Meet My New Friends - The Honus

I was surprised that during the first two weeks of our vacation in Maui we didn't seen any green sea turtles (honu in Hawaiian). When I mentioned this to Andy, he said casually, "Oh, I saw some when I was surfing yesterday." But that doesn't count! I wasn't there! Then a few days ago our friends who live here told us about a "secret spot" that was guaranteed to deliver, and oh my gads, did it ever!!

Armed with our new snorkel masks, we dove in to take a look. I am so excited that I got Andy the GoPro camera for Christmas last year. Usually it hooks onto his surfboard so he can get "rad videos of himself shredding," but you can also just hold it and take underwater pictures and videos. Yippee!

You can look, but no touching!! These guys are sadly endangered, and you will get in
BIG trouble if you mess with them.

Check it out! Listen for the crackly noise - I couldn't figure out what it was, and frankly it gave me the creeeeeps because in real life it's pretty loud, but Andy (a walking encyclopedia) told me it's the sound of the fish and turtles taking little bites of stuff off the coral. Chew with your mouths closed, my friends!

Rachel Swims with the Honus from Jenny Coleman on Vimeo.

Can you believe how close it swam to my little Rachel? Ollie and I were watching from the rocks just above the water (these guys were right at the shoreline), and we were ooohing and ahhhing, and then jumping up and down when we saw that! Getting this close to nature is exhilarating for me - I can't even imagine how my safari will be!! I leave in two weeks! Yaaaaaay!!!

Green Puzzles

Say hello to my little friends! Love these guys...just don't want to touch them, that's all.

The Summer of Adventure ~ Hawaii Style

Aloha, friends! Well, we made it! Our school year ended with all sorts of fun and activity, including non-stop fieldtrips, a talent show that Rachel participated in (she jumped rope up to 100!), Oliver's class marching in a parade, and me putting together the end-of-the-year slide show for the Kindergarten class. I was very proud of myself for getting the slideshow done on time, not having to stay up all night to finish it while crying about procrastinating and shoving cookies into my mouth to stay awake! Not this time! It did, however, take three days of my life - but it turned out so awesome, and the kids and their parents all loved it!

So, somehow we made it through all that, and a whole lot more, got ourselves packed, and onto a plane last Sunday. Planes, actually. We used a bunch of frequent flier miles to get here, and since my itinerary is a bit different than the rest of my family, I got to fly here by myself! Andy and the kids got to come straight to Maui from Portland, and though I left around the same time, I was on a different airline and had to go through San Francisco. My first flight left a half an hour late, which made me pretty nervous, but the nice ladies at the desk changed my seat to put me closer to the door, so I was almost first class once I got on the plane! I made it to SF just in time to get to my other plane and board. Then something happened that I've never heard of before. Our pilot was a bit of a speed demon - he took us up to the Jet Stream, and got us to Maui an hour early! What? Yes!

So, my family came back to the airport to pick me up (they had been fooling around at the beach already), and we headed to the condo that we always stay at in West Maui. As soon as we unloaded our bags, the kids wasted no time in changing into their swimsuits...then BAAAANNNGGG! Oliver was so excited to run to the pool that he ran straight into the closed sliding glass door! He bounced off of the glass so hard onto the tile floor, that he split the back of his head open. Happy Father's Day, Andy!! So, literally within minutes of getting into our place, we almost called 911! Instead, we ended up at a little Doctors On Call clinic at the Hyatt Regency down the road, and Ollie had to get a few stitches. Poor baby! The amazing thing was, just like when he had his hernia surgery, he was super brave, didn't cry when the doctor had to give him in injection (right into the cut - oh my!), and actually fell asleep a little as the doctor sewed him up. That last part worried me until I remembered the time change, and that to him, it was about 10:00 at night.

With orders to stay out of the pool and the ocean all week, we've been taking it easy and doing other stuff, and his head has healed nicely. He got the stitches out on Friday night, and is excited to do some cannon balls into the pool, and to try surfing with Daddy, and give his goggles a go. We're so lucky that we're here for a month, otherwise this would have been quite a bummer. Rachel has been super sweet and supportive, and she was so upset when he got hurt! She cried more than he did, but I understood completely. Seeing my children's blood on the outside of their bodies is one of my all-time least favorite things. It's nice to see how much they care about each other though.

More soon - I've GOT to get to the pool!

A Few More

These dolphin cruises are so much fun! It's exhilarating to be speeding along, knowing that there must be all kinds of stuff swimming around under the boat (and oh, I'm always hoping it's friendly!), scanning the horizon...then suddenly...they're all over the place!! I'm such a sucker for wild animals (the non-ferocious, non-poisonous, not rodent-types anyway)!

Of course we had tons of fun swimming too -

And having cupcakes for breakfast isn't so bad either...

Oliver taking pictures with my phone to send to Daddy, who was working hard back in Portland.

We really love the time we've been able to spend in Maui! I owe a big Thank You to my mom for being spontaneous and quickly saying yes to my half-baked idea of running away to Hawaii in August (I maybe gave her three weeks notice). Sometimes you just have to do stuff like that! Aloha, Mom!

Vacation in a (Coco)Nutshell

Ok, so you remember when I wrote that I'd post Hawaii pictures "later today" and you just laughed because you know me so well, and that later today obviously meant "sometime this week when I get to it..." Well, ta-dah! Without any further procrastination, I'd like to send you on a mini virtual vacation! Am I great, or what?

The first sunset we saw - and this was from our room!

This is one of my favorite places on Maui - a "hidden beach" with a great nature trail, and

 cliffs that are usually a good place to see a turtle from.

Hey! Watch the splashes, Ocean! If you get my camera wet we'll have words!

What did I just say?

I'm no geologist, but I can tell you that these bad boys are sharp!

The handsome pool boy

I actually was on this trip! The camera kept focusing on

 itself in the mirror - so self-centered!

**A message from the Universe**

So glamorous!

Oh, I have so many more, people! But it's time for bed - Round 2 "tomorrow."

Alooohaaa!

Hello again! I've just returned from a quick, spontaneous trip to the Valley Isle - Maui, Hawaii! In doing so, I get to cross off item #29 from my Wish List. However, I think I'll keep it on the list because one cannot go to Hawaii often enough! I'm just going through my pictures now, and I'll try to put them up later today. My time zones are still a little wonky.

Oregon Coast Adventures

As in summers past, we've spent the majority of our weekends out at the Coast. It takes about two hours to get there from Portland, but the time flies as you travel up and over the Coast Range. Once you hit that sight of Haystack Rock from Hwy 101, you roll down the windows and take a deep breath! Yes, salty! Yes, wet air! Yes, we're almost there!

Because my husband is absolutely addicted to surfing, and because my kids seem happiest when they are tasting, smelling and rubbing their whole bodies in nature, our beautiful Coast is just the thing. Well, the surfing isn't all that, but don't tell anybody. Last weekend when we were out there, we ran into some school friends, plus their friends, and wall-ah! Instant party! The kids ran around like total coocoo-birds for hours, I got to take a million pictures, and life was good.

Here is a little sampling of the pictures, but please visit my flickr photostream to see the whole day. It's worth it, I promise! Well, I think so anyway.