Living a Longer, Better Life: Waterfalls, Birthday, Baptism, Remodeling, and the New Land

October 25 - 9 Days Sugar-free

Wow! This has been an awesome weekend. Here are some quick snippets of our high-lights:

Hidden Waterfalls

I like having visitors because it forces us away from our regular lives to do touristy things. On Friday, our good friends the Robertsons came for a visit. We had heard about a secret location near Hilo called Narnia Falls. There is no exact address for these falls. We needed a Local to pin a place on google maps where we could find the trail head. We drove up to the Pin, parked our vehicles near a chain fence, walked down an abandoned alley, and then to our right was a quading trail. We followed the trail thru the back country for 35 mins, until we came to a water tower. Here, we turned right, and started a descent into jungle. Suddenly, we could hear rapids. Excited that we may have actually found what we were searching for (not just on a wilderness walk, lost with no cell service-you start to wonder after 35 mins with directions like that) we began walking more briskly. The jungle opened up into a beautiful clearing. From our vantage point we could see 6 cascading waterfalls, completely secluded, and untouched by man. It was like a picture out of a movie. Just amazing!

I would have liked to get more pictures, but it is impossible to swim and carry a camera at the same time. You will just have to come visit and see it for yourself :)

We climbed down the lava rock, and swam across the first pool. The water was cool but refreshing. Then we scaled the hillside, down some more rocks to the base of the closest waterfall. We swam in it's pool, and explored for a couple hours. We could have spent all day there. The whole time, I couldn't believe that what we were doing and seeing was real. So grateful we took the risk to discover it. A high-light of my life.

I have a 13 year old!

We had to rush back from the waterfall because we had planned a birthday surprise for Rebekah that afternoon. We booked a horseback ride for her at Silver Crest Farms. They took her on a trail ride through orchards, and up to an ocean look out. They had a young Gypsy Vanner, that she was allowed to play with.

Rebekah has felt so deprived from her country life in Alberta. She is in love with horses and has been riding for 5 years. So this just made her weekend- couldn't stop smiling.

I am still in shock that I am the parent of a 13 year old. It wasn't that long ago that I was that age. My 13th birthday was awful though. I had planned to invite some friends over and go to the water slides. But that morning, I was blessed with the arrival of my menstrual flow! My mom had not warned me about it. I was horrified to discover it only hours before people were suppose to be arriving. Needless to say, we did not go to the water slides.

Langford, BC before Bear Mountain

My mom forgot to arrange for a cake, so "Happy Birthday" was sung to me over vanilla ice cream. We ended up having a water fight at my house; coloring our hair with Koolaid (I chose purple, and it took months to come out); exploring an abandoned cabin in my backyard, in which a bat flew out of a cranny, all 8 girls started screaming and running for the door hysterically, and then the bat got entangled in one persons hair); ending the night sleeping out on the trampoline, telling ghost stories, gossiping, playing truth or dare, and finally singing ourselves to sleep with camp songs. It makes for a good laugh now.

Summer got Baptized

My 8 year old daughter, Summer, decided to get baptized and become an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday. We had the ordinance done at our local church building. Our ward Ohana (family in Hawaiian) came to show their support and love. The girls Summer's age brought homemade laies to place around her neck as an official welcome.

Our baptisms are performed by immersion (body is placed fully under the water). After Summer came out of the water, and I was toweling her off, she did a fist pump into the air and shouted "Yeah, I'm finally baptized!" She was very happy, and had been looking forward to this day for sometime.

Remodeling a foreclosure

We bought a foreclosed home back in September. It is 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, 1250 sq feet, and built in 1985. We have spent the past few weeks remodeling it. We installed new cabinets. We gutted the bathrooms and updated them. New light fixtures, windows, and flooring. We put in a dehumidifier, and are spraying for pests. I have been painting up a storm, with many blisters to show for it. All fun bright colors-oranges, yellows, greens, aquas. We move in on Oct 31. So this upcoming week will be many late nights, cleaning, and moving. Excited to have our own place again.

The New Land

It is not a myth. Hawaii indeed has hundreds of hectares of new land created by the volcano Kilauea. This morning, Nathan and I took a walk along it's cliff edge in Kalapana. Some radical Hawaiians have signs posted around it proclaiming the lands independence from the USA. They call it the Kingdom of Hawaii. It is composed of stunning fields of smooth lava rock, with palm trees popping up here and there in the cracks. There are pockets of clean black sand near the shore line.

We are planning to return one morning to watch the sunrise. Should be a romantic date on the eastern most tip of Hawaii. We will make sure to wave to the Californians.