Sunday, June 29, 2008

News about D.C.

I know a lot of ya'll are wondering if we have heard anything about the D.C. job, so we will share the latest with you. Eric had a great trip to D.C. and loved everything about getting around the big city and the whole atmosphere of that setting. However, he was not chosen to be one of the next PA's to serve in the White House. We are disappointed, but know that he gave it his best shot and for what ever reason was not the one the panel chose to select. We will keep you all posted on any updates we hear about his upcoming deployment, etc......

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support this last week. We all really felt the prayers and enjoyed a week filled with a peace that we haven't felt since we got to this island. Now, we have to try to find that peace again and deal with the daily struggles that living here presents.

We love you all and miss you dearly!! Please keep praying!

MiMi & Pop Pop come back to Hawaii

Mom & Dad came back for a visit to Hawaii this month. We were able to see Lanikai beach (sooooo pretty) and we hiked Diamond Head (without the kids, thank goodness!). Eric took them to see the Polynesian Cultural Center and to the Iolani palace. They had a really great time and got to spend a lot of time with the girls. After their loooong trip home, which included an unexpected stop at the ER in Salt Lake City, it may be a while before they get back on a plane to come see us again! Enjoy the pictures!


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

BIG BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

We have some news to report here in the Baroni household.......

Many of you may have known that Eric applied for a position at the White House to be a PA there.

WELL......he got asked to come for an interview in a couple of weeks!! We are very very excited, and hope that he gets it! He will be flying out on the 22nd and will be interviewing on the 24th and 25th at the White House. This would be a great opportunity for Eric as well as us as a family. We definitely appreciate your prayers on these days regarding this matter, both if Eric gets the job, and if he doesn't, b/c then we would be facing another 2 years here and that could be very difficult.......

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know!!! How many of ya'll thought our big news was we were expecting? Are you crazy?????? Not yet!!HA HA HA

Memorial Day fun

We FINALLY got to go on a short trip over Memorial Day Weekend. We went with our friends Beth and James and really had a good time! I think we squeezed as much into the short time we were there! We left Oahu around 9:30 on Saturday morning and got to Hilo around 10:15. Once we picked up our rental cars, we were off on our road trip! Our first stop was the volcano!



James is checking out the steam vents where steam from the volcano seeps out of cracks in the Earth's surface. These obviously are man-made, but you can find them all around the park!


Family pic in front of the volcano. This eruption started about 2 or 3 months ago and caused a pretty big hole in the side of the crater. Pretty cool to get to see it!


Emerson and Macie posing in front of the crater at the observatory.


This is the Thurston Lava tube, where lava flowed during an eruption many many years ago. You can walk all the way through it.

This is inside the lava tube. No clue who the random stranger is in our picture or why he is looking back at us and "posing"!!


Because of the eruption currently happening, we weren't able to travel all around the national park. (too much dangerous air and sulfur dioxide to be safe). So, we ventured down route 130 where there is a lookout where you can see the lava hitting the ocean, and you can see where the lava damaged and took out an entire neighborhood back in 1983 or 1984. Pretty neat stuff!
Even though she doesn't look it, Emerson is thrilled to be standing on lava!


Here we all are (minus Eric, he's taking the picture) walking to the viewing area where you can see the lava.



And here is where the lava meets the ocean. Every once in a while you could see flashes of red as it hit the water, but mostly you just saw steam. Pretty darn cool, though!

If you look closely, you can see the steam coming up out of the earth as the lava flows from the site of the eruption, down the mountain and into the water. The lava is flowing underground and you can only see the steam escaping through the vents.

On our last day, we went to Akaka falls. Fans of Fantasy Island may remember these falls, as this is the one used in the opening scene (I believe). Pretty cool to see such a huge waterfall!
And Emerson and I stood next to a GIANT fern in the rainforest to have our picture taken! Can you believe how big this thing is?!?!?
We definitely enjoyed our trip to the big island. We hope to get back there sometime soon to do some more exploring!!