End of Summer

Nothing terribly exciting has been going on over here lately. On Saturday, we rented a carpet cleaner and, as part of moving everything off the carpets, ended up rearranging the entire apartment. It is really nice to finally be able to walk on our carpets with no shoes on and not end up with black feet (I don't think the carpets here have been cleaned in years). Also, the way we arranged both the living room and bedroom made it so we have so much more space. We got rid of a bunch of clothes we never wear and threw out some things we never use. Now all we have left to tackle is going through and organizing a pile of papers on the dresser...

The public schools are beginning on July 30th (really early), so hopefully I'll be getting some calls for substitute teaching soon. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep the house spotless and going to the Aquarium once a week.

Adam started school yesterday. He is taking a religion class (Achieving Eternal Marriage) and Pathogenic Microbiology. I'm going to try to attend the Eternal Marriage class with him when I can, and Adam is excited about the Pathogenic Microbiology class since he really enjoyed General Microbiology and it is being taught by the same professor.

Oh, I guess something "exciting" did happen to us recently. On my way home from the Aquarium on Wednesday, I noticed a light blinking on my dashboard. I pulled into a 7-11 and realized my radiator had cracked. Long story short, we ended up driving it (slowly) home a few days later, and it is sitting in our parking spot until we figure out what to do with it. Fortunately, we have a bunch of amazing friends who are always there to help us out when we need it. For now, one of our home teachers has offered to take a look at it and see what he can do...

That's about it for now. Hopefully we do something more interesting soon.

4th of July Weekend

Adam and I had a pretty long weekend filled with fun. He had work off from Thursday through Sunday, so we were able to enjoy it together. On the 3rd, we went for a hike to Waimea Falls with our friends Tim, Sumbel, and their son Leo.



Along the path to the falls were tons of native plants and ancient sacred Hawaiian structures.




We had fun swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls as well as trying to swim up behind the waterfall. We are planning on getting an annual pass so we can go back often and explore all the side paths we didn't get the chance to see. Those who are fans of Lost may recognize the pictures of the falls from the show.



After that hike, Adam and I got packed up to go camping. We went to the Hau'ula Trail Loop just down the highway from where we lived when we first moved here. We left later than expected and didn't get there until it was getting dark, which made for an exciting hike. I had never been on the trail, and Adam had only been there once...about 2 years ago, so we were trying to find a campsite, which isn't really a campsite, more like a clearing, in the dark with only one flashlight with dying batteries. At one point, we heard some rustling in the trees that sounded like a big animal, so we turned back, hiked for a little while longer, and just camped out on the side of the trail. It turned out not to be the best spot since it was on a slight incline so we were sliding down the entire night, but it was the best we could find after hiking for an hour in the dark.




Later on that day, the 4th of July, we went with Tim, Sumbel, and Leo to the Schofield Barracks, one of the million military bases on the island. The band Kansas was there, there was a carnival, and a ton of things to do, but we just sat there and relaxed most of the time. After being there for a few hours, we came back home and set off some fireworks. It was a long but fun weekend.