A weekend with the niece and nephew

Two weekends ago, Patrick and I had our niece (Aly who is 4) and nephew (Eric who is 8) visit us from Phoenix. There were no parents involved, Patrick and I were on our own. We knew that the activities and the pace would be different than we were used to, and we hoped that there wouldn't be any fights over food or bedtime. Aly and Eric did great! (and we did great too...)

Patrick kicked off the weekend with a balanced meal at Subway where Eric conned him into a coke, so when he got to Austin Eric was full of energy! We started off our Saturday with a balanced breakfast of Fruit Loops. (side note: I wasn't allowed sugar cereals as a kid, so I felt that I needed to provide this to Aly and Eric) After showers (including a little hiccup of getting soap in our eyes), we headed to Gattiland where the kids could be kids and so could we... I caught Patrick on a rollercoaster ride with Eric, and Aly was able to score some pink vampire teeth.

After lunch we headed to Toy Story 3 in 3D, which was fantastic. After staying in the cool for long enough, we headed out to Zilker Park to ride the Zephyr mini-train. Inside I was so excited because it's something that I've always wanted to do, but did not want to go on just as an adult. Aly and Eric were a perfect excuse for me to get to ride the train. However, just after boarding the train a very skinny man in a very small g-string walked by. Thankfully the kiddos, didn't notice because I wasn't ready to explain what "that" was.... We ended our evening trying to watch the bats fly out from the Congress bridge, but they decided to stay in. Eric got to see a couple of bats, but it surely didn't meet the expectations that Patrick and I had set up.

All in all it was a great visit, and we're so glad they were able to spend a weekend with us. Hopefully they'll make time to visit soon.

Trip to Forest Hill, LA

About twice a year, we try to make a trip to Forest Hill, LA to visit my aunt and uncle. These trips are always relaxing and filled with going to get plants at the local nursery and great food. Luckily this year, we received (as a joke) an Obama figurine. My dad had already played a joke on his brother (my uncle) by giving him an Obama calendar for Christmas, so we knew this figurine was going to come in very handy for this trip.

We weren't quite sure how we were going to use it, but knew it needed to be packed for this trip. I asked my cousin Sammy where we should put it. We wanted to put it some where it would blend, yet not belong. Lucky for us, my aunt has a case that she keeps nick-nacks from trips, so I casually opened the case and placed Mr. Obama in...

As you can see, he fit right in with the crystal. I acted like I was inspecting the case right before breakfast and asked my uncle if they had picked up a new item on their last trip. His response was that they hadn't, and he asked me what I was looking at. I pointed out their new addition, and they laughed and laughed but didn't take him out.

Patrick and I left to come back to Austin, and my uncle reported back to my dad the nasty trick we had played on them. My uncle then told my dad that they had forgotten about the new addition, and my aunt had the ladies from Calvary Baptist Church (where they have members for years) over for dinner later in the week. One of the ladies, who knew my aunt very well, pointed out Mr. Obama, and asked why he was in there. Knowing very well that they were in no way advocates. My aunt was so embarrassed that she couldn't back track and get her story straight about our joke.

Thanks to Jenny, Luc, and Jack for providing this figurine and hours of entertainment for all of us...

Oh May...

Last year May was exciting and challenging month for us, with my graduation and Patrick's job loss. This year's May did not disappoint....

The second week of May started with a bang. We had gotten home from our volleyball game, Patrick was asleep, and I had just finished my bath. I noticed that the bath water wouldn't drain, and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I left the water as is, and closed the door to give Patrick the signal not to use the bathroom. Instead he ran into the door in the middle of the night. The next morning we called the plumber, and it turns out that the previous owners had done a terrible do-it-yourself job on the sewage line. After discussions with the City of Austin, it was deemed that the issue was on our side, and we replaced the tie into the city ( which in our case was also our neighbor's tie in) and about a foot of our sewer line.

After the second week's drama, I know that we weren't prepared for a neighbor to report us for illegal watering of our yard. Thankfully it was just a warning, but to this day we cannot figure out who made the complaint (even with a personal call to the city).

Middle of the second week, I went into the garage to throw something in the trash bin to notice that the washer connection was spewing hot water. Another call to the plumber and we have new hot and cold water connections.

At this point we are joking about the only thing that could go wrong now was the water heater going out. Well, we shouldn't have joked about that. As we were leaving to go visit my aunt and uncle in Louisiana I noticed that there was water leaking out of the side of our house, and I just knew it was the water heater. I called my dad frantic, and asked what we should do. (by the way I have the best dad in the world!) He told us to turn off the water heater and the water to the house, and he would make a trip to Austin to replace it for us. Sure enough dad made his way down to Austin the next day, and he installed a new water heater for us. After he took out the water heater, we noticed that the whole bottom as corroded, so this had probably been going on for a while. We're lucky that we caught it when we did, and that my dad is super handy....

Hopefully next May will be less eventful...

Hawaii Part III: The Big Island

Our last stop on our Hawaiian vacation was to Kona on the Big Island. We stayed with Patrick's Aunt Zola and Uncle Jack. They were wonderful hosts who made sure we had a wonderful stay. Our first order of business on day one was to have a glass of wine and enjoy their amazing view. Check out the video we made for Patrick's mom. We thought it would be a great video to get her to go visit them:

The next morning we woke up and went down town to the market in search of souvenirs. There was a great market next to Jack and Zola's church, and we were able to pick up fresh coffee, macadamia nuts, and other small gifts to bring back home. The second order of business was to get our excursions scheduled, so we found a tourist shop downtown and prepared to negotiate a night time Manta Ray snorkel and a plane tour of Volcano National Park. Since Patrick and I are a little thrifty, we decided that we would sit through an hour long time share presentation. Yes, it saved us about $350. It was both of our first presentations, and we agreed that we would only do it again if we saved at least $300. The folks weren't pushy until the end, where I kept telling the guy that we really didn't see the value in the whole deal. We were just having fun with him, but still got our discounts.

The next morning we woke up and got ready for our airplane tour of the island. We jumped on this plane:

We headed towards Volcano National Park where we flew over active craters and lava flow. Looking back at these pictures, I can't believe how close we got...

The National Park area looked like a completely different planet, so it was a surprise to see Hilo which gets over 300 inches of rain a year. This area is known for its orchid farms and lush climates. It had rained the previous day, and got an incredible sight of these waterfalls.

The airplane tour was the perfect way to get a complete view of the island! In a car, we would have never seen these sights.

The next day we took it easy snorkeling and getting ready for the Manta Ray snorkel that evening. Patrick kept warning me that these animals had a large wing spans, and may be an incredible sight to see. I had no idea what to expect, but it was amazing. Manta Rays are plankton feeders, so the set up these guys had was incredible. They strung a series of pairs pool noodles with dive lights attached in the middle out behind the boat. The lights attract the plankton, which attracts the Manta Rays. I bought a really cheap underwater camera, hoping to capture what we saw. This camera had no zoom, so the picture below is the Manta Ray approaching us, with his mouth open. It was an incredible sight, as these guys made large circles in order to feed on the plankton. This picture doesn't do it justice, but gives you an idea of this incredible sight.

Our trip was now complete, and we were sad to have to get back to the real world. It was an incrdible trip, and we hope to come back soon!

Hawaii Part IIb: Kauai's Napali Coast

Our last full day in Kauai we took a chartered catamaran along the Napali coast, and it was one of the most spectacular views on the trip. We got to see plenty of spinner dolphins, turtles, and a hump back whale. ( I would like to add that I was the one who spotted the hump back whale, and at first no one believed me. That's besides the point. Everyone believed me once they saw the baby's tale pop out of the water).

Here are a couple of photos and video from this part of our trip:

Hawaii Post IIa: Kauai

Sorry for the delayed Hawaii posts, but I'm going to make an attempt to get all caught up here on a Sunday afternoon.

We left off of the tales of the trip to Hawaii with our first stop, Oahu, so here's the catch up for the last 2 islands we visited. Kauai was a second stop of our trip, and everyone had told us the wonders of the islands and the stray chickens that we were going to encounter. The island did not disappoint (tremendous views and lots of stray chickens).

After a lot of research we decided to stay at the Marriott in Lihue, as it was a fine balance between the expensive north side of the island and the dry part of the south shore. For us it was the perfect location. The first afternoon we headed down to Poipu State Beach, which had been named by the Travel Channel as one of the best beaches in the United States. We got there just at the right time, because an endangered Monk Seal was taking a little nap in the middle of the beach. Monk Seal's are protected by the state, and volunteers are called each time a seal comes to lay on the beach. These volunteers rope off the seal so that won't be disturbed by tourists.

The next day we headed north to check out the east shore and north shore. On the east shore the highlight of our trip was at Larsen's beach where we got to see a Monk Seal mother teaching its baby how to swim. We were able to get a little bit of video to share with everyone.

As we made it to the north shore we visited Kilauea Wildlife Refuge, where there was this incredible view

We were officially on the north shore and had heard that there was great snorkeling in the area, but what we didn't realize was how rough the surf was this time of year. We visited many beaches, but there were a few that really stood out to us. The first area that stood out wasn't really a beach, rather a cliff of lava rocks that formed beautiful pools. The area is called Queen's Bath, and the trail head is tucked back in a ritzy neighborhood in Princeville. Patrick wasn't too sure we were going the right direction, since it looked more like a country club than an entrance to lava pools. He let me follow the guide book, and we made it. It was such a beautiful and relaxing viewThe next couple of beaches had some great potential for snorkeling, but we didn't take our snorkel gear out of the Jeep. This was a big mistake because in between Queen's Bath and the Kee beach (last picture), our snorkel gear, hotel towels, extra pair of sandals, and my wind breaker were stolen out of our Jeep. Luckily for us we had all of the cameras with us, so the only thing of value that was taken was the snorkel gear.