Father's Day

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Today was Daniel's special day - Father's Day!  It was a low-key day, but he did get some nice gifts including new swim trunks, new shorts, some CU gear and a mix kit for some old fashioned drinks.  He seemed to really like that.  I'd say he had a very good day.

  

   

   

New Student Orientation

June 14-15, 2026

Right after we got home from Hawaii, it was time to get re-packed and head to New Student Orientation in Boulder.  It was great to get the chance to go back to campus knowing that this was going to be her new home.  We were able to be very intentional about what we toured and saw and it really helped.  We also had more time to spend checking out Pearl Street and the other fun areas around town.  

    

Saturday afternoon we did a bit of a self-tour through campus and re-visited Onizuka Hall - her new dorm.  We also tried to find the rooms and buildings where some of her classes would be.  She hadn't registered yet, but she had a draft schedule in mind.  Most of her classes seemed like they would be in the engineering building - it is huge!  Then we also found the astrophysical science building where her black holes class would be (if she gets it), but it was locked.  The room below on the left is where Computer Science 101 will be.  The other classroom was her first year seminar room, I think.  Then we went out to dinner on Pearl Street to a cute little Italian place and had time to hit a couple of shops. So fun!  Then we wrapped up the night at Sweet Cow ice cream!

   

   

Sunday morning we had breakfast at The Buff.  It was so good.  Will definitely go back.  Then we walked around a little more and had a quick lunch at Noodles & Co before checking in at Kittridge Court for Emily's dorm for the night.  She dropped off her things and then joined her group.  I think she was looking forward to the evening events at the Rec Center - including skating!  It was one of the choices for the evening activity - a no brainer for her of course.  She even brought her skates!  Parents had their own sessions Sunday afternoon and then later in the evening D and I hit a Mexican place on Pearl Street for dinner.  For dessert, we checked out Gelato Boy and we both agreed it was better than Sweet Cow.

Monday morning there were some joint activities - parents & students - and then before splitting for lunch, we had time to go to the bookstore - YAY!  After lunch Emily went to a smaller group to work on registering for classes.  We got coffees and waited to hear from her so we could head out.  While she was registering, she ended up meeting a nice girl, Vidyaa, who is also in Onizuka Hall in a single and a Computer Science Major.  They ended up wrapping up registration together and then they wanted to go back to Onizuka one more time.  By the time we met her to pick her up, they had decided they wanted to be suite mates!  This was the best possible result from orientation - a new friend.  Oh!  And she got her first choice on all of her classes too!  Definitely turned out to be a great trip!  S'ko Buffs!

   

   

Last Days in Hawaii

Thursday- Friday, June 4-5, 2026

Our last two days in Hawaii were spent enjoying the resort and eating more good food.  Daniel and Emily really loved snorkeling just off the beach at the resort and I admit, the conditions were way better than I thought they would be.  They got some great pics!  And, even though we missed out on Turtle Town on the snorkel trip, they found turtles to swim with just off our beach!

   

   

   

   

   

We also spent some time on the beach playing some of our favorite beach games - including Tidal Ball (which made the trip all the way from WV).

   

On Thursday afternoon, we visited a fun little market they set up on the beach.  They had it out earlier in the week, too, but by the time we got there it was closing down.  It was fun to see all the local arts and crafts and such.  And, we got to see another amazing rainbow!

We spent some time at the pool and in the hot tub...and just enjoying the sunshine.  We even had lunch delivered right to our chairs one day!

To close out the evenings, we enjoyed two more delicious dinners right on the water - one at Hula Grill and then for our last night, we went back to Leilani's on the Beach.  That was Emily's favorite meal (after Mama's Fish House, of course) so we were happy to go back.  Plus the Hula Pie was amazing!

   

   

   

Goodbye Hawaii!  We loved every minute!

Snorkel Adventure!

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Emily's selected excursion for her special graduation trip was to go snorkeling.  So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we set up a snorkel trip to Molokini Crater, one of the only craters in the world that you can snorkel.  We had to be at the marina early 7:30am to board our catamaran.  But, breakfast was included and it was quite good.

   

Our first stop on the tour was supposed to be at a place called Turtle Town where you could swim with the sea turtles, but unfortunately the surf was really high and it was too dangerous to go.  But, the good news was that meant more time at the crater which was much more sheltered from the waves.  On our way we even got to see some dolphins near the boat!

   

I have found it hard to snorkel sometimes with too much water getting into my mask or snorkel and then the mask fogs up and such, but this time, I actually did pretty well so I stayed out a good while and saw a ton of cool fish and coral.  D and Emily were out the entire time and loved it all.  These are our pictures that we took.  I edited them a bit, but they came out pretty good I think given the underwater cameras we had.

   

   

While we were snorkeling, there was a photographer that helped us get some great pics of all the action.  This was my favorite souvenir of the trip.

   

   

   

These were some of the pictures the photographer took on the trip.  Clearly her camera was much better.  But honestly, I feel like the pictures we took did more accurately represent what we actually saw when we went.  The colors were not quite this vibrant, I don't think.  But, they are beautiful.

      

   

After we snorkeled, we loaded back up into the boat and headed back to the marina.  On the way we had lunch and, due to the high winds, we got to have the sail up for a bit to sail around.  That was pretty neat.  After lunch they also cleaned all of our sunglasses (who knew?) and passed out Hawaiian Gold pineapple and macadamia nut cookies.  This was a total first class experience for sure.  Would definitely recommend and would do it again!

   

   

After our excursion, we had the chance to spend a little more time at the pool and beach before dinner at Maui Brewing Company.  Not my favorite meal, but the views and watching the sun set could not be beat.  Another perfect end to a great day in our little Hawaiian paradise.