Neptune Sighting and Island Treats

Hello Friends. I was wanting to put up some fun pictures of our adventures to Shark's Cove, but alas, I don't have any besides these two. The reason being- I am without a camera. The pictures that you have been seeing this week are from my phone, and they just aren't that great of quality. On Mother's Day I received several lei's from friends at church, and on the way home, walking in front of the temple, I took out my little camera and asked Jayne to take a picture of me. She did and then one of the kind sisters in our ward was walking by and asked if she could take a picture of Jayne and I. Sure. I handed her my camera, and then she dropped it. It's broken. (Boo-hoo).The lens won't retract and nothing is happening. I actually almost started crying, but was luckily wearing sunglasses so she couldn't tell and told her no worries, and that I am sure it will be fine. Yes, I was bummed. But I also had done the same thing to a little family in front of Old Faithful in Yellowstone years ago. Dropped their camera and broke it. So I guess it was my payback. I will see if there is a way to fix it but there isn't a camera store within an hour's drive, so it will just have to remain TBD until we make it back to Honolulu. And the result is, you are just going to have to put up with crappy pictures until it returns. My SLR is fine and well, but me with four kids, sand, and ocean, I don't take it with me unless I am doing a photo shoot. So IPhone pictures until later. Seth says the picture below is terrible and says it makes make him look like a merman. He insists he's more Neptune than Ariel. (We are both dying laughing). But its all we got.

I had been telling Seth how awesome Shark's Cove is to snorkel, but each time we've gone, the waves have been too big, so we've only snorkeled the tide pools. Which are cool. But the cove itself is amazing. And finally we went on a perfect day. The trade winds had stopped and the ocean was so calm. Seth, Ellie, and Nancy with her noodle, set out in the waters to explore. When we had come in December, Janis, Todd, and I had snorkeled the one evening that the water was calm enough to snorkel. And Janis told me that secretly that was her favorite part of the trip, but that she didn't want the rest to know, because they didn't have the chance to do it. (Sorry to spoil it now Janis). But it was my favorite too and I was dying to have Seth and kids agree. I had told Nancy this about Janis and even though I could tell Nancy was a bit nervous, she was determine to see what Jannie had loved. She was not disappoint. The fish were everywhere and the Ellie and Seth even saw a big eel. Sam and I got to go out afterwards and the fish put on quite a show. We found a giant school of fish that we had to just swim through. The fish just moved aside and then filled back in once we were through. It was really neat. Giant parrot fish swam up close. I took Jayne out for a tiny bit and she kept telling people to that she saw a fish as big as her head (which is a Christensen size head, so super impressive). After I got back, Seth went out again. It was really incredible and Seth took back his skepticism of the greatness of Shark's Cove. 

Jakey is not yet snorkeling but he doesn't know how to hold his breath under water, so I will give him to the end of the summer before he's got his own mask on and diving into the cove. He was so funny because there were small waves coming in and he would run right up to them and jump into them. It was entertaining for me and the twenty other spectators who weren't yet snorkeling. The comments I get about Jake are- "He is fearless. How old is he? Love the hair." He is pretty crazy and we have to keep a close eye on him. But here below he said he was tired, so he snuggled up in the sand between the rocks and said 

na-night. It didn't last long, but long enough for me to take a picture. 

 On our way home we took a slight detour to the infamous Matsumoto's Shave Ice. It did not disappoint. I am only worried that we didn't introduce Nancy to it until her last day her. Hoping that she isn't holding a grudge to have only eaten one Matsumoto's on her trip. 

We are actually thinking of buy stock into Matsumoto's or offering our children as the Shave Ice Models. 

We shopped in Halewia for a bit to shop, and then headed home. Jaker's was done and quickly fell asleep. We stopped at Ted's Bakery to see if they had any coconut turnovers (another island must that again we didn't introduce Nancy to until the end) and I bought the kids a cup of mini cookies seen below in Jake's arms. Jake was out and Ellie dressed up the cup with a ponytail and a flower and she and Jayne put it in his sleeping arm and called it his girlfriend. They were dying laughing at this darling boy's expense, but he didn't seem to mind. Note the Doritos bag also on his lap. Cookies and Doritos- the feast of the island boy. So healthy and nutritious. Glad we could share that with you all. So come on over for some shave ice, Ted's cookies, and we'll throw in a bag of Doritos for good measure.