First Day of Skool, 2017 Edition

It's the 2017 edition of our back to school pictures! Robby is starting 7th (!!!!) grade and Caleb 4th. 

Where has the time gone?

I have no friggin' clue what-so-ever where the time has gone, but it is gone and, with the exception of the workday, I can't believe how fast every year seems to fly by at this point!  

I feel like we're hanging onto the edge of the roller coaster car as it careens around the track and we're just hoping that our fingers don't slip off.

Anyway, here's the critters as they were headed off to school.  They were both nervous as Robby's in a new building for the second year in a row.  Caleb is nervous because it's school...   plus, the little dude had surgery in his mouth the prior day, so there's that!

Fancy-pants Rob and his equally fancy socks!  Robby's hands in his pockets like that, plus his smile, tells me he's nervous.  I love him!!

Caleb with his slightly swollen cheek/mouth.  His placement of his hands tells me he's nervous.  I love him!!

These are my boys!!  I LOVE THEM!!

New Places To Dab

He's a monkey!

New School Year, New Awesomeness!

Master C and his new homeroom teacher, Mrs. Reichardt.  I've probably misspelled that but I'm still excited for both of the lads and their new school experience!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 10 - Manini'owali Beach

Today was the magical day for me!  One of my main reasons to visit Hawai'i.  I wanted a Helicopter tour of one or more islands.  We were uncertain of how long it would take to drive up to the airport in the morning with all of the local folks going to work n' such so we left a bit early with the idea that we would time the drive to the airport, but then head on past as we wanted to scope out a beach for swimming after the heli-tour.

And that's precisely what we did!

The place is called Manini'owali Beach in Kua Bay.  The drive to get to it is quite interesting...

Someone saw fit to pave a road thru the lava field to get to this beach.  I'm glad they did because it was quite beautiful in the morning while we were there.  They're building houses in the lava field as you can see from the pic!  I suppose if you think on it long enough, they whole of the islands is lava field and they've built up quite the impressive cities and everything else that we have on the mainland...

That's just zoomed in a bit more where you can see the parking and the bathroom facilities near the beach.

There's my lovely little critters walking towards the beach.  Did I mention that it was beautiful?

The waves were barely...  uh, waving.  Unlike later in the day when we came back around supper time.  They were big mean, loud buggers to the point where there was no way on God's earth that I was getting in the water. And I didn't.  The problem was that there was no place to sit as I need back support.  I tried the lava flow but it hurt me bum!  I walked on the beach for a bit and then went back to the vehicle and read while the Fam swam.  They loved it and I got quite time.  Win-win.

Robby wanted to skip the helicopters and just stay here all day where we could simply come back and pick him up!  Hard to blame the fella who loves water and being in it.

Off to the helicopters!!!!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 9 - Squeez'n In A Bit of Morning Waikiki Beach

Never one to be "outdone", Robby was bound and determined to get up early one morning and head down to Waikiki beach for a "sunrise walk", much like the one Caleb got on day one! 

On the final morning before we flew out for the Big Island, he finally pulled it off!  

Not sure what's written in the sand to his right, but it's likely something nasty about his brother. Just kidding. I suspect he had nothing to do with it.

The surfers were a definite favorite of the morning walks.

And, of course, no beach is ever complete if the boy doesn't get wet in some fashion!  I am also a fan of the sail boat in the distance above his noggin.

This time I mean it!  And so goes our time in Honolulu.  Mahalo for having the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit.

Hawaii Vaca, Post 8 - Dinner and Waikiki Beach

After a fairly long day of buses, boats, buttheads (they seem to be everywhere!!!),  tours and the whatnot, we got back to the hotel to crash for a little bit. A little bit was all we got before two little ankle-biting-ham-n-eggers started chirping for the evening feed.

Where to go...  where to go?

We first went for a short walk around the "neighborhood" but it's freakin' hot and humid in Hawaii and I didn't want to walk too far to risk...  well, I didn't want to walk to far when I'm German and out of shape, shall we say?  I get sweaty fast.  Let's leave it at that!

So we went around a few blocks and saw a few different restaurants that could have worked but nobody would agree on them so we went back to our hotel and had supper at Lulu's Waikiki.  It's one hotel away from ours so we know it's close and easy to get back to the beach as Robby has demanded for our final night in Honolulu.  

Apparently, everybody in Hawaii loves being hot and sweaty because every dang place you go is open air!  The stores and gift shops?  Open air.  The hotel lobbies?  Open air.  Starbucks?  Open air.  Restaurants? Open air.

So we find ourselves at Lulu's.  Nothing fancy but it is nice to just sit and relax instead of the constant on-the-go that earlier today has brought.  My sister, Doris Brunnette, had stated in a facebook post a day or two prior, that I should have a "fancy" drink for her while we're here.  Apparently, craft beer is NOT fancy enough for her and as such, Lesley and Rob ordered Lava Flow's.  One virgin, one not so much.

A view out the "window" from our table.  I must say, if everything is going to be open-air, you may as well have views like this!

We decided to walk over to Waikiki beach after dinner and since we had to pass our hotel again, as with the Tiki restaurant in our hotel, I took a picture of it simply because I could.

Not sure why, but sunsets in pictures just aren't anywhere near as beautiful as they are in person.  This one is no exception!

Our hotel again, but this time with 3 fine humans placed in front of it...  oh sure, due to the lighting, you can't really tell who those three humans are, but trust me on this one.  It's my family!

Artsy-fartsy pic of the day.

...and one more before we leave it all behind.

That was Honolulu and the island of O'ahu.  We didn't have a car so there was much that was left unexplored.  Until next time, that is...

A Boy and His Tomatoes

The boy likes his tomatoes!  Within about 2 hours of taking this photo, roughly half of those tomatoes met their fate!  Caleb's tummy was happy!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 7 - Short Tour After Pearl Harbor

Unbeknownst to me, we had a bit of a bus tour around Honolulu after our visit to Pearl Harbor.  Oh sure, I probably was told about this tour but true to my nature, I wasn't paying attention.

So after we pile back on the bus after our tour of the U.S.S. Missouri, Cousin Dwight proceeds to weed out the sneaky individuals who have made their way on to the bus in the hopes of getting back to their hotels a bit early. 

No dice.  He weeded them out in short order and constantly, albeit politely, berated them as they walked from the back of the bus to the front where the only door was.  I enjoyed that just about as much as I enjoyed his commentary on the ride to Pearl Harbor.

So he drove us around, sometimes in circles it seemed, and eventually we wound our way up these really old, tight, narrow roads which reminded me a bit of our China trip in 2011.  What I mean by that is that they put buses into places where I'd be nervous driving a Prius (note:  I would NEVER drive a Prius...  that reference was for illustrations only.)!  

Sadly, like China, I was so amazed at where our bus was, that I forgot to take pictures of the areas...

So what's a fella to do?  Borrow a picture from www.google.com/maps "streetside" view until he receives a Cease and Desist order.  This was up in the older Portuguese area of Honolulu and pretty much right after we turned onto Puowaina Dr off of Lusitana St.  The church on the left is Punchbowl Holy Ghost and cousin Dwight told us some stuff about it that I can no longer recall.  Anyway, it gives you an idea of the roads that we took in a full-sized city bus. 

Here we are further on up Puowaina Dr.  This is up high enough where the roads opened up a bit.  The residential areas were now behind us and we had some clean air to breathe.

Another view of Honolulu from up around the curve from where we were in the previous pic.

Our destination was the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific.  Much like Arlington National Cemetary, it was hauntingly beautiful and humbling at the same time.  There are some graves of "unknowns" that Uncle Sam is working towards identifying their remains.

The cemetery was built in the center basin of a now extinct volcanic crater known as Puowaina Crater (hence the name of the street on the way up!). The "punchbowls" creation is estimated at 75,000 - 100,000 years old.

Puowaina, the crater's name, is translated in Hawaiian as “Hill of Sacrifice,” or “the Consecrated Hill,”. The site proudly honors those American citizens who  gave their lives in either World War II, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War.  Those veterans who served so that our generation may now enjoy the freedom and liberty that allows us to travel to such places!

I loved these types of vegetation and it's all over the island.  There was another story from cousin Dwight about the planting of these and the colors and their placement.  Do I remember any of that?  Did I have my journal to write in at the time he was telling us?  No, to both...

This was on the way down, right before we re-entered the residential area. I always liked the way that the clouds seemed to be bursting over the mountain ridges and it's a good thing too, since they did this everyday!

This is Iolani Palace which somebody of some significance had built...  I think what I should do is go and give tours like this for about a year.  Then, and only then, would I have this stuff committed to memory.

The lads were MORE than happy to escape the bus and get out for a quick pic.  This building is Aiilani Hale, which is a government building now.  I believe this was the old palace of King Kamehameha and was also used as the headquarters in the original television series of Hawaii 5-0.

This is Kawaiahao Church.  It's a really crappy picture due to the reflections/washout of the bus window, but it was clearly the best one of the bunch.  This church was built by hauling in 14,000 pound slabs of coral harvested from a local reef off of Southern O'ahu. I believe the area where you can see the high-rises behind the church was a deserted desert-like plain when the church was originally constructed.

This is the Museum Mission Houses out behind Kawaiahao Church.

That just about does it for our Pearl Harbor and Historic Honolulu tour.  What was left?  A couple of crabby kids wanting desperately to get off of said bus and either be in the pool or in the ocean... didn't matter much to them.  We were on the South end of Waikiki Beach and so we were the last ones that Cousin Dwight dropped off, only adding to their woe and gnashing of teeth over how horrible their lives currently are.  

And so goes vacation...   :-)