Boogie Down

Check out the surfers. Lunch was at the Kona Brewery.

Aloha

Hawaii is always a lot more fun when it is cold & raining in Seattle. Although we did experience some of that weather when we visited Volcano. In Kona, the weather is the same boring 80 degrees everyday. The pictures in the forrest are at the lava tube. You couldn't see any hot lava, but we did see the steam vents.

On the way to Volcano we stopped at the Black Sand beach, which is really just ground up lava. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of Abe riding the turtle. You are supposed to stay 15 feet away.

I played golf at Makeli where there are wild peacocks & turkeys roaming around. There were also wild pigs that dug up the grass, although I didn't see any.

Harvest time

Ever since college I have had a special fondness for corn mazes. I've taken Neil to a few around Seattle, but we hadn't yet found any that came close in comparison to the one that Molly and I went to in Walla Walla. This year I think we may have found a winner. We went to this farm in Kent that had 2 mazes--one that looked like a vampire and another that looked like a castle. We took the vampire. Being a corn-maze purist, I refused to use the provided map to navigate, but Neil, not so pure in corn mazing used the map and seeked out the numbered posts along the course (kind of like a scavenger hunt). It was a pretty cool maze! The only draw-back was that unlike the one in Walla Walla where you could go in after dark. This one is only open during daylight.

Our main mission in going to the farm, however, was to take Abe to the pumpkin patch. He loved all of the pumpkins sitting out in a row. In fact, he kept trying to run away from us, out of the corn maze, to go back to the pumpkins. We chose a nice tall pumpkin that we later carved. Since we're going to Hawaii tomorrow it is on display down the street at Sarah and Katie's.

I'm going to eat you alive!

Someone took this picture with my camera. Someone looks a little scary with that knife and fork.

Happy freakin' birthday dood

So, on Monday I baked a special cake for Banjo with a recipe that I'd found online for a "doggie birthday cake". It was made of all human ingredients--carrots, peanut butter, flour, honey, egg, etc. It baked up really nicely in this little bunt pan. So, we asked Sarah, Katie and Olive over so Banjo could share his cake (with Olive), and we could play some Settlers. But, when it came time to cut up the cake we couldn't find it. It had completely disappeared off of the counter. Seems as though the birthday boy helped himself to an early treat. So...we didn't sing to him and he spent the rest of the evening outside (nothing good can become of a dog eating an entire cake).

13-months and 3-years!

Abe turned 13 months last Sunday, but we were a little late in snapping his monthly dood picture, and today is Banjo's third birthday! Three cheers for Banny! What a great dog.

The Whitley's in Seattle!

On Saturday we got together with our Alaskan friends--Guang Ming and Joel. I originally met Guang Ming at a music class for Abe, where we hit it off because we both have 1/4 Chinese babies. They are on vacation in Seattle for the week. My parents watched their two kids, Charlotte and Luke, while we went out to Seattle's best burger place (according to Neil)--and ate them in Gas Works Park. ANd then, for the you-wouldn't-do-this-in Alaska experience. We had to drive up to a vet in greenwood to pick up some prozac for my mom's fostercat.