Chasing Bluebirds

Spring Camp Out 2008

well another year of camp fire is almost over, this went by so fast i am in denial i was even present for it, maybe in some ways i was not. i am still a bit out of it with my eye, not 100 percent back to normal and i am worried it will ever be perfect. i think of events as a "before my eye thing" or "after my eye thing" and wonder when (or IF) i will just be able to take my vision for granted again, what a humbling experience.
so this years spring camp out was approaching and i wasnt sure i could handle it. since my eye surgery, i have to keep my eye super clean and take the lens out every day (before my surgery i would go weeks with a contact in and never had a problem). i figured we could just have dinner over the camp fire and then call it a night.

but then i went in to sign us up for a campsite just for dinner and got strange looks from the staff who asked, "no one wants to sleep over? but EVERYONE loves to sleep over!" i realized they were right, of course the girls would want to sleep over, thats a treat for us city folk... so...

i said, "lets do it!"

and we did!

and i am so glad.

and we ate pancakes for breakfast, perfect!

sewing

pillows

apple with a worm on the back

sewing patch earned

Happy Mothers Day!

to all the mothers (and soon to be mothers, you know who you are!) Happy Mothers Day!

ok, i had to post the no make up early morning, jammies shot because this seems to be the time our family loves to celebrate. for mothers day i got this fabulous photo album filled with hawaii pictures and lots of notes from emily written in. the best gift ever. she also made me a little tea cup hand made from clay, total sweetness and liz regifted a christmas snowman she made, double sweetness.

green valley lake, overflowing just like we like it!

cleaning cheeto hands with the last clump of snow... liz took a taste too

camp gvl, back in session

chris don't look

while we were on vacation, our dogs had fun at our favorite kennel, a small farm of sorts. upon picking them up i got word there are some babies hatching soon and would we like one or two for the girls... so far there has been an adament "no" from dad...so i am just looking on the internet for fun. not that i am doing any research or anything, nothing like that.

a day trip for tripping out

while in hawaii, we spent a day exploring a place called waipi'o valley. the story on this place is that for however many years, hawaiians lived in this tropical valley that has a waterfall at one end with a river that flows to a gorgeous black beach. i dont have my guide book infront of me so i cant remember exactly when, but there was a huge tsunami, i am thinking it was in the 1940's... that just wiped out the entire valley. no one wanted to come back so in the 1960's and 70's veterans from the war settled there with little or no electricity and have fought with the land owners ever since. they knock down signs that are put up and fences and cannot be kicked out... there are squabbles on who owns the land so it has a wild, wild west sorta feel. you have to take a 4x4 down a bumpy one lane road straight into the valley. it was not as scary as we thought it would be and the rainforest below was amazing. after the tsunami, there were horses who survived and now run wild. we had a surprise when a horse casually approached our jeep and just calmly hung out.












this was a great day for us, picnic lunch on a black beach, cool weather, a hike to a waterfall, teamwork as we hobbled over the rocks and fallen trees... horses are always a plus and the best part?

shave-ice family style

garden update

corn

artichokes crashing down

chard next to a bare spot, what to put there?

pinata meeting

our version of a pinata, paper mache style

this is the type of craft that needs a couple hours to complete, we managed to get a simple version done in just over one hour, but it was rushed. ideally, you need to do a layer and let it dry a bit before you add more layers. this was a single layer of newspaper and the tissue paper was used to give it some color, there was no time to wait to paint it. at home the girls can add more decoration and/or paint it if they want. it was fun to get messy and i think the girls learned the basics of paper mache. happy cinco de mayo!

cleaning up

the never ending battle to keep the house clean

for so many years, working sporadic weekends, i have done most of my housecleaning during the week when i have a day off. no kids are around and it seems to be more efficient. the only problem? the kids arent learning to help out and i get more and more frustrated doing it all myself. recently i started assigning chores on saturday and sunday mornings taking a team approach and everyone has jumped right in. i didnt hear one complaint. not sure why i waited so long to do this, but i sure hope it continues.

getting ready for the cinco de mayo camp fire meeting, we are making pinatas. this is actually a massive craft to do in one hour, the drying time is like 2 days or something! i am going to wing it as usual and hope for the best. if i remember my camera, i will have pictures of the results.

Afterglow

Afterglow, originally uploaded by konaboy.

wow!

Kona Sunset

Kona Sunset, originally uploaded by konaboy.

kona hawaii