Hawaii part 3

 And the final post of the VERY BELATED Hawaii posts.  At last!

The last couple of days, we spent whale watching, going to the aquarium, shopping, a luau, and one last trip to the beach before heading home.  Let me just say that if your going to do a luau, book it before you go.  And book the "Old Lahaina" because the next highly rated one was NOT worth $100.  The food was okay, and the show was entertaining, but not spectacular.  I didn't think it was worth it, and got sick later in the night from either the cheap liquor which I couldn't drink very much of or the less than spectacular food.

The aquarium was a fun trip.

 Whale watching was probably the highlight, although we didn't get as close to any of the whales as we had when we whale watched in Equador.  Each whale watching trip is different though and the captains of the boats cannot force the whales to do anything they don't want to do, including get close to the boats.

 This little fella gave us a nice show though.

 We also went to a dinner show, it was a Christmas show by a musician by the name of Willie K.  This was way better than the luau and I would recommend one of his shows.

 Shopping in Old Lahaina was a great day trip for the whole family.

At the Banyan Tree Square, a banyan tree first planted in 1873 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the missionaries' arrival, has grown 12 new trunks and stretches over an area of 200 feet (61 m).

 We had a fun time at the Luau despite it not being worth the money, in my opinion.

 Our last day at the beach, the surf was rough.  Kyle loves to snorkle, so we used the snorkle gear from our hotel, including flippers, and snorkeled away.

 

Our plane ride home was dissappointing. Although we had a "window seat" there was no window.  And we had our Christmas Eve dinner in an airport, but it wasn't too bad. We were home for Christmas Day.

Overall, Hawaii was a VERY FUN trip.  It wouldn't be my first choice in destinations, mostly because I've now visited many BEAUTIFUL beaches, and most were less expensive than Hawaii's. But all in all, it wasn't too shabby and it was fabulous to get to spend so much time with our family.

Re-living Halloweens

The clock is ticking to closer to that much awaited holiday. You know of the one, I speak. The ghoulish holiday in which for one night, we mortals can dress as creatures and brutes not of this world. But the absolute best part about Halloween is that the crazier one dresses up, the more praise he or she receives. In truth, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It allows us to express ourselves in a way that might never be possible were it not for this blood curling tradition.

Some might call Kyle and I creative, others might refer to us as "coo coo," but either way, we LOVE dressing up, and each year we try to get as creative as possible, with as little money as possible, which makes Halloween a interesting challenge. This year, we have, as with most Halloweens, procrastinated until the last possible moment to figure out what we shall be, and we are coming up a little dry, which is where you come in, my creative friends and family. What should Kyle and I dress as this year, which would be fun, interesting and inexpensive. To give you an idea of some of the costumes we have featured in the past, I have posted pictures from previous Halloweens. Enjoy, and we would greatly appreciate your input and ideas.

This year we went as Wolverine and Rogue. You might notice that my gloves are actually dishwashing gloves, and my boots are galoshes.

This might have been our first Halloween as a couple, and at the last moment, shopping through Target, we came across some very cheap pink sheets and decided to be PINK GHOSTS. It was fun.

Halloween 2008, we went as dice. We made these out of boxes, paint and rope. Sadly those costumes got tossed.

These two pictures are of what I consider to be some of our best costumes ever. I love that we were both dressed as pumpkin costumes as children. My mom made my costume, and my fat little rolly polly arms just make the costume that much more believable.

Halloween 2006, shopping through Michaels for ideas, we decided to go as a painter and his creation. This is one of my favs as well.

I don't remember if we were Sharon and Ozzy for a Halloween event or if it was just a dress up Communication Council event that had nothing to do with Halloween. But I think we pulled it off pretty well.

I was a butterly this year, but you can't see my wings here, and Kyle was a vampire.

Italy Halloween 2005- I wore the apron we bought for Kyle's dad as my costume, and went as a naked man. Having just discovered "The Big Lebowsky" Kyle went as "THE DUDE" and carried milk in place of a white Russian.

Lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

I mentioned a few posts back about our trip to the zoo. You may recall it as the poop conversation by the mom and daughter standing next to us so embarked upon because of the zebra pooping that spurred Kyle to tell perfect strangers that I, Vanessa, his lovely wife also poops. I know, I know ladies, calm yourselves. Keep the fighting over such a stellar spouse to a minimum. I was afraid to even release said information, in fear that total pandemonium would ensue due to sheer jealousy over the envy invoking male specimen I have scored. Hair pulling, and eye gouging will not be acceptable means in which to fight for him. And please pack away the killer nails. I must admit that he is amazingly charming like that, telling a five year old and her mother that I have bowel movement with the rest of them, but no matter how much you try to bribe me, I won't give him up. (Although , I might recommend checking Ebay from time to time )

The San Antonio Zoo is a pretty awesome zoo, especially for animal lovers like ourselves. Surprisingly, despite the overbearing 100 + heat, we were not TOO hot. The ancient, gargantuan oak trees provided a substantial amount of shade. It is amazing, how much difference trees can make.

One of the more interesting things we saw- and I am not sure if this makes us perverts- but two Galapagos Tortoises mating or at least attempting. We noticed only because of the strange and loud grunting noises coming from their open concrete enclosure. It is a dangerous chore for these animals since they have such huge shells that can be broken in the process. That is why the two Galapagos tortoises at Disney were kept separate. Poor George, the male who repeatedly broke the females shell, had to resort to befriending a log in his loneliness, which often confused the guests at Disney who often thought he was just stuck and couldn't remove himself from it.

We took along our camera for the ride, and I thought I would share some of our eventful day with you.

Kyle and five year old Bryce, Amanda's little brother posing in the kind of lame photo shoots. I think Kyle might be trying to eat the photo. Poor boy is probably hungry.

Whoa, who is that beautiful butterfly?

Well hello...
Mr. Hippo, hello mr. hippo, you surely are a big fella aren't you! How much water is displaced so that you can float?


"I thought Africa was hot, but man Texas, you sure are trying to compete. I don't plan on getting out of my pool all day long!"

"I'm tired of jumping. It's time for my nap"

"Are you talking to me, Are YOU talking to ME? That is what I thought!"
"I see you. That's right, I am looking right at you. yum yum"

One of the highlights of the trip was watching the spider monkeys being fed their afternoon snack. But just like humans if they don't use their brains they loose them so they were encouraged to work for their food. Each bottle had ice and nuts inside and it was stuffed with a decorated paper skillfully completed by each of the kids watching. The monkeys were sure that the treats were in the paper, and when they couldn't find them they threw the bottles on the ground. They didn't like the ice, which we found odd, since it was so darn hot outside.

"Food, food, where are you, are you in here?"

"Who needs a reclining chair when you have a tree limb."

"I could hang around all day."

Look how adorable they were!! So ADORABLE. The zoo wouldn't let me take one home for a pet though, something about wild animals... stupid rules! :)

Louisiana Trip

Members of the trip:
Leslie- Best friend from high school. We actually figured out the other day that we have been friends for about 10 years now. (back right with short hair that she just cut for locks of love)
Peter- Leslie’s hubby dub dub in a tub. Ok, sorry about the nonsense, but it’s way more fun than just saying husband.
Diana- Leslie’s little sister who is starting her first semester of college at LSU and plays the clarinet in the marching band. (The band part is an important feature for this story) (She is in green)
Carole: Leslie and Diana’s mommy. Also our (kyle and my) assistant mommy ☺
Vanessa: Me, the coolest blogger ever.
Kyle: Vanessa’s hub dub, who isn’t quite as cool as Vanessa, but is making headway ;)

Leslie, Carole and Diana while we wait for breakfast

Because Leslie and I have known each other for so long, I have known Diana for nearly 10 years as well. However, our relationship was not always what it is today. I cannot actually remember the exact moment I met Diana but I would bet my life savings (-$5000) that she was either crying or whining at the time of our meeting. It is common Carole tells me, that the children in the family suffer from colic, the unexplained crying disorder, not to the age of 6 months as most children do, but till the age of 10 YEARS old. Leslie and Diana have 6 years age difference, so when we were 15 years old were invincible and could conquer the world without any help from those silly adults, Diana was just leaving her colic stage. At nine years old, to us she was just another little bratty, whiny kid. As the years flew by, however, Diana chipped away at her colic tendencies and transformed from an unidentified crying creature that might be of the same species or was more likely an alien to a little human that we could speak with and even with whom we could hang out. In fact, as she entered into middle school, we soon realized that she was gaining strength in her coolness capabilities. We began to enjoy her so much, we (Kyle, and I) moved from being assistant siblings to the dignified position of Diana’s groupies. Yes, you heard correctly, we as college kids, became a high school kids groupies. Weekends we could make it back to San Antonio from our obviously awesome college lives, we would attend a musical Diana was playing in, or a football game in which she was marching.

All of this is to explain why we decided to take a weekend trip consisting of two days from San Antonio to Baton Rouge and back again to see Diana play in the LSU band at their football game.
Leave time for San Antonio: (attempted time) 9:00 am (actual time) 9:20. Pretty good considering past trips.
Pick up time for Leslie and Peter in Houston where they currently live: Noonish
Time Kyle and Carole spent discussing politics: Forever. Political conversations became against the law (we in the back seat decided) once we left the state of Texas.
# of alligators we saw: 10
# of alligators we wrestled and beat with bear hands: 8 (kyle lost two fingers, and Peter lost a big toe, but it was worth it!)
Amount of alligator meat we brought home: one tonrillion pounds

We arrived in Baton Rouge, kind of on time, ran into our hotel rooms to bundle up and got in the car to head out to the game. For those of you in sections of the world that use heaters consistently in the winter might think us Texans and southerners crazy wimps and maybe we are, but I personally enjoy not being afraid of hypothermia when I step outside. However, we had our second cold front this particular weekend. The high in San Antonio was 60 degrees and in Louisiana the projected low was to be in the 40’s. List of clothes I wore to the game: Long johns, jeans, long shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, hat, scarf, but silly me forgot gloves.

Yes, I am wearing my "Don't Mess with Texas!" sweatshirt in Louisiana.

Me and hubby dub

Peter was excited to get the opportunity to wear his Parka. It was certainly cold enough sitting up there, unprotected from the wind.

Leslie however decided that they needed to change jackets for a while to warm up. Doesn't Peter look nice in his girly jacket?

When we arrived to the game and spent 20 minutes going round and round up to the top bleachers, Peter handed our tickets to the man directing ticket holders. He glanced quickly at Peter and said in his Louisiana drawl, “Son, who bought these tickets?”
Peter: “My mother-in-law.”
Man: “Your mother-in-law doesn’t like you very much. Go all the way up to the top and when you get there, say ‘Hi’ to God for me.”

We were looking for Diana. A needle in a haystack.

We found her! It is pretty amazing the zoom powers of cameras these days!

Sure enough we were on the tippity top of the bleachers. You couldn’t any higher than our seats unless you were entering the gates of Heaven. We didn’t meet God up there unless he was in the form of freezing, butt numbing wind! (Butt numbing because you know it is cold if you can’t even feel your butt after short exposure) Luckily for us, our terrible viewing seats didn’t bother us since we don’t give a damn lick about football. In fact, I am ashamed to admit this sense I am a Texan and all, but I don’t even understand the rules for the most part. From having to attend so many games, I have learned certain things such as, touch downs are good, each team wants the ball, and hitting each other’s butts is an acceptable manly act only in football. From our position, it didn’t seem to matter. We saw what was the equivalent to ants building a nest on a big green field, when really LSU, a nationally ranked team was shamefully loosing to a team with no standing or rank and all we could think of us was how to make our icicles of bodies defrost without breaking off a frozen arm or leg in the process. We left the game after the halftime show since we had traveled 8 hours to see little, tiny, indistinguishable ant Diana play her clarinet in the marching band. At half time the score was 27 Troy (from Alabama) to 3 (LSU). LSU did make history that night with the largest comeback of their history, but I can honestly say, I was not sad to have missed it. Rather we enjoyed the televised game in a restaurant with comfort of gumbo and ribs.

Me and the BFF

I am feeling a bit ridiculous in my outfit. Glasses, Ireland cap, furry scarf and a pink Don't Mess with Texas Sweatshirt. I was sporting the dorky look!

We saw Diana for 30 minutes or so around 12:30 am that evening, and then again for breakfast and then got in the car and headed back towards home.

Total amount of time spent on the trip: 38 hours
Total amount of time spent in the car: 16 hours
Total amount of time sleeping: 8 hours
Total amount of time in waking hours not in the car: 8 hours
Total amount of fun: Ubber gubber amounts of fun! We loved every minute of it!

Mike (who we renamed Ferocious Velociraptor Tiger to give him a more appropriate name for a scary mascot) the mascot living it up in his $6 million dollar cage, errr... I mean habitat.