Hike additions

Mommy and Grace went back up the mountain all the way to the waterfall this time.  Grace had gone with Daddy up a different trail on a much awaited hike a few weeks ago. They lost the trail, ran out of water, got bee stings and spikey tree scratches hunting for the way down.  So she was rather nervous to be going again.  But we took the "easy" trail and found the waterfall.  Grace certainly recovered her joy of hiking and exploring - she readily agreed to follow the stream back down instead of the trail... and did it in bare feet!!

We met three young men camping/living by the waterfall. One of them offered mommy a small cup of coffee. She who doesn't drink coffee because of the jitters it gives her and doesn't like the taste... drank it and really enjoyed it!  Perhaps brewed-on-a-rock-in-the-middle-of-a-stream-waterfall coffee is a different drink all together :)

Monday Morning Visitor

Accompanied by lots of laughter, shrieking, chasing, and pleas to keep it as a pet!

Impromptu Hike

One evening this week I ran away. We had gone to the park to run and the kids to play, but Aiden wasn't about to let me run in peace... wailing and screeching after me, so I got him distracted and ran off up to our usual place to run, leaving Daddy running around the kids playing.  But the running place was full of people walking, running, visiting, so I just kept going through the gate and up the mountain behind us.
Grace and Daddy went up a week or so ago, and I wanted to see what it was like... I found my peace and plenty of green!

 The first breather point with a view. Our building is too far to the right to see.

 Turquoise plant with pink tips!

 Stream bed jungle view

 Some kind of hive or cocoon?  I didn't see any insects or openings.  And it is huge - see how it has bowed down the bamboo - it is at least the size of a soccer ball.

 I found a small dam with abandoned waterworks where I sat for a good while in the stillness. I'm definitely going again!

A native unique tree: pelawan with it's distinctive red, flaky bark.  It always makes me think of cinnamon...

A Few things that have happened around here

 

We revamped our School wall.  Still on the theme of Excellence, but much different than before.  The girls came up with a new word and we took a day or two to create and color it while listening to audio books.  A great summer school!

 We finally finished our year of Ocean Creatures study from Apologia.  We loved it so much we're planning to do the rest of the series.  Each week or so, we chose a creature we'd been studying to model and add to our ocean boxes. The girls can tell you weird and wonderful facts about all sorts of ocean creatures now! Next up is Flying Creatures. Other than new pictures for the frames, Mommy is not sure how to turn this ocean display into sky...

We are swimming lots, and spending many evenings on the beach.  The rainy season isn't so rainy this year, so there are lots of chances.  And now that we need to find new friends... pool and beach are great for fun alone and finding new people to hang out with.

We are also getting more mileage out of the park on our road.  A rare storm blew through and brought down a tree.  The three kids enjoy playing with the branches - and the newly done playground.