May Day!!!!

Another exciting month in the islands. To start out with, Brandon fractured his arm when he and some friends were running around the house and he tripped and fell bending his wrist backwards. It fortunately did not snap a bone but he still has to be in a cast for about 6 weeks. Of course, he still has to play in the dirt!!! In fact, after the first week, he had the cast moving around the wrist so the doctor doubled the cast up...it doesn't move now. It did throw his balance off for a few days though!!!

The next big event was May Day. The kids spend weeks learning dances to prepare for the show. Now we aren't talking about dancing around a May Pole, we are talking Polynesia and the kids learn to dance. Let me show you what I mean. Here is Brandon in his costume (pre-face tattoo) as we left the house. On his arrival at the Polynesian Culture Center in their main theater (that's where the show was held), they painted their face paint on for the show.

Here he is after getting his face paint on.


















The show starts with the introduction of the royalty from each of the islands represented and the May Day Royalty (King and Queen in the white). Then they start with the pre-school and each grade represents a different island and dances the dances from that island.










Brandon's 4th grade class represented the island of Marquesas. The boys danced, then the girls, and then they dance a dance together.









Brandon looks a bit small in this crowd!!!

Here is part of the first two dances they did. Brandon is in the back row in the middle (look for the cast).

Here is part of the last dance they did.  Brandon is on the front row.

Here he is after the show.




It was quite fun to see the program. They really did a good job. Now it's back to school to learn for two more weeks until summer break.

This past weekend we also had two visits. We are always happy to see our friends from Colorado and our family. Kevin and Tammy Woodward (our Stake Pres from Colorado Springs) and their daughter Ariana came and visited us on Friday. It was great to visit with them.









We also had Linda's Uncle Ed Betenson and her cousin's daughters (Alyssa and Sam Curtis) visit. We drove down to Bellows AFS and had a BBQ with them Thursday evening. Alyssa and Sam then came and stayed the night with us and went to the Polynesian Culture Center on Friday. We joined them and the Woodwards for the night show. During the intermission, they had the 1st round of the finals of the World Fireknife Championships. You can see more if you would like on their official website ( http://www.worldfireknife.com/ ). It was quite the show.

 To top off our week, we had a wonderful Mother's Day together. All of the boys called their mother and Brandon and I fixed her breakfast and dinner. We went for a walk in the evening to the temple to look at the beautiful flowers and it was just a perfect night. The sunset was beautiful and we took these pictures.












































 It was beautiful...

A busy April

April has been a fun month. First we had our good friend Chris Henderson and his son Colin come over for a quick visit. Chris and I went diving and Cory and Colin were snorkeling above us. Cory would have been diving with us but one of the regulators that we rented was broken so we only had two sets of gear. Turned out to be a lot of fun anyway. We saw a lot of interesting critters and swam with a turtle. Fun, fun.

Chris and Colin also experienced a little boogie boarding and Colin learned to surf from our friend Joe Wilson.

With Cory getting ready to return to school in Idaho, we were making a few quick trips to see things he hadn't seen. One of those was to Turtle Beach to see the turtles. There were three of them laying on the sand sunbathing and some playing in the water. When the turtles come ashore, the area is roped off so people don't go up and bother them. We watched the ones in the water play for a bit and enjoyed reading about the turtles. They track each one of them by name. The lady told us these two had been up quite regularly - sorry, I can't remember their names.



Linda is not one of the turtles - they are behind her on the sand. There is a third one behind the rock.

They just sat there and occasionally spun around on the sand.

 You can see a couple more turtles in these pictures, playing in the water.

This picture is of Cory's last day when the office he worked with had a luncheon and gave him a orchid lei. We took him to the airport on the 11th and he flew back to Idaho to finish his school. This is his last semester.

Cory and Linda did a couple of last adventures before he left.  One was to hike Koko Head Crater.  Straight up the slope of an old volcano.  No pictures. We have to get Linda to take the camera more often.



To round out the month, we had our stake conference. Elder Whiting from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy was the visiting general authority and they had a Primary Choir that sang at the session on Sunday. Brandon got to sing in the choir.

 And just to top off a busy month, Brandon and his friends were playing and running outside and Brandon tripped. He fell on his arm and so we took him to the doctor. They x-ray'd it and the doctor had us use some ice to get the swelling down. Today they called us to tell us it is fractured and tomorrow he gets to go get it put in a cast. That will make it a bit hard for him to play his violin in the talent show Wednesday at the school!!!  We'll see what happens. Watch for pictures of the cast in our next posting!

Diving and Pinewood Derby

So before Cory leaves to go back to school in Idaho, we decided to go diving at Electric Beach. It is on the west side of the island and is where the electric plant feeds the cleaned water back into the ocean. The water is very warm when it comes back in so the coral is a little different there than other parts of the island. The fish also sit in front of the pipes where the water is warm. They even swim in toward the pipes where the water shooting out catches them and takes them for a carnival ride! You can almost see the smiles on the faces of the fish as they have fun!

 Getting ready for the dive.

Coral and fish.
Cory at the bottom (about 25-30 feet) where he saw the turtle.















Cory on the move.



 This is the wall holding the pipes which are about 10-12 feet tall.


































Cory chillin....














Cory along the wall.

 Norman along the wall.






















Cory sitting in front of the pipe but far enough to not be thrown around!















The eel!!! (on the left at the bottom looking at us).



























Coming out after the dive.

 On Tuesday night, we had the pinewood derby race. Brandon designed his car, picked the orange paint, and added all the decorations. We also helped Liam cut out his car. We only had a couple days to build it after I returned from the mainland and we didn't have any scales so we were guessing at the weight. We ended up at 4.8oz when we got to the race. They asked if we wanted to glue a couple pennies on but we decided to race it as it was. Here is the movie of Brandon's first race, one in the middle, and the final championship race for the fastest car.

Here are some pictures of his car and getting his certificate for the fastest car.

And so ends the pinewood derby era for the Norman Black family. I will now pass all my secrets and magic moly graphite down to Skyler so he can get ready for his boys who will be the next racers!!!