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Baker's Ohana PageTo keep us close to our family while we are so far away...
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August 28 Home.We are home and settled in pretty well. Johnnie has a job as an Assitant Bank Manager. He has to go away to New Jersey for the month of September. The civilians have a tendency to underestimate retired military. It will just take a little time for John to show them that. The bank has opportunities for advancement and we hope to see that happen.
Ethan is playing football and Morgan is cheerleading. She was shocked to find out from Daddy that Mommy is an anti-cheerleader. Guess who is her coach? ME! What I won't do for my kids would fit under my fingernail. We found a homeschool group to join with co-op classes once a week. We will be starting school in a week or two.
Our house is a work in progress on 4.25 acres backing up to a mountain. The kids and the dogs love it. John bought himself a lab for his birthday. His name is Rufio. So for everyone who is counting, we have three dogs and a bird, oh, and two ferel cats that live in the carport.
We are slowly fixing the three-bedroom house up. The garage has a loft and we are fixing that up as a bonus room. The carport will eventually be enclosed giving us a four car garage. I don't have after pics yet, but I will post some befores for you to get the idea.
Kathy May 05 Big Island and Shark TourIn April, we swam in a shark cage and got first-hand sights of Galapagos Sharks. I was not looking forward to it. John and Ethan were. Morgan was nervous, so I pretended to be excited for her sake. It was scary to be lowered into that cage and pushed out away from the boat. Then, I was so amazed, I forgot to be scared. We had a blast!
We just came back from the Big Island where I had to face my fears a second time. Helicopter is the only way to see the lava flow, right now. So, up we went! Well, I wasn't going to stay on the ground and watch them all crash and burn without me. Family crashing and burning was a better idea. Wowie! We didn't die! It was actually very cool!
We saw the waterfall where they filmed the new Indiana Jones movie. You can only get to it by helicopter. We saw lava flowing into the ocean. The devastation of the lava plowing through the rainforest. Ethan and Morgan loved it!
We stayed in the Hawaii National Volcano Park. It was cold up there, high elevation. There was also a lot of sulpher in the air, which made it hard for me to breathe. Halemaumau is spouting sulpher gas and ash. About 6 weeks ago, pieces of lava rock were flying miles into the air and outward. They had to close part of the road circling the Park. You can see the kids playing with steam from the steam vents in some pics. It was very warm.
On the other hand, Mauna Kea, the extinct cone, was capped with snow. It was actually snowing up there when we drove up. We could only get to the 9,000 feet mark because the snow and 45 mph wind made it to hazardous to go to the top. They also don't recommend children and people with respiratory disease go up. That would be me. John really wanted to do this, but... it just didn't work out.
We did manage to get to South Point (Ka Lae), Hawaii. This is the most southern spot in the USA. We also ate at the most southern bar in the USA, Shaka. At the Green sand beach, we couldn't risk the high surf and the treacherous climb down to actually play on it. The black sand beach, Puna Lu'u was more fun and inviting. The honus (green sea turtles) ignored all the tourists with only an occasional yawn intimating that they were real.
Hope you enjoy the pics! February 23 Homecoming Well, we are retiring to PA in June! John is job searching. I am househunting and we are cramming beach trips in every chance we get. One more island hop, at least. We have to go to the Big Island and see the volcano. This happened very suddenly, but we are all very excited to be moving close to family and having a real home. Please keep Johnnie in your prayers. He is excited and nervous about entering the civilian sector and supporting his family. I know he can do it! This will still be my Ohana page to keep in touch with outlying friends, but maybe there won't be so many interesting things to see, in future. Still, if you feel the need to see us, we will only be a click away. Love, Kathy December 07 Healing Field at Pearl Harbor Today was the 66th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor. We have met a small handful of the survivors here and there. They can tell some very heart-rending accounts of that day. We went today to see the healing field and we met another survivor who came from San Diego to remember and to witness the opening of a new memorial on Ford Island. The healing field is a field of flags in remembrance. Each of the 2500 flags had a purple ribbon to recognize a fallen soldier from the Pearl Harbor Attack. We bought one for a soldier who died on the Arizona. The money raised will support the Arizona Memorial Museum, which is sinking. The field is a baseball field that our new survivor friend used to play on when off duty. We all climbed the bleachers to look out across the sea of red, white, and blue. It was an amazing tribute. October 22 Fall Frenzy Ethan and Morgan are celebrating their 10th and 6th birthdays this week. Hard to believe! Ethan is in 5th grade and taking Kung Fu. Morgan is in 1st grade and taking Hula. She is also doing Drama Club.We went to visit the Bird-guy last week and he had a Sun Conure with a disability. She had chewed her digits off one foot when she got tangled in a chewed up rope toy. He commented that he would have to sell her very cheap, and I jumped on that bus in a hurry! So, for an early birthday present, Johnnie bought me Coconut. She still has her baby coloring, Fully grown, she will be very bright yellow, orange, green, and blue. Ok, we call her she, but there is no way to know other than DNA testing. We are having so much fun working with her. Freedom has come around rather quickly, Rexi's nose is out of joint. It doesn't help that they were the resident Dove catchers. Yes, the Doves fly right in the house through the back door all the time. No, we can't close the back door, due to the heat. No, there is no way to add a screen door since the door opens out. Anyway, Rexi is having a hard time not "catching" Coconut when she flutters around.  I still hate my house, but we all like going to the beach. Unfortunately, the beach visits are not often enough to make me forget my house woes. John's business is going well. We still don't know what we will do when we finish here. He may stay in three more years and go to DC. He may get out and take a job on the east coast until we can get his business well-established. I think that is it on this end for now... Love Kathy
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