Rain, waterfalls, and sunsets

It has been a fun and exciting few weeks here.

First of all, Brandon was selected with a few of the other 4th graders as the "Super Citizen" for January at the school. They had a big assembly with the school to present the awards and the parents and friends could then go up and present them with leis and take pictures.

Brandon with his class getting ready for the assembly (they hold them outside and everyone brings their chairs out from their classrooms and set them up on the lawn).

Putting the leis on Brandon (along with a few others he received.












Linda, Cory and Brandon hiked up to a little waterfall while I ran some errands in town.

 We got an unexpected phone call one morning from Uncle Max and Aunt Sandy and they were in Hawaii with some of their children. We haven't seen them for a long time but were able to spend some time with them enjoying them during their vacation. We enjoyed dinner one night and had a great time with them. We were so glad to see them.
































Brandon has also been playing on a basketball team. They have been having a good time and he is learning a lot. His team is currently undefeated.

Brandon also drew some artwork on the driveway.













He also received his first Webelos activity badge for Showmanship. They made puppets and wrote a little puppet show for the other boys and performed it. It was a lot of fun.

They also held the Blue and Gold Banquet that night and the boys had to eat their dinners with just two toothpicks. It was fun to see them eating lasagna and salad with toothpicks and they were glad it wasn't rice!!!










They got their desert off a string!












 This week, Kelly and Wendy Parker, our friends for many years dating back to High School and college days, came to visit. It has been fun to have them here.

During their visit to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, they were given this Cocoa Bean. They cut it open and it looked like it was full of oysters! When the outer slimy stuff was peeled off the bean, there was the cocoa which was bitter!!! (Is it any surprise why I don't like chocolate much???)








It has been raining a lot and despite the rain, we decided Saturday that we were going to hike to Manoa Falls. It is a 100 foot fall in a rain forest near Honolulu. We hiked the muddy trail and saw all kinds of great plants and vines.




We are once again assured that Dr. Seuss got his inspiration from the plants and fish in Hawaii!

The falls were beautiful when we got to them. The fall was a lot bigger because of all the rain we have received.

 This tree was huge and looked like it was growing sideways.











It has been a lot of fun over the past few weeks and we have enjoyed having the visitors. We are enjoying it here and are excited to have visitors so come on over. And by the way, here is one more picture of a beautiful sunset from the historic town of Ha'liewa.