Aiden and the box

Pretty funny stuff.

Add comment August 5th, 2007

As The Blog Turns…

Things are starting to happen around here, haven’t you noticed? I’m working on a sort of redesign. Haven’t yet decided on the layout but I am working on the integration side of the house.

As you know, we bought a house in Washington, picking up our lives and moving from California a couple of months ago. Much to our delight and surprise it snowed during our first week here! We’re looking forward to winter… strange I know.

So far the area has been great and the neighbors are wonderful. We’ve joined the local gym and have been going regularly much to the dismay of our oldest. She isn’t quite at the age where she can stay home alone so we drag her along. AJ doesn’t have a problem going because they have a wonderful day care center there. He gets to interact with other kids outside of the house and away from his preschool.

Oh! AJ started preschool… We were quite nervous about this at first, sending our youngest child off to a school we didn’t know much about. But after the first day we knew it was the right choice. AJ loves school and the teachers are very active and involved in early development. AJ comes home exhausted from only 4 hours there twice a week due to all the excitement and activities.

Autumn is slowly adjusting to being dropped into a new school mid-year. She has done really well and has made some new friends already. Even though she moans and groans about going to the gym, she actually has fun meeting new kids and climbing on their rock wall while I play basketball.

Add comment May 26th, 2006

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The kids made two gingerbread houses this year, here was the first one Too bad Autumn isn’t smiling!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

2 comments December 25th, 2005

Kauai: We’re home

Well we’re home. Got home around 11pm last night, kids in bed by midnight and the parents asleep by 1:30am. Yay! Autumn was off to school for her last week at 8am this morning and life is slowly returning to normal; we need food now :p

I’ll be posting photos from the trip over the next few days, will take sometime as I have a ton to go through and process.

June 7th, 2005

Kauai: Day Fourteen

Always go out with a bang and a bang it was. Today we decided to hit Ke’e Beach one last time and what a day to go. The reef was absolutely perfect. Low tide with a zero swells made the outer reef easily accessable. Anyone know what this means?

The first time I headed out the reef there was a lone turtle hanging out below in a crevasse. After a few minutes he came up for air doing a circle around the shallow reef pool he was in and then went back down into the crevasse, disappearing from sight. So, Autumn and I left the area.

On my second and third trips the reef was full of turtles. I counted at least seven at one point, all of them feeding on the shallow reef while the tide was slowly coming in. What an incredible sight to see. I took so many photos I actually ran out of digital shots for the first time on the trip.

Tonight, we’re packing, getting ready to hop on the plane home tomorrow morning. I imagine it will be a long day as our plane lands at home 8:40PM local time and then luggage pick & car pick up, I don’t expect to be home until midnight.

It’s been a really fun trip, I know Autumn enjoyed it, I wish Aiden would remember it but he’s only 2 Can’t wait to go back and snorkel with turtles.

See more pictures in the Kauai gallery under day fourteen.

June 5th, 2005

Kauai: Day Twelve & Thirteen

Yesterday, day twelve, we actually didn’t do anything more than some shopping and hanging out poolside. No snorkeling! And due to that I didn’t take a single photo! Aiden wasn’t in the best of moods yesterday either so it was nice to just hang out and not be in the sun, again.

Today we traveled to Beach House for more snorkeling. Was able to see another honu out there in the water, woohoo! He didn’t hang around very long but I was able to grab a few shots. Saw a few smaller fish, juveniles most likely. Also spotted a sea cucumber with the word “Aloha” written across it’s sandy back. Autumn had mentioned seeing a Snuba instructor writing it on there the other day, guess she was right.

After snorkeling we did more swimming poolside and relaxed, getting ready for a very long day come Monday. Frankly, I think we’re all worn out now and just about ready to come home. I know I am, but I think Krista and Autumn are still resisting

More photos in the Kauai gallery under day thirteen.

June 4th, 2005

Kauai: Day Eleven

Now that we’re well into our second week here in Kauai I think we’re finally starting to slow down and not rush to new places much anymore. Today we ventured back down south to Beach House and a quick dip in Ho’ai Bay.

Beach House was fairly clam in the morning but by noon the southern swells had picked up causing the water to get a bit rougher. The water wasn’t nearly as clear as it has been but farther out seemed to be ok. I happened upon a spanish dancer, something I thought at first was seaweed or some other plant. But as I got closer I realized that it was a living creature and one I had never seen before. I pointed the dancer out to another nearby snorkeler and we both took pictures. Afterwards he thanked me and told me it was a spanish dancer. Score #1 for the day!

Close to 2pm now and Beach House was becoming extremely rough with the tide moving in. At one point a nice shore wave wiped out our beach front sand mats drowning our dry towels and clothes Once we got everyone cleaned up and into the car I wanted to peak at Ho’ai Bay (aka Turtle Bay) and see if the resident turtles were hanging around. Sure enough a pair of turtles were playing in the surf and after watching them for a few minutes I decided to join them. Unfortunately, the water was horribly murky and I was only able to get a short glimpse at one of the turtles.

However, as I swam further out in the water it became much clearer and although I didn’t spot anymore turtles, I did get a few photos of my first manta ray! Score #2 of the day! Since I’m feeling lazy tonight I didn’t make a smaller picture of the manta ray, but you can see him and more in the Kauai gallery under day eleven.

June 2nd, 2005

Kauai: Day Ten

Still recovering from our extended boat trip yesterday, we didn’t leave the condo until 10am this morning. We’ve normally been out the door before 8am and close to 7:30am on days we hit up Ke’e Beach.

Today we visited Poipu Beach Park for the first time. I don’t think it was the best day to visit as the tradewinds and southern swells were strong enough to make for poor visibility snorkeling and cloudless skies for hot, hot beach front sand. We actually stayed quite awhile and I did some snorkeling in the waves, taking Autumn with me on my 2nd outing. Good photos were hard to come by but I did get some more pics of moorish idols and juvenile wrasses. Got a fairly clean video of a lone threadfin butterfly you can check out.

download movie of threadfin butterfly

Was able to get see a couple of 4 spotted Butterfly fish as well as a baby 4 spotted hiding underneath a rock. Planning to go shopping the rest of the afternoon we hopped back into the car after eating lunch on the beach.

Aiden was tired so we drove up to Spouting Horn again so Krista and Autumn got to shop the street vendors there while Aiden slept in the car. They actually have some good deals, recommended. On the way back we were treated to yet another surprise honu visit to Beach House. Just off the road there were 5 turtles playing in the waves right near the rocky shoreline. I hopped out of the car and started taking video and some pictures. After awhile of them still hanging around I had no choice but to jump in the suit and join them. Granted, I put on the trunks nude in broad daylight and jumped in a fairly rocky, rough section of Beach House with some nice swells but what the heck, I’m on a vacation for adventure, right?

Viewing them from in the water was fairly murky due to the swells so all of the underwater shots didn’t turn out so hot. The above photo is of the largest honu landing on the hard rocky shoreline then awaiting another wave to take him back out. Looked like it hurt but alas, he has a hard shell and I don’t

A few more photos are posted in the Kauai gallery under day ten, enjoy!

June 1st, 2005

Kauai: Day Nine

After a full day on a 42′ boat I’m a little wobbly. Ugh. Regardless of that fact, today was a fantastic boat tour. Wow.

The day began at 9:30am as we pushed off shore at Port Allen on the HoloHolo Charters 42′ monohul “Northwind”. Right off the bat we saw a huge pod of spinner dolphins, probably close to 30. We saw another pod a bit further up the coast near Barking Sands Beach.

We finally hit Na’Pali Coast around 11am, viewing many of the sights up close because of the smaller boat. This is where I started getting a wee bit sea sick. Slowing down to a near crawl with large swells rocking the boat back and forth was not what the doctor ordered. This seemed to last forever until we finally hit the water at Nualolo Kai. Say hello to honu heaven.

There were at least 3 turtles the whole time we were in the water, more than an hour, and I’m pretty sure there was 5 unique turtles swimming about. We seemed to have happened upon a cleaning station as the turtles were constantly being cleaned by convict tangs with a stray chub here and there. Much to my delight I was able to get many, many photos of the turtles including shots with them being cleaned.

Much to my surprise there was also two white tip reef sharks hanging around. At one point one of them was brave enough to come within 3 feet of me before turning off course. Needless to say that scared the crap out of me. I was so freaked I didn’t even get a good picture! Argh!

I sure wish I got a better shot of the shark. But I gotta say I was pretty freaked out seeing that thing come straight at me, pictures were the last thing on my mind.

After the snorkel it was time to head back to Port Allen. But wait, there’s more! The captain had a fancy for big sea fishing and decided to drop 3 lines into the ocean and hope for the best. What he got was a huge yellow fin tuna!

All in all it was a great tour, more than anyone had expected and seeing the captain reel in that 160lbs tuna was a great closer for my money. I’d highly recommend checking out HoloHolo Charters if you’re ever on Kauai, they even take wee ones ages 2 and up.

As always, more photos in the Kauai gallery under day nine.

2 comments May 31st, 2005

Kauai: Day Eight

Drove out to Ke’e Beach early this morning arriving at the parking lot nearing 8:15am. The surf was rough today with surfers out beyond the reef hitting up the waves. The high surf made snorkeling not so great but I was still able to get some good shots in today of more common reef fish. Check out the Kauai gallery for those.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading out on a boat tour of Na’pali with a one hour snorkel in a private bay, hoping to see some good sea life.

May 30th, 2005