Bios on the Hill

Last Thursday evening, Spencer started a 2.5 day High Adventure hike in the northern part of the island with his Boy Scouts. Knowing that Friday was going to be a long day for me, I knew we needed to have something extra fun planned. I threw out an email to friends to see if they wanted to join us at Bios on the Hill for a few hours, and luckily we got a few takers. This was our second time visiting, having been rained out the first time we were there. Thankfully, the weather was great this time around.

They have such beautiful flowers lining the main walking path.

Kid photo op: Colton, Cameron, Shawn, & Sydney

We took a goat for a brief walk- so random- then passed him off to another kid that looked like he really wanted a turn. I may or may not have inadvertently gotten him in trouble, since he was there with a school group that was apparently given instructions to NOT walk the goats without a staff member with them. Oops. 

I thought the lone goat on top of the pole was kind of hilarious.

We spent a few hundred yen to buy little cups of carrots to feed the goats. Sydney was too scared to hold the carrots up to their mouths, so she just tossed them on the ground and let the goats run after them. I was holding Shawn and a cup of carrots in one arm, and while I was feeding a goat with my other hand I heard a "crunch" in my ear. Shawn had totally grabbed a carrot from the cup and taken a bite.

Taylor, Audra, Sydney, & Sarah checking out the cute baby goats.

This time we also got to ride on a super long swing hanging from a tree- Shawn practically melted in my lap he was so content on that thing. He also loved relaxing in the hammock.

After a few fun hours playing with friends, we headed home so the Squish could take a nap. The exit route cleverly forced us to walk through a store with about a billion orchids in it. It smelled so good!

My cute kids by the beautiful orchids.

On the way home, I did my best to (safely) snap a shot of the ocean with driving home. Sometimes I am just mesmerized by the color of the water!

Camping at White Beach

Martin Luther King Day was our first excuse to do something cool this year. The Jenks' invited a group of friends to go camping at White Beach, a base on the Pacific side of the island. It was kind of perfect timing since I bought Spencer a tent for Christmas. This marked our very first time camping together since we've been married.

We arrived a little later in the day, so we only had about 45 minutes of sunlight. And boy was it windy! I was on kid watching duty while Spencer unloaded and set up the tent. It was practically blowing over when he was working on it, and the rain cover was flapping all over the place when he was trying to cover the tent. Shane and a few kind campers nearby came and helped him secure it all. Then we cooked tinfoil dinners on the grill and attempted to have a fire on the beach, but the wind was pretty relentless and it didn't burn for long.

At night, neither of us hardly slept a wink. I woke up several times to the rain cover flapping all over the place, and Spencer went out a few times during the night to re-secure it. Then Shawn was in and out of my very narrow mummy sleeping bag all night, sometimes being totally content to have his legs in it, and other times thrashing and crying until his legs were free. I found myself contorting my body all night so that I could give him maximum space while not being too uncomfortable myself. It was pretty much a failure. Every time I opened my eyes I was hoping to see the sun rising, but far too many times it was just pitch black. Pretty much the longest. night. ever.

See our orange tent, all crazy and windblown?

The next morning, however, made up for it (again, minus the wind).

Spencer was up with the sun to catch the sunrise.

After a morning bottle, Shawn hit the playground.

He's become quite independent on slides.

We had a delicious group breakfast, then Spencer packed up the whole camp site while Shawn and I joined the other moms near the water and scoured the beach for cool shells and sea glass. When the sun finally peaked out, it turned the water the loveliest shade of bluish-green.

There were a few cool ships (Destroyers maybe?) in port right by the camp site.

We didn't get a single picture of Sydney. She was running around with the Jenks' boys having the time of her life running to different play areas, digging holes in the sand, throwing shells in the water, and building sand houses for hermit crab families. She thought camping was awesome! Despite our sleepless night, we're hoping to do it a lot more.