Whales Tails!!!!

I'm in Maui!!!! Can you believe it? Well, it's true! I got in last night. My brother Jeff, his wife Sally and son Joe moved here in September. They live in an awesome 3 bedroom condo in South Kihei, on the West side of Maui, RIGHT across the street from the Ocean!!!!!

My sister Kathy and her son Max and I are here for a week. It's nearing the end of the first day and my arms and my back are already sunburned!

This morning, I was lying in bed...awake...waiting impatiently for everyone else to get up. I had no idea what time it was, but I heard someone stirring. When my brother stuck his head in to wake Kathy and I up, I jumped up and said "Finally! I've been awake forever!!! I'm SO excited!!!!" It was about 5:30, Hawaii time.

We were on the East side of Maui getting on a boat called the "Quicksilver" by 6:30. There was a continental brakfast served while we cruised over to Molokini (That's that half moon Island in the picture, actually the tip of an ancient volcano) to go snorkeling. I managed to get a lime green snorkel and a wetsuit that also had lime green!!!! By the way, I caught my leg in the zipper. Looks like a hicke on my leg. No, REALLY! Kevin, I swear, it's from the wetsuit zipper! Then they took us to Turtle Town, where Jeff, Joe and I looked everywhere for Turtles but didn't see any, Kathy swam off in another direction and saw 2 or 3, and Max stayed on the boat and layed in the sun. We did see quite a few turtles from the boat. Joe and I came back to the boat and jumped off the jump and slid off the slide a bunch of timed before lunch. They served us BBQ chicken burgers and pasta salad. MMMMMMMM!!!!!

Then they just cruised around with us, giving us a tour of this and that. We saw a 200 year old lava flow, which we will be hiking over later this week, and a nude beach. We weren't close enough to see the nudity, thank God!!!!

After we got back and showered, Kathy and Max and I stopped into the "Bad Ass Coffee Company", checked out the shops down the street, and stopped by the pupu lounge and had a couple $1 Mai Tai's. Well, Max didn't have any Mai Tai's.

I love it here!!!!!!!!!

Ok, then Jeff, Sally, Kathy and I went to the beach and swam, played in the water, boogie boarded (where one of my girls, ms. right, decided to peek out and say hello), walked around, and watched the GORGEOUS sunset.

Now we are sitting around, Sally made us salmon and salads, we played cards a little, and they're all in there watching the Apprentice (which I hate) while I'm in here typing this. I think that's about it from today!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta go, Medium is on!!!!

St Patrick's Day

Kevin and his friends and I went to Ballard. They were serving green PBR and green jello shots. I went ahead and had my share for the year. I had to get up early the next morning and dig a ditch in my front yard. My brother Mike came over and helped me put in a new pipe. And by "helping", I mean I watched while he put the new pipe in.

And the Oscar goes to....

Ok, so I had an Oscar Party. It was pretty funny! We had a poster with Oscar drinking rules. Anytime someone thanked their parents, cried, kissed the presenter, used the word "powerful", mentioned "Brokeback Mountain" or if the camera showed George Cloony, Reese Witherspoon, Ang Lee, Keith Ledger, etc. I picked up an Oscar and a clap-board (or whatever it's called) at Display and Costume. Anyways, it was a riot all around. We had bets for certain things, one was who will spill the first drink. When Shawna spilled her wine, EVERYONE yealled "I won!!!". It was pretty hysterical.

Norman the Crawdad (Fat Tuesday)

I'm going to Hawaii!!!!!!!! I got my tickets on Priceline, $484, including taxes and I got the insurance in case I'm "sick" (aka: decide to stay a couple extra days). Not bad! I leave on the 19th and come home on the 26th (March).

April, Alma, Megan, Scottie B, Kevin and I went to the Celtic Bayou for Fat Tuesday! April got a crawdad and named him Norman. He had his own beads and a beer, but then Kevin smashed him. We tried to rebuild Norman using toothpicks and a hush puppy, but it didn't really work. So, we got another crawdad and named him Norman II. I was supposed to bring him home and shallack him, but I accidentally left him at J Michael's. Erin tried to save him for me in the fridge, but someone threw him out.

Kevin says that if you crush the head while you suck on it, more stuff comes out.

We dressed poor Kevin up in Christmas lights. That's what happens when you refuse to put beads on. Good thing there was an electric outlet right next to our table!

I gave up all junk food and deep fried food for lent. Megan gave up beer. We'll see how this goes.