Whirlwind

Wow, things sure have been busy around here lately. But hey, that's nothing new around these parts, is it? I feel like I'm years behind in blog land. Let's see if I can catch up a little bit.

Right before my parents came, we had a crazy rain storm on our side of the island, one filled with lots of thunder, lightening, and precipitation that caused large amounts of flash flooding. Here are some pictures, which don't even quite capture the event accurately. Needless to say, the kids weren't real excited about the loud thunder.

Here is our backyard flooding, despite the massive drain that we have back there

Here is the side of our house flooding

Here is the front of our house where the rain is running down the street in river formation

Despite the storms, my parents made it in safe and sound, and our very first day of touring included the zoo, where we met up with my brother and sister-in-law. Of course I took a million pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites.

Zander's thinking, "Hey guys, what about me?"

The kids and a monkey staring at each other

Papa Dave and Charley checking out the rhinos

Papa Dave and Zander

After the zoo day, things get a little fuzzy in my head as to what we did on what day because there has been a lot of stuff in a lot of days . . . but, I know that we did a bunch of driving around looking at all the different areas of the island, lunched on yummy fresh coconut shrimp, spent a day at the beach, spent a day at the military hotel pool downtown (where my parents spent a night), toured the aquarium, went to the Dole Plantation, snacked on shaved ice, took a tour of Brian's work, and all sorts of fun stuff. Here are some more pictures from our adventures.

Grammy Charlotte and Charley at Chinaman's Hat

Going to Matsumoto's for the famous shaved ice

Charley at the Dole Planation

Zander and Charley hanging out at the pool with a couple random people (they look like they could be our kids' parents, don't they?)

Mom and Zander at the pool

Of course I have a million more pictures, but I will have to send all those out via Snapfish a bit later. Let's see, what else . . . Valentine's Day was fairly uneventful, although Brian brightened up the day by bringing home a dozen beautiful pink roses. Last night we went over to Matt and Heather's house for pizza, where Heather's parents also joined the fun and we were all able to sit around and talk about Montana stuff. Tomorrow we will be meeting up with our friends, the Smith family from Portland, at a vacation house that they are renting, so we are looking forward to that. I guess that about covers all our happenings so far in a nutshell. My parents will be in town until Wednesday, and then I fly out for Montana on Thursday. Cold freezing snow, here I come!!