Random Happenings from the 'Hill - March 2018

A few loose ends have been meandering about so I thought I would tie them up.  We've found the end of Robby swimming and playing basketball as well as Caleb's volleyball and a Tae Kwon Do break before and a bit after his recent surgery.

One would think that would allow for a bunch more free time, and there is some, to be sure, but other things happen and it's all good.

Stuff keeps happening and it's way better than if it did not!

This is the lovely Robert James Schmitz at his 13th birthday dinner.  He picked the restaurant Malo for his dalliance and proceeded to order the calamari for an appetizer, a FULL order of the Tat'chos (to his right) and the Shrimp Diablo w/Pork for the remainder of dinner.  Luckily for us, he shared everything and we still had GREAT leftovers for a few lunches and snacks well after the fact.

At the campus with the boys.  Caleb is happy to be out of the house for the first time after his surgery!  He was pretty cautious, which I appreciate, and he eventually found a buddy from school and played some serious ping pong.

Robby was the catalyst for the Altoona Campus visit and was quite happy to get some basketball in.

Mr. Caleb as he and I were awaiting Robby getting out of the bathroom so that we could head off to the Bass Pro Shop to do some target shooting with the lazer guns.

Get Well Cards for Caleb

Caleb's Tae Kwon Do peeps made him some get well cards for after his surgery!  I thought it was pretty awesome!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 23 - Day 8 Part 4 - Shopping, Poipo Beach and More...

After our lovely dip in the former sugarcane plantation irrigation ditches and Wailua Falls, we went on some adventures that were short and somewhat sweet. 

We HAD to get Robby to a beach.  He would revolt and ultimately disassemble if he did not have some water to climb into.  We did some shopping and also hit up the Spouting Horn area... which you will see. 

It was kind of nice to get our "scheduled thing" of the day done early so we could just explore and do things that we thought looked interesting.  It was nice to walk around in some little shopping areas and also fun to (over) hear locals talking with each other and, well...   gossiping. 

Of note, I may have the order of the day messed up a bit as we technically hit the shops twice and frankly, I just don't remember.  

But I SWEAR that we did everything that we have pictures of!  😒  

First the shopping.  Caleb found a buddy and since we were all missing our hound dog, Juno, he got to pet the "dog".

The chickens were taking over Kauai and some locals have found ways to make money off the silly things since you can't eat them!

A mama chicken and her chicks outside of the shops that we're perusing.

So we get to Poipo Beach to lob Robby into the ocean and we see that there are some elephant seals sunning themselves on the beach alongside the humanoids!  It was pretty cool, but being the man I am, I kept a keen eye on them with the thought that if they started moving towards me, I would shove someone smaller than me towards them whilst I hightail it in the opposite direction!  Thankfully, it never came to that.

That little girl has the right idea!  Keep an eye on'em!

I forgot my water shoes and the rocks were not comfortable for a chubby little land-lubber like myself, so I walked back out to the parking lot to get them and guess what I found?  Yep, more chickens.

Sorry everybody, but there are no pictures of Dear ol' Dad at the beach in my speedo so that's about all the pictures that you'll get...

So back in the car we went, listening to the Robby complain that he did not have enough time in the water, but on our way to Spouting Horn.  Happy for us, there were some street (parking lot?) vendors and the boys found the same rings that they liked at Volcanoes National Park only here, they were only $15 dollars instead of $110 - $120!!

This is the lookout point at Spouting Horn.  Basically speaking, the waves come in and find their way thru the old lava flow and it makes a burst of water come up thru the rock.  It was neat, but you didn't have to stay too long.  Once you saw a good "spout", you've seen them all.

This is the shoreline from where the pictures above were taken.

This is the Hanapepe Valley alongside the Kaumualii Highway.  The pictures of this do NOT do it justice!  It is so incredibly beautiful and amazing that there is no way a camera would capture it properly.

Two lovely little varmints!

After arriving back at the Plantation Cottages, we made some dinner and then guess what?!?  Robby wanted to go swimming!   It's not like it was a bad thing.  You can see the ocean in the background of the pictures and watch the sunset at the same time a fella might be watching the kids and enjoying a local carbonated beverage.  That's Robby in the orange shorts and Caleb in the water.   That couple to the right of the boys stayed for a while and I told the boys to give them space and be polite.  When they got ready to leave, we started talking and I asked them where they were from. They replied, "Marshalltown, Iowa.".  "No kidding, we're from Des Moines, well, East of Des Moines... Pleasant Hill.", I said.  The lady added, "We're really from State Center, but nobody knows where that is so we just say Marshalltown".  I laughed and told them that we used to live in Collins, which, if you don't know Iowa, those two towns are about 10 miles apart.

The beach ball...   It was in the pool when we got there and we used it, but I made the boys leave it there when we left.  Of course, the next day when we went back, it was gone.  I went into town and bought another one for $2 and brought it back.  I made them leave that one there as it was our last day on the island and we'd be leaving the next day anyway.  You would have thought that I told Robby to leave his right arm there!!!

That pretty much brings the 8th day in the Hawaiian Islands to a close.

Caleb's Latest Iowa City Adventure

Early March, 2018, was to be a time of extensive nervousness for Caleb.  He's had surgery scheduled for about 8 or 9 months at this point and reckoning day was nearly upon him.

Finally, on the 7th, we woke him up at 4:45a.m. to get him ready for the drive to Iowa City and more specifically, the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinic.  

The boy was N.E.R.V.O.U.S!!!

He announced that fact 77 times on the 2 hour drive and said little else.  Once you get to the pre-op room, they have every nurse, anesthesiologist, doctor and janitor come into the room to introduce themselves to the patient, ask and answer questions, take notes and so on.

They all entered the room, introduced themselves and then asked Caleb how he was doing.  His answer, nearly every time was, "I'm nervous.".

It was all at once cute, funny and a little sad. 

This is the 12th floor of the new children's hospital that was a big construction hole that I wrote about in 2012.  This is the area that's been seen on the news and won awards for Greatest Moments in Sports 2018 where after the first quarter of the Iowa Hawkeye's football games, the entire crowd waves to the kiddos and their families who are watching the game from this vantage point in the hospital.  A pretty cool gesture for the less fortunate!

After a successful surgery, we waited to visit the boy in recovery and eventually got to see his bright, shiny face.  He was doing pretty good, and even still, your heart about falls out of your chest to see your kid in that condition.  I cannot imagine what some of the other parents are going thru with their kids and far more serious conditions.  We thank God for the overall health of our boys as it's certainly not something to be taken for granted.  Anyway, after recovery, we made our way to our room for the remainder of the day, overnight and morning.  This is the view from Caleb's window overlooking Southwest Iowa City.

The sweet boy once he started feeling much better.

This is Caleb the next morning after they had released him to go home.  We're still waiting on some paperwork stuff at this time, but he was happy and READY to go!

Before we could leave tho, the lad wanted to go back up to the 12th floor and look out the window again.  They also had some wicked cool artwork up there and he wanted to show me his favorites.

We made our way out to the parking ramp, which has four layers underground, and we find our truck looks like it snowed dirt overnight! 

When we got out on the highway heading home, the dirt in the bed of the truck was so thick that it was truly swirling like light snow does!

More "Just Volleyball"...

Just a couple of photos of the 14U Volleyball team with a suspicious little Chinaman who apparently snuck into the picture! LOL! 

I had not seen these boys play yet this season, and holy smokin' smokes, was I surprised!

Not only do they function more as a team, I could actually see the plays develop and see what they doing, setting up for future plays and so on.  

Truly amazing developments from last season and I cannot wait to see the growth to next season even tho we have quite a few people moving on.

Good job, Average Joe's!