Fish Collection

We setup a 30 gallon saltwater aquarium on the lanai.  The idea is to collect tropical fish for free and enjoy them while lounging outside.  Turns out tropical fish are hard to catch.  Luckily, hermit crabs, sea urchins and other critters are not.  Plus, they live a lot longer.  

Andy holds the catch of two hermit crabs and a sea urchin.  We don't know what sea urchins eat, but it seems to be doing alright three months later.  Now we're up to twelve crabs, two urchins and a couple of fish.  

Howzit?

 Lazy Buggah!

Long time since las post!  Fo what? Talk story and da kine das why!  

Better back to it, Bruddah!  

Haleiwa

Spent Sunday dodging rain showers at the North Shore.   No big surf to speak of.  

We checked the obligatory shave ice check in the box in downtown Haleiwa.

Zach seriously studying how to eat every lost drop.  Andy pretending not to be the only kid in the world who doesn't like ice drowned in flavored sugar.  

Playing in the Yard

Some pictures of the boys playing in the yard.  

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First Harvest

Zach has a sweet pepper plant and Andy has a tomato plant.  Of course neither one will eat their bounty, but they still think it's really neat.  

Wishing the President Happy New Years

On Jan 3rd we went up to Kaneohe Marine Corps Base to play mini-golf - one of Andy's favorite activities.  The President has been staying in nearby Kilua and regularly playing golf at the Kaneohe Clipper course on base and right next to the Tiki Island mini-golf.  

We noticed a few black suburbans with a ridiculous number of antennas and several police cars, but there didn't seem to be a lot of hubbub.  

As we finished mini-golf we noticed they were blocking off nearby streets so we made our way over to a small group of folks standing by the clubhouse.  Soon we heard murmurings he was on the 16th hole. This was going to be pretty neat.  

It got better.  The secret service invited anyone interested to watch the President play 18. There was maybe only about 30 people total. We were wanded and given a short brief that should he approach, we shouldn't cross the line, hand him anything or try to get an autograph. Cameras and handshakes were ok. The President finished the hole and walked over and shook everyone's hand.  Kim and I wished him happy new years, which he repeated and he gave Andy and Zach a little pat.  

Walking off the 18th towards us.

Working his way down the line.  Kim in the foreground holding the iphone.

Just about at Kim.  He stopped for a second and talked about his game after someone asked how it went.  

After New Year's

On the 1st Chuck caught an early morning surf with his new board and then the family spent the rest of the day deconfiguring the house from Christmas.  

On the 2nd we checked out Sea Life Park, a rather aging mini-Sea World with all the usual animals and shows.  It was ok.  On the way home we swung by Hickam AFB to get Kim's Christmas present - a bike.  

Look a 600 lb marine mammal doing gymnastics.  

Yeah, but I have a map with numbers.  

Checking out the honu pool.  

On the way home we stopped by base ops to get a shot with this famous piece of iron.  President was in town for vacation.  

New Year's Eve

We decided to celebrate New Year's Eve on east coast time.  Lets little boys and Mommies and Daddies get to bed at a reasonable hour.  

We tuned in the CNN broadcast.  Andy, as expected, was very into the time and counting down portion of it.  He already had his 2010 calender prepped.  

Zach, as expected, was very into the celebration portion of the event.  

Giving Mommy a kiss

then slugging back some sparkling cider

then checking in with some of his clients - Uncle Stick and Grandmother and Granddaddy - to discuss the year ahead in toys.  

Also as expected, Andy wanted nothing to do with festivities.  

After the toasts we headed outside for some sparklers.   

Fireworks in Hawaii are a big deal.  Must be the asian influence, but the laws here are probably the most liberal in the country and everyone goes all out.  Here's a 30 second clip of what the nearby neighborhood's fireworks sounded like (not a professional show - just neighborhood fireworks).  The gentle tinkling sound is rain. Everything else is fireworks.  Supposedly this is nothing compared to some of the bigger, more Hawaiian neighborhoods.