Should this be my next project?

Volcano Village

I found the source of our VOG (Volcanic Smog)!
The Thurston Lava Tube at dusk
Jessie and Alex the Lava Tube bats.
Jess and Jenna at the Halema'uma'u Crater
Steam Vents

This summer we took a trip down to Volcano Village. I have never seen the Crater so active. No wonder our VOG has been out of control the past few years. So voggy we can't see the sun set or the horizon line. We went to the Visitor Center at night to see the glowing lava. The dramatic crater on the caldera floor is named Halema'uma'u. According to tradition, the crater is the home of Pele, the Hawaiian godess of fire.

Halema'uma'u lies at the heart of Kilauea, an active volcano with a fiery reputation. From 1823 until 1924, Halema'uma'u contained a lava lake that fascinated visitors from around the world.

It was really fun experiencing the lava tube at night. We were the only ones in the Tube. I remember taking my sister years ago. I knew it was around 3pm when we were walking inside the tube and I said casually "Kimi, we just need to make sure we are out of here by 3pm because lava comes GUSHING through around that time". And she froze and said "Jessica! It's 2:57!" and I looked at her shocked and said "REALLY? RUN!!!" and as we were running I started cracking up. Not a very nice big sister, huh?

Twin Kims

Our Kimi
Our new Kimmy

In Kimi's picture at the top, she is with her original foster sister Annika at her sister's wedding a few summers ago. Annika's family brought Kimi over through Healing the Children. Kimi's foster mom, Val, was my violin teacher growing up. They were close family friends through our church and that is how we met and fell in love with Kimi. The rest is history!

I have another sister named Kimi

There is something powerful about the date July 16th. 7 years ago today I moved to Hawaii. 5 years ago today we had our Seattle wedding celebration. 1 year ago today my Korean sister Mi- Jeong had a baby girl named Mingi. And today, my mother received a phone call from the adoptive mother of Kimi's younger sister Mi-Hyang who was adopted 17 years ago in the United States. Just like our family, they kept her last name Kim and made it her first name. This other Kimi was 5 when she came to America and has many memories of her early life in Korea with our Kimi. One touching story was that she remembers after Kimi left, they received a phone call from her and listened to her playing the piano so well.

I was bawling when my mom gave me the news just an hour ago I feel that the circle is finally complete now. All four siblings are finally reunited. Eighteen years later, these siblings are all alive and well against all odds. 90 year old Harriet Hodges, who was the director of placing children in Korea with hospitals and programs in the United States, remembered the Kim family well. And in this past year, she not only located us in Seattle, Kimi's family in Korea, but she also located Kimi's other family in Georgia. I'm just buzzing right now. July 16th is a very significant day.

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

July 3rd, 2010 marked our 5th wedding anniversary. I looked up the traditional gifts and year number 5 is Wood. So I'm counting being Mrs. WOODbury as the perfect gift!

This year we were visited by my best friend Jenna (who was also my maid of honor!) and Ran for the long Holiday weekend. We went to a fancy dinner down at the resort and watched a spectacular fireworks show. I'm so happy we were married during the 4th of July and have fireworks celebrating our day every year. It's been 5 years of marriage, 11 years overall, and I keep falling more and more in love with my soul mate.

Backlog Blogging Bananza!

Random fact: In the movie Back to the Future, the Doc sets his clock to the future date July 5, 2010! So much for flying skateboards!

OK folks. So this is how it's going to be. I am blog backlogged! Backlogged dating back to Memorial Day weekend.

So every few days I'm going to post pictures and a brief caption of Summer 2010.

So here it is. Hiking the Hollywood sign Memorial Day weekend.

I've never hiked up to the Hollywood sign before. If you had to guess, what do you think the sign is made of? Wood, Plastic, or Metal? I always thought of it as wood. But turns out it's made of Australian steel. The sign was born in 1923 originally spelling the word Hollywoodland and had 4,000 20 watt bulbs making it visible 25 miles away. The letter H was destroyed by an inebriated driver in the early 1940's! Just a few fun facts for the morning.