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!