my family
Current mood: loved
Category: Life
Well, it's back to boring normalcy for a while. My parents and my sister, Megan (and her family) just left. They flew in on the 26th of Oct. Adam (Megan's husband) is in the Air Force and so they were able to catch a "hop" and come for free. They were anxious to get straight to the beach, so we took them to Ko'Olina. Everyone loved it! They were just so happy to be in the warm sun in October.
We went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet on the 27th, then that night we had our ward Trunk or Treat. It was SO LAME! The Primary didn't have anything prepared at all. It started at 5 pm, which, it's not even dark then, and then didn't have any activities or any kind of anything for refreshments. We looked cute in our Flintstones costumes though. There were a lot of really cute costumes there too.
They came to church with us on Sunday, which they found to be really interesting and unique since we start every meeting with a big ALOHA! I made a roast and mashed potatoes (as per usual) for dinner and then we played LIFE. It is always interesting playing games with my Dad. He isn't a real big game player to begin with, but he watched whatever movie the kids were watching the whole time except when it was his turn. I think he even ended up winning! LOL
Monday, I wasn't planning to go, but they had planned to do the North Shore thing all morning and then come back and go surfing at White Plains beach here on the Leeward side. Well, when they were planning their day that morning, Dad said he thought I should just go with (1/2 jokingly). So I decided to go and then mom decided to go. BIG MISTAKE! Everything took twice as long because we had all the kids and we didn't get back in time for my kids to come home from school. We started out by going to BYU Hawai'i in La'ie and to the bookstore. Then went to the Temple and wandered around and took pictures. Then we stopped at the McDonald's next to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Then we headed up over the north shore. We stopped in Kahuku to get shrimp from a roadside truck. It was good, but not worth the 15 minute wait to get it. Then we went into Waimea Falls where I couldn't get cell service to let Mariah know on her cell phone to stay with Aunty May until we get home. The falls was LAME! It was a 20 minute hill-y winding walking path "hike" (which the lady we asked at the info center at the entrance said it was completely flat. We asked since Mom's ankles are up for much walking these days) into a gorgeous lush jungle. Half way into the "hike" mom had to sit on a bench and wait because her body just couldn't finish it. The gorgeous trail ended up at a tiny waterfall. I was disappointed with it. Maybe I was a little annoyed too which clouded my enjoyment of it. Then my Dad insisted that Adam needed to jump off "the rock" at Waimea Bay, but I was too irritated to pile myself and the kids out of the van AGAIN. So we stayed in the parking lot while Megan Adam and Dad went down to watch Adam jump. He got a thrill and really enjoyed himself, but then it was off to find "turtle beach" at Lani's akea. On the way we stopped at the famed Ted's Bakery, but were all very disappointed with that as there were only a few pastries left to choose from, so we left empty handed. We couldn't find turtle beach and so we decided to head toward Dole Plantation. It was about 3 pm by this time and my kids had been out of school, and unexpectedly at May's, for an hour. The original plan was to stop at the famed Matsumoto's Shave Ice in Haleiwa, but when we got near, Will went to veer off the road to it and I shook my head N-O!! We needed to head on down the road and get the kids. Plus we were going to get Pineapple whip at Dole anyway. Dad was disappointed that we didn't stop at Matsumoto's, but by this time mom was EXTREMELY irritated with the entire day. I think her ankles were hurting her and she was annoyed with having been crammed into the van ALL DAY. So we stopped at Dole which is always fun. The Pineapple whip is always DELICIOUS! And it's dairy free, which is great for Tatum. After we'd all had our fill, we headed down toward home again. We got there at around 4:45 and the girls were fine, but I felt bad that May had to have them for so long on short notice (or no notice, really). We had spaghetti for dinner and then everyone except mom and I went swimming at the pool.
Tuesday dawned a new and fresh day. Dad, Adam and Megan (and baby Ellie) left really early in the morning to go to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. My girls had the day off school for teacher inservice, so we hung around at home and let them relax and watch tv while mom and I cleaned up a little. Then we went and met them at Kmart in Waikele because they had a coupon out for a free bag of Halloween candy. So we each cut a coupon or 2 and got a bunch of free candy (mom style). That night we left Megan home with Adalyn, Ellie, Brinlee and Asia (Mariah and Tatum went to May's) and we went to the Temple for a session. It was FANTASTIC! I got a kick out of watching mom's and dad's reaction to the way our temple is set up. We made it to the 5 o'clock session and then headed for home. We stopped at 7 Eleven in Ewa to get the Bento plates for dinner and brought some to Megan.
The girls had a 1/2 day at school on Wednesday since it was Halloween and the day before Parent Teacher Conferences started. Mom, Dad and I went to watch the girls in their little costume parade at the school. It was really cute. My favorite costume was a little kindergartener dressed up as Dog the Bounty Hunter and his twin sister dressed as Dog's wife!! SO CUTE! That afternoon after Mariah and Brinlee got out of school, we went to White Plains beach to let the guys try surfing.
Mom stayed home with Adalyn and Tatum so they could nap. There was a Hawaiian Monk Seal sunbathing on the beach there and the girls got a real kick out of watching it lay there. They thought that was pretty cool. When we got home we got ready to go trick or treating, but in the mean time it started to rain . I was really stressing out for some reason. The hair color spray ran out and their hair was only half done, then our new camera didn't have a big enough memory for me to take any pictures so I had to use my Dad's to get some pics and I didn't take as many as I normally would have because I was irritated and in a hurry. Mom, Dad, and Adam (and Ellie) stayed home while we took the kids trick or treating in our neighborhood with May and her girls and Andrea Allen and her kids. It was SO FUN!! Once the trick or treating started everyone relaxed and got into it. The kids came home with at least 15 lbs of candy (cumulatively). CRAZY! We got caught in a couple of down pours in the rain. It made it feel like we were in OR, only it was still warm and humid. The girls hair color kind of ran onto their faces and costumes, but it was dark so no one could tell. Several people asked me where I got our costumes. I saw a lot of spidermans and princesses, but I didn't see ANY other Flintstones!!
Thursday we pretty much ate candy all day....JUST KIDDING! Well, we took it to the beach and ate it there! We went to my most favoritest beach on the entire island...Kalama Beach Park in Kailua. The boogie boarding was OFF THE HOOK! I can honestly say that we have not had better boogie boarding waves ever. Everyone got in the water (except the 2 babies). My dad is a glutton for punishment. He was out there forever and he was getting POUNDED! We all got dusted a couple times. Poor Brinlee got stung by a jellyfish twice. The Portuguese Man of War were out with a vengeance. I ended up getting stung on the top of my right leg and on my ribs. My mom got it on her ankle and we found a bunch of them washed ashore. It was crazy! We were there all day. We got there around 11:00 and didn't leave until 3:30. I think we may have stayed a little longer, but my girls had hula practice that afternoon. We came straight home and mom and dad came with me to watch them dance. Then we ordered in from Zippy's. It was actually really good. The only other time we had eaten there was when we first moved to the island and we tried it and thought is was NASTY! Then we went to Dave's Ice Cream for the best shave ice on the island!! Very satisfying!
Mom and Dad had a flight out on Friday morning and Megan and Adam started trying to get a "hop" out that morning. They didn't catch one on Friday or Saturday. I was actually really glad they got to stay a few days extra. We got to have some good down time just chatting and hanging out. It was really fun. The kids played and argued and teased as usual and we got to play games and shoot the breeze. They finally got on a flight on Sunday afternoon.
It was so great to see everyone! My parents are planning to come back for Will's graduation in May. I think Jackie and Mike and Jay and Chelsea are going to try and come then too. CRAZY TIMES!!
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