The volcano

The Volcano!!!!!
Cody's mighty warrior pose!!! There was a sign on this post that said if broken or damaged the fee would be almost $2,000. Good thing Cody didn't break it while he was climbing on it!!

The Boys walking around the Volcano!

The Volcano crator is in the background.

Chris and Cody poking their heads out of a lava tube. Lava tubes were formed by the lava flow and the edges would cool and crust over forming a tube for the lava to flow. When the lava flow stopped it just cooled and formed really long lava tubes. They looked just like caves to me. We went down in there with only the lights from our cell phones. Good thing Cody's phone has a really strong light on it. Otherwise we would have not been able to see at all. The lava tubes were really cool. After we scouted them out we went and got the rest of the family to go and explore. Even Annacy went into the lava tubes, I stayed outside with Simon and got attacked by mosquitos!! It was so much fun!!!

Cody hiking up to an outlet of the lava tube.

Hiking through the jungle to find the lava tube.

The Kona Temple. The grounds were beautiful.

This rainbow was a FULL rainbow and the colors were so bold. It was so beautiful. We couldn't get the whole thing in but it sure was amazing!!

Geoff is an Ironman

The whole reason why we went down to Hawaii was to support Geoff in the Ironman 2007!!! Geoff did great. For those of you who don't know what the Ironman is, this was the world championship triathlon. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 114 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run. All done in one day!!! Crazy!!! Geoff did well. He finished in 12 hours and 40 minutes. He did the swim really well and unfortunately got a really bad crap in his left calf at the end of the swim. This slowed him down quit a bit but he still pushed through and finished the race. He carried Simon over the finish line. It was so cool to see because it was such a great victory that all of these athletes had accomlished. Way to go Geoff!!!

We had shirts made to support Geoff. We were Team Geoff!!!

The swim was incredible!! There were 1800 people in the race. The swim start is probably the scariest part of the race because people are getting kicked, punched, and swimmed right over. That would be scary to be in, but it was really cool to watch.

This is at about mile three of the run. Cody, Chris, and I went to meet Geoff. We walked with him for about a mile then he was off to finish running the race!!!

WE all made signs to cheer our brother on!!!

All that cheering wiped the boys out!!

End of the race. Brian and Chris helped Geoff get all of his stuff together at the end of the race!! What an event. Those Ironmans are so inspirational!!

Rained Out Luau

Aloha!!! Cody and I went to a timeshare presentation so we could get some discounts on some stuff and get a luau half off for the whole family. When we got to the resort it was a beautiful day and a perfect day for a luau. The sun was just setting and we were just about to get ready for them to dig up the pig when it started to rain. Usually when it would rain, it would just rain for a second and then let up( at least that's what we thought) The rain just kept coming and coming. We all got ponchos and waited for it to let up. Guess what? It never did. They still served us the wonderful dinner but by the time we got from the food tent to our table our plates were filled with water. Good thing we found a little tunnel that our whole family sat under and was able to enjoy our dinner. Unfortunately the rain never let up so they had to cancel the show. We were a little bummed out by that but we were able to have so much fun by ourselves and the rain. The rain really made it a lot of fun and very memorable.
Trying to stay dry inside the tunnel.

These are real flowers. They looked just like plastic!!!

Annacy wanted to take a picture of Amber and me. I think she did a pretty good job.

What a Cutie!!!

Horse Back Riding In Waipi'o Valley

Waipi'o Valley!!! This was the most beautiful spot in Hawaii that we were able to visit. It was absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen anything so beautiful. In order to get down into the valley we needed to go down a very steep road with a 25% grade in a four wheel drive vehicle. It was so steep and very windy. It was crazy. When we got down into the valley it was gorgeous. There were wild horses and rivers and foliage like nothing I have ever seen. We went on a horseback ride down throughout the valley. We tasted guava and avocado right off the tree. There was also a lot of wild coffee plants. They just grow like crazy there. The trip got even more excited when it started to rain pretty hard. We all got soaked but it made the adventure even more memorable. This part of our trip was so amazing!!! Our horse guide said that on the other side of this valley is where they filmed some of Jurassic Park.

Wild Horses down in the valley.
Cody was challenged to put a bit in a horses mouth in under 30 seconds. He was able to do it in a minute because it was all tangled up. Way to be a good sport Cody.

Amber and I were the only ones in our family to wear a helmet. I got a little worried after our guide was showing us how to ride and his horse tripped and he almost fell off. After that I wanted to wear a helmet. Who knows what could happen. Better to be safe than sorry, Right?

Cody was a pro on the horse. He had the tallest horse and was able to have complete control, except when his horse would bite other horses.

My horse wanted to eat the whole time. It was pretty hard to control him from going off the trail.

I liked to be in the back of the group because the other horses kept biting my horse.

View from the bottom of the valley. Absolutely beautiful!!!

Beach Fun!!

While we were in Hawaii we went to the beach alot. The beach was only a three minute walk from our house. It was great. We went snorkeling, boogie boarding,played in the sand and just relaxed. It was wonderful. The beaches were beautiful and the waves were pretty good. The waves were the biggest at 6:00 in the morning. We would wake up at 6 in the morning and run down to the beach to catch the good waves.

There were sea turtles all over the place. We could walk right up to them and touch them if we wanted to but there were signs saying not to touch or feed the turtles. We saw them while we were snorkeling too. It was pretty cool.

The Kids loved playing in the sand!!! They loved to make their own hot tubs and swimming pools.

Simon especially loved snorkeling. He loved to see all of the fishieeeees in the water.

The boys loved boogie boarding and it was fun to watch. They all got rashes on their stomaches and cody hurt his shoulder after a wave tried to take it off.

I just love this picture!!!

2007 JOURNAL JOG

This year was the first year that we have participated in the Journal Jog. Our whole family except for Dad and Geoff ran or walked in the race. We all have been training for the past few months to be able to finish the 8K without stopping. We all accomplished our goal!!! Yea!!! Brian blew us all away coming in first place within the family competition and Jami finished us up with the jog. She had a goal to do 11 minute miles and she did better than that. Mom and Chanika walked the race and did awesome!! After the race we all went to mom's and had an amazing pancake breakfast. Hopefully we will be able to do it next year!!!

Cody and I were so excited to run this race!! Before the race we made a bet that if I beat Cody then he would have to ride his bike to work all next week. Cody was ahead of me the whole time and even though he got blisters about mile three he still managed to beat me by a minute. He ran it in 46 minutes and I finished in 47 minutes. It was a fun run!!!



Jane Johnson, Monte's mom was a trooper and watched Wyatt as we all ran in the race. Thanks Jane.

The Girls before the race ready to go!!



Mom and Pam Ballingham walked the race together finishing with a time of 1 hour and 27 minutes. They did Great!!!




We all did it!!! We all ran or walked the 8K. We had so much fun doing it as a family and cheering eachother on. We can't wait to do it again.