Hawaii Vaca, Post 17 - Hawai'i Volcanoes Ntnl Park, Pt. 3

So the next part of our adventure through Volcanoes National Park is the hike across the basin floor of this particular lava basin. 

After our lovely pic in the previous post on this subject, of Mom and Caleb making their way down to the basin floor, we start to focus on the landscape that we're about to traverse!

It looks so simple, correct?  Not so!  Make sure you stop when you want to take in the sights surrounding you or you'll find yourself face down in a hurry!

Calebber amongst the rough terrain!

This is where we just came from.  Those people in the middle of the photo kind of give you a reference to scale!

This is where we're going...  Can you find Mama and Caleb in the picture?  It's like a family version of the game, "Where's Waldo?".

and here...

and a beautiful little Chinese boy amid the rough terrain.

When the wind stops blowing, you gasp for air because of how hot it immediately gets, but then, you encounter plants that are growing up thru the volcanic rock such as these.  Seeing where "stuff" can grow gives an interesting perspective on life in general!

Robby, taking careful steps because if you don't, shame on you and all of your injuries!

Rongbo the fantastic in a similar situation!

VICTORY!!

Walking across areas like this were slightly unnerving!

Some more perspective on the size of everything.

Caleb and Mama as we're reaching the 3/4 mark of the basin.

More amazing vegetation in the middle of wastelands.

Almost home!  Which truly means that we have a HUGE uphill hike and more...

We made it!

A close up to prove that we made it!

Cold vs. Cozy

Hey baby, it's cold outside! We've been mostly below zero for temps since Christmas day and it grows old after a little while! The skin gets dry (dryer than it already was!),  the front door freezes shut and various other weird malady's.  

But within that, there are some good things that happen as well.  What are they?  

Well, glad you asked!

This was Mother Natures painting that we found on our front door during one of the coldest days.

The ferocious hound, Juno, after being covered up by Robby to ensure that she was warm enough!

And again, the ghastly beast taking a nap on my lap as I watched football and over-consumed.

So the cold ain't all bad....

Hawaii Vaca, Post 16 - Hawai'i Volcanoes Ntnl Park, Pt. 2

So, we made it thru the visitor center in the previous post and after another bit of driving, albeit, a MUCH shorter trip, we're ready for our hike!

I had no idea until looking at this picture, that we were only about 1.5 - 2 miles away from the steam vents that we saw from the visitor center. We hiked the smaller basin off to the right of the photo.

Over on the upper right'ish corner, the green marker from google maps is marking the Kiluaea Iki Trailhead,  which is basically where we parked the rental vehicle and began our hike.  We took that upper path across the top of the pic and basically turned left until you can see that little squiggely switch-back type path on the far left.  Obviously, that's where the trail descended to the basin floor.

This is one of the first views that you come to when the trees start to open up!  You can see the steam vent in the background here.

Just a bit further on up the trail with a similar view.  This time, however, you can see the path (the lighter colored line) on the basin floor.  In real life, you could see tiny, tiny people down there too, but I can't see them in the pic.  It hadn't hit me yet, that it was going to be us down there after quite bit of time has passed!

So what does a trail on the top of a volcano rim look like?  Something like this!

This freaked me out a bit...  This is the edge of the trail, looking straight down the wall of the crater rim! I'm not afraid of heights but Mr. Calebber had asked if he could hike on up ahead and we had allowed it. When he says hike, he really means something betwixt jogging & running!  We established a rule that he was not to get two trail markers ahead of us at any time. If he did, he was to wait until one of us caught up with him.  What occurred to me at this point is that a fella traveling a trail at his speed would have a much greater chance of missing said markers.  And then, there's warnings on some of the trails about "false floors" (I forget the Hawai'ian name).  But they are dead/dying vegetation laying on the tops of certain types of trees and people mistake it for terra firma...  but usually only once. 

The steam vents again as we're making our way across the top of the rim.

That's Robby up ahead.  At this point, we haven't seen Caleb for probably 10 minutes and there's an uneasy feeling about that very fact.

Eventually, we found him waiting at one of the markers and we restated our rules to only include one marker and that he was to be VERY careful.  As you can see in the photo, he's running...

Hey!  Now we can tell that we're making progress as that big bald rocky area is moving around to behind us on our travels!

Even better, we've rounded a corner and can now see the area in which we started.  This view also provides a much clearer perspective of the "bowl".

I kept taking pictures of this formation without ever considering the fact that we'd be right down by it in another 1/2 hour or so.

Had a great big, wide opening at the turning point to descend which provided a nice shot over looking the MUCH larger basin (from that top map picture).

THANK GOD FOR RAILINGS!!!  That was a drop!

And down we go!  That's Caleb with Mom now.  He's got his blue sweatshirt tucked in the backpack because he was hot, presumably from all the dang running!

That's Dad and Robby from Mom and Caleb's perspective.

It took me a bit to figure it out, but these steps reminded me of a place or something...  It was the unevenness about them. One step might have been only three inches high, the next 12 inches.   Oh yes!  It was the Great Wall of China on that snowy morning in 2011!  The temp was quite different, but the capacity to do something wildly stupid and painful was similar!

There's running boy, all smiles and happy (ie, he's not hungry... yet.).

We made it to the basin floor!!  Mom and Caleb dressing up the next portion of our hike.  It's much hotter down here!

So, without having gone thru the remaining pictures in the folder, I think the next post will wrap up the posts about Volcanoes National Park, but there may be an additional one about the Thurston Lava Tube that we did after this hike.  Not that either boy was happy about that...

Riverside Bible Camp, Fall Refresh

Riverside campers!  These three from our church Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona IA.  Robby is hoping that these three go back next year, and the year after as he said it was one of the most fun weekends EVER!  :-)

2017 Wine, Beer and Food Expo

Our friends had tickets to the 2017 Wine Beer and Food Expo and invited us along for the ride. And it was a fun ride, indeed! 

Plenty of new beers to try out and so much laughing that my jaw hurt at the end of the day!

Didn't take any pictures that day, but there were two that were shared:

These three lovelys!

And then there's these three...

Thanksgiving 2017

Well, better late than never, I guess... 

I've fallen (further!!) behind yet again but hopefully with Christmas break coming up, I'll be able to do some catching up.

We'll start the catching up process with a 3 week late Thanksgiving post.  It's the first time in four years that all 5 of us kids were together with our Mom.  There's been a pile of times where a group of four of us make it, but not very often with all five.

So, other than the evening passing WAY too fast, it was a great time with great people and some great food!

My fam!  Back row: Steve, Dianne, Doris, and myself, Ted.  Front row: Vince and my momma, Elaine.

Grandma with all of her grandbabies(!) except Billie Jo, who lives in Tennessee.

Robby and Caleb.

Dave and Shadow the Beast.

Dave's daughter and her boyfriend...  For the LIFE OF ME, I cannot remember their names.  I'm thinking she's Ashley, maybe?

Jake and my niece Leah.

My nephew Tim and his mom, Kathy.

And so it was, hopefully it's not another 4 years until we're all back together again!

6th Annual Installment of Got'cha Day!!!

Some days are just better than others. Wedding anniversary's, kid's birthdays, Christmas, and so on...

Dec. 5th became special to the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit because in 2011, in the city of Changchun, China, we met the AMAZING little boy who was now our Caleb Schmitz!  

He has brought such immense joy to our world and is the embodiment of love.

Caleb, we LOVE YOU and happy Got'cha Day!!

This was 5 years ago today when we finalized the domestic part of our adoption.  What a great day and a fun time watching Robby "testify" to the bench on why Caleb should be in our family!

And the not-so-little little guy just a month or so back!