Ryan at the beach

Chester the Monk Seal at Iroquois Pt. Ewa Beach

No, he is not dead...lol They come up on shore, the grounds-people here yellow-tape off the section he is sunbathing in and he gets beach-time. Uninterrupted. Life is good for this Monk Seal in Hawaii. Serious couch potato material!!

Coconut palm pruning day

SO a big (BIG) cherry picker drives thru the yard... ONe might find this odd (as I surely did) to have a vehicle drive practically onto your lanai unannounced. Apparently Iroquois Point wants us NOT to have giant coconuts fall on our heads ala Gilligans Island style. THe guys cut off the coconut sprouts and major sized palm fronds. The kids saved a few- Cuz well, they are boys and they thought they'd build a fort? The just end up running around dragging them.
And what the hell is that thing the coconuts were growing on? BIzarro!!

dad never gets to sleep in

Everyone comes in around 6:30 am. Both Ryan and Petey the dog are regular all nighters. They wake dad up with a million questions, wanting to play a game etc... He sleeps thru it..or ignores it...lol

lanai birdfeeder guys

Java finch and his little red buddies. Usually there are about 50 but I scared most of em away taking this.

lagoon guys!!

Took this pic with my regular ol camera this morning. We see these guys hanging out regularly. Wish I knew the names beside "Jelly-fish" Ryan called her Miss Jelly Fish. And the fish dude.

Seriously, every night I see this as I sit in warm weather(no bugs) on my patio.

Yeah, I know I know...shut up...I still am amazed every day I wake up here in Hawaii. It is so nice to never be cold or feel a chill. Even the rain is warm...
We spent the whole afternoon at the beach. Maddie went snorkeling along with the kids and Troy. They are far more adventuresome than I am..or should I say brave. I lasted a few minutes but was so freaked out that I was going to see some creature that viewed me as big fat dinner that I cracked a fin swimming back to shore. Maddie saw a huge urchin and some fish. Andrew likes to float on his stomach with his masked face in the water never coming up, onluy breathing thru his snorkel. He curls his knees up and floats like a little coconut- a coconut with a snorkel.
Ryan still likes to stay close to shore.
Maddie and I sat in beach chairs and watched and eventually fell asleep. Troy and I are burnt. Troy is lobsterized. I wore 30 block and still managed to scorch my décolletage. I'll be the 60 year old lady with the shar-pie wrinkled chest- yuck.
MAddie had to go to WORK- at cluck in the bucket so I am not sure if she is roasted too. SHe is too busy talking on her cell phone- go figure.
Troy said he is sure that the next bill Sprint sends us will be in a box- since it will be so itemized and long. God help us.
Jody, Mike and Judson are coming soon!!! We are so excited! THen my brother and sister in law and nieces and nephew!
Dean, find that chunk of time and get out here!!! Dave, there are NO mosquitos or biting bugs here either!

Ryan plays his Ukelele ALL THE TIME!

Crazy Technical!!!!

THere are two of the three kids. Maddie manages to delete a lot of pics. Typical teen. I didn't have that luxury as a kid. Remember when you had the Kodak with 110 film? That skinny little rol of "film"l you popped in the back of the camera and started winding like mad till it "grabbed" and stopped. You were all set to take 24 or 36 pictures. You tried to get the perfect picture, great light, line things up... Funny when you got your prints back they either had your finger in the shot or something went terribly wrong. It was a bitch to wait up to 2 WEEKS to get a roll of film back! Agonizing!!! At least for me it was. I have a lot of pictures of Hamsters, geese that lived in the backyard, brothers, snow, camp and a zillion of my horse Woody. Thank goodness for pictures!

I bought Maddie a digital camera for her birthday last year. NO it wasn't the CELL phone she wanted.. it was another infernal electronic gadget. The cell phone was the latest and greatest. As of Sunday she has a phone with a frigging KEYPAD for typing on it! Good GOD!

I had a 110 camera... oh and a 125 camera!! Remember those? They were the fatter and older cousin of the 110. And you still had to wait 2 weeks for pics once you got the film you dropped off at Target or the drug store for it! Maddies phone has a camera too. Probably some editing software and who knows what else.
Back in the day I didn't even bother getting the exotic 35mm camera. That required you to know how to load a "roll" of film in the back of the camera all by yourself! Ahhhckk!... much too technical for me. That was for the professionals! ha ha Anyone I saw with a 35mm camera I held in high regard. They were rocket scientists as far as I was concerned.

Oh and if by chance you opened up the back of the camera on the 110 or 125 dinosaur your film was ruined!! Or at least that was the threat.... EXPOSURE was a dirty word! Or wait, it still could be.. anyways
Now days I love digital cameras!! INSTANT GRATIFICATION!! If I look terrible in the pic I simply hit "delete" I can erase everything I don't want and make room for more.
I love looking at them once downloaded. I must admit, I rarely develop...I mean PRINT them out. I should, there are a couple months worth pf pics in my defunct, dead old imac thats sitting in the plastic shed wth hard drive alzhiemers... I would hate for that to happen again..Some other gizmo to figure out..the back up, zip drive thingy...
Sometimes I miss the excitement of going to the alphabetized drawers at Target and picking up the film package that said Ericson on it... YOu know your butt was ripping them open in the car IF you could wait that long!!
I am beginning to sound like frigging ANdy Rooney that grumpy old shit on 60 minutes now so I'll stop...lol
Here are some pics--I'll send them into internet space. Who'd a thunk it?