After Ella's dentist appointment we drove over the mountains to the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. Byodo-In Temple is a scale replica of a 900-year-old Japanese temple and is built entirely without nails. The golden Buddha in the temple is thought to be the largest figure carved since ancient times and it's more than 18 feet high. It made us miss Korea and all the beautiful temples; even wishing we could go back and let Ella explore a different culture.
We had a play date with some friends at the Children's museum. Lots of fun stuff for the kids and lots of friends to play with!
Lots of job exploring...should I be a fire fighter? a judge? a mechanic? or go into dance? or theatre? or better yet...travel the world! The possibilities are endless!
If I haven't mentioned, Ella loves her swim lessons and as it was the last day of the session, she posed with her little swim boyfriend, Hiroshi and then chilled next to Samson.
Ella banged her head on her table tonight trying to reach down for something. A little misjudgment = a whole lotta screaming. She has a sizable goose egg that formed seconds after the impact but a freezie pop and some ice helped... of course in the life of a toddler, no "boo boo" is complete without the appropriate bandage, with or in Ella's case, without blood :)
Ella's lessons are going so well and she's a natural in the water. She can't float, though she has the technique and effort down, she just doesn't have enough body fat to be buoyant. She swims a few strokes, with and without "big arms" and will kick all the way to the side of the pool, face in the water. I could technically say she can swim if it wasn't for the floating issue... when it's time for her to breathe, she stands up, takes a breath, and proceeds on.
This session, there aren't a lot of kids so most days it's just Ella and Samson. He is so good with her and he's getting her to do things like the cannonball float that the older kids do. Samson also has her diving for dive rings at the bottom of the pool in 5 feet of water - she loves it! Last week, he taught her to go headfirst down the slide... though isn't that against some pool rule?? :) And today, she jumped off the diving board into the deep end. Aside from a little help treading water and a shove towards the ladder, she did it all on her own. I'll bring my camera next time and post some pics...
We took Ella hiking today up Kolekole Pass. She hikes the whole thing herself and declares at the top, "Let's go hiking again and again." Loosely translated means, "Why are we stopping?" It took a little effort and Ron's "noculars" to get her to take in the view and enjoy the rest before heading right back down :)
After Ella's dentist appointment we drove over the mountains to the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. Byodo-In Temple is a scale replica of a 900-year-old Japanese temple and is built entirely without nails. The golden Buddha in the temple is thought to be the largest figure carved since ancient times and it's more than 18 feet high. It made us miss Korea and all the beautiful temples; even wishing we could go back and let Ella explore a different culture.
Today was Ella's last gymnastics class. She doesn't know it but we didn't sign her up for next month as we might be leaving the island in September. She's been with her gymnastics BFF, Jenesis, and coaches Lawrence and Utah, for the past year and a half... it was a sad day for me as I realized we are coming to the end of our time in Hawaii and slowly things will be wrapping up :(
We had a play date with some friends at the Children's museum. Lots of fun stuff for the kids and lots of friends to play with!
We wrapped up the day with a nice family dinner at Ala Moana.
From there, we took Tantalus Drive which claims to be one of the most peaceful drives on Oahu despite being minutes from the bustle and congestion of Honolulu. Tantalus Drive winds its way into the hills of the Honolulu Forest Reserve at the foothills of the Koolau Mountain range and is indeed very quiet and remote. We had a picnic lunch at Puu Ualaokua Park at a summit of 2000 feet, and had spectacular view of Downtown Honolulu, Waikiki Beach and Pearl Harbour. Gorgeous!
