Every five years the Rahjes family gets together at the farm where my mom grew up for a reunion. It is SO fun! The farm is a perfect place for the reunion because there is so much for everyone to do! At one time, I looked around and there were at least four different games going on, in addition the the kids playing in their "secret hideout" that Brady had found. We spent three days almost entirely outside. We had the added bonus of unseasonably cool weather (highs in the 80's - unusual for Kansas!)
The first "reunion" we had was 10 years ago, before Aaron and Mia were born. Each time the family gets bigger and bigger! Aaron and Mia were really looking forward to meeting their cousins. My cousin, Kimberly, posted some great pictures from the reunion on her blog. (She also wrote a nice post about my brother, Bryan - check it out if you have some time.)
Kimberly took most of the kids for rides on the four wheeler. Mia wanted to go FAST and Aaron thought the slow speed was just fine.
Brady had collected some toads in a container and the kids were very interested in watching them try to climb out!
Throwing rocks into the creek is always fun!
The kids in front of Aunt Denice and Uncle Robert's house. Thanks you guys for opening up your home to us!
Most of you who read my blog (how many are there? I have no idea!) know that we just got back from our family reunion at the farm in Kansas. Growing up we only got to go to Kansas about once a year and we always had so much fun! I'll be posting a more pictures from the reunion later, but I came across these old photos and thought it would be nice to include them along with the recent ones. Enjoy... My cousins Maurica, Jamie and I on the horse! My brother, Bryan. We all missed him at the reunion. My cousin Lori riding with Bryan. Lori has always been the one taking us for rides on the horses! She is great with the kids and the horses, and she understood at the reunion when I didn't even want to lead Mia's horse around. (No, I'm not scared of horses, but I'm not that comfortable taking the reins!) Maurica's daughter Jessica leading Mia's horse - Annie, I think (please correct me if I'm wrong). Hard to believe that Maurica and I used to ride together and now her daughter is leading my daugher around on the horse!
Thanks, Lori, for sharing your horses with us! Mia absolutely loved it!
**For some reason, Aaron didn't want to get on the horse this time. He saw them backing out of that trailer and he got a little scared, I think. I do have a picture of him and James riding on the horse from the last reunion, though. Maybe next time he'll give it a try!
The next day after all that hiking and driving around we decided to just hang out near the hotel and relax. We walked over to a nearby beach and went swimming and snorkeling, had a leisurely lunch at a nearby restaurant, shopped a little, etc.
We also knew that we had exciting plans for that night, which were to go scuba diving with the manta rays! The video above was taken a year ago by someone I don't know, but it is almost exactly what it was like down there.
We went out on a boat with a place called Neptune Charlie's that was full of snorkelers. James and I were the only ones diving from our boat, but there were lots of other boats going out and they all had a mix of divers and snorkelers. Basically, you head out right before sunset to a place where there are some lights set up every night under the water. The lights attract the plankton, which attracts the manta rays. (The rays eat the plankton.)
We were given a wetsuit, scuba gear and a flashlight and jumped out of the boat. We only went down about 30 feet, then swam about 10 feet to where the lights were set up. We dropped to the bottom and kneeled in a big circle with about 40 other divers. Then we aimed our flashlights up above us with our arms stretched out straight. The snorkelers were all floating on top of the water right above us.
The manta rays were swimming in giant circles between the snorkelers and the divers. Our dive master later told us he counted about 15 of them down there. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen diving! In that video, near the beginning, you can see a manta ray come right at the camera with its big mouth open wide - that happened to me so many times!! They would come up from behind you directly over your head and you would have to duck. Their giant wings hit me on the head more than once!
We stayed down about 45 minutes. Towards the end the rays seemed to be getting more and more eager to get their food. Keep in mind, manta rays can weigh over a ton!James was knocked down by the disturbance they made in the water and had to hold on to a rock to keep himself in one place. I also lost my balance a bit later and was very glad to be wearing a wetsuit when I realized I had put my leg down on a sea urchin! A man in front of us kneeling down had a spotted moray eel slithering over his calves while he looked up at the manta rays - I don't think he even realized it! The dive master told us that might happen, but we would be fine as long as we didn't wag our fingers in front of their mouths or anything like that. He needn't have worried - I know not to stick my finger out in front of an eel!!
Well, this is more than I EVER write about anything on here! It was just so amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the Kailua-Kona area and dives. I'm sure it was amazing for the snorkelers too!
Even though the watching the sunsets at the top of Mauna Kea is supposed to be beautiful, we hurried back down Saddle Road to make it back to the hotel by nightfall. That road is really windy, hilly and parts of it are rough, plus there are several one lane bridges on it that we really just weren't up for driving at night.
It made it all worth it to come back to the hotel and drink Mai Tais while watching the sunset.
Heading back to the hotel after hiking and driving down the Waipio Valley, we noticed that we were right by Saddle Road, which is a crazy two lane road that bisects the island and leads to Mauna Kea, the tallest island mountain in the world! Apparently, if you measured it from its base at the base of the ocean floor, it would be taller than Everest.
Anyway, we had heard that it is best to go there at night because you would be able to see more stars than you've ever seen before, because it's so high and it's above the clouds, and the atmosphere is very dry up there. But we decided to go ahead and go during the day since we were already passing by the road to get there. Love being above the clouds!
It's much colder up there. Luckily, we were prepared and put on some jeans that we had stashed in the Jeep. It was about 50 degrees!
Astronomers work up here with powerful telescopes because of the great conditions for viewing the stars.
After hiking down the road and then back up again, we finally got the Jeep and drove down the same road to the beach - it was beautiful. The drive wasn't bad at all - probably should have just driven down in the first place!
I had to keep stopping on our hike up the road. James took several pictures of me about to keel over. Too bad I didn't have my heart rate monitor on! I bet I burned 500 calories just on the way up.
The highest waterfall on the Big Island! We didn't hike far enough to get to the bottom of it. Too bad we left our zoom lens in the Jeep!
Here is part of the one lane road I was talking about. The pictures really don't do it justice. There are signs periodically going down telling the downhill bound cars to stop and let the uphill cars pass first. Luckily, there weren't that many cars on the road. (If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the road more clearly as it winds its way up the side of the cliff.)
For some reason, Blogger is having problems and not letting me post several pictures at once. So, here's one we took while walking down a super steep, 25% grade, one lane road that goes down 1000 feet in a mile. We decided it would be nice to get some exercise and hike down and then back up the road. We must have still had some jet lag, because that was a crazy idea. Our quadriceps were tired just going down the hill, it was like walking down stairs. And going back up was very demanding! But we made it, and then decided to drive the Jeep down the road anyway (they only allow cars with four wheel drive to use the road). I'll try to see if I can post more pics later...
Oh, and this was at the Waipio Valley where the ancient Hawaiin royalty used to hang out. If you click on the picture to see it larger, you'll see the black sand beach at the bottom. We went down there - very beautiful. Soft black sand, blue waves, big cliffs...
This is what we saw when standing on the lanai (balcony/porch) of our hotel room! With the sounds of the ocean, the waterfall and birds chirping everywhere it was very relaxing.
I'm not usually one to make a big deal out of my birthday. This year, however, James and I planned our first vacation without kids in over five years. (Maybe six?) It just happened to work out that it was the week of my birthday- one of the few weeks this summer that James could take the whole week off.
Anyway, we went to the Big Island of Hawaii and it was fantastic! My friend Allison was thoughtful enough to call my hotel and order some flowers to be sent to my room. This tipped off the hotel that it was my birthday and they had a delicious chocolate/mocha cake waiting for me! It was a perfect ending to a day of kayaking, snorkeling, seeing dolphins and visiting a coffee farm (Kona coffee...yummm).
Kimberly took most of the kids for rides on the four wheeler. Mia wanted to go FAST and Aaron thought the slow speed was just fine.
Brady had collected some toads in a container and the kids were very interested in watching them try to climb out!
Throwing rocks into the creek is always fun!
The kids in front of Aunt Denice and Uncle Robert's house. Thanks you guys for opening up your home to us! 
