Christmas–December 25, 2011

Celebration !! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We spent a lovely evening with Peter & Kaija.  She made a wonderful dinner and a decadent dessert (which I need like I need a hole in my head), but it was really good.  We played chicken foot dominos and that’s always a fun game to play.  We’ve spent most of December spending time with friends, attending parties, eating and drinking… now it’s time to get back to normal.

Jazzercise–December 2011

I’ve been going to Jazzercise since the mid 70’s and really enjoy the dancing aspect of it, the great work out, and especially the wonderful people.  Of course my step son laughs at me and says it’s “so 80’s of me” but I challenge you Jimmy to a work out any day!!!  This is our holiday picture just before Christmas… can you find me?

GNO (Girls Night Out) November 23, 2011

I Love You Joan & Karen!! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

These women are very special in my life.  We have so much fun together; working out… Go Joanercise, girls night out, lunch outings, snow shoeing, pleasure party (ooh la-la), and so much more. I LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!!

A Visit from the Wong’s

George & Carol came to the Almeida B&B and stayed for a few days.  They brought us this PERFECT house warming gift, knowing we love to play billiards.  It’s a very unique center piece of billiard balls in a rack that are actually candles… how clever is that!

Of course, what would a visit be without playing pool.

WTF???? Okay, this is what happens when too much alcohol has been consumed.  What in the hell were we doing??????  None of us remembered the next day… LOL

Greeting Cards

These are most of the cards I’ve made over the past 8 months since I last posted on my blog.

Kauai – October 10–24, 2011

We had sooooooooo much fun in Kauai with Rodger & Kim.  We did lots of sight seeing, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, saw waterfalls, went on a catamaran cruise and saw dolphins and much more…. like roosters, more roosters, and more roosters!  Between Kim & I we took over 900 pictures, so it was very hard to only select a few to show you.  It’s so beautiful in the islands, I never want it to end.

 

On the catamaran cruise to the NaPali coast, we saw so many dolphins and they followed our boat for a long time!  It was so exciting to see them right under us.  We saw a baby with the mommy and also saw one that was injured and had a bloody hole in it’s side.

This is an endangered monk seal that came up on the beach to rest from it's journey.  They do this sometimes and they have a staff of volunteers to make sure they are not disturbed by anyone.  It was very interested talking to the volunteers and to get educated on the seals.

This was one of our hiking adventures.  The only way to get here is to kayak to a certain area then hike in to the falls, about a 45 minute walk IF you don’t get lost like we did!  It was an adventure for sure.

Waimea Canyon is the mini Grand Canyon and it is nothing less than spectacular!!  We were there on an overcast day so the pictures are hazy looking, but still beautiful.

Wailua Falls

The chickens and roosters have taken over the island and they are EVERYWHERE!!!!  They are in the parking lots, people’s yards, beaches, on park benches, on the highway… you name it and they are there.  They have rooster crap to buy in all the stores… No thanks, I saw & heard enough of them when we were there.  But I have to say that some of them are beautiful with all the colors.

Hanalei Valley Lookout

Don’t know what this is but it was so unique I wanted to take a picture of it.

Check out the roots on these trees!

We climbed and conquered the “Sleeping Giant” and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  It’s a 2 hour hike straight up a mountain and it’s well worth the time and effort.  You are rewarded with spectacular views.  It’s called the Sleeping Giant because from ground level it looks like a giant that is on his back sleeping.  You can tell from this picture that we are very sweaty from the hike.  The hike can be a bit scary at times, but as long as you take your time and be careful it’s not bad.

These are some of the views you get at the top.

For the more adventurous people (like us), you can continue and climb up a steep hill.  You’re rewarded with more views and a hole in the mountain that pushes cold air through it and it’s a bit of heaven’s air conditioning after the hot hike up the mountain.  Here’s the view from that area.  The next photo is the actual hole.

On the way down the mountain a rain storm was coming towards us but we made it to the car just as it started to sprinkle.