The Pineapple Plantation

Aloha my friends and family. I am sorry for the week of silence. I was sick last week with a cold and thanks to my asthma, I coughed all night for a week. :( I was pretty tired and kept Seth up with my coughing, so he was tired of my cough too. So blogging just didn't make it into my day. But I am feeling better and no more cough, thank goodness, and so I will attempt to catch up.

Last Sunday we had delivered to our house a gift. I was Grandma Jannie's sister, Aunt Nancy. Aunt Nancy came to stay with us for a time to give us a helping hand with life. We have had such a great time with Aunt Nancy and we have all fallen in love with her. The other morning Jake woke up and started yelling for us to get him out of his crib. He started with,"Momma, Momma," then "Daddy,Daddy," then with no response it was,"Auntie, Auntie." I had to chuckle. With "the Project" the last two years we have been so blessed to have such wonderful people come and help us out. It has changed Seth and I, and it had definitely changed our children. They have learned to love and respect many different people. We are grateful to have Aunt Nancy here with us. She has been great as she has joined us on our adventures. The first being.......

I remember coming to the Dole Plantation when I was a senior in high school and came to Oahu with my parents and BFF Susannah. But the only thing I could remember from my visit was the Dole whip ice cream. And it was as good as I remember! But I did not remember the fish pond full of Koi. 

 Sam fed the fish and they would jump up the wall and on each other to get the food. Then would find itself out of the water and panic and fight its way back to water. They made this sucking sound, that I couldn't stand, but the kids loved it. They will remember that with the Dole whip, I'm sure.

Pineapple Heads

I don't remember a train either, but the Pineapple Express was a dream come true for Jakers. He was obsessed. We had to wait about 10 minutes to board the train and it was 10 minutes too long for Jake. 

All aboard! Jake was in heaven. I wouldn't say that it was the most scenic train ride, but it had great information about pineapples and some good Hawaiian music that Jake strummed along with on his air guitar. Here's a short video of us on our train ride. (I am not sure it will work or not, but I will try)

Ellie and I on the train!

I love this picture because you can tell Jake is saying choo-choo! I adore 2 year olds!

Lunch with Aunt Nancy. The pineapple upside down cake was the best!

And we found the Dole whip ice cream. Besides me, Jake liked it the best. He got it in his mouth any way he could. 

After the Pineapple plantation we needed a bit of a cooling off in the ocean. We wanted to take Aunt Nancy snorkeling so we found ourselves at Turtle Bay. It always proves to have calm waters and accessible snorkeling for the kids. Ellie and I snorkeled hand in hand for quite awhile. Sam and I saw some awesome fish. Even Aunt Nancy went for a spin with Seth and Sam. Lots of fish, but no turtles.