Sydney and Lucas will be starting pre-school next week and are very excited to be big kids and go to school like Austin. I have a bit of mixed feelings about my babies going to school but it is what’s best for them. It will be nice to have two hours a day two days a week to get things done around the house but with it being so quite at home I might just take a nap!
We are looking forward to another busy fall with school, soccer and holidays but hope to get some time to relax and enjoy our new house.

I had so much fun looking out the window.

New York City is such a big city!! The buildings are super tall.

One of the main areas in New York City is Times Square. This area is very popular for people visiting NYC. You might have seen this place on TV on New Years Eve. This is where the ball drops every New Years Eve at midnight and tons of people stand in the street watching it celebrating.

One thing I saw which I thought was funny was how people park their cars. This area has so many buildings that it is hard to find places to park so there are parking spaces on top of other cars!!

Well after a long day flying and walking around New York City, I am tired. I will explore more and keep sharing!!

Good Day,

Flat Stanley

After a week of Christmas and New Years we took a family vacation to Disneyland for four days. Lucas and Sydney had a blast taking in all that is Disney. They loved seeing all the characters and magic of Disney. Every time we saw a character they wanted to say “hi” but once we got close to them they freaked out.

As the trip went on they were giving high-fives and hugs. Austin on the other hand could really care less about the characters. But being the good big brother he smiled for all pictures and encouraged them to say “hi”.  I took Sydney to the Princess Fair which is an area in the park where you can have your picture taken with the princesses. There are three princesses at a time and they rotate through. After waiting an hour it was Sydney’s turn. She got to meet Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. She was also lucky to see Bell and Princess Jasmine walk by to relieve two of the princess. As she was talking to Snow White, Ariel came to switch out Snow White so she got to see Ariel as well. Sydney was in heaven. She gave hugs to Snow White and Ariel and even held Snow White’s hand and walked out with her. As shy as Sydney is I was surprised at how well she did with the princesses.

This trip Austin was tall enough to ride some of the big kid rides like the roller coaster in California park and Tower of Terror. It took us all week to get him to ride the roller coaster and once he did he loved it. He still would not ride on Tower of Terror so next time he will have to try that ride. On Friday Alissa come to hang out with us for the night. We also watch the fireworks show which was amazing. Austin says that it was his favorite part of the trip. Late Friday night Uncle Dave joined us for one ride and hung out at the hotel for awhile until all the kids fell asleep. The kids are already asking when we can go back.

http://picasaweb.google.com/steve00000000/Thanksgiving2009#

We arrived at the park and was pretty amazed at everything we saw. We took lots of pictures but it is really hard to capture what we are seeing. We drove over many lava flows from the 1970’s where there are lots of trees and then a distinct tree line where the flow came through and then maybe a couple 100 yards the tree line starts again. Thick black lava flows go down the mountains out to the ocean. You can hike most of the park but we drove through most of it. The actual crater was amazing to see but again is something you have to see in person to really get an understanding of the size and depth.

Steam vents which were pretty smelly…

The crater…

Smaller but still huge crater…

Nice picture of how the lava folds over and ripples as it dries…

Older lava flow…

Walking along a lava flow from the 80’s…

Lava tube we were able to walk through…around the lava tube it was very tropical but a few minutes in either direction it became very dry and really a completely different environment.

There used to be a road that went along the water but a flow in the 80’s went right over the road out to the ocean. We hiked a little ways out onto the flow. It was amazing to see the road just go right under the lava.

At the end of the day we went out of the park to a viewing area where we were able to see the lava flowing into the ocean. It was about a half mile (we think longer but they said only a half) from the viewing area. We stayed until it got dark. There was a constant large amount of smoke and as waves crashed up we could see lava rocks flying around like small explosions. During light we could see some bright orange flows going into the water but at night the orange glow was really great to see. The pictures below are from the half mile, zoomed all the way in with my zoom lens and then zoomed in more on the computer and cropped to try and show what we were seeing. At night I could not get a fast enough shutter speed with the lack of light so they get more blurry but there was not much I could do. I had the camera on my tripod with a remote so I never touched the camera which would have added shake and blur to the pics even more….

After we watched the lava for some time, we headed back for the long drive on very dark windy roads. We got back to the hotel pretty late and exhausted but so well worth it. Again…something you really have to go see in person if you get the chance. Truly amazing…

We woke up pretty early because we had a snorkel adventure planned. Our drive to the harbor to catch the boat was about 45 minutes away from the hotel. This area was much more populated and touristy. It also was very much more island feeling with lots of green trees and plants with lots of flowers everywhere. We definitely liked the area we are staying in for its remoteness and uniqueness. We checked in for our excursion and got our snorkel gear ready to go. The boat was a large catamaran where we were to be served breakfast and lunch.

We boarded the boat for a 45 minute drive to a protected underwater cove. During the ride to the cove, the crew served a simple breakfast which consisted of Costco muffins, fruit and other pastries…probably from Costco also. When we arrived at the cove, the water was very clear looking down at it from the boat. There were probably about 50 people on board. Once we stopped, the crew gave us safety and rules orientation and then we were ready to go. Jenny was one of the first in the water as she is a great swimmer. I on the other hand had to get my float belt thing on so my lack of swimming skills would not get me sunk to the bottom to live with the fishes.

The snorkeling was great. We saw eels, octopus, lots of colorful fish of all sizes and wonderful coral. We tried to take pictures with one of the cheap disposable underwater cameras but it just did not capture what we were seeing with how we saw it.

After about an hour of snorkeling, we came back on the boat for bbq hamburgers and hot dogs. The food was great. We ate and relaxed and then Jenny too a few slides down the water slides on the boat. They launched you down and then dropped you pretty high up from the water. We went back in the water for some more fun. We chatted with one of the crew members who contracts with the boat company to video everything on the boat and under water to make a DVD for whoever wants to buy one (at $69 which was WAY out of our price range although would have been cool to have). The guy knew tons about the fish and the ocean in general which was a great addition to the trip.  (His company web site). After some more snorkeling, we headed back to the harbor for the drive back to the hotel.

The rest of the day we hung out at the beach for awhile and then had dinner and played scrabble before we finally fell asleep…

Day 4 - Wednesday Sept 23rd, 2009

I woke up way to early today. I started waking up at 4am which by 5am I was done laying there. I was wanting to get out and take pictures of around the hotel before there was too much sun so I quietly left the room so Jenny could keep sleeping. It was still dark out so I got to walk around taking pictures as the sun came up. I was able to get some great shots of a turtle relaxing on the beach along with some flowers and a crab which I was still wanting a good picture of.

I came back to the room and Jenny woke up. We had breakfast out on the balcony relaxing for a bit. We then decided to go do some snorkeling at the beach at the hotel. We went a little ways down the beach to where the turtles have been. Pretty quick into the snorkeling we found a bunch of turtles. We just floated around above them watching them eat off the sea floor bottom. A bunch of times other turtles would sneak up on us and pop up their right next to us out of the water. They were swimming right next to us. It really was a lot of fun to be out their with them.

After awhile we went for a drive up the island along the coast and then cut over back down. We visited a macadamia nut factory but there was not much their to see. Again the scenery changed to a very dry brown landscape. As we rounded the top of the island it changed again to much more green. We went up the mountain to 3500 ft with amazing views and landscape.

As soon as we peaked and started to head down the other side, the landscape changed again to more dry with lots of cactus plants. Further down it more looked like northern California by where I live in Yuba City with the farm land. I was excited (sorry getting my military history geekness on) about us driving over to a ranch that was a base in WWII. The Marines used this ranch to practice a couple invasions because they thought the landscape and hills were similar to where they would be fighting. They readied for an assault at Tarawa and practiced on a hill here to prepare for the assault up Iwo Jima. This was really something to see even though there was not much to see but a monument and a hill.

After our drive we went into Kona where we had dinner at Bubba Gumps. It has been years since either of us had been there. Good food and nice scenery since we sat out back and watch the sun set and a big cruise ship leave. We walked around a bunch of fun shops before we returned to the hotel to get some rest. We have an early day tomorrow for a long drive to the volcano for a great day exploring there….