We finally got to use our flip video in the water.
This is Darwin diving to the bottom and coming back up. It was around 35 ft.
This is one of the kids in the water....Brooklin is trying to help London back into the boat by pushing on her hiney, and Caleb is at the end of the clip
This last clip is of a surgeon fish. The camera doesn't have good zoom, especially in the waterproof case, so this one actually let Dar get pretty close to it.
Some of you know that I am not a snorkeler. I am always the one on the beach with the little people, while Darwin takes the older two out snorkeling. Two years ago, when Darwin and I went over to the Big Island to attend the Kona Temple for our ward temple week, I tried out snorkeling for the first time. It didn't go so well....I could not convince myself that I could put my face in the water and still breathe. Next, one of my contacts slid up under my eyelid, and I had to get out and fix it, and finally after about 30 min. I was able to put my face in the water and float. I looked like a dead person, and Darwin just held my hand and dragged me around in the water. After I got a little more comfortable, I started to kick my legs a little and was pulling him with me. Then I looked up and right in front of me was a turtle that was as big as my torso, and I lost it! I shoved Darwin under the water and was trying to scream through the snorkel tube while climbing Dar to get out of the water and swim backwards all at the same time. After Dar recovered from being half drowned, he laughed at me, and calmed me down. I decided to try again, and as I started to relax, another turtle showed up, and I decided that if I wanted Darwin to survive, I better get out of the water. Needless to say, I haven't tried snorkeling again since then.
Today, I decided to give it another try. We were at the Molokini Crater, which is the place where all the tour boats take people to snorkel. They pay anywhere from $50 to $100 per person to snorkel there, and we only had to pay $30 for the boat rental, and fuel up the boat afterwards....we spent less than $75 total for our trip today. I was a little nervous, but I really wanted to try it again. I had Darwin take some video of me, so I could prove that I did it and didn't freak out.....granted there weren't any turtles, but I am proud of myself for trying again.
The video is really small, so here are some shots of the whales I took with the 300mm zoom lens. This one was really playing around, and slapped the water for several minutes.
We took the Coast Guard morale boat out again this morning, and we saw plenty whales! This video is called "Tail Slap". Isaiah went on a whale watching field trip earlier this month where they taught the kids about whale behaviors, and as we were watching the whale today, every time the whale would slap it's tail, Isaiah would shout "Tail Slap!" It was pretty funny, and also very cool. The ocean was much calmer today, and we hardly got wet at all.
We have a crown flower tree in our backyard. We call it the butterfly tree, because it is covered with Monarch butterflies, caterpillars, and eggs. The butterflies lay their eggs under the leaves. The eggs take around four days to hatch. When the caterpillar hatches, it eats milkweed (our crown flower tree leaves) nonstop for about two weeks. When it is done eating, it leaves the tree to find a place to make it's chrysalis. They usually end up on our deck, and if they attach themselves to a bad spot, then we end up accidentally squishing them.
We try and catch the caterpillars when we see them on the deck, and we put them in a bug catcher. This week we have the most I have ever seen. So far we have eight inside the bug catcher, one on the door frame, four in trees, one on the garden chest, one on a deck chair, and one under the outdoor table. I am sure there are more, but those are just the ones I have found so far.
This was taken yesterday. The caterpillars anchor themselves by spinning a silk web, just like spiders, and hanging upside down in a "J" shape for several hours. After awhile, they start thrasing around, and end up shedding their skin from the bottom up.
The black dots on the two in the middle are their old skins. You are able to count all eight in this shot.
We had a fine Easter. The bunny didn't realize that Easter was so soon, so we ended up going shopping on Sat. night to find candy and such. It was amazing to us that all Wal-Mart had left at 8pm on Saturday night, was easter grass and peeps. That's it!! We have a ton of plastic eggs, so we just needed to get filling for them. We were "forced" to use the regular candy aisle, and were able to find plenty of chocolate there...it just wasn't pastel colors or covered with rabbits and ducks, and it was also reasonably priced. Instead of chocolate bunnies, we got the kids those giant candy bars, which worked out just as well. Hopefully, Easter will be in April next year, and it won't sneak up on us!
We don't have church until 1pm...which seems like plenty of time to get ready to go, but we were racing at the last min. to get there on time and this is the only picture I took of their easter clothes. We are always on time, I just apperently prefer to push everything into the final minutes.....
On Saturday, we took out the Coast Guard' s morale boat. We were going to try and see some whales, but we only got wet and cold. The ocean was choppy, and the wind was really blowing. I am glad we bought the water proof housing for the video camera. The kids would laugh their heads off every time we got hit with more water, Dar was grinning from ear to ear, and I never let go of the handle near where I was sitting. Darwin actually did see two whales, but none of the rest of us did. We might try and go out again....hopefully on a calmer day. I didn't think that we would be able to hear anything on the video, since the microphone was sealed tightly inside the waterproof housing, but some sound did get through. Enjoy watching us get soaked.
We got a new video camera a few weeks ago. It is called Flip video. Glen Beck gave it lots of praise on his radio show, so we bought one. It was really cheap (for a video camera) and it is so easy to use, even my mom could figure it out...maybe even without reading the directions. It has a flip out USB connector right on the side of it, and all you do is flip out the plug, and stick it into your computer. It is so awesome. We also bought an underwater housing for it, so hopefully soon, Darwin and Brookin can take it out scuba diving with them. It has a really good quality picture, and the sound is good. I was watching the clip on the camera, and couldn't hear it very well, but when I put it on the computer, it sounded just fine. Anyway, here is a short video of us while camping this week.
Monday was the start of our two week spring break, so we decided to start our vacation off with a camping trip up on Haleakala. We left our house on Monday afternoon, and drove up to about 6500 ft. and set up our camp at Hosmer's Grove. We spent three days and two nights playing in the outdoors. The first day it sprinkled a little, and by the middle of the first night, it was pouring...with thunder, lightening, and freezing cold temperatures. Needless to say, all of us felt like the night drug on forever, and were all a little sleepy the next morning.
Tuesday morning, we drove up to the summit, and were going to try and hike down into the crater, but the visibility was about 10 ft. and it was raining, so we decided to go back to the campground, and play there, since it was a little less rainy there. Isaiah and I (Melissa) drove back down the mountain to retrieve a few things we had left home, and get Isaiah some more clothes...he got most of his clothes wet on the first day (and night)...and Darwin and the other three kids ate lunch and went on a little nature hike adjacent to the campgrounds. When we all got back, the sun was shining, and we were able to warm up a little. (It was between 40 and 45 degrees in the evening.) We set up a rain shelter just to be safe and then prepared dinner. Caleb planned all the food for the week, to pass off a cub scout requirements, and we had "shamburgers" for dinner. We had talked about using dinner rolls as buns, and making small hamburgers for dinner one night, so on the menu planning sheet, Caleb had written "shamburgers" in the dinner spot. I asked him what "shamburgers" were, and he said the "s" was for small, but he didn't put a dot after it, so now he will be forever reminded about the time we went camping and had "shamburgers" for dinner. After dinner, we toasted marshmellows and made s'mores. Tuesday night was much more comfortable for all of us...Isaiah stayed in his own sleeping bag, it didn't rain, or thunder, or lightening, and Darwin turned our mattress, so I wasn't sleeping in the crack between the two mattresses.... and we all woke up feeling rested.
This morning, after eating breakfast, we played and packed up camp, and came home. We had a lot of fun, and no one fell in the fire...Caleb did get a burn on his arm from the grill lid...and everyone wants to go camping again, so I think we can call this one a success. Darwin is taking the boy scouts camping on a beach on Friday and Saturday, so as soon as we get all the gear cleaned up, it will be back in use.
All of us around the campfire...we got a fellow camper to take a picture for us.
Kids stirring the fire.
Brooklin and London slept in this little green tent.
London, Caleb, Melissa, and Isaiah sitting around the fire
Darwin cleaning up after dinner
Darwin, Melissa, Caleb, and Isaiah slept in this big blue tent. The other tan tent is a shower tent, but we only used it to keep gear in. It was way too cold to shower up there.
Brooklin found this giant pine cone while exploring the campsite.
This is Brooklin's shoes and socks after the first day. When I went home, I got her, London, and Isaiah dry shoes and socks. Caleb was the only one that kept his shoes dry.
One last family shot around the campfire.
It took a little over 2 months to finish, but I finally got the penguin quilt finished. Here are eight shots of it. I'm really excited (and so is Caleb) that it is "pau". The last five weeks have been all handstitching on the back, which I found out I don't really like doing, but it turned out awesome. If you click on the pictures, you can see them larger, and on the close up one of the back of the quilt, you can see the handstitching along the seams. The blocks were machine quilted, individually, as were the yellow strips (sashing). Then I used the quilt as you go method/handstitching, to attach each block and sashing piece together, and I also hand stitched the back of the binding on.
The front
Wednesday was pajama day, and Brooklin wore the pajamas I made her for Christmas. Lots more kids dressed up for pajama day, since it wasn't as difficult or embarrassing for them.
