House Luau and Portland Friends

So if I haven't mentioned before. We live in the greatest house. We love the families that live here. David and Grace thought it would be a great idea to throw a luau while my mom was here, and of coarse we agreed. We were also so excited because it was the same time that our great friends and neighbors from Portland, the Pollard family, were coming to visit. So they could join in on the fun too.

 Here's the beautiful Pollard ladies with my girls. When we left Portland, I think Katie (the one in orange) was Ellie's age. Now they are all grown up and still just as fabulous. It was so fun to have them stop here on their way home from Maui. I just want to them to know we are so grateful for their time and effort to come. And look how tan they are. Such awesome Italian genetics.

 David organized the luau and threw the pig in the ground. My mom was here and the Pollard's showed up. It was fantastic. Sam and Jeri showed everyone how to husk a coconut. Just like the PCC performance. ;) Our house families (minus the Johanson's who were out of town), and friends and neighbors came to the luau. The food was incredible- David's chicken, Temo's ribs, the pig, incredible salads, and much more. There was no room for dessert. 

After food and more food came the entertainment. Oh how I love this place. Jayne and Ellie dance one of their Tahitian dances.

Then Grace, Muwana, and Tina dance hot hula! 

Even little Tarita, Grace's daughter, joined in the hula. So cute! Larissa also danced this awesome hula hoop dance and then made us all join in. Again I was reminded my lack of coordination. But it was good times.

Sam was able to spin fire. He was super excited. David got him outfitted and he came out and yelled,"Talofa!" just as any good fireknife dancer would. He did really well, only dropping once. It was really fun for him. Jeri also performed and she can really spin fast. Then Dave performed, adding in a bit of zumba dance, and cracking himself up laughing. He's so funny. But he spins fire like no other. Its second nature to him and he makes it look so easy. Maybe I haven't mentioned, but he is also two time World Fireknife Champion! It was fun to have him perform in our front yard! The luau was the best night ever here in Hawaii. Mostly because we got to spend time with our friends and family.

Grandma's Coming to Me

I told Jake that Grandma was coming. He said so enthusiastically," Grandma's coming to me? Jacob's house?"It was fun to have the answer to be yes. Ever since we came my parent's have been trying to find a time to squeak into their schedule, a trip to visit. My Dad wasn't able to make it but after my mom called to say she bought tickets, I hung up the phone, told Seth my mom was coming, and then I started crying. Because I was happy. We have lived away from our families for a long time, not because we don't love them or want to be with them, but because the Lord has put us else where. But its hard to have your kids live away from Grandparents, mostly because you want them to see every little miracle, every little trick, or witness first hand the tantrums, of your children. So I was so excited to have my mom come to experience Hawaii with us. Plus she is super mom. My apartment has never been so clean for some many consecutive days. And without planning it, I was very sick, and she totally took over when I felt like I was going to die. I think I napped every day she was here. I felt bad after being so sick and apologized that this wasn't the greatest vacation. She said she didn't need another vacation. I laughed. She came to help and help she did. I love that women. 

She came in on a 6 a.m. flight and as we drove back we capture this beautiful picture of China man's hat. 

We even caught the sunrise with the rain. I was so beautiful. 

The day was typical North Shore weather. 80 degrees with a chance of rain showers and sun. Sure enough, we went to lunch a famous Ted's Bakery, and it rained, and then the sun came out. I took my mom a minute to adjust to none of my children wearing shoes anywhere and Jake barely wearing anything.

We got to Turtle Bay to snorkel and the skies opened and it poured rain. But then it cleared and we all jumped in. Seth, Jake, and Jayne made their awesome sand volcanoes.

The next day we hiked to Waimae Falls with my mom. She is such a sport. She loves to hike, but she has a sore foot. She didn't complain even though I know it was hurting her. 

We played some Hawaiian bowling at the games area. Grandma said she wasn't very good at it.

We made it to the falls and my mom hopped in. It was runny high, so they wouldn't let the kids in and I wasn't feeling to well, so she was our representative. 

Jayne took these pictures of the momma peacock and her babies. She wanted me to put them on the blog as well. Enjoy!

The next day we were able to meet up with the Hughes family and took my mom to our favorite beach-Castles. My mom was a bit intimidated by the waves, especially to see the kids just go jump in. I too was intimidated when I first came, but since I have been able to get to know the ocean, I am much more at ease now. In fact, I love it and I will be sad to not live so near to it. My mom was even brave enough to come out and boogie board with us. She held on to the boogie board and I gave her a push to catch a wave (a pretty big one too) and she totally caught it and rode it all the way into the shore. She raised her hand and cheered, as did we, and then she said she thought she should quit while she was ahead. It was great. 

Here's Sam practicing his fireknife.

I absolutely live this picture of this boy. I posted it on Facebook and this is what I wrote:

"Sometimes you capture a little piece of heaven. For an 11 yr old boy does it get much better than a surf board and a fireknife? I actually don't think he really understands what he's got here, but I hope as he looks back he will see to amazing unique experience this has been."

I'd like to make him a poster of this picture when we get home!

Here's Grandma and the kids enjoying Friday night movie night! She's such a good sport. I think they watched High School Musical. Popcorn, movie, and Grandma, doesn't get much better than this. Check out Sam with his fire stick. Ha. 

Bake Sale(s)

Hey Friends, its been too long. I realized today that I am several weeks behind. I can blame it mostly on sickness. First Sam, then Seth, then me, then Seth, and now Jake. (Yes, Seth snuck in two times of being sick.) Needless to say, this momma wasn't getting much sleep. But I think we are taking a turn for the better and I am finally able to sit up at night and write somethings down. Blogging is a luxury, and when your in survival mode, it just doesn't take priority. So I am back. And here is the news on the.....

Jayne has been asking from day one to learn to dance hula. I didn't find a hula class, but I found a tahitian class. But it isn't just a class, it is class to practice to compete in the Tahitian dance competition held at the Polynesian Cultural Center. So I signed Jayne and Ellie up. Then I found out that the class was only $25, but the costumes for the the performance would be $160 each. Choke, cough. At the same time Sam was asking to buy real fireknifes that run $300 for doubles. Ouch. This was not in my budget and their allowance wasn't going to cut it. So we did what people do here- we fundraised. The Tahitian dance teacher, Auntie Penny, put together two fundraisers. She is also a zumba instructor, so she threw two zumba parties. The tickets were $10 each and the girls got 100% of the money to go towards their costumes. For the first party the girls sold 9 tickets($90), so that was a good start to the $320 total. Then we decided to have a bake sale. The girls and I made Joan's famous chocolate chip cookies, two dozen cup cakes, and two pans of my Dad's famous sheet cake. And my friend Daisy made a 2 dozen cinnamon rolls and 2 dozen orange rolls to sell for her daughters costume. We made signs in the afternoon and baked the goods Friday night, and on Saturday morning the kids rode their bikes around putting up signs and set up the tent for the table of goodies. We set up at 8:30 and sold out by 9:30. We earned $100 and my friend earned $70. It was pretty amazing. Its kind of shocked me. But my neighbor who lives here said that's how it goes. That everyone here loves baked goods and that things would sell fast. Sure enough. So now we were at $190. We decided to have one more bake sale. Ellie sold $40 of zumba tickets so we had another $90 to go. Then I got sick. Fortunately Grandma Dianne, baker extraordinaire, was at our house. By Friday at noon she had everything baked. Sam made the cookies, and she made an extra couple pans of brownies. So again, the kids set up shop and sold out in an hour. They made exactly $100, enough to pay for their costumes. It was a fun experience for the kids and for me. It was so great to see what a supporting community this place is. Everyone who stopped always told the kids to keep the change for their costumes. We lost a bit of overhead to the cost of production, but working together made it fun too. The kids worked hard. Sam had put in extra time and effort, cleaning cars, closests, and babysitting to earn money to get his fireknives. 

Below is Ellie after opening the pressurized cocoa can to make the brownies. 

Jake was not very helpful at the bake sale. You can see by the chocolate face!

I couldn't help posting this picture of these two. These seats are right behind the bake sale tent. These two were sitting having a conversation about the going ons of the sale. They totally crack me up. Such turkeys. Adorable turkeys. 

Sunday Sunset at Pipeline Beach

Here's what we come to see. Rose will laugh because I say its my favorite part of Sunday.

 This last Sunday our friends, the Hughes, asked if we could have dessert with them. We agreed but only if they would join us at Pipeline beach to watch the sunset. They were totally on board and said they would bring dessert. Then the Uluave's texted to see if we were heading to beach for sunset. We had invited them the week before and they couldn't come. So they joined us and brought their relatives too. Then our neighbor's, the Galeais, were walking by and of coarse we invited them. So when we showed up to meet the Hughes our party was a bit bigger than they were expecting. We ate all of their desserts and the Hughes were so gracious. I guess we've never been very good at keeping things small.

 Here is the majority of rug rats that we brought along. They enjoyed the view from the lifeguard station.

Here's Seth and the brothers. Jason, David, and Tommy. Great guys, every single one of them.

I know what you are thinking, why would you be at Pipeline when you should be at Sunset Beach. Well, they are only a mile apart and Pipeline is a big flat beach with plenty of room to run, its off of the highway, and great waves to watch. And its the same sunset!

Our neighbor, David, brought his drum, and there was an audience, so guess who started performing. Yeap, Jayne Elizabeth, entertainer extraordinaire! Fortunately, the Hughes' daughter, Ava, is just like Jayne, so the two performed all their Tahitian moves. Even Jaker's joined in. I wish my blog would take video's because I got the greatest video of Jake and Jayne dancing. Umm, actually it was pretty incredible and I think Jayne will remember it for the rest of her life. I know I will. 

 Jake's sudo "Haka" that is really Tahitian.                                    Jayne sporting her moves.

Then Ellie and Isa Hughes took the stage. Ellie somehow has turned part Polynesian. It's the most awesome thing. She is learning to dance Tahitian and is actually quite good at it. 

But then it is time to go. The darkness over takes us and we have to wait a 7 more days to do it again. But on Sunday evenings, you'll know where to find us. 

And it really comes down to this. Sure bliss.

Time Moving Slowly

Today Sam said,"I can't wait for this weekend for two reason. One, because I can't wait for time to stop passing so slowly to get my fire knives. And two, because I get my fire knives." Yes, Seth said that Sam could get fire knives. They are $300. (Whoa there.) And Seth is such a softy that he told Sam we would pay half if he would earn the other half. He's been working like a dog- babysitting for us, doing extra chores, cleaning out cars, and joining the girls in their bake sale (you'll hear about that later). Today's date he is $16 short. But Seth let him order them last weekend with understanding he would earn the rest this week. Get ready ER!!!

Even though I laughed at his impatience for time to pass, I understand what he is saying. I am ready to know what is in store for us. Where we are going. How things are going to work out. I feel like the last two months of really putting an effort forth to figure this out has moved very slowly. It can be difficult because everyone who calls (out of complete love and concern) asks what's next? I have no answer for them except- its gonna all work out. Sometime is feels more like- its gonna all work out? And I am sure that when we look back we will see how the pieces to this puzzle all fit together.

The interesting thing about time is that the last five months have flashed by us. To think its the end of June and then we only have July is unbelievable. Didn't we just get here? And it feels like we are just getting comfortable. We are finally getting it. I will not deny it will be very hard for us to leave this place.

So when it all feels a little heavy-we go to the beach. Atleast that's how I deal with it, and I drag the rest with me. We had been told from locals about a beautiful little bay just other side of Turtle Bay called Kawela Bay or the locals call it- Secret Bay. You have to take a short hike into it, but it was well worth it. 

As we are walking in Jake said,"In the Jungle." With these big trees and vines it looked like we were in a jungle especially to a 2 year old whose only reference is the cartoon Diego that he watches diligently every day. He can sing you the theme song. So here they are in the JUNGLE!

These trees are pretty impressive.

He didn't want me to post this picture but here he is. Pre shower, a bit of licked kitty under that hat. He is sporting our trusty backpack beach chairs. Highly recommend them. We take them everywhere and stuff them with all our beach junk. 

Here's the view from the jungle. A beautiful, very calm bay and all to ourselves. (Actually there were 4 other people there, but we didn't pay attention to them.)

Two of the other people had this giant floaty out and while they were eating lunch on the shore they let the kids go out and play on it. It was great fun. As they were out there a big sea turtle swam up right beside them. We saw about 8 turtles in the bay. The water was a bit murky because of the rain storm, but we are told that on a clear day you can swim and snorkel right up to the turtles. We're going back on a clear day. 

I fell in love with this picture of these two. These two are bestest friends. They love to talk with each other and go places together. I think that this adventure will effect their relationship for the rest of their lives. I became really close to my younger brother and sister just we hit college, and I love them dearly,and have great memories of our time together running rivers, hanging out, and even leaving on missions to Brazil together(even though we left our baby sister behind, alone, with full attention of Mom and Dad). But these guys have a head start.

Hike to Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau

We had spent a little too much time at home with Sam being so sick and I was getting a bit claustrophobic of our 1400 square feet. So the kids and I went on a drive to play at the park at Sunset beach and check out some locations for photo shoot. I talked to a local at the park and he told me to check out the overlook to Waimae Bay. We drove up the mountain, and took a back road to Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau. It is an ancient sacrificial burial ground in a fantastic location. Of coarse my kids had no shoes on, but that didn't stop us. We took a short hike to the overlook. I am sorry I didn't take picture of the burial grounds, but here are some pictures of the look out and hike to it.

This is over looking Waimae Bay. I am not sure I will take clients here since they could fall to their death off the ledge. But its a great look out. 

Here's my boys.

And here's my girls.

Who wouldn't want to hike here? Who needs shoes?

Looking for another location for photo shoots I took these pictures in front of the Bone Carving Truck. I really liked it and I really love these people.