Snogging Anyone?

In honor of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, we spent Monday evening and all day Tuesday watching the first five Harry Potter movies in order.

For breakfast Tuesday morning, we had pumpkin pasties (pumpkin muffins). For dinner, we tried to find an English recipe that looked edible, but blood sausage casserole, beef and liver stew and beef and kidney pie just did not whet our appetites. We noticed, however, that the British eat all sorts of pies, so we developed our own meat pie recipe. I dare any Brit to come up with a yummier meat pie recipe. It was so good, we added it to our recipe collection. We also celebrated with Butterbeer (spiced-up vanilla ice cream served in sparkling apple juice) and fruit pies (peach, pumpkin and apple).

At 11:00 pm, Rob left with the older four kids to attend the premier showing of Harry Potter at the theater down town. They got to the theater 1/2 hour early only to find that Maui has more Harry Potter fans than we anticipated. They found a madhouse -- Harry Potter maniacs everywhere, some even dressed up. What they didn't find was good seating. Their theater (and three others) were entirely full and there were ticket-checkers at the doors, so you could not switch theaters. They did not get to sit together. Jairin found a single seat near the top and opted to sit alone in a good seat rather than with the others. Adam and Miri sat on the second row on the side, and Rob and Kamri sat on the first row in the corner. They came home at 3 am with aching necks.

Rob and I went the next night.

Our opinion of the movie? -- great acting and a somewhat dark and disconnected plot held together with a lot of humorous snogging.

Everything grows in Volcanic Dirt

One of Rob's favorite past times is gardening and what better place to garden than Maui with its nutrient-filled red volcanic dirt and year-round temperate climate.

Me--- I enjoy the fresh produce, but I have a brown thumb and everything I touch dies. Actually, I have only to look at some plants before they wither and die, which is why all the plants in our house are fake. Besides, I hate dirt on my feet and dirt under my nails. I also hate dirt in the house, but I'm having to tolerate more of that here on Maui --my price for paradise :-). So, I am happy to have a husband with a green thumb who enjoys gardening. This way, we follow the commandment to have a garden, but I only have to reap the rewards. Some of the little Brantleys appear to be taking after their dad, particularly Jairin, Miri and Aria who love to help water the garden and pick the vegetables.




Unfortunately, the climate also lends itself to fungus, so now the gardeners are trying to save their tomato crop, which has been smitten with blight.

Messes with Mommy

The three little girls love to help Mommy make bread. And because they enjoy it so much, Mommy is happy to clean up the mess.

Happy Tutu to Lana who is two

Lana waited and waited through six birthdays for it to finally be her turn to have a "Happy Tutu" as she calls it. Her 2nd birthday was the day we returned from our family vacation to the Big Island, so after Lucky Charms (her favorite cereal) for breakfast, she got to ride in an airplane. She likes the pink juice (POG -Passion-orange-guava) that Hawaiian airlines serves. She remembered the juice from our flight a week earlier, so as soon as we were buckled in, she said, "Mommy, where's my pink juice?" The flight is so short that the flight attendants pass out the POG, collect the trash five minutes later and then we land.

As soon as we returned home, we made Lana's pink birthday cake. She loves pink! If you ask her, "What's your doll's name?" her answer is "Pink." If you say, "What color are your eyes?" her answer is "pink." She wants the pink plate, the pink cup, the pink ice cream cone, the pink straw and her pink Sunday dress. Everything pink.

She also loves Baby Einstein movies which she calls "Baby On-Kon." So we made a strawberry pink cake with pink frosting and then decorated it with the Baby Einstein logo and two pink candles. She wanted to help make her cake because she knows the helper gets to lick the spoon.











She loves watermelon, chicken nuggets, french fries and most of all ketchup, so guess what we ate for dinner?

She knew just how to blow out her two pink candles.....

and just how to eat her pink cake.
Her gifts were the newest Baby Einstein movie, a set of click-together beads to make jewelry, a water table with mermaids to play in the water, and a purse. Inside the purse was lip gloss and ice-breakers --pink, of course. Aria and Joelle both got ice breakers and lip gloss for their birthdays, so Lana has been waiting/expecting to receive her own. The little girls like to use "makeup" and Lana has picked up on this. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said, "Make-up, wip gwoss (lip gloss) and ice-bwakers (ice breakers)." The ice-breakers turned out to be her favorite present. She carried them around everywhere for the next few days. Whenever she couldn't locate them, she would come running to ask, "Mommy, where's my ice-bwakers?"

Every day she comes to me with her swim suit and says, "Mommy, happy tutu water thing." She likes to put on her swim suit and play in the water with Joelle.




She is growing up too fast.

Big Island Adventure -- Part 2

The day after our green-sand beach adventure, we went to Volcanoes National Park. First we saw the steam vents.
Next we hiked through an enormous lava-tube. This is the entrance to the lava tube. The first part of the lava tube was lit. This is from inside the lava-tube looking out. Part of the lava tube branched off into another tube that was not lit but that you could explore if you had a flashlight. Jairin is standing in front of this branch.The kids climbed a little way into the branch, as far as they could go and still see light. As they were returning to the main tube, a couple just leaving the branch gave them two flashlights. The kids were thrilled. Of course, now that there were flashlights, the little girls didn't want to be left out, so I climbed down with them, and we walked quite a distance into a very very dark lava tube. We turned back when we could no longer walk forward but had to start climbing up. The older kids wanted to explore it longer, but we had other things to see.

We drove part way around the crater of the volcano and stopped a couple times to look down into it. At least half of the road was closed due to poisonous volcanic gasses which were seeping from the crater and blowing across the road. Actually the gasses are blowing all the way to Maui which is why we've had so much vog (volcanic fog) lately.

That evening, we drove to the part of the island where you can see real lava flowing down the mountain and dropping into the sea. Unfortunately, you cannot get very close anymore. When Rob and I were on the Big Island four years ago, you could hike in two miles and see the lava up close. (I was eight months pregnant then, too, so we chose not to hike but now wish we had anyway.) Now you hike in 1/2 mile and look off into the distance. During the day, you can see the great clouds of steam coming off of the ocean. When it is dark, the giant clouds of gas and steam are orange with an occasional instance where you can see the lava explode into the air. At night you can also see the orange lava running down the mountain side, although this picture does not give a very clear view. This is a picture of the children on the lava we hiked across, before it got dark enough to see the fresh lava flow. We stayed in Hilo one more night. Other highlights of Hilo were touring the macadamia nut farm and learning how difficult it is to harvest macadamia nuts, visiting the candy factory and buying chocolate dipped shortbread cookies and the absolute best brownies I've ever eaten (dark chocolate-coconut brownies), seeing Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls and eating sub sandwiches at Subway (most of the older kids had never had Subway sandwiches and were looking forward to trying them) :-).

The next morning, we left early to drive the rest of the way around the island. The scenery is spectacular and ever-changing. I read somewhere once that the Big Island has something like seven of the earth's nine ecosystems. This is apparent as you drive around the island. One minute everything is rain forest. Go around the next bend and suddenly it's savanna. A few curves later -- desert. It's quite amazing. Much of the island is just black lava rock.

We drove up to the very top of the island as well, to a little town called Hawi. There we saw the birthplace of King Kamehameha II who united the Hawaiian islands, and more beautiful scenery. We ended up back where we started, in Kona, for two nights in a condominium--plenty of space and a kitchen and washing machine. The strangest palm tree we have ever seen was very near to our condo.

While in Kona the second time, Rob and I attended an evening session at the temple. The next morning, Rob took Adam and Kamri (her first time) to do baptisms for the dead. That was a special experience because the Kona Temple is the temple assigned to the Maui saints, but the likelihood of us being there very often is slim. So we are happy that Kamri had the opportunity to attend the temple for the first time.

We flew back to Maui on Lana's second birthday. It was only a 25 minute flight. With eight children, that's my kind of flight :-)!

We enjoyed our family vacation and hope to take the children to see some other islands in the future.

Big Island Adventure -- Part 1

Yesterday (Sat.) was Caroline's worst day since we moved to Maui 10 months ago. She screamed all day except for 2 hrs. after her first dose of hydrocodone and 1/2 hr. after her second dose of hydrocodone. When the hydrocodone doesn't even work, (it's supposed to last for 4 hrs.) it is a sad sad day. I even tried two enemas which sometimes work. Rob was gone all day, so I was very glad to have our aid here to help with Caroline. Were it not for her help, I would likely be in the insane asylum today. As it is, I am home from church with Caroline. Thankfully, she is not screaming, but she is still not happy. Maybe it is because we are slowly weaning her off of her growth therapy hormones. Whatever the reason, I have some time to work on this neglected blog.

The last week in June, we had our family vacation -- a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. Our plane tickets, 5-star hotel









and cars for the first two days were funded by Edward Jones. There is a summer conference every year on one of the islands which is all-expense-paid for the entire family the first year. It was a great perk for us, but I'll bet this is the most EJ has ever had to pay to get an entire family to a summer conference!

We flew to Kona on Friday morning and participated in the EJ conference through Sun. morning. They gave us three rooms for two nights which was really nice because we usually squash all ten of us into two rooms. We didn't have to try as hard to keep things quiet for Caroline since she didn't have to share a room with noisy little girls. Caroline had a couple of bad-ish days (which means she had to have hydrocodone a few times), but over all, she did really well.

The hotel had a great pool/jacuzzi for me and the little girls. The older kids spent a little time in the pool, but the best part for them was the beautiful white sand beach, one of the nicest in all of Hawaii. Most of the beaches on the Big Island are awful -- no sand just black volcanic rock. Of course, the five-star hotel got the prime beach.

It wasn't the white sand that the kids loved, however. It was the monstrous waves. Part of the time, the waves were so big that I wouldn't even let them go without Rob. And even Rob was getting tossed around like a rag doll. The girls are timid and therefore cautious, but I don't think the boys realize how dangerous the ocean can really be, especially Jairin. Sometimes I'm glad we don't live nearer to the beach because I sometimes fear for their lives. But they live for 12 ft. waves. I guess they need to learn to surf.

Rob was in meetings during the days, so the kids and I played, watched TV and swam. The highlight of the conference for us was the mock American Idol talent show the first night we were there. Rob performed twice--first in a group number spoof on Gladys Knight and the Pips (Gladys White and the Pips). They did "Midnight Train to Georgia" and it was a huge hit. Rob also sang the country solo "Keeper of the Stars." You can see him here decked out as one of the "pips" in a hat with a green band, green sunglasses, a fur-lined green cape, a green sash and all sorts of bangles and silver necklaces.

He was a background dancer/singer, and he by far had the most rhythm and moves. His second number stole the show. He was by far the best -- and I'm not being prejudiced :-)! He was the only one to receive a standing ovation. And all the other EJ people talked about his singing for the rest of the conference. Too bad there was no contract-signing afterwards. I guess he'll just have to keep pounding on doors trying to find clients. Maybe if he sings to them..........?

Since we were already on the Big Island, we made this trip our annual family vacation by extending our stay for five more days so that we could see the island. So, after the conference ended, we traded in our two cars for a 12-passenger van and set off to see the island. We drove south from Kona around the bottom of the island and up the other side. The Kona area was beautiful and lush green with mangoes and palms everywhere. Our first stop was Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (place of refuge), an ancient Hawaiian village to which criminals seeking asylum fled. We took pictures by the many hand-carved tiki statues which were looking out to sea. Rob thinks he remembers visiting this place as a child.

Next we continued on to the very tip of the island which is actually the southern-most point in the United States.

Nearby (by this I mean a few minutes/miles) was a green sand beach, one of the only green sand beaches in the world.

The sand is green due to the gemstone peridot which is ground together with the volcanic rock. I have always wanted to see this beach and my desires must have rubbed off onto the children because they begged to stop and see it. Now the catch is that you cannot drive all the way to the beach in a normal vehicle. We got as close as we could and then consulted our guides which gave varying opinions as to how far we would have to walk to see it. We decided it was probably a couple of miles, but the children (except for Kamri who is not the adventurous type) really wanted to see it. Rob didn't think it was a good idea because it was already late afternoon, and we still had quite a drive ahead of us. But the arguments of "this may be our only chance," and "we'll probably never be here again" finally won him over. When he said, "Go ahead," Adam, Jairin and Miri took off as fast as they could before he could change his mind and before we could work out the details. We didn't have time to make a plan before the three kids had disappeared into the distance. Now it was necessary that one of us go with them, so I took the three little girls, who didn't want to be left behind, and started after the older kids. Rob was going to stay with Caroline and Kamri. We had to go very slowly, however, because I was 8 months pregnant and the little girls, especially Lana, couldn't go very fast. I had to carry her much of the way which slowed me down even more.

Now I will say here that this is one of the dumbest things we've ever done. We were in dresses, and sandals/crocs; we had no water and no idea how far we were going to have to walk. But we couldn't just let the older kids go by themselves. About a mile down the road, the little girls said, "Here comes Daddy." Rob had decided he couldn't let his pregnant wife walk for who knows how far carrying a toddler. So, without thinking of putting on his hiking shoes, he came after us. He ended up carrying Lana most of the way while wearing crocs on his bad feet. He paid the price later with horrible foot pain and back pain. We walked and walked and walked --following the sea line. A couple of trucks passed us and told us we had a long way to go, but we still couldn't see the other kids, so there was nothing to do but keep going.

After walking for what seemed like forever, we finally got to the top of a ridge which looked down over the green sand beach. For being off of the beaten path, there were certainly a lot of people there.

The older kids had gone all the way down the steep hill, filled up their water bottles with green sand

and were just about to begin the trek back

when we finally caught up to them. The rest of us didn't even bother to climb clear down to the beach, so all we have are pictures to prove we've seen it.

Unfortunately, we had to hike back to the van. The poor little girls were so tired and thirsty. I think we walked for 3+ hrs. -- probably 4 or 5 miles. It was definitely not a 2 mile hike!! To top it off, when we got back to the van, Caroline had had a stinky diaper and had been sitting in it for who knows how long. Kamri had to just leave her sitting in her seat because she could in no way change Caroline herself. I had to laugh. What else could I do? It turned out to be one of those experiences in which you laugh or cry, so I laughed and laughed and laughed. I call it "a journal-worthy experience" which is why it is in my blog. And now that it is over, we are happy to have the green sand to add to our collection of black sand, white sand and red sand....... I think.

We were all very glad to climb into the van and sit while we drove the two more hours to our priceline hotel. We made one more stop along the way to check out a black sand beach which turned out to be no better than our Maui black sand beach. This is the three little girls enjoying a little snack near the beach.

Our hotel was not a five-star by any means, but there was a pool, and the beds were soft which is unusual in a lower-class hotel. We certainly slept very well that night.