Get Away for the Weekend & Mother's Day

Here one of the many blessings of having Aunt Nancy stay with us. She gave us the gift of taking care of the kids for the weekend, so we could get away together. Seth got us a hotel on Waikiki and we spent two nights there. After a week of no sleep, we both craved a bit of sleep. Seth threatened stopping at the clinic to get me codeine so we could sleep in the same room together. I promised him that I was feeling better, but I let out one cough and he was turning around for some cough syrup. Fortunately I really was feeling better and we slept great. We made it to Halewia for some great Thai food. I was reminded again one of the reasons why I fell in love with this man- pure communication. There is a long story behind that, but I love to talk with Seth. He makes me laugh and cry. It is so nice to talk with someone and really have them understand. It was great. Plus the food was awesome. I took this picture to have just a snap shot of that great talk and lunch.

Here's Seth posing below at the Cheesecake Factory for our friends, the Weeks, who told us that we suck because we had escaped our children for the weekend plus went to the Cheesecake factory. We weren't even planning on eating there until they told us that. So we ate the Cuban sandwich on their recommendation and it was awesome. So good. Highly recommend it. 

Its kind of funny that we barely left the block from where we were staying, but the joy of living here took off the pressure to go sight see. Instead we just sat by the pool. Then took a nap. Then went back to the pool to hear the band for happy hour. Then hung out. Ate sushi and went to a movie. We never get to do that, especially by ourselves. It was great. We spent a long time talking and catching up which was therapeutic for me. I could you a vacation like this more often. I am sure we all could.

We made our way back across the island on Sunday morning to join the kids for Mother's Day. I feel very blessed to be a mother of these four little monkeys. I love them to pieces. As I thought about each time I became a mother, each experience was very unique. Each baby was prayed here. And each was a blessing.

I had to teach Relief Society at church that day. I was assigned to teach "Opening you soul to the Lord in prayer." It was a perfect topic for me, since I needed a good refresher on prayer. I was great subject to talk about on Mother's Day because I don't know anyone who prays more than mothers.

After church, Seth and the kids made dinner. Seth made salmon, Sam made roasted potatos, and Ellie made a salad. It was de-lish. I got to talk to my Mom and Seth's mom and wish them a Happy Mother's Day and then we hopped in the car for a sunset at Pipeline Beach. It was incredible. Here are a couple pictures below and yet I still feel like I can do the sunsets justice.

Here we are all set up to watch the sunset. I wanted to get a picture of Nancy with the kids. They just adore her and she is great to just laugh at and with these little funny people. 

Here it is!

Here they are catching the sunset. Four little bodies! 

Could that cloud not be any cooler? Sam and Ellie pointed out to me that it look like a giant whale. 

 Seriously

Aunt Nancy's silhouette.

 One of my favorite pictures of the night. Unposed and perfect. These four are who made my mother's day so amazing.

School and Stuff

This is a totally random post. But here you go. First, Jake is working on getting a record deal. Here he is below singing at the top of his lungs on stage at Surfin Tacos. The microphone isn't on, but he did have an audience. He is such a funny kid. Jayne tried to join him and he pushed her of the stage. 

Aunt Nancy joined the ranks of home schooling. It was great to have another helping hand. The kids all love her games she had on her Ipad. She helped Jayne fix her pincher grip holding her pencil. (Which is something I would have totally missed.) She's read to all the children and distracts Jakey so I can finish up math or reading with the other kids. I love these pictures of the kids surrounding her.

We have a public library in the next town over, so we took Auntie on a bike ride to the library. We chose all our books with recommendation from our Aunties. After we crossed the street to go get some grilled corn on the cob. Then we biked home. It was a great adventure. 

Amy has been fired from her job as homeschool teacher. She fired herself. Ha! I have found that I am a terrible homeschool teacher. My kids are too smart for me. I need a teacher for myself. But really, we are trudging through math, reading, and writing. That is done daily, and beyond that we have choosen different subjest weekly that usually have to do with Hawaii. We've studied that Hawaiian language, so we can read street signs a little better now, but still struggle with people's names until we can see them written down. We've studied seals, sharks, geckos, and volcanos. And we put an extra effort to learn about our surroundings when we are out and about- like the pineapple planatition or the taro fields. So I would say the kids haven't had a traditional education the last two months but if you need to know the state fish of Hawaii Sam and Ellie can tell it to you. It's the .....

Humuhumunukunukuapuaa!

May Day

May Day is a fabulous event here in Hawaii. All of the elementary school celebrate May Day with a traditional dances put on by each of the grades. The Polynesian islands are represented by each grade and the six graders make up the Royal Hawaiian Court. Laie Elementary May Day program is preformed in the morning at the PCC on the big stage. Its a huge event and all of Laie shows up at it. My kids were not going to miss seeing thier friends dance, so we got up early and went to the PCC for May Day. Here are a couple pictures, but they don't quite do the event justice- every child was in full costume and each dance choreographed by volunteers, and the kids had been practicing for all of April to perform. It was really fantastic. When the kindergartners got up Jayne leaned over to me and said, "that's what I am going to dance next year." Which is true- IF we live in Hawaii next year. It was great for my kids to see this and I was moved at the pride and dedication these beautiful people have for their heritage.

The Six Grade Hawaiian Royalty and their proud parents.

The Royal Court Dancing

The King and his men dancing.

 The Queen dancing the hula.

 This is the little preschoolers dancing the Fijian warrior dance. They rocked it. 

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.

Accidentally in Waikiki

This post is dedicated to darling Hailey's birthday. Who gets to spend their birthday in Hawaii? Hailey. She turned 5 years old. We had a plan to go swimming int he morning, then boogie boarding in the afternoon,  and then back to the pool for the sunset at resort with a birthday dinner. But things don't always end up how you plan them. We swam in the morning, starting at like 8:30 a.m. So by 11 a.m. everyone was starving. We hopped in the cars with boogie boards in the back for after lunch. We got kicked out of one restaraunt for lunch because only 5 of the 13 of were wearing shoes. But ended up at a great deli and ate on the lawn, which is a perfect place to feed 9 small children. We had asked the conceire at the hotel where to go boogie boarding and they said, White Plains beach, and they gave us some kind of instructions on how to get there. We headed out to find ourselves passing the sewage plant, taking this junk laced rode, out to a secluded beach with a couple of sketchy looking fisherman there. No surfers or boogie boarders in site. We had to laugh becuase in the time it took to find and travel to this aweful beach we could have drivin to the North Shore and be on our boards. So we decided to go into Waikiki. Surely there was some good waves there? It took us way longer to get there, actually find a place to park, and be semi-close to some waves. But we arrived and the kids had a great time in the ocean. Sam, Ellie, and Ashley caught some nice big rolling waves for a long ride. They played flies up with a cute boy from New Zealand, and we ate McDonalds fries and sundaes because they were going to die of starvation. The specail treat is that we got to meet up with Aunt Nancy, Seth's Aunt. She got to see Julie and Joel and their family. And since we were there, we decided to go to the International Market . It was hilarious. The looks and comments we got having 9 children with us, who all are similar age and looked similar as well. People kept stopping us to see if they were all one family. We explained they were cousins. It was pretty crazy. We then ate a the California Pizza Factory and have ice cream sundaes for Hailey birthday. It wasn't exactly as we planned but it was great fun. The kids love the shopping at the International Market the most, coming away all wrapped in Hawaiian sonrongs and turtle necklaces around there necks. Will and Jake got surf cars. We got home too late and so we slept over with the cousins again in Ko Olina, leaving early to get back to BYU H for Seth to teach. We were so grateful to have had this whole week to be with our cousins!

C Cousins At the PCC

I know what your thinking- The Polynesian Cultural Center AGAIN?  Yes, yes. And it is such great fun. It's always fun to take cousins to the PCC. But you know you have spent too much time there when...

1.You can recite most of the Samoan talk, about how when the coconut is green, it's not ripe yet.When it's brown its ripe, like me (the brown Samoan pointing to himself), it is ripe. And then he says,"there are many of you that aren't ripe yet," pointing to the crowd. And everyone laughs, including me.

2. When you know that the second person at the Tongan Drum show is going to chant, "Who let the dogs out," instead of trying to repeat what the Tongan host said.

3. When you know that there are two places to take Ukulele Lessons, in Hawaii or the Old Mission home (where they will give you a ring after the lesson). 

4. When you know the name of the Hula instructor, Keke, in Hawaii because every time you go Jayne has to have "her" hula lessons. 

5. Or when you know which villages have tattoos so your children can paint themselves in tribal bands. 

And much, much more. 

I think that's how you know you've spent some time there. No complaints. Every time we go we learn something knew. But I think I could start working there soon. All I need is a good spray tan. 

Below is the cousins finding the only shade left to watch the boat show.

I should know these guys names by now since we get a picture with them every time. But nothing says Samoa like Fire Knives.

Brooklyn and Ellie testing out the New Zealand stick toss.

Playing games in the New Zealand Village. This game would have gone a lot smoother if more than half of the people playing it knew their left from their right. It kept things exciting.

Poi Balls is always fun.

The "big" cousins on the outrigger.

Showing off their tattoos. They barely got enough.

 Ukulele Lessons at the mission home. Prize rings for everyone.

Cousin's Sunday

Here are three beautiful girls. Of coarse I am bias, but they are quite darling. They were hilarious as they stuck together this week. They would introduce themselves as the Chipettes (from Alvin and the Chipmunks). They would say in unison "We're the Chipettes. We're kind of world famous." Indeed. 

 Here is the whole crew of cousins. Nine under eleven. We got a lot of looks as we romped across Ouha. On Sunday, they drove over from Ko Olina to join us for church. Ellie took both the girls to her class with her and after church all the girls walked home with an arm linked with a new friend. It was fun to see them all enjoy being together. Whenever we asked Ellie what she wanted to do when the cousins came, her list was always different than I thought it would be. It was to take them to church with her, take them on a long board ride with her, bike to campus to get candy from the Seasider, and boogie board at Castle beach. All the things she wanted to do where things that she delights in almost daily. Its fun to have someone understand your life a bit. Its great to be able to talk about something and have the other person visualize exactly what you are talking about. Ellie's checklist was pretty much complete- all except she would have like to have a couple more weeks with them here. Wouldn't we all.

 This picture is a picture of Julie and Will in front of the visitor center's window. As you look down the hall, the window looks like a giant canvas, but its real. 

Squished together in front of the Temple.

This cute Will will steal your heart away. The kids adored him as he always wanted to sit by one of them. And then there is that darling Claire that Sam is holding. You want to eat her up, she is so darling and such a good natured baby. We all enjoyed having a little one around. 

From one beautiful setting to the next. We decided to go watch the sunset at Pipeline. To watch the sunset and the mighty ocean as it crashes down on the beach is a great Sabbath experience. Its a great reminder of the majestic creation of this world. The power of the ocean that we have no control over. We decided it was both calming and intimidation. 

Too cool for school. And one day they will laugh at themselves and their "gangster" poses. 

You can see the chasing of the waves.

And the height and strength of the ocean.

I love the motion of this picture of Hailey being chased by the wave.

And then they all feel asleep in the car on the way home for tomorrow's adventure.