october!

I'm falling behind, even for me.  WHATEVER.

this photo is significant because it may have been my last trip up to the metroplex to record this show.  who knows.  I can't remember if I wrote about it, but I took my producer to lunch in August and told him I didn't want to make the trip anymore.  After 9-ish years, it's just not as easy as it used to be.  I did my best to keep all my bridges intact, and told him I understood if the company chose to recast my ongoing role as the character pictured here.  as far as I know, they're considering letting me record the show from here, which would be great.  either way, I feel good about it.

  

we took a trip.  that's mgb @ the airport.

these were our digs.  disgusting, I know.

it was super-gross inside, too.

when we booked our stay, we got a rate with breakfast thrown in every morning.  this decision was worth every cent.  below is the breakfast buffet (there's a whole other omelet station around the corner back there), and it was amazing.  

the dining room.  as I became more acclimated to the island over the few days I was there, my attitude went from 'there are BIRDS flying in here where we EAT!' to 'we should be more connected to nature back home.  why are people so uptight about God's creatures?  let's knock down some walls!'

our first morning, we explored around the hotel:

hotel waterslide!

the pink dot in the middle is me.

I was amazed at the topography of the island.  this was taken on our way to the north end of the island to go zip lining.  it felt so flat and remote, and the water was really electric-looking over the lava fields.

after our zip lining adventure (which was great), we drove down an amazingly windy road through lush greenery to the Pololu Valley Overlook.  This location was used at the beginning of the film Jurrasic Park.  :)  we hiked down a bit, and were so very glad we made this stop.

we'd scoped out a local eatery for dinner in nearby Hawi.  here's mgb taking it all in before dinner.

the Bamboo Restaurant was delicious.

on Sunday, we decided to attend the church service at the hotel's chapel.  this was the view to my right.  I know, blech.

after church, we grabbed a burger at one of the best burger places on the Big Island and headed to Greenwell Farms for a tour and tons of free coffee sampling.  the dilapidated structure below is part of the old mill... the new structure is just across the driveway.

the coffee cherries are drying/resting.  those are retractable roofs back there, that cover the coffee when it rains.

mgb snapped this photo of me among the coffee plants.

and this is what greeted us at the end!  nice people and free coffee!  we purchased some to bring home, too.

we drove further south to find something on the map called The Painted Church.  It was raining and the roads became tiny and windy, with drop-offs to the sides that had me holding my breath at times.  But I loved that we went there.

this part of the island overwhelmed me with flora.  it's incredibly lush and living.

this photo doesn't do it justice... this is back on the 'main' road, but still the incredibly varied topography of the Big Island is wild.

we went back up to Kona, to check out where mgb would be working.  in the water are some ironman competitors, training and such.

on the advice of the rental car dude, we walked down to huggo's for dinner.

that guy was right, huggo's is fantastic.  here's mgb being emo.  it was about this time that I was freaking out at what a blessed existence we had.

the next morning was our snorkeling caper!  I'm so glad we did this.  I'm a) scared of sharks and b) had a bad snorkeling experience the first time I tried it, but this trip was great.

approaching our destination:

our snorkeling tour was only 3-4 hrs from start to finish, but I felt like we were on a boat through the evening.  we hung out at the pool, and went to the luau that evening. 

this guy.  he was great.

we even got a luau prom photo for all posterity.  drink it in, people:

following breakfast buffet and another session poolside, we made a quick stop in Kona for a few souvenirs and some Indian food.

and mgb dropped me back off at the open air airport.

while I prepared to fly home and re-enter life-away-from-hawaii, mgb got to work.

home!  blurry!  a HUGE shout-out to grammy and opa and marmee, who looked after our girls for us.

souvenir t-shirts:

and october-houston kept rolling along:

we happened upon the Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival at The Nature Discovery Center:

I read audiobooks:

and everyone started getting sick.  the girls being sick at the same time is actually kind of a help.

I had an hour left to read on a book and was in a time crunch.  this is what it looks like for Maggie to come to work with Mama.

ruby's halloween costume from last year fit!  so we work it to church.

but for real, we had bugs covered this year.  here's ladybug mags (in red) at her pre-school's costume parade (I had to work all day, so dear friends snapped some photos for me):

and BOOM!  there was october.