Hawaiian Adventures

Take a peek at what we've been up to in Hawaii. Below are some snapshots. If you like what you see, click on this link to see some more!


Leah dives for pirate booty to fund our trip.


Just hanging out at the beach.


Leah the poser on a hike up Hualalai, into the cloud forest, where we also saw craters and boars along the way.


Looking down into a crater as the clouds roll in.

The Coqui Episode

So, we've been in Hawaii for two weeks or so now and maybe you're wondering what we're up to. The answer is, pretty much what you think we're doing here. Beach-going and all the activities associated of course, Rosetta Stone Spanish lessons, reading, spending time with the fam, Christmas hullabaloo, and lots of little errands to get ready for our departure.
So, let me tell you a little story about something you haven't thought about us doing over here. It has to do with coqui frogs, or shall I say a coqui frog. Let me explain... there is an invasive species of treefrog that has made it's way to the Big Island. This frog is mostly found in Hilo (the wet side of the island) as it likes wet and cool environments, however, they are making their way to the Kona side now. People don't like them because they make a loud mating call at night which is unrelenting and the county doesn't like them for a ton more reasons. So, lucky us, a coqui frog decides to make it's home in our hibiscus hedge. My dad called the county to figure out how he could get rid of the frog and they informed him that there is a team in charge of killing the frogs, the "Coqui Control Team." They even have uniforms which say "Coqui Control" on the back...yeah. So we got an appointment with the coqui control. They only work at night when the frogs make noise. They came from Hilo (two hours away) and show up at our house in a huge diesel truck pulling a big tank behind the truck full of frog killer... for our ONE frog. That's right, they drove two hours and spent who knows how much of the county's money on gas for our ONE frog. In Hilo, they're used to dealing with hundreds of frogs at once, so when my dad begins to refer to the frog as a single entity, the coqui control man says, "you have ONE frog" and looks at my dad as if he is a crazy old man with too much time on his hands. AND of course, Murphy's law, the frog decided to stop chirping right before the coqui people showed up. So not only is my dad crazy, but quite possibly a liar at this point in their eyes. (Mind you, this is me and David's first night in Kona and I'm starting to wonder myself what happened to my dad over the past few months). Not to worry though, these coqui people are professionals of course and have practiced a whistle which makes the frogs start chirping. So, we're all sitting in the dark while the coqui man whistles trying to get our frog to make noise (stifling laughter at this point of course). Five minutes pass, ten minutes pass, finally, almost fifteen minutes later the frog chirps. Headlights come on and the coqui guys go in for the kill. Our one frog is toast. The coqui man caught him alive and threw him in the tank of frog killer (which is actually just citric acid). "Yaaaayyyy!" shout the Stewarts. Oh, but the story doesn't end here. Just to make sure that the coqui didn't leave behind any offspring or companions, my dad requests they spray the area with citric acid from their tank. Seems like a simple request and they agree of course. So, from inside the house David and I watch as a firehose looking apparatus is uncoiled and the back half of the hibiscus hedge blasted with gallons and gallons of citric acid. And let me remind you, this entire episode happened for ONE frog (which measures slightly bigger than a quarter). Yup. Welcome back to Kona, where ONE frog is big news.

Our Time in Salt Lake City

After we arrived in SLC and stashed our stuff at my dad's place we stayed a couple of days with Jamie and Ryan, my eldest sister and brother-in-law. While there we experienced unbelieable weather with temperatures in the 70's and went for a sweet bike-hike-bike up city creek canyon with SharkyMarky.


We then headed to sunny Palm Springs, California to meet up with my Mom, Gary, Grandma, Norm, Sarah, Mat, Mahleywa, Suwana (second cousin) and Bopa (her daughter) for a week filled with eating, pool lounging, ping-pong, lawn bowling, more eating, hiking, training for our bike tour on beach cruisers, reading, attempted tennis, a full moon walk in the desert (but not too far, for Leah's sake (to her credit - the coyotes were pretty loud)), laughing at Mahleywa (still my cutest niece) and basking in the warmth and comfort of family.


We then headed back to Salt Lake where we quickly got roped in to helping with projects - with plenty of fun in between. It seems like everytime I go upto Dad's he has some heavy furniture that needs moving, I told him that I won't keep coming back if the trend continues. Dad and I also helped Uncle Brooks with demolishing a retaining wall in Aunt Shauna's yard. That was a lot of fun. The next day I could tell that it had been a long time since I had done any physical labor like that. Leah got her first experience with snow plowing on a four wheeler, (no - it's not all fun and games, you actually do have to use your head - and muscles).

We also got to do some yoga with Jamie and Ryan. Funny story here - when we were on our trip to Mexico we had a lot of shit - I mean A LOT! We decided to dub the truck the cluttermobile and ourselves - the clutter tribe. Well this is a story of the clutter tribe attending yoga:

We decided to go to a yoga class that Jamie and Ryan had never been to before, we were off to a bad start from the beginning. First - we showed up late and instead of all going in together at the same time we each decided to make our own entrance. Second, this was apparently an advanced course, the first clue was that the instructor didn't use and english names for the poses, until he caught on that we didn't have a clue what he was saying, so he made up for it by saying, "Go in to the Shaddanassanah position...if you don't know what that is - look around and you'll figure it out." Then he told us, "I only hear a few people doing the Oujai breathing, if you aren't doing it, this isn't the class for you." It really felt great when he would say, "Well, we are going to skip the next couple of pose because we have new people in the room and they are just too dangerous." I may have gotten back at him when we were in an awkward position (the majority of them were - for me, anyway) and I was kind of tweked around so that Jamie happened to be looking at me as I was mouthing, "OWWWW!" to myself as I was trying to hook my finger around my big toe and bring it...somewhere impossible, and this caused her to bust up laughing out loud. To this the instructor responded, "There sure is a lot of laughing in class to day, I hope that people aren't laughing at me." At the end of the ordeal it was the general consensus among the clutter tribe members that we felt a little dumb and that it was the last time we would attend that particular yoga class...but we had fun none the less.

The rest of our time in Utah was spent going for walks in the snow, seeing my old friends John, Rhett, Wayne, Sharky Marky and Kate. and catching up with them, spending time with Geri and my Dad, having soup and pie with the Gibbs side of the family and catching up with them all. We also saw the movie "Lars and the Real Girl" and really recommend it to everyone.



Our time in Utah was a lot of fun, catching up with friends and family and enjoying every minute of it. Thanks to Jamie and Ryan for putting us up....or should I say putting up with us for so many nights, we always have such a great time with you.

Road Trip, Seattle to Salt Lake City

After packing up all our belongings (or selling them, namely our cars) in Seattle, cleaning our rooms and stuffing it all in a 16 foot budget truck (actually we really didn't even have to stack anything, the truck was WAY too big.)

We headed off down the road for Utah on a somewhat meandering path. With me at the wheel (Leah was too young to drive the rental) we headed for our first stop - Eugene, Oregon where we stayed the night with Billie (my little sister) and Cole (her boyfriend.) It had been a little while and was great to catch up with them.


The next day after sorting out some logistics and an awesome brunch that Billie cooked up we headed off to meet up with Carol, my cousin, in Bend Oregon (we forgot to get some pictures, darnit).

We stayed the night with Carol after catching up and headed off the next morning for our longest haul of the journey. Our next stop was Given's Hotsprings in Given's Hotsprings Idaho.
On our way to Given's, in the middle of nowhere (that pretty much describes the whole drive, we opted for the off-interstate route, very glad we did, much prettier, not to mention our savings in gas milage) we came across a tree the likes of which we had never seen before! As approached it from a distance I looked at it and said, "What kind of tree do you suppose that is, Leah?" Well, it turns out it was a shoe tree! After Leah made her contribution and I tried on a pair of cowboy boots (didn't fit, damn!) we continued on to Given's where we had a refreshing soak in a 20 year old concrete tub before we headed off to yet another family member's house for our final night on the road.

This time we were headed to my Dad's cousin on his mom's side,
Brent. Brent lives in Oakley, Idaho. I have some fond memories of Brent and river rafting in Idaho. So, after we arrived and met his wife, Shanice, and step daughter, Tia ( married less than a year) we did the usual, yep you guessed it, we caught up and told stories and spent the night (forgot to take pictures again). In the morning we headed off for Kamas, Utah where we met up with my Dad and emptied out the truck.
-David

Seattle going away party

Our going away party was AWESOME! For the venue we chose the Eastlake Zoo Tavern. It was only our second time there, but we were treated like regulars by the owner, Howard. He is a great guy, if you get a chance go in there, have a beer play some pool, shuffle board or darts, but bring CASH!

We had a great turn out. There was family, people from work, college, triathlon team, and other various connections. It was a great night of laughing, talking, describing out trip over and over (congratulations, you're the 1000th participant, you win!) I don't remember any tears though...

We have some pictures posted on flickr, they do a great job of telling the story of the night, just click the link below
Going away party photos

David's unemployment experience

I've been unemployed for one week now. Friday, Nov 2 was my last day at KPFF Special Projects Division. Working there has been a great experience. I started there in March 2006 as an intern.

I have learned a lot working there, not just about engineering but about:

• working
• workplace dynamics
• interacting with coworkers
• deadlines
• slow days
• water cooler conversations
• commuting (by bike)
• managers (good ones only, luckily)
• the 2:30 pm droopy eyes
  
• teamwork
• working for government agencies (I know you have this all designed already, but lets try this...)
• Happy hour after work
  
• Rubber band attacks
• Reply-all emails (fortunately nothing disastrous)
• Sneaking up and scaring coworkers
  

I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed all of my coworkers, which feels great to say. I have also enjoyed engineering. It is challenging, interesting, and sometimes (don't tell anyone else) fun. I'm really glad that I chose civil engineering for my degree. I don't know if it is something that I will always do, but i feel like could be a great springboard into anything else I would like to do in the future.

But for now, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enjoy my time while unemployed!!!

Leah Stewart, (unemployed) RN

Well, it's official, I am currently unemployed. My last day was yesterday and I already feel like a different person. I am divorced from the 6NE family and don't have anything I HAVE TO do anymore. Weird. It's a lot more sad than I thought it would be. It sort of feels like I'm jumping ship and leaving my coworkers to fight off the pirating IVDAs and asshole residents from taking down our ship that is 6NE. Riiight...as if I was the single person staving off the ship from sinking. I guess I like to feel important sometimes, especially now when I am unemployed and SO unimportant. Whatever, what it comes down to is that I love my coworkers and will miss them a lot. Especially now that I'm going to be on David overload...always. So anyway, the next three days involve packing like a mad man (or shall I say packing like a mad-Leah) and moving all of my worldly belongings to Dave's Dad's house in Utah. I'm selling my car tomorrow and partying hard this weekend so that I can sleep well in the car while David drives us to Utah :). Oh and in the meantime I'm also turning 24. Life is good. ---Leah

Quotes from Baja Road Trip

• "Hahaha, you just asked him if he had a secure box to put our tricks in!!!" Ryan translating David's attempt at Spanish
  

• "What is that you guys? Oh my gosh, its FROLLICKING!" - Leah

• "Leah won't floss with me!" - David

• "Oh! Ah! Ow! You guys! Ow! I've got ants in my pants!" - Jamie

• "I pulled you over for two reasons. The first one....ummm...you were parked facing the wrong direction and the second one...uhhh...ummm...you were speeding, yeah speeding." - Theiving Cop

• "You guys, I found this Sherlock Holmes book in the bathroom!" - Jamie

• "My dog just goes crazy in this heat, he doesn't listen to me or anything." - Mike talking about his pitbull of which Jamie was deathly afraid (she then proceeded to hop in the truck and shut the door.)

• "PARTY WAVE!!!" - Paul & Zack

• "Oh I thought we could ride double on the wave." - Ryan

• "Booty booty booty booty!" surfer yelling at Ryan in the stinkbug stance

Nicknames:

Leah - Pambo, The Local
Jamie - Praying Manits, El Dragon de Komodo
Ryan - Stinkbug, Booty Booty Booty

For photos from the road trip go here http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanuzbord/sets/72157601519656470/