march

march 29

on the teacup ride

we had a fantastic time at disneyland. sascha and i were so grateful that we were both feeling well for the entire time, unlike in january.

zoe gets braver each time we go. she now likes haunted mansion but is still too afraid of pirates of the caribbean [she doesn't like the 'slides']. she also offered to go back in the tiki room despite the thunderstorm [although she did have her hands over her ears for the entire thing]. she went on flik's flyers, although she still won't go on heimlich's caterpillar ride in case a water droplet comes off the watermelon and hits her. she did, however, love the new princess fayre area and i loved the fact that cinderella tricked toby into have a photo taken with her. he had to play zombie video games for hours after to try and undo the princess-ick!

we had a fantastic day at california adventure with lara, alan, jake, jordyn and diane. it was so great to see them again after almost a year. we also spent the day back in ventura visiting heather, annika, marcia, david, sarah and peggy. it was lovely to be back there. we drove past our old house again to check how tall the palm tree was getting and we hung out at the park for a while but the kids were a little wary about playing in the trees after seeing the rattlesnake warnings!

march 16

zoe posing!

after 3 years of trying to make it over to see uncle pete and hitomi on oahu, we finally made it. we were here for a week and i loved every second of it - it was so different from anywhere i'd ever been.

we explored a lot of the island. a highlight for aly and i was swimming in the waimea falls. zoe's only request was to see some hawaiian dancing and we saw a great show called 'creations'. after many days of nagging, toby finally got a round of golf in [while us girls checked out the honolulu zoo] and sascha and i enjoyed our hike up the diamond head volcano we'd spent the week looking at from pete's balcony.

we also managed to fit in the pacific aviation museum at pearl harbour, chinaman's hat, checked out the aulani [the new disney hotel here], the dole pineapple plantation, some ashtanga yoga, matsumoto for shave ice [delicious], waikiki, a few beaches, swimming in the pool and the iolani palace

zoe had some issue's with venus williams [pete and hitomi's black lab] but by the end of the week she was starting to make friends.

the view from pete and hitomi's

waikiki

at the creations show

fire dance at creations

the blue gang

i love these gum trees - they look so fake!

one of the many friendly geckos

waimea falls

braving the very cold water at the falls

aly makes it to the falls [it was hard work getting there with all the water pushing you away]

waimea beach

20ft waves - a lot of fun to watch

zoe was careful to fill up his ears as well!

on the dole pineapple plantation train

near makapuu point

rainbows at chinaman's hat

tomorrow we head to LA for a week - we're very sad to be leaving but at least we have disneyland to look forward to!

march 1

since we had to pick aly up from camping we decided to carry on along the road to the silver star resort. we had a fun day tubing. zoe loved going up the mountain in her tube but HATED going down! aly tried out the mini snowmobiles which she enjoyed. i was very jealous.

apparently nobody told grampy that we were headed for a ski hill when we got in the car. fortunately he was happy to tour the coffee shops of silver star while we played in the snow. i had the best hot apple cider in the world at out of bounds coffee shop when we joined him later.

there were some impressive snow banks. this is toby making a vertical snow angel

a mischievous zoe trying to decide who to throw her snowball at

we just have to try to make it to the big white resort before all the snow has gone [particularly since club penguin sponsor the tubing park there]. maybe when we get back from our trip to hawaii [to visit uncle pete and hitomi] / LA [for sascha to work and us to play]. the snow should be a novelty again by then!

this week i met a new website client - a lady who's mission it is to save books from landfill. not expecting it to be the most profitable job but definitely one of the most worthwhile.

i watched zoe on the phone to someone this week and realized it's a really novel experience for her to be able to hear a person without seeing them because she has grown up spending so much time on skype to everyone she knows. there's something very backwards [or forwards] about how our children experience the world today!

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