Summer activities update

WOW! This is definitely the longest I have ever gone in between posts! Life has been unbelievably busy this summer! I wrote this while we were on the plane on our way back from a vacation to Wisconsin. I had about 3 or 4 hours before we got to L.A. to try and catch up, which I did, but then we got back into life and…well, now it’s almost 3 weeks later!! So, here is the update through August 3.

We just spent the past 2-1/2 weeks in Wisconsin visiting family and friends and going to 2 class reunions. We had a great time, but are tired and ready to be home. We went to the fair and watched the tractor pull and gauntlet races and were able to see many people that we know. We stayed at the hotel in Darlington the first few nights and Jenna and her friends were able to go swimming. We stayed at AJ’s sister Sue’s house for several days and visited friends, and got to meet our new “great-niece” Leah, who is very cute with tons of hair! (If we have a great niece, does that make us old??? –naw!) I asked AJ why is the grandparent called “grand” and the aunt and uncle called “great”? I think we should be called “grand-aunt and uncle!” That makes sense doesn’t it?? I don’t know, I guess my logic doesn’t apply here!

Anyway, we dubbed this vacation the “ever-changing vacation.” We called it this because almost everything we had planned changed! AJ was planning to redo the cement in our front porch at the house, but the date got changed 3 times due to his help changing the date or because of rain! He never did get it done! AJ was also planning to take a friend of his to Green Bay to see Lambeau Field, but that unfortunately didn’t work either. Lynn was going to go to Monroe for a day, but that changed too! We did manage to see lots of friends and pretty much everyone in our family. AJ and I both had a class reunion too. It was fun to see our classmates and catch up. I hadn’t seen many of my classmates for 20 years and AJ saw a few he hadn’t seen in many years too. I was on the planning committee for my reunion, so I was busy with last minute preparations the 3 days prior. I had my reservations about how it would all turn out, but fortunately everything fell into place and it ended up being a really great evening! We stayed with my parents for a few nights and got to see the family. We got to see my sister Lisa and her family from Milwaukee – her kids are 3 and 5 now and as smart and cute as ever! I was able to see my brother Al and his wife from Colorado too the first weekend we were here. It would have been great to have everyone together at once, but at least I got to see them! We visited my 93 year old Grandma for a while. She is still witty, but is getting a little forgetful. She still lives alone in her own house – not bad for 93 years old! We visited my cousin Sam’s grave. It was hard, but I’m glad I did it. We left him some flower leis, which is nothing compared to the paradise he is now enjoying, but it’s a little something I guess.

Jenna got to stay at Peach and Papa’s house and got to see many of the babysitting kids she grew up with. Peach and Papa’s grandson, Kaden is 3 months younger than Jenna and he is about an inch shorter than me! Next time I see him, I’m sure he’ll be taller, but I’ve still got him this time!! The last few nights we stayed at AJ’s Mom’s house. We had great meals of sweet corn and fresh veggies from Karen and Dave’s garden. I think we all ate too much the whole time we were there, but it was great! Our niece Melanie and her boyfriend Tom announced their engagement while we were in Wisconsin and we were able to get together with them for dinner at Karen’s. We are very happy for them and it was great to see them!

It was a great trip. We were on the run a lot, but not quite as much as when we are there at Christmas. We’re pretty tired and ready to be home. I think we got rested up a LITTLE…we were pretty wiped out with everything going on before we left. There’s been a lot going on that I will try and summarize without writing a book and/or putting you to sleep!

I think I left off at the end of April. May started off with Lei Day at Jenna’s school (May Day in schools on the Mainland). Jenna’s class performed a hula and sang a song in Hawaiian. It was very well done. The kids choreographed the dance themselves and they did a really good job! I wish I could get it to attach, but the file is too big. Then each child put a lei on a big wooded cross – it was a very nice ceremony.

Jenna’s last day of school was June 4. Unfortunately, I was not able to be at her promotion, but AJ surprised her and showed up in time to see her get her promotion certificate. She did very well in school this year and we are very proud of her! It’s so hard to believe that she will be in 4th grade next year!! Where does the time go??

The first full week of June, our church had Vacation Bible School. The theme this year was a ranch/cowboy theme. The kids were taught how to "round-up" answers they had by asking God. I helped with the snacks in the kitchen. It was a fun week and we are already looking forward to next year - the theme is New York City! That should be fun!!

At the end of June, AJ’s boss again took his managers to the Kona Village for a weekend getaway. Kona Village is the fancy resort we went to last summer that is like “old-time Kona.” It’s meant for people to get away and relax. There are no TVs or phones in the rooms and you can only be on your cell phone in your room. The rooms are like huts, but they are very nice and come with everything a normal hotel room would have except the TV and phone. We even had a hot tub on our porch. We had a pretty good ocean view too! We went swimming and snorkeling and were able to relax. It was really great and we didn’t want to leave!!

In July, Jenna and I were in the 4th of July parade for Hospice. We had fun throwing candy to people and then went out to eat afterwards and stayed to watch the fireworks. It lasted a whole 10 minutes! AJ and I were both off on July 5th for the July 4th Holiday, so we went snorkeling and kayaking with one of AJ’s co-workers, David. We went snorkeling at a place called "two-step." It's called this because there are two steps to get in and out of the ocean - pretty original, huh? Someone took white rocks and wrote "aloha" on the bottom of the ocean. I tried to get a picture, but unfortunately it didn't turn out very well. Oh well, maybe next time! Then, we went paddling around looking for the sea arches, but the water was getting rough and I was starting to get sea sick, so we turned around and headed for smoother waters. We paddled past the City of Refuge, one of our favorite beaches. It was neat to see it from a different point of view. While we were making our way back to the boat landing, David said, “Hey AJ, look to your left.” Of course, I looked too and we saw a black fin sticking out of the water! It was a little scary at first, because, of course the first thing you think of is …SHARK! You could see this dark image in the water; it was very wide but not very long. Then we saw 2 fins sticking out of the water, kind of at an angle and equally spaced. I was thinking, “What is that??” AJ thought it must be a manta ray. David tried to paddle closer to it, but it could swim so fast, he couldn’t get near it!! It was a little scary, but exciting too! We would like to go on a night tour to snorkel and swim with the manta rays. We hear it is very fun, so hopefully someday we’ll get to see them up close and personal!

The following weekend I worked at Camp Erin again. In case you forgot, Camp Erin is a bereavement camp for kids that have lost a loved one. This year we were at a different location which was really nice! It was at a lower elevation so it wasn’t as cold and rainy. We did get a little rain, but it wasn’t cold and damp like last year. We were in cabins this year also instead of tents which made a huge difference! The biggest pest this year was mosquitoes, which was really nothing compared to what we endured the past few days at Karen and Dave’s! (They live near a swamp, which is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes!) I again had the 6-8 year old girls in my cabin and it was amazing! Almost every one of the girls in my cabin had lost a loved one in some tragic way – it was very sad, yet amazing to see how they were coping. AJ again helped with archery and Jenna even helped this year. She helped get water balloons ready for the obstacle course and got soaking wet! Hard to imagine, I know! She had fun and felt like she was helping in some way, so it was OK. We all enjoy working at Camp Erin and plan to again next year.

Earlier in the year we were dealing with a very severe drought. In fact, we learned that it was the worst drought Kona had had in 50 years! It caused a lot more work for AJ and Kona Queen, but they managed to get through it. Thankfully we were getting rain on a pretty regular basis before we went on vacation and things were starting to look green again.

So as I mentioned, AJ was very busy with the bees because of the drought. He is responsible for 3000 hives of bees and he usually feeds them once every three weeks. Because of the drought, he had to feed them every week! To make matters worse, the Big Island now has the mite (a parasite that affects the bees) and the hive beetle (which affects the bee larva). Both of these pests are new to the Big Island in the past year. AJ has been responsible for his 3000 hives plus the testing and treating of the mite and the beetle. Kona Queen hired a new person to deal with the mite and the beetle, so AJ will finally get back to doing one job instead of two! It’s been pretty stressful and extremely exhausting, but I think things should be getting better now.

My job has been very stressful also. We hired a new person, but she quit and so did one of our other nurses, both for various reasons, so we are short staffed. We have had 1-2 people on vacation all summer so we have had to work longer hours and take more call than usual. We are taking call 2-3 times a week, which was really beginning to take its toll on me before our vacation. They were supposed to be hiring someone new while I was gone. I sure hope so because I’m not sure I can continue to take call like this and still be sane and have my family like me!

Jenna finished swimming lessons just before we left on vacation. She was in level 4 this year, which was stroke development. She still needs a little practice, but overall I think she did well. Her last day of lessons was the day we left for Wisconsin, so were running up until about an hour before we left! We also discovered we had a water leak somewhere in the house or under the ground the day before we left! We got a notice from the water company telling us that we had doubled the amount of water used from what we usually do! AND to make matters worse, the dishwasher quit working the day we were leaving! We talked to our realtor before we left, and while we were gone, so hopefully everything is fixed before we get home!

So we were all a little stressed before we went on vacation. Even though we were busy on vacation, I think the stress level was definitely lower! We did have a little excitement in Chicago…we almost missed our plane!! We flew from Madison to Chicago, but only had a 40 minute lay over. We got into Chicago a few minutes early, but we taxied for 15 minutes!! I’m not sure why, but it took forever to get to our gate! We had to gate check one of our bags, so AJ waited for that while Jenna and I took off running for our gate. We had to change concourses to catch our next flight so it was a long way to go! We were going to take the shuttle, but there was a line and I didn’t want to risk missing our flight. So Jenna and I ran most of the way to our gate. We walked a little, but when we got to our gate, they were already boarding and AJ hadn’t gotten there yet! He arrived a couple minutes after we did. He had to run the whole way! We boarded and the plane left in less than 10 minutes. It was a little stressful, but we certainly got our blood flowing and got a little exercise before our flight to L.A.! I hope that is the end of our stress for a while!

Well, I think that’s it! That’s the update so far this summer, so until next time…aloha!