Orchids

When we visited Bios On The Hill, I was amazed at how many orchids they had there. Everywhere you looked, there were orchids in the most amazing colors. The most amazing thing were that the most of the orchids are not planted - but wild growing! Absolutely stunning colors, one more intense than the other. Due to the rain and grey weather, the lighting of the pictures isn't the best all the time, but we enjoyed walking around all these flowers.

The most beautiful flowers are mine!!

Dragons that spray mist on hot days!

We walked over this little bridge/path over the water. Half way over, we realized that it wasn't the best thing to do on a rainy day! First of all the water level was high, which meant that we were almost walking on the water itself. Second, due to the rain, and that there was only two little slippery wooden planks to walk on, it was VERY slippery, and we almost landed in the pond! A bit scary for a moment or two, as the little ones wanted to walk on their own, and I forced them to hold my hand in case they would slip off the plank!

We made it home safe and sound, a little wet but that was only due to the rain and not due to any unwanted baths in the pond!

Babysitting & Second Of Advent

Like I wrote earlier, we had the festival here on our base the past weekend, and my kids were a bit upset that they weren't able to go on all the rides and on the bouncy houses as it was raining all Sunday and therefore also cancelled later in the afternoon.

But, as I found out from my friend R, it was maybe better that they didn't go into the bouncy houses, as it was crazy with kids and very very busy there on Saturday. Bouncy houses with lots of kids, normally leads to accidents and her daughter little Scarlett, unfortunately found that to be true! She ended up screaming and crying in one, and after a quick look, they took her to the Emergency room. They didn't see a clear brake on her arm but as she wasn't able to move her elbow, they wanted her to come back on the Monday again for checkup.

To be able to focus totally on Scarlett at the Dr and x-ray etc on Monday, R asked me if I could watch her little son Sydney during that time. Of course, and my kids who were off school on Monday due to Teacher-Work-Shop Day, were happy to have him here.

Something that all kids are drawn too when they come here is Rusty, and so was Sydney, who was giggling when feeding Rusty a carrot.

R and Scarlett were back before noon, as they weren't able to see the specialist that time, but had to schedule an appointment for the next day. R took Sydney home for his nap, and Scarlett ended up staying here with us, playing, drawing and having lunch with my kids.

R was so sweet to bring me a beautiful flower and some treats for the "trouble". No trouble at all, but very happy I could help. The flower looked so nice on our table with the Advent candles at night.

Second of Advent, not long before Christmas is here!!

Jungle & Orchids

Like I mentioned in my previous entry, there were too many pictures from our trip to the beautiful park Bios On The Hill. Everywhere you went, there were pretty scenery with jungle plants and everywhere there were orchids growing. Some planted and many growing wild. The colors were popping out everywhere in between all the green, it was just so pretty. Here are some of the pictures that I took from our wonderful day in the park:

Along the walking paths there were heavy vegetation, and one was told not to walk off the paths..so who knows what kind of wildlife was living in there too. Snakes and spiders are represented for sure..

The lianas were growing everywhere - to and from the trees  - just like in the movie Tarzan!

We have seen many different kinds of palm trees in Arizona and in California. Even here in Japan, they have different kinds growing, but this kind with the beautiful spotted bark on the trunks and the very pretty green leaves, I had never seen before.

Some of us walked a little bit ahead, and Cassie and I were slow looking left, right and up to soak in this walk to the fullest!

And of course it took some time as we needed to stop here and there for pictures!

They had an elevator up to a look out tower and bridge, and you had beautiful views of the park and even like above, view all the way to the ocean.

The beautiful palm trees with the spotted trunks looked almost more beautiful from above!

So green, so lush, so beautiful!

Going through the pictures now, I did realize that I didn't capture one single butterfly in a picture! Anyway, there were so many butterflies, most of them were flying pretty high and were hard to catch in a picture. Some of them were very big, bigger than the palm of my hand, and they were black, and some were turquoise. I guess going back to try to get some pictures of them, is a good enough reason to go back to this beautiful park soon again!