Lakehouse: Halloween in Austin

We came to Austin for a beloved Montalvo holiday: Halloween!

Halloween photo! Rene is Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean), Honey is a 1900s rich lady (inspired by Downton Abby), Tippy is Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice with Zombies), Bailey is a Valor Pokemon Trainer, Stephen is Marty McFly (Back to the Future), Ginger is a Mystic Pokemon Trainer, Henry is a Ninja Turtle, Melanie and Adam are Air Force pilots (Top Gun style), Tamvie is pink Batman, Sophia is Mal (Disney Descendants), Finley is Anna (Frozen), and Lukas is Foxy (Friday Night at Freddy's) 

Because we visited during the school year, we got to witness our nieces' and nephews' after school activities.

 

Lukas (8) and Sophia (11) are practicing hard at karate. 

Adam calls this "riot gear"

 

Finley (5) loves her soccer team

and Bailey (14) continues playing tuba. Now in high school, he gets to be part of the school marching band.

Bailey is the one in the center. 

We were able to travel to San Antonio for his regional competition.

Their choreography is amazing- walking, skipping, bending, leaning, twirling!

They placed in the top three of their region, and will get to continue to state competition levels!

Other fun for the week- getting good deals at a city-wide yard sale.

Melanie gave us a tour of their favorite fancy used furniture store.

 

We all picked favorite items.

 

Ginger worked hard on a craft project this trip: making Pokemon Go trainer costumes for herself and for Bailey.

  

Best friend Tamvie from across the street came along trick-or-treating! Ginger and Bailey pretend to throw pokeballs.

 

At home, there are two new dogs in the family. The Dehlers got a new puppy, a Spinoni Italiano named Goose. Then the Montalvos adopted Goose's grandmother, and got a special deal since the breeders are done with sharing her genes. Honey named her Coco. 

 

The family decorated pumpkins together.

Ginger drew a Jurassic Park dinosaur for Lukas to color

Halloween party with many fancy treats: (okay, we spent some time on Pinterest)

A wonderful time with family

Lakehouse: first visit to Hawaii

Years ago, Absher Construction did many projects in Hawaii. But the bad economy made them unable to get jobs for several years. But, they recently won a bid, and Stephen selfishly volunteered to relocate to a tropical paradise. Stephen traveled to the island of O'ahu for some planning meetings in August. Ginger got to tag along!

We met Stephen's new QC (Quality Control) Manager, Steve. Steve came to Hawaii for college as an international student from Korea. He married another Korean international student, and they've raised their two children on the Big Island. Steve wants to relocate to Washington after this project is complete. He's familiar with local companies.

We had a fun team dinner with Absher and their architects, WJA Design Collaborative. They also designed the project Stephen worked on in Rhode Island.

We visited Pearl Harbor. There are a variety of ships and museums to see there. For this trip, we chose a submarine, which went on a revenge mission after Pearl Harbor.

Exploring the USS Bowfin submarine.

 

We visited the beautiful memorial built on top of the sunken USS Arizona. This memorial is free to visit, although you do need to schedule a time. Groups leave on a boat together to access the memorial. We are reminded to be respectful; we are standing in a graveyard. 

 

There were historical markers telling about the Arizona. We were moved by the story of the survivors who have chosen to have their cremains returned to the ship with their fellow crewman. 

Another good place to visit with some history is the Diamond Head Crater trail. It's just 3/4 of a mile long, though some parts are steep! The main challenge was the heat of the day. 

Amazing view from the top.

The trail includes several old military lookouts,

A section of this spiral staircase was incorporated in to the hike.

Of course, we tried to spend lots of time at the beach. Although Stephen will be working in Kanehoe (on the other side of the island) we stayed in Waikiki, where most of the hotels cater to tourists. It's a short walk to the beach. We liked this path where surfers store their boards.

Several catamarans go out for evening cruises.

Ginger loves all the tropical flowers, especially hibiscus.

Our favorite tree in the banyan, which send out roots from its high branches to connect to ground again and again.

Sunset on the beach.

We are excited to move here!