpture a few times and finally grabbed a photo. You can also see and example of how people "write" things on the lava with white coral.
We all made it to the boat in just the nick of time! I was really excited we found this company, Fair Wind, because every other tour I found didn't allow kids under about 6 or 7. This boat was family friendly, had slides and jumping platforms, great set ups for kids to view fish, like boogies boards with viewing windows and all sorts of flotation devices AND a bar lol. It basically had everything you might want. :)
There were these little nooks you could stand in out at the front of the boat. Orion really enjoyed them!

Akasha looks thrilled to be in this self portrait lol. Also on the second level you can see a bunch of kids. Our trip happened to include a class full of local kids from a Hawaiian language immersion school! Listening to the teachers talk to them was so fluid! And they were so sweet and nice to our kids!
Orion climbing up the ladder to the top level.
Sails! The boat was pretty as well. :)
Orion in his new swim shirt, getting ready to hit the water. They had stairs all the way into the water. It really couldn't have been easier! There were even families on this trip that couldn't swim, and they were patiently helping them in.
More fish, taken by Ron this time. :) Our destination was Kealakekua, which was a deeper area than I had been in that morning, but still lovely!

This was a really cool fish, but so interesting to see the difference in clarity!

Long but lovely day. Here is Akasha, ready to go out to dinner in the outfit picked out by Grandpa Jim. It fit right in. Notice the mosquito bites all over her legs. :/

Kona 2011 - Day 5

2011-05-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

This is what my hair looks like after sleeping on it after being in the ocean the night before and not washing it lol!
We got a decently early start to our day thanks to the time difference with Oregon. Spotted this dude on our door on the way out. They grow bugs big around here!

Some of the desolate scenery on the way to Volcanoes NP.
This is the view out toward South Point. They are hard to see in this photo, but the ridge is peppered with windmills.
I had meant to take a picture at every 100 miles we drove but forgot. Coincidentally, I remembered as we were approaching 500, and it turned out to be right at the NP sign!!!
More scenery from the road. At least there is some blue sky! That is actually rather uncommon here because of all the volcanic emissions.
At the visitor center.... Orion found a perch.
And Akasha says, "Take my picture too, take my picture too!"
Loved this painting of Pele!
Orion checking out some local flora.
Ron liked this poem. :)
At the Jagger Museum overlook - some info on Mauna Loa - not sure you can read it though!
Orion checking out the crater.
I took several pics of the crater....
Here is another one lol.
And another one. OK, that's enough.
But wait! Of course there is video lol,

Neat piece of lava in the museum.
Akasha was making carpet angels lol.
So many things lava can do and become!

Orion being an earthquake:

The kids were just ABSOLUTELY fascinated by the idea of this being rain water. We filled up a couple bottles, and Akasha kept asking for rain water for days!
View of the museum where you can see the observation tower - the crater is off to the right a bit.
Oh, so here is the freaky thing. Apparently there was another eruption like 2 weeks before we got there. There used to be a viewing platform you could go out to right near the rim. The explosion actually blew a chunk it off!!!! It happened at like 2 in the morning, or the ranger was saying it is likely hundreds of people would have died! Just goes to show with all we think we know about this stuff, you really never know what is going to happen!

Beginning of the Thurston Lava Tube trail - probably my favorite place on the Big Island. I asked for the camera and Ron looked at me like I was weird, then we got a little more down the trail and was like oh... wow. It is a literal fern forest, with ferns towering way above your head!
Walking on the trail:

I really like ferns, especially these spirals that unfurl. :)
Flowers along the trail
So yeah, here is some perspective - whoa.
Just beautiful. I feel like I should be seeing dinosaurs!
At the entrance to the lava tube.
Some nice family came along and offered to take our picture. Amazing - two family photos in one day lol!
Spooky lighting in the tube.

On the way back on the loop trail the kids decided to go offtrail to check out the forest a bit. I just love this picture of Akasha looking full of wonder. Hmmm wonderful?

Adding one more picture from Ron's phone:

Some tiny flowers with Orion's hand for scale. As Akasha would say (about lots of things these days), "They're so cute and tiny!"
More spiral. :)
Exploring the forest:

I took this one when I was alone to capture the sounds of the forest. Turn up the volume!

We got a great Thai lunch at the town of Volcano (lol) and took it to have a picnic at the nearby winery. I might have done a bit of tasting too. :)

We decided we had time to stop at the black sand beach on the way back, and the kids thought it was pretty great. I had read there are often turtles here, and indeed there were a couple resting on the sand.
Who is looking at who? Wait I think it should be, Who is looking at whom?

It is illegal to touch them because they are endangered and can pick up some type of bacteria from us, and there are signs everywhere plus there was a guy sitting in a chair and watching when we first got there. After he left, people kept walking by, and sure enough, some lady touched one of them. So I yelled from like 40 feet away, "Don't touch the turtles!" LOL how pushy am I? I swear, though, I just don't get some people.

Orion really enjoyed walking around on these lava rocks.

Another all time favorite photo:

That one was so cute I had to crop it in. :)
Orion loved the crabs on the rocks:

And here is Akasha playing with the black sand, then remembering she didn't say hi to the turtles lol.

And that was near the end of the day. Back to Kona we went for dinner.

Kona 2011 - Day 4

2011-05-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

Akasha was still crashed out this morning, so I decided to take a little walk around the resort before it got too hot. I was totally amazed to find this herb garden just waiting for the picking! I took some fresh basil to put into an omelet!
Mmmm, plumeria.
Some interesting tropical flowers along the walking path.
This is the view from the jacuzzi. There are these weird juxtapositions like this all over this coast. In this case you have the resort golf course right next to this Hawaiian archeological site!
And there was another preserve site right on the grounds of the hotel!
Some views of the preserve, which was dedicated to Lono in case you can't read the sign. :)

These bright yellow birds were all over, usually in pairs. The kids loved them.
I stopped to look at these flowers and then was like, whoa, huge mantis! Can you see it...?
Can you see it now? (LOL that was for my friend Nicole).
Orion especially liked these double palms that were growing in several spots on the property.
Got back and decided to take some shots around the condo. Here is the awesome master bath with huge tub:
There is a pineapple motif throughout, and the kids have been having fun going around and counting them all, so I thought I should get some pictures of them!

Here is a typical scene if we aren't going anywhere. Minecraft never sleeps.
Akasha all ready to go out hunting caches with me.
I had looked at the map the night before and planned a little loop South of the resort. The first one I got was at a kayak rental place, and I got soooo many mosquito bites! The weird thing was they were tiny little things I could barely even see! I thought I remembered them being huge in Hawaii.... Dangit! So out came the bug spray I brought with me in preparation for the next stop....

There was one cache I wanted to get more than any other on this trip, but when I fired up my GPSr... it wasn't in there!!!! What, are you kidding me? I think I got so caught up in reading about it, I forgot to download it when I was done! Well, it sounded like such an interesting place, and the description of how to get into the area was pretty detailed, and I was fairly sure I remembered where it was on the map, so I decided to go for it, even if all I got to do was see it. Turned into a great caching story and I got to feel like a rock star. :)

Found the gate to the right of the store just as promised...

Went down the cool mossy steps...
And headed down the trail, complete with wild chickens Akasha was wild for herself.
Sites along the trail:
And made it down to the cemetery... only to find out it was pretty darn big! Um, there is no way I am going to find this cache, so I am just going to look around and take some photos. Maybe something will jump out at me....
Lots of these plaques with writing on them.

This was the only one I saw with little offerings on it...
... and nearby something caught my eye. Could it really be right there...? Lifted something up and OMG, cache in hand first place I actually looked!!!! So I brought it over to a flat area to check it out and sign the log. At this time is when I also looked down to notice.... WTF?! I am covered in mosquitoes!!! OK, apparently the natural crap I bought DOES NOT WORK! So at this point I am dancing around, trying to keep moving so they will stay off me while I put back the cache. What a site I must have been. What a bummer too as I would have liked to hang out here longer. But poor Akasha was getting eaten up too. So we hightailed it out of there, me carrying Akasha, and damn, it is uphill on the way out, but I kept up a fast pace.

Phew, back it they gate it was way less buggy, so we paused to take a couple cute shots. Akasha was quite sad we never caught up to any of the chickens, but she got over it.

And now I have a confession to make - we went to the Target in Kona. Funny story - turns out my bathing suit bottom was totally, um threadbare. Ron had noticed it the day before at the beach. So I needed a reasonable replacement. But these pictures are too cute not to post and give away our dirty secret lol.

Later that day, the thing we were most excited about on the whole trip... a night snorkel with manta rays!!! And I didn't really think about it ahead of time, but it was a sunset cruise as well - bonus! The harbor at dusk:
Heading out to sea - AKA I really need to do something with my hair lol.
A classic photo...
I loved our captain. He was a pretty short guy, so used a cooler as a foot stool, which cracked me up for some reason - very no fuss, do what works - and he just FLEW across the water.
Here we are going at top speed:

We also saw some dolphin, but by the time I got my camera out, I caught about 2 seconds of them lol.

It's getting darker....
And just as we planned, close to a full moon.
The mantas were amazing. It was really hard to get any decent photos in the dark, but there was a professional with us, and we bought her photos and video. Now I just need Ron to collect them so I can share them - excited! The night started out slow - her was one of our first glimpes:
But by the end they were coming right up belly to belly with us! The lights we were carrying attract plankton, which is what they eat, and they do these beautiful graceful somersaults to collect the food. This is one of the best photos we got:
We also have some video I will post when I get it uploaded!

Editing to add some of the pics the photographer took. This was our group on the blue ring:

I put all our videos together in Moviemaker and made this:

And this reminded me I forgot to write about Lefty! That is the manta in these pictures. You can see how one of her fins doesn't open properly, which could impact how well she collects plankton. Turns out she was the first one to come check out the humans and their lights, and then lots of others followed. They now seem to totally trust that we intend them no harm, but we have Lefty to thank for this amazing experience.

Kona 2011 - Day 3

2011-05-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

Today's big event was a trip to Waipio Valley. I remembered it as one of the prettiest places I have ever seen, and wanted Ron to see it too. You need a serious 4wd and some mad skills to get up and down the road, which is a 25% grade in spots!!! :o So we decided for the horse (I mean mule) drawn wagon tour, which starts in a van lol.

The meeting place was outside a little store, where the kids picked flowers and played with their new Goldfish containers, which they are completely enamored with.

Sportin' her new tinkerbell shades....

Then I gave Orion the camera and asked him to take some photos while in the van going down the steep road. Well, this is what I got:

And those were only a few of the delightful shots of the side of the road before we even got to the viewpoint lol. At least we did get one shot of the view!
And then not a single one while actually on the road! Which was a bit of a bummer as that is when we saw some of the wild horses that live in the valley. Oh well! But here is our chariot awaiting us:
The guy that runs the operation actually lives down here and trains these horses. The kids were excited to pet them, and Orion was particularly amazed by the one below on the right because he said it had colors like a cow!
They were quite friendly. :)
On the road up the valley. We had the whole tour to ourselves, which was nice, and the guy had so much information about the valley and all the plants. I also learned that mules are much smarter than horses, which I never knew! And donkeys are smarter still! I think they need a better PR rep!
Lots of interesting tropical plants, including these lobster claws.
I thought this patch of forest was really cool looking, although the picture doesn't do it justice.
"Peek!"
And here is the famous Sister dog. The kids pretty much had no interest in the valley, but were delighted to keep track of Sister, who followed us the whole time, even through the river crossings!
Here is a bit of video crossing the river:

Looked like some locals had built a little swimming hole here.
Back at the owner's property. I guess this was the old carriage.
Family shot with mules. We found it very funny the guy had his mules in focus but us a bit blurry.

Saying goodbye to the horses.
Surfing?
Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this trip because of... expectations. So what did I expect? :) I felt bad for Ron because there hadn't been as much rain lately, and the really spectacular falls weren't even running. Also, of the two places I liked best in the valley, the tour didn't go to either of them, although the pictures from their site showed people at one of them! So I was a bit annoyed about that, but tried to just let it go. On the other hand, I learned all sorts of history about the valley, including how Hawaiian royalty used to live there because of the springs, and how their used to be a fairly large community, including schools and churches, until a tsunami swept everything away. :( We also learned that only the very front parts of the valley have electricity (I thought none of it did) and that the valley goes back for 6 miles with several people living way back there. Which brings up the funniest part in my opinion. Ron asked, "What do they do?" And the driver said, "Ooooh, nothing." I kindof laughed and said, "I read there is alot of pot grown back there," and he just smiled. Yeah...

We had gotten an early start, so we decided to stop at one of the many lovely beaches that are North of Kona. I chose Hapuna because there just might have been a geocache there. :D Orion and Ron got busy building an interesting sand castle.

And here are a few extra pictures I took with my phone, which does not take great ones sadly.

Kinda creepy sand sculpture somebody had made, but both the kids liked it.
Spotted on the way back to the car.
We started getting really hungry so decided to head straight for a restaurant I had read about online, Jackie Rey's, and boy was I glad because it wasn't really near anything else, so I don't think we would have ever known about it if I hadn't done some research. And it turned out to probably be the best meal we had on the island, especially if you take service into account. I will save the food portion for the foodie post, but here are some other snippets, including the Jackie Reymobile:
(More sucky phone pics, sorry) We get inside to find tables covered with white paper for coloring on, so we knew we had come to the right place.

Then we opened the menu to find it full of fancy food. What a combo - I am in heaven! Next thing you know, the waitress is at our table coloring pictures with Akasha while we look at the menu!
And the next thing you know, they are inviting our whole family back into their fridge to see the fresh catch of the day! Apparently this is standard practice as everybody in the kitchen was just like, "Hey another one to see the fish?" LOL, what place! I only wish we had gotten a good picture, but I have to include this one just because it was such a rad experience, and if you look closely, you can see Orion making his Shaka Bra hand!

Found a slightly better pic on Ron's phone!

Kona 2011 - Day 2

2011-05-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

First morning in Kona, and the nice view from our patio. Not exactly an ocean view, but not bad either!
Lovely mural inside the place we had breakfast:

Akasha and her lilikoi lemonade. :)
We wanted a mostly down day for our first day, so hung out at the pool a bit. I spied one of these lizards and was just floored. It didn't even look real!
Then we had to test out the new underwater camera!
Startin on the first step. The yellow tape was because there was an area they were trying to get totally dry so they could paint the surface, which was a bit of a pain for people with kids since it was the ground between the only steps and the kiddie pool! Glad they got that taken care of quickly.

So nice to have a camera you can use in the pool!

Later that day, we headed up Mauna Kea to go to the visitor center, which is at just over 9000 feet. You literally drive right through the clouds! We would have loved to drive right to the top, at over 13000 feet, and see the many observatories along the way, which you can do, but you need a 4WD, and they actually don't recommend it for small children. So we just checked out the visitor center, which was pretty cool in its own right, and the staff were very friendly and informative! Here you are basically looking down on the cloud layer, although it is kinda hard to tell in this photo.
We stayed until dark, because I had read about how they get out powerful telescopes every night, and it was pretty great this close to the full moon. They hook up a big screen to the one they set on the moon. We also got to see Saturn in a couple of them! Orion was more interested in the gift store lol, and he picked out one of those fiberoptic "lamps" with all the long strands. I also think I am going to put a virtual geocache here - was surprised there wasn't one already - so stay tuned for that! :)

Kona 2011 - Day 1

2011-05-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

ZOMG finally time to work on the Hawaii entries!

Not sure if this should count as Day 1 or not, but we were technically in Hawaii by the end of the day. :) Here we are waiting to go through... you guessed it, airport security. It really wasn't that bad. At least at Portland they let you bring a cart through. Although there used to be a separate line for families which we were disappointed to see gone.
Wow Akasha's carseat has alot of dog hair on it lol.

Waiting in the terminal. I believe those were Skittles.
And we made it!!! We had a short flight to San Francisco, then a longer flight to Kona. I was surprised that you have to buy ANY food on the planes now! Not even a snack. Glad the short trip was first so I knew to eat a meal before the next one! The kids did remarkably well, although Akasha zonked right out on the first flight, which I wish had happened on the second one! The hardest part was getting her carseat in and out, but I think it is so worth it as it conveys to her she needs to stay in her seat. I think we would have had a helluva time with her monkeying around in just the airplane seat belt. The second flight started out pretty rocky as we had expected the larger plane and thought Orion would get to sit by the window, which he reeeeally wanted to do, but we got the same type of plane, which has a rule about carseats having to go in the window seat. So he cried... really loudly... for quiet a long time. :( I am sure everybody on the plane was thrilled. But things calmed down and we actually had quite a good time listening to 70s music on the headphones lol. He seemed enthralled that I was able to mouth most of the words. He is really getting into music these days - might be time to get some on an ipod for him! And Akasha miraculously just played with different things I handed her for almost the whole trip! She got antsy right at the end, and I let her get out of her seat to sit on my lap, then had a time of it getting her pack in when it was time to land, but we got through it.

The saddest part of the whole day, though, was finding out between planes that Sarah missed her flight because she had it on her calendar for the next day. :(( We tried a variety of ways to figure out how to get her there, but it never worked out. Waaaaah.

And then we were there and WOW, the heat! I had kindof forgotten how hot it stays, even at night! Thank goodness I had some water left, because my throat immediately started completely drying out over and over. It was like the environment had some crazy fast dehydrating effect on me. Damn, I have become a PNWer through and through I guess!

Orion monkeying around while Ron got the rental car.
Kinda looks like a yoga pose lol! I was thrilled we were able to make it to this one restaurant I had read about before it closed (more in foodie post to come lol) and we found our resort without any trouble. Whoa, has this area changed!!! Costco, Walmart, Target - none of that was here last time I came! But the little waterfront area is still cute, and our place is a bit out of town in an area famous for some awesome snorkeling. And the condo was reeeeally nice! My only complaint is that they had us on the second floor, but we were able to switch to a first floor room - phew! We were getting in after dark, so looking forward to checking everything out the next day!

Emotional Maturity

2011-05-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

So I don't blog much with words these days. Seems like all I can do to keep up our family's photojournal. But I so often have something I want to SAY. Most of the time I let it go, as I don't have much of a way with words and keep trying not to spend so much time on the computer, but some topics just keep rolling around and won't let go. I take that as a sign. :)

This idea about emotional maturity is something that has been bubbling around since our trip to CA, and kindof solidified the other night when talking to Ron about it, as it turned out he had noticed the same thing in Orion! I have always marveled at the way he moves through things and never seems to hold any type of grudge against people when he has a negative interaction with them. For a long time I thought it was just being young, but now he is getting to an age where other moms tell me for sure their kids hold grudges, and did when they were much younger as well.

Orion seems to have such a big heart to me. Whenever we are out someplace, like a playground or McDonald's (where we sadly spent alot of time on our trip because my dad doesn't have internet), he is happy to make friends and play with anybody who is there. I started closely watching his interactions with some kids on the trip one day, and was really struck by the sense he was "different". There is something totally open and accepting in his face when other kids have this look of suspicion and "sizing up". When other kids are sharing sidelong looks and being subtly meanspirited, he just keeps smiling and doesn't even seem to get it. He seems to see the best in everybody.

So I started wondering... is this where homeschooling and "lack of socialization" gets you, and would some people see this as being "behind" in his emotional development? I brought it up with Ron, and what he had to say blew my mind. Turns out he was talking to a friend about the very same thing, and they were giving him the blahblah line about homeschooling not preparing kids for the real world and that type of naivete not being a good thing. But Ron said, "Are there any adults that come to mind who kept that sense of love for all intact?" Names like Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the Dalai Lama came up. Whoa, well OK, that really reframes it eh? If this is what a lack of socialization gets us, I'll take it!

I feel like kids in school get thrust into a "political" world at such a young age. There are cliques and hierarchies formed as early as Kindergarten. I remember it myself and saw it when Sarah was growing up as well. Some people might say that *is* the real world, but I don't think it has to be. I think we *can* move more toward a partnership way of existence. Indeed I believe we are going to *have* to if we are going to survive as a species.

I have also seen these differences sometimes in groups I have been a part of, with otherwise similar parenting styles, where the kids in school will be in one group, doing alot of mean name calling that the homeschooled kids are not participating in. I am not saying this is a perfect correlation that schooled kids are namecallers and homeschoolers never are, but I have noticed a strong relationship around that type of thing. The older kids don't seem "unprepared" for it. Instead, I have often seen them just look at the other kids with a puzzled expression and walk away. Or speak up and say they don't feel comfortable with it.

Can you imagine what our world might look like if more and more of our children just started refusing to participate in insulting each other? My imagination goes wild. :)

Happy Burfday Daddy!

2011-05-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

Ron is at the meaning of life age lol! Made a crustless cheesecake. :)

Blooooow!

Turns out Akasha loves cheesecake!
The card Orion made:
And the night would not be complete without a rousing game of Upside Down Baby...

Tulip Festival 2011

2011-05-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

We have managed to make it to the Tulip festival every year for awhile now. So glad we got this beautiful day to go.

So excited to get to the flowers!
He ran ahead of us all the way to the fields.

Orion really loved the ones with the variegated colors this year.
The sunglasses clan.
Lots of cuteness with no need of description... :)

And now the no sunglasses clan? That was a weird coincidence!
Red shirt with red flowers. :)

Akasha LOVED this swing!
I thought he was going to go down on his stomach!
But no. :)
Orion adores the duck races every year.
And Akasha got her first try at them!
The face of concentration lol.

A Cache and a Bday

2011-04-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Took a trek a bit north to go to a party, and had to stop at a cache. ;) This is probably the best stocked cache I have ever seen! Orion got this little handheld electronic soccer game and just kept saying, "Why would anybody give this up?!" LOLAkasha ended up with the cutest chocolate goatee. I wish the picture was clear!
Just love that Akasha has so many sweet older kiddos who like to play with her. :)

Editing to add two more goatee pics I got! :)

No, as a matter of fact, those aren't hard boiled...

2011-04-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Akahsa was obsessed with peeling and eating the colored eggs this year, so she helped herself to these as well. Not sure if she was still hoping for a hardboiled egg or enjoying her sensory experience or both. PS... I wasn't home....

A Sail on the Hawaiian Chieftan!

2011-04-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

I was hoping for nice weather, but it was rainy and chilly when we first got on the ship. Orion was a trooper though!
Heading out with the sister ship behind us.
Orion was really thrilled with the whole pulling up of the sails business. I got lots of video I will upload when I can. Then somebody had to climb way up to do some adjustments to the sails.
This guy did a cannon demonstration Orion was pretty interested in.
Although as usual, it only looked like he wasn't paying attention, but it turned out he was picking up more than I was. The guy had a whole tool kit he brought out and explained each one. Orion was twirling around, jumping up and down some stairs and not even looking at the guy the whole time. Then at the end, when the guy asked for questions, he was immediately pointed and said, "What does that tool do?" I am thinking, oh gee, he is asking something the guy already went over, but it turned out it was something the guy had not covered! An adult even complimented him on what a good question it was. I swear, I don't know how the kid does it, but it totally amazes me!

I thought this was a neat shot:
The Lady Washington all decked out.
Crew doing some work out on the bow.
And Orion wanted a shot there too. :)
I thought the compass was quite lovely. It is normally encased in a big, spherical, brass thing, but the captain took the cover off for me.
Captain putting the lid back on. The attached cylindrical area in the foreground is a place for a candle so you can see it in the dark!
Love this reflection in the glass!
The sun came out at the end and we got some gorgeous sunset light. Here is the crew back up in the rigging making sure the sails are all properly tied up.

And then wowser, what a wonderful surprise! A lovely rainbow!
Don't you just know when you get a picture of your kid that is going to be a favorite for all time? :D
Another dramatic shot - came out looking darker than it was but really neat!
More rainbow, cuz I am a sucker for rainbows lol.

And more workin'.
I thought it was neat how the train bridge opens on a swivel. I never knew that. Also, that is the first mate in the foreground, who turned out to be a geocacher!
Overall, a good trip. I think it was a bit long for Orion because of the cold - he had no interest in all the details about the sails or the shanties lol. Well, I take that back. True for the sails as he wasn't even near, but then he remembered the words to one of the songs later. There was a repeating part that said, "Haul away, haul away, haul away girls," and later he asked me why it was just girls lol! He is getting to that age of fairness. :)

Here is the video version:

This was declared a Lego swimming pool...

2011-04-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

Nuff said.

Historical Cache Jaunt

2011-04-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

I needed a cache where I could leave this traveler that wanted to be someplace patriotic, and this is one of the only places in Portland I thought would work. i have passed this lots of times but never actually checked it out, so it was a pretty interesting trip. Thanks geocaching again for bringing me to a neat spot!

These flowers smelled sooooo good! :)

Gooey Worms!

2011-04-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Found these old pictures on one of our cameras and wanted to post them back when they were taken. Orion really likes these little science kits you can get at OMSI. Last time it was some instant "snow" stuff, and this time he chose these gooey worms. There was a solution you squirted into another liquid, and it instantly turned into these squiggly things. He was delighted. :)

Egypt at OMSI!

2011-04-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

I am glad we made it to OMSI before the Egypt exhibit closed, although I was disappointed there were almost no pictures allowed. It really was a good exhibit with lots of hands on things to do, but Akasha was in running mode, so I didn't get to look at much lol. This is the one spot you could take a photo:
Although I was so spaced out I didn't notice the background and that I needed to position myself correctly - d'oh! How about this crop instead haha:
And then we ran into some good friends who like to play with Akasha, so yay! I love unschoolers and their lack of age bias!

Orion go really into making the sailboats this time!

Here is a video I pieced together from several clips:

Easter Day 2011

2011-04-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

I was kindof a photo failure this year on Easter. Our yard was such a jungle I had my hands full helping Akasha negotiate it!

And the more "Standard" Egg Coloring

2011-04-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

Notice the wine, essential ingredient in any egg dying session. :)

It is traditional in our family to do some hand dying apparently.

My new green thumb. Wonder if it will work.

Throwin the horns lol!

Silk Tie Egg Coloring!

2011-04-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I saw this project popping up on few Facebook walls as I have done sooo many different types of Easter Eggs over the years, and this was totally different! You can Google this and find it on about 100 blogs, but here is my contribution lol.

What you need:

As many eggs as you want to decorate - NOT boiled yet
Old WHITE tshirts - enough to cut into squares that will cover your eggs
100% Silk ties - same as with the shirts
String, yarn or twist ties
A pot big enough to hold all the eggs
1/2 cup vinegar

So I ran out and bought some silk ties at The Goodwill (they have to be marked 100% silk).
Then I got to work, while others hung out under the table.
Here are some of the squares I cut:
The next thing you want to do is wrap the colored side of the fabric next to the egg as tightly as possible. Then cover it with a white square to keep it in place, and tie it somehow. I saw various versions of this, including twist ties and wrapping string all the way around the egg. I liked making them into a "candy bundle" and tying both ends with yarn.
Then put them in a pot with water to cover and the vinegar. I also saw various boiling times, but went with a long one, about 45 minutes, and I think it paid off in vivid colors. What do you think? :)
Publish Post

Nesting

2011-04-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Akasha loves to collect all the pillows in the house and make herself a little nest, so I thought it was about time I got a picture of it. :)
Ah, and don't forget to notice the ipod!

CA Trip - What about the narrative?

2011-04-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

I feel like I rushed through getting all these posts up just based on the pictures, but there is obviously so much more to the trip. I come to California to see my dad after all. I am not much of one for writing up the "darker" stuff on my blog, but life has its cycles.... My dad still seems sad and lonely every day. He sometimes just sits in his chair and breaks out in tears. I feel sad living so far away from him but can't imagine going back to Southern California, and I know he is way too set in his ways to move out of his home. His memory also seems even worse than it was last time. He asks me the same questions over and over, tells the same stories over and over. I worry about him living in that big house all alone and he focuses so much on all the people who have died in his life instead of the living. He barely eats anything, and everything he does he tells me doesn't taste good anymore. He also gets food out and leaves it on the counter for hours! I was constantly putting stuff away and had to wonder how long he leaves stuff out sometimes! I can't believe he never gets food poisoning! But what can I say? He is stubborn and independent as ever. My greatest fear is that we will have to insist at some point he go into a care facility against his wishes. Who knows, maybe he will opt for at least a retirement community one of these days, but it really doesn't seem like it. For now, I plan to keep visiting twice a year. He could live for another 20 years or more! He is in excellent health except for his memory and his vision. So here's to the idea of him dancing at Akasha's wedding. You just never know.