Visit to Twin Falls

What? Twin Falls, Idaho? No... we're not that close to home. Twin Falls, Maui, Hawai'i. It was on the famous "Road to Hana."

On Saturday we went snorkeling at Molokini and at Turtletown USA, but I'll have to report and post pictures from that later.

We went to church yesterday here in Kikei, where it was funny to see all of the bishopric wearing leis with their suits! After church, we took the drive to Hana, a 30+ mile stretch of road with over 600 turns and 59 one-way bridges. It could have been a really fun drive if the road were clear and you were in a sports car with good handling. It was still a fun drive because it was so spectacularly beautiful!

We had dinner at the very beautiful Hana Hotel, set in an area where you think, "Ah... this is what we expected Maui to look like." Enjoy the pictures below.

Steven and Andrew playing in the jungle (no politically correct "tropical rainforest" garbage here!) on the hike from the road up to the Twin Falls waterfalls. With my broken toe and bad knee, I couldn't get all the way up to the falls, so I'll have to post pictures from the kids' cameras later.

We had dinner at the lounge at the Hana Hotel. That's an open area and patio area in the background (Steven, Brianna, Andrew and Christopher in the foreground), and they partially close the glass wall only when it starts raining - which it did while we were there. Isn't this what you'd expect Maui to look like?!

The family at Hana.

A picture from the shoreline at Hana. Isn't this beautiful?!

Krakatoa in Hawai'i

We had a GREAT time parasailing today!!! It was tons of fun, and very exhilarating floating up in the air so peacefully. And the view of the coral reefs from 800 feet was really gorgeous!!! Check out the photos below. After parasailing, we went swimming at the J.T. Fleming Beach on the west side of Maui. Just one picture posted from there. Shortly after this picture was shot, I was walking on the beach looking for our kids, and I walked in to a large rock partially buried in the sand. Hit it so hard, that I believe I've broken the fourth toe on my right foot.; it's all swollen, discolored and gross (and NO... I never dated a girl like that!). Thus, as the title of this posting implies, I've cracked a toe in Hawaii. Tomorrow we go snorkeling, and it should be interesting trying to put fins on! :-)

Christopher and Steven on their way up from the platform of the boat.

Brianna and Andrew getting dipped in the water.

Do Brianna and Andrew look happy here, or what?! :-)

Justin and Mark waving from the parasail.

Mom waving to her adoring fans.

Dad pulling up on the straps, getting some relief from the super wedgie that seemed to plague only me today!

Steven and Dad waving to Mom while she snaps a photo.

Lovely Luau

We had a great time at the luau in Wailea last night, and had a great time. Some photos below. Now we're up early and heading up to Kaanapali this morning for parasailing. 800 feet up, baby!!! I'll be sure to get some good photos.

Brianna, Michelle and Nancy. A three-generation shot, and I just love how Brianna and Nancy match.

Brianna sitting on the lava rocks on the shore.

The entire family at the shoreline, at sunset.

Pics from Hawaii

Following are more pics from Hawaii. We got to our resort in Maui late last night, and are just having a low-key day. Tonight, though, we're going on a luau, and looking forward to that! :-)

Michelle and the kids at the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

A cute picture of the kids behind a big tree at the National Cemetery up on the Punch Bowl on Oahu.

A beautiful beach scene up on the North Shores on Oahu.

The family in front of the Hawaii Temple.

The family on the deck of the USS Missouri, the battleship where the official end of WW2 took place.

Brianna and Christopher on the back of the Hawaii SuperFerry that we took from Oahu to Maui. The seas were REALLY rough on this trip over, and at least half the passengers on board (including many in our family) spent much of the 3.5-hour passage seasick! :-(

Aloha!

Aloha! Greetings from Hawaii. We arrived in Honolulu Sunday night, and have been having a great time on Oahu. I haven't had time to do any postings, but so far have taken hundreds of pictures. To the right here is a picture of all of us, up on the "Punch Bowl" overlooking Waikiki. I'm doing this blog entry from our SuperFerry boat to Maui, on Wednesday afternoon. I don't know if this internet connection will actually stay live once we leave port, so it's a short entry, just to say ALOHA!!! We're having a great time, and wish you could all be here with us. :-)

Michelle, Ma Belle

Someone was commenting the other day that on our family blog here, there's not much about my dear wife, Michelle. Well... that's just too danged bad - she's too precious to me to share!!! :-)

I don't really have any shots of her without some or all of our kids in the picture, so here at the right is one with her and Christopher and Justin, the day we were helping at the Winter Special Olympic games in Boise earlier this year. Christopher looks contemplative and Justin looks like he's just been enlightened by something. :-)

At any rate, Friday night in Daegu, South Korea, my associates and I went to a karaoke club. John Kim, a member of the Daegu Digital Industry Promotion Agency, joined me in duet, but I'd like to dedicate the Beatles "Michelle" to my wife. Check out the video below, and please don't comment on how awful we sound. It's the thought that counts, right???

For the YouTube version (slightly larger and slightly better quality), please click here.

I love you, Michelle. You are the light of my life, and I MISS YOU!!!
Michelle, ma belle. Sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble. These are words that go together well!!!

- John, posting from Shanghai

Fun with Sparklers

Last night we had only half of our children home, so tonight we did fireworks again, with everybody home this time.

Getting creative once again, I decided to have Justin, Christopher, Brianna, Andrew and Mark spell out the word "hello" with sparklers. Justin and Christopher had the most complex letters (nothing like trying to make a backwards "h" or "e" waving your arm!), and so their letters are a little small. Oh well; you get the idea.

Again for the camera geeks: ISO 200, f29 aperture, 30 second exposure.

Happy Independence Day!!!

We hope everybody had a great Independence Day yesterday. Our great country is 232 years old - and my kids tell ME that I'm old!!! :-)

Yesterday was kind of a laid back day for some of us. Justin and Christopher were working all day down at Morrison Park, serving up delicious lemonade to the masses. Andrew was (and still is) away at Boy Scout Camp. So in the late morning, after sleeping in, Michelle and I, as well as Brianna, Mark and Steven, went shopping at the Boise Outlet Mall - I even got a bunch of stuff from one of my favorite stores, Big Dog. To give some perspective, the exit from I-84 to get to our home is exit #47 (I think - I may be off by one). The Boise Outlet Mall is at exit #54. These exit numbers are also mile markers. A lot of stores in the Boise Outlet Mall are going out of business, citing that it's just too far our of town to be successful. Just 7 miles!

Then out at exit #74, you're way out in the middle of nowhere. Just 27 miles from the exit to our home. Way out there, though, is a HUGE Fat City Fireworks (open year-round) warehouse. We went out there to buy our fireworks. That place was CROWDED yesterday!!! There must have been 300 people there. We stayed away from the stuff (bummer!!!) that you had to sign an affidavit for, the kind of artillery shells (actually illegal in Idaho - but they sell it!) you see at Angels Stadium, and stuck to the Safe 'n Sane stuff.

After getting home from that shopping, we went for a lazy swim in our pool. Having already been BBQ'd out this week, we did the next best American thing: we ordered pizza. We then enjoyed our own little private fireworks show in our front yard. The picture above is of this REALLY colorful fountain we got, and below is me doing figure-8s with a sparkler, as captured with my camera on a tripod. For pictures of all 13 posted pictures, please click here.

Have a great holiday weekend, everybody!!!

For all of you photo geeks out there, I took this photo with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. It was sitting on my tripod; the aperture was set at f22, and the shutter remained opened for 13 seconds, with an ISO setting of 400.

Camping / A Roll in the Sand

Oh... sorry about this blog posting's title. You know me... I always like to make comments that have shock value. Did the title get your attention, anyway? Rest assured, though, this blog remains family friendly, and I hope you enjoy the video/pictures of, for example, Christopher rolling down the sand dunes! :-)

Upon landing back at home last week after 26 days in Asia, I immediately went camping with the family (well... most of the family, anyway; Brianna was out of town on other stuff). Idaho is home to the tallest sand dune in North America, at the Bruneau Dunes State Park. Just before the sand dunes, they have grass-covered, manicured camping spaces; this is where we camped. We had fun camping overnight, playing frisbee, football, and (baseball) catch; making s'mores and cooking over the fire. And... of course... playing in the sand dunes!!!

Herein are a couple photos from our fun campout, as well as a video of Christopher rolling down a sand dune. For all the photos from our campout, please click here.

You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see clearly, but I just love the look on Steven's face as his big brothers bury him in the sand!

I really love this picture of the boys! :-)

Check out the sand flying all about Christopher as he rolls down the sand dunes. This was pretty intense, and hard to capture on film!