Norman and Linda Black: Exciting March and Water, water, water

So an interesting month in Hawaii. I left on the 8th for a business trip to the mainland. The day after I left, there was a hail storm and flood on the island. The hail storm did not reach Laie, but the rain did. It rained pretty hard for about three hours and here are the results. We didn't get any in our house but others in the neighborhood did. We learned why everyone keeps sand bags near by.

Our front yard.

The street in front of our house.

Looking down our street toward the chapels.

The side of our house outside our wall.

Brandon riding his bike after the rain had stopped for a little while. We don't have any snow days here that cancel school but this rain day cancelled it!!!

While I was gone, Linda, Cory, and Brandon hiked Diamond Head. It is an old volcano that served as a strategic bunker during the wars and is now a national park. They hiked across and took pictures looking down at Honolulu and Waikiki Beach on the west side and out to the east side looking toward Hanama Bay and Koko Crater.

The stairwell in the bunker.

Looking out from the bunker.

This barge is scraping the sand back up to Waikiki Beach. It is not a natural beach and has to be worked a lot.

After hiking the crater, they went down to Waikiki and walked around discovering some of the area downtown including this bannion tree.

I, on the other hand, flew to Las Vegas and Mom and Dad picked me up and I spent the weekend in St. George visiting family. I then drove to Provo and SLC for meetings that week. I got to see a lot of friends and spent the days in meetings. I then flew to Denver where Skyler picked me up and I spent the weekend in Colorado Springs with them. Ethan told me all about the green man that had visited them (the St Patrick's Day leprechaun) and Teigan told his mom it was the best day ever after we visited the Velvet Freeze and they got corn dogs and ice cream. It was fun seeing them. I also visited our old ward and got to see so many of our friends there which was really fun too.

Yesterday, while Brandon and I and one of his friends made pinewood derby cars for the races this week, Linda and Cory went and hiked to China Man's Hat. This is an island off the eastern coast and when the tide is right, you can hike across the reef through the water to the island. You can then climb to the top of the island which takes about 10 minutes (not a big island). They had a lot of fun.