Breakfast with the kids

On the second day of our vacation our son Justin, his fiancee' Ande and their friend Matt decided to come over and fix us breakfast. Justin never really showed any interest in cooking while he was living at home but that changed when he went away to college. Now he loves to cook! Here he is whipping up a batch of banana pancakes. He also fried up spam and Portuguese sausage. Ande made scrambled eggs, fried rice and taro bread toast. We had enough food to feed an army!

Fresh sliced papaya.

Pastries from Napoleon's Bakery.

Ande, Matt and Justin putting the finishing touches on breakfast.

Justin giving the thumbs up sign. (Did you notice how he resembles the character on his t-shirt?) Lol!

After breakfast Justin and our good friend Rich took a nap on the lounge chairs. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Oahu ~ 2009

We just returned from our visit to Oahu and I can't wait to go back. We rented a house on the beach in Hauula and this was the view from our front deck. Gorgeous!

I took this photo of a rainbow while standing on the deck of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor.

We also visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation. There were many different types of pineapples on display. I don't recall which type of pineapple this is... it was interesting to see it actually growing on the plant!

A fat little bird at the Dole Plantation. Isn't it cute?

I took dozens of flower photos on our trip. Here's a beautiful orange hibiscus...

I'll be posting more photos soon. These are just a few of my favorites.

Camera Critters #49

I love taking pictures of Trooper in the snow because his black fur shows up so well against the white snow.

Trooper was in a shady spot so I used the flash for this photo...

Unfortunately our snow is no longer white and pristine. The brown, fuzzy thing under Trooper's mouth is his teddy bear toy.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Click here to see more Camera Critters!

Not exactly an Academy Award winner...

I finally figured out how to shoot a video with my new camera... it was very easy to do. Poor sleepy Kalea Kitty was my first test subject. Here she is yawning and attacking my fingers.

Camera Critters #48

You are my sunshine...

My only sunshine...

You make me happy...

When skies are grey... (Trooper LOVES to bask in the sunshine!)

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You Are My Sunshine ~ Words & Music by Jimmy Davis and Charles Mitchell

Camera Critters #47

This interesting critter is a Badger and he's a resident of the Living Desert Wildlife and Botanical Park in Palm Desert, CA.

A brief history of the badger. (You can click on the photo to enlarge the image.)

He had a beautiful fur coat.

You can see his long claws in this photo. Even though he had a docile appearance, I didn't try to pet him!

Now I'm going to badger you to click here to see more wonderful camera critters!

Camera Critters #46

Anyone who shops at Costco knows that there's usually an assortment of odd shaped boxes at the check-out stands. Kalea Kitty loves the Costco boxes... here she is inspecting a Mango Nectar box.

After she climbed out of the box, I flipped it over and placed her toy mice on top. See how she eyeballs the mice while pretending to rub her chin on the corner of the box?

I captured her "innocent look" while she was peeking through the cardboard cut outs...

Here we see her "evil look"... this photo reminds me of the old cartoons where the cat is peering into the mouse hole at the terrified mice. Eeek!

If you would like to see more Camera Critters, click here to go to Misty's Camera Critters page!

Camera Critters #45

In addition to being Valentine's Day, February 14th is also Trooper's 1st birthday. This is Trooper's actual Humane Society photo. Look at how small he was!

Here's our little guy on the day we brought him home.

Not everyone was thrilled about the new addition to our family. Lol!

Trooper is a wonderful hiking companion...

And he always keeps us laughing!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!


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Camera Critters #44

A couple of mornings ago, I noticed Kalea Kitty staring at something on our front deck. She was chattering her teeth and twitching her tail so I knew she was excited about something!

At first I thought she was looking at this guy...

But when I followed her line of sight I noticed this Northern Flicker hanging nearly upside-down on the bottom of the bird feeder. Luckily my camera was nearby and I was able to take a couple of pictures before the Flicker flew away. (You can enlarge the image by clicking on the photo.)

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Camera Critters #43

Mr. Mallard: "If you need me, I'll be over at Daffy's place watching the big game on TV."

Mrs. Mallard: "But you promised to patch the hole in the nest today!"

Mr. Mallard: "Now don't get your feathers ruffled!. I'll patch the nest tomorrow..."

Mrs. Mallard: "But that's what you said LAST weekend! Quack, quack, quack!!!"

"Well fine... I'll just waddle over and say hello to the funny lady with the camera!"

"Hello funny lady with the camera! Do you have any food for me?"

"Make sure you capture my good side!"

"I'm home honey! What's for supper? Cheese and Quackers?"

Click here to see more feathered and non-feathered Camera Critters!

Camera Critters #42

We went to Lake Arrowhead last weekend with Wilbur and Einstein's mom and dad. Lake Arrowhead is a fun place to spend the day. There's a nice variety of shops and restaurants and of course the beautiful lake to enjoy!


As we were walking around the lake front I noticed this cute dog walking towards me wearing sunglasses. You can't see it in this photo but he's also wearing a jacket that says SEARCH DOG. I took a picture of him and went on my way. (You can click on the photos to view a larger image.)


While we were browsing through some of the village shops I noticed the same dog sitting on a bench with his owner. You can see a portion of his orange and yellow jacket in this photo.

When I approached him he turned and looked at me over the top of his sunglasses. He also stuck his tongue out at me!

"Yeah, I'm cool!"

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