Happy Boxing Day!  We hope your holiday season has been as festive and joy-filled as ours.  Not that ours is over – with BCS Games, New Year’s, our anniversary, Stephanie’s birthday, the Big Island Open and the Super Bowl yet to come – but we are taking a wee break and thought we should get a blog post in (since it’s been over a month again).

 

Marty arrived for Thanksgiving as scheduled and we had a really good time with him.  Stephanie picked up Estee & Keith and the five of us all piled over to Rob & Wendy’s for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  We think it was probably Keith & Estee’s first holiday away from home and they seemed to enjoy themselves.  It was just a like a big family gathering in Iowa (everyone stuffed themselves on tons of turkey with all the trimmings and yummy pies for desert) except we were sitting outside in shorts.

 

We took Marty up to Volcanoes National Park on Friday and to Waipio Valley on Saturday.  Even though we’d just been to both places a couple of weeks earlier we really enjoyed them both.  At some point we’ll just send people off to the places we’ve seen dozens of times but we’re not there yet.  There were a few horses just strolling around loose at the beach in Waipio.  Paul and Marty were petting them while Stephanie was keeping well out of the way.  They were a little too friendly (and interested in the contents of our car) for her taste.  Marty is a Missouri Tigers fan so he needed to get to his condo in Kona on Saturday in time to watch their game against the undefeated Kansas Jayhawks.  We don’t really watch a lot of college football but we watched the game when we got back home, too.  Yay Tigers! 

 

The following Monday we went and spent the night with Marty at the Kona condo.  We had a nice dinner out and too many cocktails afterwards.  Tuesday we went to Hapuna to recover on the beach and then out for a late lunch.  We had so much fun we tried to convince Marty to come back to play for New Year’s Eve.  It’s not going to happen though…this year.

 

Stephanie was super busy after Marty left getting ready for the Global Family Yoga annual meeting.  Some people scoff (thinking family “meeting” in Hawaii…come on) but it is really a big deal for them.  They do a full review of everything from the prior year and all their strategic planning for the upcoming year.  They run the business from their separate home offices so the annual meeting is the only time for them to literally put their heads together.

 

Paul spent that time finishing the three tables for the lanais and decorating the house for Christmas.  In Christmases past, Stephanie drove (drove Paul crazy that is) the decorating.  This year Stephanie was pretty distracted and Paul took charge.  He did a great job and the house was very festive inside and out.  Instead of a traditional tree we got a palm that will get planted out in the yard at the end of the season.

 

Cheryl and Mira arrived on schedule the 5^th of December and the GFY founders got to work.  On Saturday they took a day off to do some shopping and so we could all go to the Derek Trucks Band (www.derecktrucks.com) show at the Palace Theatre (www.hilopalace.com).  That was fun!

 

Sunday the 9^th Mira’s fiancé Paul arrived.  With two Paul’s in the house we needed to differentiate so Mira’s Paul became Pablo (a name he uses anyway) and Stephanie’s Paul went by Uncle Paul (as he has with others for many years).  Pablo was only able to get away from Chicago for a few days but we made the most of them – Rainbow Falls, Volcanoes National Park, Volcanoes Winery, Kalapana Beach, MacKenzie Park, swimming at the Warm Pond, flying kites at Champagne Pond, snorkeling in the tide pools, shopping, learning new card games plus lots of food and drink.

 

We took Pablo to the airport on the 14^th and went straight to see the Nutcracker at the Palace Theatre in Hilo.  Tony was supposed to have arrived on the 12^th but things came up at work that caused him to have to postpone until the 17^th.  So, we had an extra ticket and brought our friend Pat with us.  The show was put on by the local dance academy and was SO cute.  Kids from tiny through high school did different parts in fantastic costumes.  The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition in Stephanie’s family from her childhood so it was fun to experience the Hilo version.

 

Saturday the 15^th was our first annual Hawaii Holiday Party.  We loved the holiday parties we used to throw in MN.  Later it evolved into a New Year’s Eve party in FL.  The last couple of years we haven’t had a house to throw a party in so this year we were ready to get back to that tradition.  Cheryl and Mira helped get everything together so it was a breeze to put on.  We built a little campfire in the yard and roasted marshmallows for the kids.  There was a crazy pile of food and Stephanie was happy to have her family meet some of our friends. 

 

On Monday we enjoyed watching the Vikings beat the Bears on Monday “Night” Football (it’s on in the afternoon here).  Mira isn’t a big football fan so she put in some time painting on the front lanai.  Stephanie was inspired since she’s been a huge slacker on the last painting that’s needed doing for months now.  We’ll see if the inspiration lasts long enough to actually get things finished.  After the game we picked Tony up from the airport.  Mira gave us a sushi kit and we all had fun playing sushi chef for dinner.  After dinner we played some disc golf horseshoes in the dark and rekindled our campfire.  Mira was leaving the next morning so we extended the only time she and Tony were going to have until the wee hours.

 

There was some confusion between Stephanie and Cheryl as to when Cheryl was departing.  Stephanie had it on the calendar for Thursday the 20^th so she was surprised when Cheryl told her on Monday that she was actually leaving on Wednesday the 19^th.  Tuesday morning Stephanie had a bit of a panic when she realized she had made Cheryl’s return inter-island flight arrangements…and that’s why she was so sure it was the 20^th…that’s the day she scheduled that flight.  Crap.  Now that flight was a day too late.  It turned out that the 20^th was the correct day and Cheryl ended up with a “bonus” day in Hawaii.  Not a bad thing.

 

So Tuesday afternoon Paul and Tony played some disc golf while Cheryl and Stephanie did some errands around town.  Then the 4 of us went up to watch the sunset on Mauna Kea.  It’s a stunning view.  Tony was so taken with it he decided he wanted to go all the way to the summit.  We weren’t prepared to do it that night but we did go to the visitor’s information center at 9,200 feet.  They have great info there on the summit and the rest of the mountain.  Later that night Paul was on a mission to recreate the perfect homemade pizza crust he had made the week before.  He’s giving serious thought to having the next business be a pizza truck.  He makes a wonderful crust and there are very few decent pizza places around here.  It’s not uncommon to see a taco truck, poke truck, lunch wagon, etc. around so it could work.

 

We spent the last couple of days with Cheryl taking it pretty easy – a little shopping, some playtime, and a last trip to the tide pools.  It’s always surprising how fast two weeks goes by…and how soon it seems like soooo long ago.

 

One of the things Tony wanted to do while he was here was to go on a hike.  Stephanie latched onto the idea since hiking is one of those things we wish we would do more of.  We consulted our favorite guidebook, The Big Island Revealed, and decided to hike Kilauea Iki (little Kilauea).  It’s a 4-mile hike first through Ohia forest then across the floor of the smaller Kilauea crater, then up 456 feet back to the top.  It was a beautiful day and a very cool walk.  The crater is awesome both from above and from within.  There were some good steam vents going too.  The final climb lets you know you actually got some exercise out of the deal.

 

The other mission Tony was on was to get to the summit of Mauna Kea.  It is 13,796 feet above sea level.  If you want to go past the visitor center you’re required to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, be over 16, not have been scuba diving in the past 24 hours, not be pregnant or have any heart or respiratory ailments.  It’s a little off-putting.  They spend quite a bit of time telling you all about altitude sickness which is apparently quite common at that height.  We went any way and didn’t have any problems.  It was a beautiful sunny day (at least up there) and lots of local families were up there building snowmen and sledding.  Because we went up there with a park ranger, we actually got to go inside the gallery of the Keck observatory.  None of the telescopes are open to the public so that was interesting.  It was super cold – under 25 degrees in there (it was actually warmer outside in the sun – like 28 or something).  Later, Tony and Paul made the walk from the parking lot to the actual summit.  It’s not far but with only 40% of the oxygen you’re used to…they both came back sucking wind.  It’s pretty indescribable but we have put a few pictures in the new November/December 2007 photo album.

 

Christmas Eve was our last full day with Tony and we spent it doing nearly nothing by mutual consent.  He works awfully hard and he wanted to get some R & R in as well as sight seeing.  We watched Monday “Night” Football and then all three of the Lord of the Rings movies.  Actually Stephanie slept through the second one and Paul bailed before the third.  Tony had to give up about 4:00am so as to have a couple hours sleep before his flight yesterday morning.  Stephanie – who had gotten exactly one hour of sleep – went back to bed after we took him to the airport.  She was up again before 10:00 but did as little as was humanly possible the rest of the day.  Paul played a round of disc golf and that was it for our Christmas.  Tony made it to California on time and spent Christmas night with Staci and her family.

 

Sheesh.  There’s really no reason we can’t manage to post more often but I guess we must have gotten a bit bored with it.  Hopefully we still have a few readers out there.

 

Our electrician failed his inspection last month but came back and fixed the very small problem fairly quickly and we have since passed that phase.  We should now be on residential rates for our electricity, which will save us a bunch of money from the construction rates we’ve been paying.

 

So, then we called for our final inspection but unfortunately…didn’t pass.  There were 5 things that needed fixing.  Mostly pretty minor.  We’re about done with the last task before we call the inspector back next week.  All her issues have been addressed so as long as she doesn’t come up with any new complaints we will at long last be officially done.

 

Of course there is still plenty to do.  The exterior needs another coat of paint and some of the interior walls could still use a little patching/painting.  We’d like to do more landscaping but we may let Mother Nature do her thing and sort out what we don’t like of it.

 

Paul has been working a few days a week with our friend who has the seamless gutter business.  It helps our buddy out and provides a little cash flow.  It also provides contacts for potential handy man jobs for Paul.  He’s going to bid on a roof repair/repaint job for a lady whose gutters they hung last week.

 

Global Family Yoga trainings continue to go well through this busy fall season.  Mira is in New York for 10 days training at the Sivananda camp, then 3 more weekends in Chicago before they’re off to Asia to complete the 2007 calendar.  They’re also working hard to complete their Home Study Guide before the end of the year.  The Guide will provide information for people who want to get involved in teaching yoga to children but can’t get to the trainings.

 

Our weekends are pretty exciting these days.  Last weekend we went to Oahu and camped at the beautiful Ho’omaluhia Botanical Gardens where the 15^th annual Fly’in Hawaiian disc golf tournament was held.  We had a great time even though it was pretty rainy.  Only one of the four rounds of golf we played was extra wet though so it was manageable.  Not one of the 9 Big Island golfers placed as well as they would have liked.  Our best showing was in the open pro division where our guys took 2^nd and 3^rd.  Of course both of them wanted to win.  Paul came in 3^rd but thought he could have done better since he was only 3 strokes down from the leader.  Stephanie played the best golf she ever has in a tournament (with some frightful exceptions) and still finished 5^th.

 

This weekend we’re going to friends for an Aloha Friday BBQ.  Then having friends here for Italian night on Saturday.  Sunday we’re going all the way to Manuka to play with some of our disc golf buddies from that side of the island.  Good thing the Vikings are on a bye this week.  They are NOT doing well this year and it’s going to be hard to keep giving up our Sunday morning activities to watch them get their butts kicked.

 

The following weekend is the Ironman World Championships over in Kona.  This is a huge international sporting event.  Just a couple of days ago Paul was talking to friends from that side of the island that remembered he was a biker.  They need people to drive motorcycles with officials on the back during the cycling part of the competition.  So he’s going to drive one of the motorcycles.  The officials – Draft Marshalls – ensure that all the cyclists keep their 7 meter distance unless they’re passing.  Apparently it’s the most common penalty in that event.  We need to be over there Friday for a meeting and to pick up the bike from the Harley shop.  It will be in our good care until the event on SaturdayJ  So we’ll spend the night in Kona and participate in all the action on Saturday.  If you watch the event on TV you might even see him.  Stephanie will be tucked away in the transition area.  She’s doing the first transition between swim and bike.  Should be interesting…and hectic.