Just for fun

Boots on the Beach :)




This is Sunset Beach, one of the beaches surfed on the Triple Crown. This is just the beginning of the North Shore surf. We can't wait to see the 10-20-30 foot waves!

Happy Birthday Jana! Happy Birthday George! Hope you guys have a great birthday weekend!!!

Brothers

Welcome Jake!

Jake decided a few months ago that we needed some company out here in the Pacific and finally arrived two and a half weeks ago! That's right! He's here to stay :)



First thing we all did together after we picked him up from the airport was...you guessed it - snorkeling. Jake has an underwater camera, and since he's been here he's been taking really cool videos of fish.



Jeeps
The boys have been up to all kinds of things. Jake also has a jeep now, and they've been working together on BOTH jeeps.


Jake put some new shocks and a lift kit on his the first week he was here. He was outside in the drive way most of the day in his slippers and shorts working on it!












They decided to stay out of the sun when they worked on Mason's jeep. Several of the neighbors were impressed! Guess they don't know too many rednecks ;D

Green Chile!!!
My sister sent us some green chile in the mail last week. We grill about half of it on our little grill and spent an evening with Reydelle and Eric grilling the rest. What a treat. Thanks Wendy!






Kualoa Ranch
Mason had really wanted to take me horseback riding on one of the ranches here for my birthday. They were all booked on that Saturday so we ended up going a few weeks later with Jake.

Mason's horse was named "Michelen." He was pretty big.

Jake was riding this pretty roan. That's him there with his new camera.


They wanted us to wear helmets so I complied. It was actually kind of cute.

My cowboy :)

The ride was really beautiful.


Donkeys. This one had a cross on it's back. My 1st grade teacher taught me that donkey's have the mark of The Saviour on their back because they carried Mary to Bethlehem :)



So we took a "jungle tour" while we were at the ranch. We road in these Swiss six wheel vehicles on some trails. This ranch where lots of movies have been filmed, so we saw a few of those sites. but mostly I liked the views. I don't know if I'll ever get enough of these mountains - so enjoy.

Air Show
This last weekend there was an airshow on the Air Force Base. It was real cool. They had all kinds of aircraft out and they were letting the guests take tours, and some would even let you go in the cockpit and sit in the pilot's chair. I took a lot of pictures of planes! The C-17 might have been the most amazing one. Check it out - they transport tanks in these guys.


The ladder leads to the cockpit. The nose is raised for loading. I had no idea!



There's an opening at the tail end too.

checking out the landing gear





One big engine!


This one can refuel other aircraft while in the air! That's what the bomb they've got extended is for. And get this - they can refuel TWO at a time! I had no idea!


The helicopters were my favorite. This one is Coast Guard. Orange the way to go!


I was real appreciative of all the pilots that were there. It was a pretty hot day but they were so patient with all us spectators. They answered any question we had and even encouraged us to take a look at they're big toys!




Army Jeep!



We saw the Thunderbirds fly in the afternoon. It was so much fun! This picture isn't very good, but hey, it's my cell phone. All six are in this pic.


They had a pretty cool paint job, with a Thunderbird painted on the underside.


Well, I hope I didn't bore you with pictures of planes. Mason isn't working this week, so who knows how many more adventures he and Jake still have waiting for them in the next few days!

Wildfires!!! .... in Hawaii???

It seems that a few weeks ago was the time for late summer wild fires. All in the same week California, the island of Molokai and parts of O'ahu were on fire! One evening that week we were sitting at home and started smelling smoke. Then we started noticing ash in the carpet that had floated into the house around the sliding screen door on our Lanai. It was literally burned up pieces of grass. At first we thought "could the trade winds carry ash over here from Molokai?" (Molokai is the next island over from us to the east.) Then we turned on the news and learned there were multiple 100 acre or less fires burning on O'ahu! We didn't realize how close one of the fires was to our neighborhood. We vacuumed up the ash and didn't think much more about it.
The following Saturday we went to town (honolulu) and noticed smoke on our way back home. Regina had to go into work and after she left I went outside to look at the smoke. I realized the fire was pretty close to our neighborhood. The trades were blowing pretty strong bringing lots of smoke and ash our way. At times it was literally snowing ash! I started to get pretty concerned because lots of houses in our neighborhood have wood shingles. The fire was being driven straight west by the trades and our neighborhood was directly in its path. I decided I'd better head to the far east side of the neighborhood to get a closer look at the fire and see if any neighbors' homes were being threatened. (I wanted our neighborhood to be safe...but in all honesty I was hoping to get to fight some fire. ;) )


Here's an early view of the smoke from our house.

Here's what I first saw when I reached the edge of the neighborhood. The trade winds were pushing the fire straight toward our neighborhood. I realized we had two big things in our favor: Highway H-2 lies in the bottow of the valley between our neighborhood and the fire and there's a concrete drainage alongside the neighborhood seen at the bottom of the picture. These make awesome firebreaks so I knew it was unlikely that the fire would jump these. What I was worried about was embers being carried across the road by the wind and onto the wood shingled roofs of our neighborhood, which would likely set houses on fire!

As I watched, the fire climbed up the backside of a ridge and when it reached the top of it the wind really caused it to flare up. It quickly made it's way down the ridge toward the highway.

See the flames along the ridge? As I watched there were lots of sirens all around. Police blocked off the highway and firetrucks were showing up from all over the island. Trucks lined the highway to intercept the fire and a few patrolled the edge of our neighborhood in case any of our houses were threatened. Then came the helicopters! They were flying over dropping water on the fire. Initially they were filling their buckets about 10 miles north of our house at Lake Wilson.

Then I noticed they were coming from somewhere closer by. A bystander said they were filling up in the park next to the elementary school. (Right across from our house!) I jumped in my jeep and headed home to see the action! Here's one of the choppers and the fuel/support truck for the helicopters.

They set up this pool for the choppers to fill their buckets in.

Here's the view from our house. See both helicopters? There were three total.

Here's one flying in to refill. The whole operation was really chill (par for Hawaii...not sure why I was suprised) and I walked right up close to take some pictures. Neighbors were standing close by watching and no one seemed to mind.

Here's the refill. I was amazed at how consistently the pilots hit the pool on the first try with the bucket.

Here he's headed back to the fire. The buckets are made of a heavy canvas type material. The floor of the bucket lifts to dump the water so they don't seal perfectly. They dribble water all the way to the fire.

It was a really entertaining afternoon. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to fight fire or do anything exciting...but I'm glad my neighbor's homes were safe. I did get to jump into action and vacuum up the ash out of our carpet again. ha ha.