Welcome to the Jungle

In this corner:

Weighing in at 6lbs 4oz's and 20 inches long.
Wesley Owen Thomas, born Sept. 23rd 2008

In the other corner:

157 lbs of TNT : Trouble, Nagging, & Tantrums.

Congratulations to Therevan.

Mitchell Jams

Here is Mitchell picking up the sticks and rocking out.

Skating Update

Couple of cool things going on:

The National SkatePark Reviews are going well, we are getting alot of hits on YouTube and new subscribers. The Tour is designed to highlight Skateparks in a more dimensional manner than most static photo and text based reviews.

The reviews can be seen at the following places:

YouTube

Roman Empire Skateboards


We are now also being posted on the Largest database of skateparks on the web at:

Concrete Disciples

In other news:

We sessioned all weekend, had perfect weather , no rain, and practiced new tricks.
Max has mastered the drop in on the 10 foot quarterpipe, Miles is learning rollerblading jumps, and Mitchell learned his first trick....a one footer!

Check it out:

Cool clip on Backyard Pools

Cool Setup!

North Shore Day

Today was our North Shore Day.
We started off with a stop at the Dole Plantation en route, then ate at Cholos Mexican.
Afterwards we camped out at Waimea Bay Beach, where there is a famous Big Rock to jump off.

A few hours , and many jumps later, we forged onward, and hit some fruit stands on the side of the road, got some fresh coconut, and pineapple, as well as some "young" iced coconut.

We stopped by Waimea Falls, but apparently it was the dry season, so nothing to really see there.

Came across the Shrimp Shack and macked there for dinner.

Tomorrow we are going to see if we can catch the family of turtles in our lagoon before we head off to the airport for a long flight back.

The video is from the little rock across from the Big Rock, that we swam to to see some fish underwater and get a different view of the Big Rock.

Hanauma Bay

Today we went to Waikiki and Hanauma Bay.
In the evening we went back to Waikiki for dinner.

Tomorrow we head up to the North Shore.

Ukulele'ing, Kayaking, Turtle'ing

I took a Ukulele lesson today, then we went out to do some kayaking.
After some sun-tanning and some lunch we went snorkeling again, and I can across this guy.
Very cool, he was just chillin, paying no mind to us.

Chill Day at Resort

Today Joanna and I went snorkeling in the local lagoon.
We heard buzz that some sea turtles were sighted, but apparently they come only in the early morning. This video is just of us playing around in the lagoon.

The camera was tethered to my wrist, when Joanna signalled that she wanted it underwater.... (TWSS)..., Hence the Cloverfield effect for a few seconds.

The pictures are our attempts at posing like a Japanese Superhero Icon from the late 60's. Our kids know who that might be.

Sha!

Aloha from Paradise Cove

We spent the evening at the Paradise Cove, doing arts and crafts, drinking, and Joanna took up Spear throwing again.

She regrets having given it up over the past years, but after that first throw. ... Y'know it all comes back to you, like riding a bike.

Mahalo

Snorkel Day

Today we went snorkeling for 4 hours.
First we went searching for Dolphin Schools, we found three sets, and had to take our time to get near them. Then we went to a 3000 year old Coral Reef and swam with all sorts of fish.
We also swam with turtles at a point where they go to get cleaned by fish. (Apparently the basis for the Turtle scenes in Finding Nemo.)
Joanna even got her hands on a Pencil Urchin.
Lots of swimming, and fun.

Lava Baby ...yeah

This morning Joanna and I got up around 3:30 (9:30 AM EST) and watched the sunrise, drank lots of coffee, and went exploring.

Here I am standing on some Lava Rocks on the shoreline next to our resort.
The surf would crash onto the rocks, and in all these little pockets of rocks we found crabs, and colorful fish moving and swimming around, until the next wave, which would move them to another location. We also found hermit crabs and other shellfish scurrying around.

Home for the Week

After a LONG day of flying and an $80 cab ride, we checked into Ihilani, and got our stroll on while the sun began to set.

This picture was taken by the second of four Lagoons, the first one being near our resort.
If you look at the Marriott website you can almost see the same shot (higher angle) from the stock shot of the resort.

I also got a $$ shot of Diamondhead that I have posted on my Flickr page.

Fossil Creek Skatepark

This park was totally different than the Boulder Skatepark, no bowls, just lots of steps, rails, grinding and railsliding. Once again I was fortunate that this park was less than 2 minutes from my hotel, and I had it all to myself in the early a.m.

Here is the website

Scott Carpenter Park

Me skating at 5am in Boulder, had the park all to myself for an hour.

Here is the park website.

Mitchell turns 3 today!

I'm not baby, I'm Mitchell!

Human Snake Video

Interesting Video I found.
If you use Piclens, the latest upgrade 1.6 supports 3D Youtube videos on Firefox.

Dublin Castle Mosaic

Working at Dublin Castle this week. This mosaic is behind the castle in the garden, shortly near sunset, around 9pm.

Hill of Slane

Did some countryside exploring this weekend. This is the walk up towards the Hill of Slane.
St. Patrick lit a fire from here that could be seen from the Hill of Tara, apparently this was the catalyst for a Christianity following in Ireland and the beginning of the end of Paganism.

Hawaii Checked-In

After a 15hour travel day, I finally checked into my hotel in Waikiki.

This is the view from the 14th floor. Oddly enough I did not use a fisheye lense, but since the angle views taller buildings , the illusion is that they are bowing inward.

Also took a night shot of the two middle towers and posted on Flickr.

Night Out

Met up with my buddy Brian while here and San Francisco.
He, Brad and I went out to dinner with his wife Nicole, and followed up with a stop a a nice Wine Bar and a Cocktail Bar stop. Great weather and good times.

GG Bridge

Here is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from my recent trip to San Francisco.

Happy Easter

Egg Hunting

Chocolate buzz in full effect from this mornings Easter Baskets, the brood migrates into the chilly tundra, to search for eggs to provide additional nourishment for the family.

*Check the Rude Chowder Videos for The Easter Morning Wake Up.

PowerNap and ReCharge

We went to go see Horton Hears a Who this afternoon. Afterward we were on our way to the Parks again.....and this is what it looks like when the kids need a recharge.
They align their heads with the equator, so that they can optimize to full replenishment.
Flip doesn't need to do this , because baby monkeys always seem to be getting into stuff, they must store more energy than the older ones.

Seussland at Night

We went back to the Islands of Adventure last night, and had a blast!
Re-rode all the Seussland rides again.
Max rode the Spiderman Virtual ride with me, the whole team rode the X-Men Storm Force Accleratron , many times.
Little trick we learned, go to the park in the evening, parking is free starting at 6pm, no beatdown from the sun, and the rides seem to be more accessible. Plus watching the park transform to night mode was awesome.
This picture was taken from Olive Oils Boat, and is of Seussland across the water.

The LueFish

This whole time I thought it was bluefish.........guess I should have paid more attention in school.

Poop Deck Pappys

Max in front of Poop Deck Pappys.

Zoiks!

This morning we hit Universal Studios, hung out with the Mystery Machine bunch, and saw some shows like Shrek 4D, E.T. and Animal Actors.

Mr. Lohman reluctantly got on the Woody Woodpecker ride , only to begin screaming "I wanna getoff!" repeatedly after he realized it cranked to a blistering 22 MPH..... Although Flip and Fish thought it was very cool.

Simians in tow, we traversed the sun-beaten park for a few hours before Flip declared he wanted to go swimming. So......back to Horizons for afternoon swimming.

Thank god for 7 Day park passes........ We'll see the rest later, and there is much more too see.

Thank U 4 Flying

Chimps got to park the plane on the way to Orlando.

Flip slept thru most of the flight.

Horizons Day 2

Another action packed day, beginning with a Sunday morning breakfast of sausage and eggs.

Followed by a few rounds of ping pong and pool.

This picture is at the playground.

Aferwards we went to the other pool with tube slide and water park.

As if that wasn't enough, more pool back at the pirate ship, then we grilled steaks and played some basketball before resting the evening for its better tidings.

The kids passed out while watching one of their favorite movies.....Undercover Brother.

Orlando 2008

The Chowderians flew into Orlando yesterday to retreat to the timeshare for a Spring Break.

After a round at the grocery store...and liquor store, we made it back to the Horizons.

Of course the monkeys proceeded to put on their swim trunks and prepare to board the pirate ship.

Here is Flip, Fish, and Mr. Lohman attacking by slide.

Migrating to a New Blog Site

Apparently Yahoo is planning on squashing the 360 blog site, so I am migrating to blogger.com which is supported by google.