School's Out

School got out at the end of May and Brandon got his Webelos Award and was off to Cub Scout Day Camp. They had a good time and he got his cast off just in time for camp. He actually got it off a few days early because we went to the beach and he ended up playing in the water and getting  the cast all wet. In the end, the doctor said he would just take it off rather than replace it for the second time!!!

Sunsets are always pretty at the temple but this happened to be a night we were walking by the temple as the sun set and took a couple of pictures with the phone. Not as clear as the camera but you still get the idea.
















Linda and Brandon waited patiently while I tried to take professional pictures of the sunset with the phone!!!

Our avocados also started getting far enough along to pick this month.  We share them with our neighbors. There were only about 75 or so on the tree this year because we had some good trade winds that blew a lot of the blossoms off. But, with the size of them, it was fine. They are such creamy, good avocados.

















 You can get an idea of how big they are here as I am holding my hand next to them on the tree.  I also bought one from the store (the size we are used to seeing) and took this picture with one from our tree, a regular size baseball, and the avocado from the tree. It's been fun having them to eat for the past few months.  We are just now (October 7th) eating the last one off the tree and then we will have to wait for next June to have them again. We spent some time pruning the tree yesterday so hopefully we will have a good harvest next year. If so, Brandon can sell some and make a lot of money. You can get $3-4 a piece for them when they are this big and creamy!

We also had Brett and Brenda and their family come and visit us for a few weeks during June. It was fun to have them here. They got to see most of the island but the kids especially enjoyed the beach. We hiked up to Manoa Falls. It isn't as big this time of the year because there isn't as much rain there, but still pretty and a nice hike.

Here are the kids under the bannion tree on the hiking trail.

















Here we are at Manoa Falls and then at another tree on the hike back down.

Fun day and fun hike.

Here are the Johnson's in the tree!

And here is where everyone loved to be the most!!!


 Here is Sam catching a wave and a wave catching Emma and Brandon!

This is at Laie Point.

And here we are watching the turtles at Turtle Beach up by Sunset Beach.

Waiamea Valley is always a lot of fun. A fresh water waterfall and pond to swim in.










You can even take pictures of Brett taking pictures of the others out swimming!!!!

Or Brett sitting in the waterfall!

Or Linda sitting on the rock taking it all in!











And then it's back to the beach for more fun!

The Polynesian Culture Center provided a day of fun and excitement for everyone, but especially for Kaylea!!!

She never missed an opportunity for a picture with the boys!!!

This is the after Luau photo - everyone is smiling so it must have been a good luau!

 And then a few shots at the temple of the family...thanks for coming and visiting us...it was a blast!

We also had the unique experience to see our Dragon Fruit cactus bloom. You have to watch closely and get  the night right because the flowers start opening around 9pm. They open up big by about 10:30 pm and then they are closed and die by the next morning around 6:00am. The flowers are about the size of a dinner plate with thin silky petals that you can see through. Each one of the flowers will produce one fruit. The fruit will take a couple of months to ripen so watch for them in a later blog entry.











Later in the month, we got to go to Joint Base Pearl Harbor (used to be Hickam AFB and Pearl Harbor Navy Base) where our old friends and neighbors from Colorado Springs, Dave and Charlotte Hillman, just moved and Dave took command of the Comm Squadron. We joined them for the Change of Command Ceremony and that was a lot of fun to be back at a base and participate in a ceremony. Brought back lots of memories.

Fun to see our old friends and get to spend some time with them.

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!