Ken's leg

Youch...and this is a week and a half after he hurt himself...Ken was playing basketball last Tuesday evening and 2 minutes into the game felt like somebody hit him with a sledge hammer in the calf...but nobody was behind him! He tore something in there and still can't walk on it. What's that, has he gone to the doctor's yet? He's a guy, of course not.

He spent Memorial Day on the couch with his leg propped up after some morning chores. He worked waaaay too hard for someone who can't even walk! He braved traffic and went to work Tuesday and when he got home his leg was HUGE. He worked from home Wednesday and Thursday and again braved it to go to work today, but his leg is swelling up despite having it propped up in his office.

He was so sweet yesterday and went to Fry's for some Mylanta for me-plus I think he really needed to get out of the house! He used the scooter cart and of course ran into people we know in every aisle!!

Get well, Ken!
(PS. The last time he did this it was to his right leg and he did a sprint triathlon 4 days after it happened...crazy man!)

Summer stuff

Last Tuesday evening Adam had his promotion ceremony from junior high to high school. I was excited to go cheer him on and it brought back memories of Josh's promotion, which seemed to take place just a year or two ago...but it was in 2004! Jeremy didn't tell us about his promotion so we missed out on that. Adam went to the movies with Ken while I taught piano lessons. When they were over I got a text from Ken saying that Adam didn't want to go. That made me sad because I wanted him to see us there for him, but we decided to respect it and not make him go. :( I'm still sad, though. Their last day of school was a half day on Wednesday.

Summer always seems to come so fast. Yesterday morning swim team started...at 5:30 am!! The boys were all ready to go on time, which is impressive. I'm wondering whose horrible idea it was to sign them up--for the next 2 months every single weekday we have to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:15 am to get over to the pool. But they like it and it's so good for them in every way! I dropped them off at the pool and came home and hit the treadmill, then cleaned up the kitchen. Today the kids were ready but not quite as early as yesterday. I haven't hit the treadmill and am seriously considering heading back for more sleep...the best of intentions gets you where, exactly?

Hawaii~Pearl Harbor

On this Memorial Day, I have to salute everyone who has served our country, living or dead. That includes my father (Navy), his father (Army), my cousin (Army) and her husband who is currently in the Middle East (formerly Navy, currently Army), my nephew who is at basic training right now for the Army, my father-in-law (even though he was born and raised in Germany, he served in the American military after becoming a citizen), and many family friends.

On our last day in Hawaii, after leaving the ship, Rachel rented a fun convertible and we explored Oahu. I'll write more about the whole day another time, but because it's Memorial Day I want to write about our visit to Pearl Harbor.




The first thing you do is go see a short historical film about Pearl Harbor. You learn a little bit about why it happened, why the Japanese wanted to pull the U.S. into the war. Studying about history is so different when you are in the actual place something significant happened. Like the other Hawaiian harbors, Pearl is very pretty. After the film we took a navy boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial. I'd seen the memorial on tv but seeing it in person, smelling the oil that is still seeping up from the Arizona, seeing the ship right under the water, seeing the actual site that is the grave for over 1,000 men is sobering. People were throwing orchids into the water and crying, just like they would put flowers on any other grave.

There is a marble wall at the end of the memorial that has the names of the sailors who died when the Arizona was attacked and went down. We were told that we would see many sailors with the same last names; there were 75 sets of brothers onboard (only 14 survived) and a father/son pair. Could you imagine being their families? At the foot of the wall are the names of Arizona survivors who have since been interred with their shipmates.


From the memorial you can see the Missouri, which had also gone down that day but was brought up and repaired. (You can see the Arizona under the water as you look across to the Missouri.) Battleships were replaced with air craft carriers, but this is still here for tours so people can see the great ships that were attacked in 1941.


After the memorial we were walking around the theater/gift shop area and passed a gentleman wearing a hat that had stitched on it "Pearl Harbor Survivor, USS Pennsylvania". Rachel and I looked at each other and both got tears in our eyes. We wanted to go shake his hand and talk with him, the stories he must be able to tell. (Not that we'd ask...but if he offered, we'd be happy to listen...) He was a volunteer at Pearl and we took photos with him and read about him on the volunteer wall.



This man's story is incredible. His name is Everett Hyland. He and his brother George were both in the military during WWII. Everett was working on the USS Pennsylvania when it was bombed in dry dock.


"The wrecked destroyers USS Downes (DD-375) and USS Cassin (DD-372) in Drydock One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, soon after the end of the Japanese air attack. Cassin has capsized against Downes.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is astern, occupying the rest of the drydock. The torpedo-damaged cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) is in the right distance, beyond the crane. Visible in the center distance is the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37), with USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside. Smoke is from the sunken and burning USS Arizona (BB-39), out of view behind Pennsylvania. USS California (BB-44) is partially visible at the extreme left.
This image has been attributed to Navy Photographer's Mate Harold Fawcett."

His volunteer board includes his Purple Heart for injuries sustained at Pearl Harbor as well as several other medals. It also includes the telegraph sent by the Navy to his mother in Connecticut dated December 11, 1941, stating her son had been injured in the line of duty. Could you imagine knowing your son was at Pearl Harbor and then getting a telegraph like that?? There is a sweet post card written to their mother by his brother, George:

But he was hurt much worse than his brother let on. {Sadly, his brother George died as a result of injuries sustained at the battle of Iwo Jima.}
If you google Everett Hyland you can see all of this information has been published, so I don't feel like I'm telling any secrets! From http://www.arizonamemorial.org/locations/arizona-memorial-everett-hyland.html:

Typically when the call came to man battle stations, Mr. Hyland’s duty as a member of the Antenna Repair Squad placed him top side during an attack. On December 7 th, Mr. Hyland and his fellow squad members assembled near the clipping room and helped disperse ammunition out to the 3-inch 50mm anti-aircraft guns.

When a Japanese aerial torpedo bomb exploded near the clipping room he was severely wounded. None of his squad members survived. Mr. Hyland’s wounds were so extensive that he was almost given up for dead. He did not recognize his surroundings until Christmas of 1941.

After 9 months of rehabilitation he returned to sea.

He went on to serve in the Navy until 1945, then worked as a science teacher. He's been volunteering at the Pearl Harbor USS Arizona memorial since 1955!
Amazingly, he went on to marry a Japanese woman who, as a child, had actually helped to make paper mache balloons that would carry ammunition across the ocean in an attempt to keep American planes from bombing Japan. That still amazes me. She also volunteers at Pearl Harbor and is a sweet and kind woman.
He has a quick sense of humor. I wish him all the best! What an honor to meet a Pearl Harbor survivor...

There is a board with photos and stories of many people who didn't survive that attack, some of the sailors were only 17 years old! It is a beautiful place with an awful history. There are thousands of amazing stories from that day, thanks to Everett Hyland for sharing his.

Our garden so far...

I used to think of gardening as something retired people do because they don't have much else to do. (Sorry, that sounds harsh.) When I think of gardening, I picture cute, older ladies in overalls and muddy clogs, flowery gloves, oversized sunglasses, and floppy hats. But as you know, we've been trying to grow food here and I even shared some photos of our attempts. Our plants are doing surprisingly well so far despite early high temperatures. (105, 106...ugh.) We've gotten a steady stream of 8-10 strawberries a day and a few smaller green peppers almost every day. Our tomato plants have blossomed and there are lots of tomatoes starting to get going! You can see from the picture that the topsy turvy tomatoes are doing great,too! We may have a hundred ready at once at this rate. That's ok, bring 'em on. Our yellow squash plant has a LOT of blossoms and a few squash already growing. Our watermelon plant, which Jeremy picked out and planted, has blossomed, too. Our corn is 3-5' high and we're so excited to see what comes of that. Our wall is about 6 1/2' high and the corn is getting close to the top...And our zucchinni plants are doing well, too. Several small zucchini are growing, they're about 6" long. I love steamed zucchini with spaghetti, or raw grated onto a salad. Next year we need to start seedlings earlier and plant earlier in the year because we should be harvesting by now, I think? It's getting hot enough that to protect themselves the plants may not grow the food, which takes so much out of them.
But this is pretty cool, I like it! My husband has put in so much work and effort in this. I've done my part but not the hard labor. I planned, shopped, planted, and now water, prune, fertilize, and weed. Next step; provide shade by building t-shaped supports and buying light-colored sun shades for the more delicate plants. The corn should be ok...thank heavens. So far so good. Our tomato plants, which you can see in the light colored pots, were much fuller, but I pruned them back. I read that to have lots of tomatoes, prune any stems that aren't growing fruit. Apparently they didn't mean all of them, which is about how I took it. Ken pointed out that without leaves they can't go through photosynthesis. Ooops.

More Hawaii posts

I wrote about Hawaii the other week but saved drafts to finish later. Now I've posted them and they are displayed on the day I created them, not showing up today. So if you're interested, look at older posts to see a few more days of our adventure in Hawaii!

The MTC

Well, my best friend Rachel and her husband Mark took Josh to the Missionary Training Center today in Provo, Utah. Here is a slideshow of pictures Rachel and Mark took! We'll keep everyone updated on how he's doing, etc. Here's his address, please write him!!!

ELDER JOSHUA KENNETH HOSCH
MTC - Mailbox # 127
HUN-BUD 0803
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

Josh's Farewell

Our oldest son, Josh, fit in as much as he could during his last week home. Wednesday he went...well, many of you recognize this picture:

That night he played basketball and had a good time slam-dunking the ball. Josh LOVES basketball and would love to someday play in the NBA. He is hoping to grow more over the next 2 years while he's gone, something I can't understand because I'm only 5'10" and am often uncomfortable because there's nowhere for my legs. I know he can reach over the top of the rim, this picture was either taken a little late or a little early...

Thursday Josh got up early and went to work for the last day. He's been working for a friend of ours who owns an insulation company. It's hot work here in the summer and Josh worked for something like 12 hours.
Friday he has his last campout with his friends and had a really good time. He made a spear and tried to catch fish. Here's one that didn't get away:

The guys had a great time. They joked about how there were other boats on the lake whizzing by with their big motors...and these boys were rowing their canoes, pretty funny! I have no doubt who had the better time...





Sunday morning was Josh's farewell talk at church. Jeremy spoke first, then Josh. They both wrote their talks and everyone was moved and impressed with their maturity and ability to convey their thoughts and feelings. They are both such leaders and great young men, as are their younger brothers. We're lucky parents! Josh asked me to play the piano and I was happy to play a solo in his behalf. I play at home quite often and sometimes it's irritating because he wants to watch a movie and the piano makes it hard for him to hear his movie, but I know he'll miss it! :)
Tarik Williams is a new young men's leader at our church but what an incredible guy. He spoke after the solo, then our ward leader, Bishop Butler, also spoke. Lots of friends and neighbors came to show their support for Josh. That evening we had an open house and people were streaming in and out for hours. (We served over 600 meatballs in addition to all the other food!)

Monday, we finished shopping for odds and ends, Josh finished packing up his bedroom, and packed his suitcases, too. That evening, our stake president came over and officially made Josh a missionary. Tuesday morning, we had a family breakfast and then took him to the airport. We were doing ok for the most part...until it was time to say goodbye. We had lots of hugs and tears before he went through security and disappeared in the crowds of people. Ok, so we could see him towering over all the other people, he's not hard to spot! We went up to the roof of the airport and could see his gate and plane and watched it for almost an hour. We watched as his plane pulled away from the gate and took off.
We miss him so much already but are so excited and happy for him. What an adventure he's going on! He's going to make us proud, no doubt about it, just like he always has. He'll be at a training center for about 9 weeks, then finally head to Budapest, Hungary.

President Obama and ASU

I'm not a fan of politicians. Don't get me started...but on Wednesday, President Obama spoke at ASU's graduation. I watched his speech and re-read it online today. I have to say, the man can speak. He talked about how some people graduated in good times and simply had to keep them going; but other graduates faced difficult times, times in which they had to be strong and help redefine our country. Of course these graduates face the latter. He talked to them about not falling for the same "brass ring" traps that caused the recent financial crisis, but to redefine success. He asked them not to need possessions to prove their worth~and reminded them that their best work in life is yet to come, as it should be, to never stop striving to be better. He asked them to help non-profits do better, to start businesses, to reach out to those in need, to never stop striving to find ways to help the environment, to use their education and experiences to make our country great again; not great in a military definition, but on a more human level, the way it used to be. Well, that's more or less what he said, you can google his speech. I was impressed, to tell you the truth. To save our country, people need to be inspired. While I have never really liked the policies of most democrats, and despite the fact that he's already breaking campaign promises (and being cheered for it...I'll never understand), I, at the very least, like to hear this man speak.

Hawaii, Day 5~Grand Wailea Beach, Tuesday

Last night we left Lahaina and cruised very slowly to the other side of Maui. We docked earlier than expected, usually 8 am but today more like 6:45. After a relaxed breakfast, we got ready for our excursion (beach day) and quickly fit in a class about making beaded bandanas. For some reason I'd pictured studded bandanas in my head, not what we wound up making. It was fun to learn, anyway...They were being made to wear at the dance that would have a country theme and feature line dancing. We didn't have time to finish ours because we needed to meet our tour group at the pier, so we were allowed to take a bunch of beads and our bandanas back to our stateroom and finish later.
We took a tour bus out to the Grand Wailea Beach Resort. In 2006, the beach there had been voted the prettiest beach in the world. The resort itself is just what its name suggests...grand. Wow. Talk about nice!! Again, words and pictures just wouldn't do it justice. If you've ever seen stories about the Hawaii resort with water slides and a lazy river that wraps around the hotel grounds, this is it. If I'd been a guest that week I would have been really disappointed...the water slides and lazy river were closed for repairs. But the combination of natural beauty and the resort that was built there is something else.

Our reason for being there was to spend some time at the beach. We'd been in Hawaii for 5 days and hadn't spent time at the beach swimming or snorkeling or anything like that...and yet my very kind and patient friend knew it was April 28-a day with some signifigance because it was the release date of the 8th book in James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. We walked and walked walked in the heat to try to find a store that would have the book. Things must get to the islands a little slower than the mainland because the stores only had paperbacks. No hardbacks at all, let alone newly released hardbacks. But thank you, Rachel, for being so willing to go shopping for a book instead of sitting on the beach! (We found a copy 2 or 3 days later...yet again, another shopping excursion for a book. What a good friend I have!)

Rachel knows I'm scared half to death of the ocean. I completely respect its power. I completely get that things can hide in the sand and you can step on them and get hurt without even knowing what hit you. I get that sharks can and have come almost all the way to the shore and tasted swimmers' legs. I get that a wave can take you by surprise and knock you down (remember Sunday???) I get that jellyfish can barely be seen but can sure be felt!! But the water here is almost irresistible. It's so clear and so pretty and so warm! I'd been looking at it and sailing on it for days and it was time to get in. It wasn't so bad. A few times bigger waves took my breath away (they hit me above the knees), but I clung to Rachel like a true chicken. Then she went back to sit in the beach chair and I kept my toes in the water. Somebody started to yell to their kids that there was a sea turtle in the water, people started to run out to try to see it. It passed not too far in front of me but all I saw was a large, dark shadow. I'm SOOOOO glad somebody had already identified it as a turtle because I would have been outta there. Instead, I yelled for Rachel but it was already too late, it was gone.

She'd brought her two snorkel sets and gave me one. I figured I'd just stick my head under the water to make her happy, to make her go away and stop trying to get me to snorkel because snorkeling required getting into the water. I stuck my face under the water and about 3 hours later, with a burned back, I left the water with a fist full of shells and a new attitude about snorkeling. She always pushes me to try new things (everything is new for me) and I wind up liking them, Sam-I-Am. {{She just sat in the beach chair with a little knowing smile on her face-she loves to expose people to new things, to see their reactions, to watch them discover the fun in things they'd never done before. She gets as much or more pleasure in watching people enjoy things than doing them herself. Again, what a great friend.}} I did stick on the shoreline, though. Seriously, I was the only person snorkeling right where the waves were breaking. I get that's not how it's to be done, but I needed the security of being able to reach out and touch the bottom of the ocean. A few times, waves crashed over my head and filled my snorkel with water. Since I was able to just stand up (ok, get on my knees) it was ok. This prepared me for the next day, snorkeling off the Kona coast at a coral reef 25-65 feet deep....gulp...

When we got back to the ship we went to a lei making class. The auditorium was so full and smelled like the orchids we'd use to make the leis. 20,000 orchids were used up for that class! It is SO easy to make them, which was surprising to me. Our two Hawaiian ambassadors, Malu and China, were there teaching the class. They talked about all kinds of Hawaiian traditions, their families, etc. while we worked on our leis. When Hawaiians graduate they make a lei for every classmate. Malu said she graduated with 400 other students and yes, was given almost 400 leis! She had them on her arms and neck to the point where she couldn't see over them, and so did every one of her family memebers and there were still leis they couldn't put on! We put them in our fridge so we could save them to wear them Thursday night for the luau. Of course there were jokes all over the place about getting leid in Hawaii...

Later that evening we went to a show. I don't have a clue what show, my memory is already fading away, I'm sorry to say. Rachel kept telling me to keep my copy of the Freestyle Daily, the ship's little paper that tells you what activities there are for that day. But of course I didn't listen. Now I don't remember what shows were on what night, but I do remember the shows! I remember everything we did, just not quite what day.

We did go dancing that night in the Mardi Gras lounge. The cruise director kept saying "you'll never see these people again, just get up and go for it" but then they walked around videotaping people dancing and played it on the ship's tv channel in the staterooms! Haha, anyway, it was 70's night and they played disco favorites. One of the crew wore a huge afro wig and had on a "peace sign" necklace. There were a lot of people in the lounge but not very many dancing for some reason. We had fun with some people who work on the ship, one of them had run the not-very-successful karoke session the night before. Guys from the crew did a version of YMCA dressed in the typical Village People clothes. Fun night!

Hawaii, Day 2 boarding the ship PS

Whenever you take a cruise, before you leave the dock there's a manadatory life boat drill. The ships announces that after 7 short blasts and 1 long blast you are to go to your mustering station with your life vest. Rachel said nobody goes right away...so after our blasts we took our time. We were to go down 3 floors and out onto the deck outside of the Cadillac Diner. So we mosied on down and were the last ones there!! They'd already sort of started the drill and we got a stern look from the guy running our drill. Rachel had grabbed her camera and said that it's a classic photo op when you go on a cruise to get a picture of yourself after the drill. Well, she got her life vest on and so I pulled out the camera and she posed...as I was about to snap the picture, an officer came over and VERY sternly said "Ma'am, please wait until the drill is over to take photos", and then he rolled his eyes at me! Yet again...Rachel got me in trouble! More giggles....

Hawaii, Day 4~Lahaina

Approaching Lahaina:

Today we went to Maui and docked at a small town called Lahaina. This stop is apparently not usually part of the cruise. There's not a lot to do here unless you want to do more shopping for cheap trinkets or go to a few historical sites. Not us, we were EXHAUSTED. We rested a lot on this day because frankly we needed to. We hadn't stopped going going going since we left our homes Friday morning. One incredible thing is that as we were pulling into Lahaina we saw a humpback whale breaching out of the water. The video of that was posted a few days ago in a post brilliantly called "Whales". Honolulu, Hilo, and Lahaina all look so different that it's hard to believe they are so close to each other and are part of the same island chain. Honolulu has tall, lush mountains not far from the ocean. It's bustling with tourist attractions, hotels, and commercial activity. Hilo is a rain forest. The mountains aren't as tall, and it's nowhere near as busy. Lahaina looks like a desert! It's less lush and more brown in places, actually, with lower, rolling mountains.

We anchored at Lahaina and had to tender to shore. The tenders are actually the life boats, which hold 120 people and have enough food and water for a week. I wasn't worried about that at all since we were near land all the time! It was sort of fun taking the tender in, but I prefer docking to tendering. You can get on and off the ship faster if you're docked because you don't have to wait for a ride!

We went to shore but didn't stay long. We heard that people later in the day waited over an hour to tender back to the ship so we were doubly glad we hadn't stayed. It was a quaint little town, though. We did see a manta ray in the water while we were walking along shore, that was pretty cool! We talked with a guy who runs fishing boats for rent--he said the restaurants that line the pier buy the fish he catches and serve them fresh and that's how he supports himself. It's really fun to talk to different people, you get a real sense of how many lifestyles people can live. You don't have to get stuck in one or another. There are so many possibilities!
We at dinner in the Skyline Restaurant, which is an art-deco, 1930s style restaurant on the ship. It was nice to sit down and be served, take our time, and have a restaurant atmosphere vs. the hustle and bustle and craziness of the Aloha Cafe (buffet on a cruise ship, need I say more??) The food was good, too. We couldn't decide which dessert out of 4 (or more?) looked best so we ordered them all! We only tasted each one, we didn't polish them off!!

We went to see a comedy show starring Second City comedy group. (www.secondcity.com) They were pretty funny, I liked their improv acts better than their rehearsed sketches!
I'd said we did karaoke Sunday night but we didn't, that was tonight after the show.

Tomorrow: the other side of Maui and a visit to the beaches at Grand Wailea!

Hawaii Day 3~Black sand!

This has to have been the most fun day, I swear. I don't know why...Rachel and I had so much pent up stress and this was the day we let it all out. We laughed so hard almost the whole day. I doubt that the things we were laughing at were all that funny, really, but it sure felt good.

Today, we were docked in Hilo. The excursion we chose is "Land of Frozen Fire" because we were going out to a beach created after a lava flow that cooled off, or "froze". We went out to the pier to meet our group and met our guide, a native named Ikaika. If I spelled that wrong I'm really sorry...it's not a common name! Ikaika means "strong" in Hawaiian. We were going to a mineral spring and beach but the person at the excursion desk on the ship had told us you don't really swim or get in the water at all. Rachel asked Ikaika and he said she could get wet, he wouldn't care, so she wanted to go back to the ship and change into her bathing suit and coverup. He said we'd all wait but she couldn't decide. After several minutes of debate she ran back to the ship to change. She was so worried we'd have to wait for her that she rushed and came back without a towel! Ikaika and the group teased her the rest of the day for not being able to make a decision and for getting her suit on but not bringing a towel. I guess you had to be there, but it was funny.

Ikaika is also the name of a warrior helmet and our guide had a huge Ikaika warrior helmet tatooed on his back. He had a lot of tatoos, actually! They are very symbolic down in Hawaii. Most tatoos have to do with geneology and history. I reeeeeeeaally don't like tatoos but when a native Hawaiian has them and tells you their history, it's pretty cool.

He first took us out to a place called Lava Tree State Park. Lava trees look pretty cool. Since there's about 160" of rain a year in Hilo the trees are pretty wet all the time, so when the lava came through it didn't burn the trees immediately. It sort of crawled up the trees and later the tree burned up out of the center of the "lava tree". Since lava contains so many minerals, when regrowth happens it can be pretty lush. Lava goes wherever it wants to go, it will go right through a house, burn up a car, or wipe out an entire town. This state park was created after a lava flow a looooong time ago. Lava also leaves deep holes, tubes, and other interesting features when it cools down. There are trees there called rifle trees(brought in by Captain Cook) because when they break they make a sound like a rifle being shot. What a pretty place!

Our next stop was the mineral springs at Ahalanui. It was incredible! The mineral spring was just off the beach so the background was some palm trees, some plant life, a HUGE pile of black lava rocks, and then the ocean and bright blue skies. Aaaaah! Rachel, who'd run back to get her suit on, just dipped her feet into the mineral springs, no swimming. Ikaika teased her about that, too. We ate lunch here and then moved on (finally!!) to the black sand beach at Kaimu. I haven't been to very many different beaches. They all seem to just have normal color (except for Shell Beach in CA, which has a darker brown, large-grain sand, I have some in a bottle and it's sooo pretty!) but I'd heard about black sand beaches and wanted to see one my whole life. I can't tell you how excited I was. Here I was at a really beautiful, natural wonder, and all I could think about was the black sand beach! The drive over from Ahalanui seemed to take forever!! We passed a shack built on a cliff that overlooked some lava rocks and the ocean and Ikaika said it was worth over $1 million because of its location. I don't know if he was serious? He made cheesey jokes the whole day and they were actually pretty funny, we were so glad he was our guide!

Finally...Kaimu!!! I was SO excited!! We walked for about 10 minutes over the frozen lava flow. Off to the North we could see a smoke plume from where the lava spills out into the ocean. The tour used to get right up close to that area but not anymore and I forget why. In the slideshow you can see a picture of the plume from across the lava flow. The red lava rocks had a lot of iron ore that has rusted. Apparently there is a beach in Hawaii that has sand that color...next time!! We finally got down to the beach where the ocean waves had broken down the lava into fine-grained sand. Words do not do it justice. Pictures do not do it justice. It was GORGEOUS! The black sand had flecks of pyruvite, so there was a lot of shiney gold mixed in with the pure black. Set against the turquoise blue water it was breathtaking!! Someone in our group offered to take a picture of me and Rachel down by the water, so we posed. The girl taking our picture (our new friend Shannon--shout out to Canada to Shannon Reimer!) warned us that sometimes the waves surprise you and she'd gotten the legs of her pants pretty wet...so after the picture I turned around to look at the ocean and the wave seemed to be coming in pretty high. I turned to run (I don't really know why) and kicked a big lava rock REALLY hard and fell down, hitting my knee on another rock. By now the water was on me and as I tried to get back up I fell down again and the water washed over my head! The whole group was watching this go on and were laughing, I guess it looked pretty funny! I stood up and was soaked from head to toe and laughing uncontrollably. I also had black sand stuck to me everywhere! Ikaika had stayed with the van down by the road but heard someone had fallen and met us partway to see if everything was ok. He was really concerned and I was happy about that. {We later learned that some friends we met at Teppanyaki, Barb and Dale, had gone on a bike tour and Barb fell and was pretty seriously hurt. She was asking for medical attention and her tour guide wouldn't help her at all!! So thank you, Ikaika!} My knee stung and my big toe hurt (I kicked it SO hard) but my pride was hurt more than anything. Of course there was more teasing about how we'd waited for Rachel to get her suit on and I was the one who got wet...and more giggling and laughing. Andy, our new friend from Germany, showed us his camera and how he'd taken a picture of me just after I fell into the water and we all laughed about how it's going to show up on YouTube. Ikaika got his cell phone out and wanted to call my husband and ask if he knew how crazy I was. He was also teasing me about messing up his van with water and sand. Seriously, I don't know what got into me that day but I couldn't stop laughing!!

Our next stop (yes...I had to go into public soaking wet) was the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut farm. It was an "extra" stop not scheduled on the tour, but Ikaika said he wanted to take us there because he was having so much fun with us. When we arrived and got out of the van I noticed my pants were mostly dry, except for my lap area. It looked like I'd peed my pants!! More giggling...my big toe was burning a little when I walked so I took my shoe off and took a look. I'd split my toenail from the side to about the center halfway down the quick of my nail. OUCH. It only stung because there was sand getting in it. Our new friend Shannon was so sweet and poured some of her water over my toe to help clean it off. The Macademia Nut farm was a pretty place and it was fun to see where they come from!

Our last stop, again not on the tour but Ikaika liked us, was Rainbow Falls. If the sun is shining, this waterfall is accompanied by a beautiful rainbow, so he wanted to show it to us. As we got out of the van, I heard people saying things like "oh no!" and "are you ok?" I looked out and saw that our new friend from Germany, Marion, had tripped over the parking block and ran her shoulder into the parking sign!! What is with this group, falling all over the place? She was ok and we laughed some more...oh yeah, and the waterfall was pretty too. When we got back to the van, Ikaika was cleaning the van out, I had made a mess with all the sand that was stuck to me...so more giggling.

Ikaika was so great and our group was so fun. We made friends with Marion, Andy, and Gabby from Frankfurt, Germany (I LOVE Germany!!!) and our Canadian friends Shannon and her aunt Justina. There was also an Australian family on our tour who were pretty quiet and looked at us like were from another planet. I don't blame them. We got back to the ship around 2 pm, I think, and decided to all have dinner together that evening. (I'll skip the part about the Department of Agriculture chasing us down at security over the black sand in our water bottles...) We ate at the Cadiallac Diner, a 50s style diner with music videos playing on monitors on the walls, black and white checkered floor, and an actual Cadillac converted into a table.


After dinner we went to a comedy show...because we needed more laughter. What a fun day, seriously.

PS and we practiced the Japanese art of Karaoke at the "wheelbarrow", as Rachel calls it...

Hawaii, Day 2; boarding the ship

I've never seen a cruise ship up close (until now, that is) so I was pretty excited to see the ship, get onboard, etc. We got up and went to get some breakfast, got ready and packed up what we'd used, and headed out. If we'd had enough time we would have hiked up Diamondhead but we realized we really didn't. That was a bummer but next time we'll do it for sure! (I'm already counting on a "next time"!) I thought I'd see the whole ship but only saw the stack, the pier was in the way. If we'd been on the other side of the harbor we'd see the whole ship. This picture below is actually from where we ate dinner a week later before heading to the airport to fly home, but this is the other side~ We were literally one of the first people there, we were maybe 20th in line and had to wait for security to open up and let us board. I think we were excited!! Once you pass security (the first time, they had several security stations), you wait in another line to get your ship card that acts as your room key. It's also the way you charge things to your room because it's linked to your credit card. It's also how you check in and out of the ship in port so they know if they have everyone onboard or not, so the card is pretty important. After we got our cards we waited in yet another line to get up the escalators and onto the ship. We were given fresh coconut while waiting in line...nice touch! This ship is about 74,000 tons-not the biggest out there for a cruise ship, but still really big! This is the reception desk and seal of the U.S. in the welcoming area-the ship was built specifically for use in Hawaii but celebrates all the states. Opposite the reception desk is a beautiful split stairway, a replica of the Washginton Monument, and glass elevators. These are just some examples of the ship because apparently it's a bit different from others. The rooms weren't ready (we were reeeeeally early) so we went to have lunch at the cafe, then checked out the ship. It was so fun exploring and getting to know what would be our home away from home over the next week. We finally got to our room and this is what it looked like. If you've never cruised before and are planning to go, please don't think you don't need to pay more for a balcony...ocean view is just a window but there's nothing like sitting out on the balcony watching the world go by. It was AWESOME!

That evening we had dinner in the East Meets West dining room and we had Teppanyaki. The word "teppanyaki" is derived from teppan (鉄板), which means iron plate, and yaki (焼き), which means fried or broiled. (Thanks, Wikipedia) This was our chef, Lucky: I love this food, it just has to be healthy! Really! We ate with some people from Florida, Dale and Barb Ericson. Hey guys!! We'd see them over the week and have some great fun with them. Meeting people is just so fun on a cruise!
We went out on the deck around 8 pm to leave Honolulu Harbor. It was really exciting to get underway! In Hawaii, hula dancers used to line the shores of the harbor and sing and dance for sailors going out to sea. That's a really neat tradition...however, ships are now constantly going in and out, they'd never get to go home! I wish I'd been able to see something like that.
Later we went to see the welcome show at the theater. Some of the cruise director's staff put on a short, silly luau type of show;

Tomorrow...Hilo and a black sand beach!!

Whales

Turn the volume down if you don't want to hear my girlish squealing, but this was really cool. This was taken on our approach to Lahaina, Maui, which is a well-known area for humpback whales. It breaches twice in this video; 5 seconds in, then 56 seconds in. Around 1:45 into the video he comes up for air...
This really is the best video I got, although I have a few others of whales I'll post later. It was really worth it to wake up around 6:30 every morning because that's usually when we saw the whales. It's one thing to see things like this at Sea World when they are trained to perform, but out in the wild when they're just doing their thing, it's like a miracle that you get to see it. Seriously, this was better than Christmas morning. Sorry for the squealing...

Mother's Day

It's a Hosch tradition to make someone a "table" for a special occasion. The table is always set with presents in the center and their favorite candies around the outside. The boys and Ken set up this table for me today.

Mothers got roses and some candy at church today; now THAT makes it worth going!

This is me and Austin, our youngest son.

Next week, Josh leaves for his mission for our church. He'll be gone for 2 years and won't have a lot of contact with us. Not much by phone, writing once a week, email if he can get on a computer but certainly won't have access to one often...so this is my "last" Mother's Day with all four boys home as our "kids". It's that bittersweet time for us when we know our kids needs to move on, time to cut the apron strings, but it's happened so fast.

Seeing this post makes me realize I need to get a picture of me with Jeremy and Adam!
PS...don't think there's any candy left with this brood of men in the house!