S'mores

We decided to try out my mom's new fire pit tonight again. We had used it once last Monday night for FHE, but it was so dang cold outside that we were all bundled up and shivering. I couldn't even enjoy it.

It was pretty nice out today and we had the missionaries over for dinner (my parents are still in Vegas for Tyson's graduation) and the dessert was s'mores.

Roasting marshmallows at Grandma Jones' House

OOPS! Dropped my marshmallow!

That's ok. It still tastes good.......

A New Day

This morning I got up and decided to peruse the yard sale scene. I drove around for a while and there wasn't much until I went into this ancient neighborhood near my parents home. The neighborhood is called the "Senior Estates" and has been in Woodburn for idk, 50 years...maybe longer. It's a planned community for senior citizens age 55 and older with NO children.

Anyway, as I was looking, all the little old couples that were out were being so cute. I'm not sure why, but it was so refreshing to see all these little white haired people out enjoying the rare sunshine and they way they spoke to each other was so endearing. I couldn't help but walk around with a full-tooth smile on my face.

So weird to me that it took going to this OLD OLD neighborhood and walking amongst the "almost dead" (LOL j/k) to put me in a mood that I haven't been in for a while. I didn't even really buy anything (except one Tupperware brand box for $1). I couldn't wait to come home and blog! Things are looking UP!

so cold!

We arrived here last Wed the 4th. I have been in some kind of crazy weird funk for several weeks and haven't felt like blogging much. I have loved that feature that blogspot added several months ago where you can "pre-post" and I set up my 100's to automatically post for me each day. So while it has seemed that I've been on here every day, it's a faker.

It's been unbelievable cold here since we arrived. I was really hoping that we would have mild June, July, and August weather to slowly adjust to the fall cold, but not so. We are FREEZING! Yesterday morning, Mariah called me into the room they are sleeping at my mom's house and said "MOM, look! There is water on the inside of the window?!" I don't know if she thought that somehow the rain got inside, but I had to explain what condensation is to her.

Last Thursday, the morning after we arrived, Brinlee got up and said "Do we have school today?" After I said no, she asked, "Is is summertime now?" I told her "sort of". Then after breakfast she called me into the living room and pointed out the big picture window and said "MOM, look at the grass! It's growing bigger!" I guess it's been a while since she saw so much green grass in one single yard??

Awards Ceremony

The night before last we cleaned everything out of our apartment and stayed the night with the Kai's. They had gotten the Allens and Wheelers to come over for dinner as a surprise. We had a quick dinner, but then had to finish up some last minute cleaning. We are so glad that we could barge in on our "hapa twins" and feel comfortable in their home to spend our last night there. They have been so good to us!
Yesterday was the girls final awards ceremony at Keoneula Elementary. After the ceremony was done, we stopped at the Kai's to change clothes and then straight to the airport to fly back to the mainland. It is so surreal that just yesterday we were enjoying the warm and balmy island air and now we are FREEZING our little tushies off!!

final beach photo shoot

I am planning to frame a collage for each of the girls with pictures of them from the beach. Here are a couple of shots of each.

Aloha 'Oe

It's tradition in Hawai'i for a group to sing Aloha 'Oe and give lei to a person or family when they are leaving. It sends with the person(s) leaving, the Aloha that they enjoyed in the prescence of friends and loved ones. It is an emotional time. We will dearly miss the friends and 'ohana here in the Ewa Beach 2nd Ward.

I was trying to be sneaky with our digital camera and was able to catch the ward singing Aloha 'Oe to us. Sorry it's a little shaky and sometimes hard to hear.

All the lei from friends

Sheri Dano, Kristy, Kapua Kai

Tatum's 1st Dentist visit

All the girls had their regular 6 month check up today with Dr. Timon. It was Tatum's 1st time and she was happy go lucky watching all the others until it was her turn...

We think it's so weird that they don't use the spinning brush to clean their teeth. Dr. Timon told us when we first started going to him that they have advised against using it on the younger kids because it's harder on their enamel. IDK, I just went along with it, but I'm not sure I totally agree???

Baptism slide

The baptism slide is up. Click HERE.

ADDED videos right below it (from the baptism). Scroll down the page about 1/2 way from here.

Sunday

We didn't have much time today to do anything. We ate a quick breakfast and had to clean up and check out of the condo. We got a few pictures out on the lanai. The vog had lifted a little bit, so we were able to see that we actually had a view of both Moloka'i and Lana'i islands.
We went to the Kapalua airport near Lahaina and it was TINY! I have never been to such a small airport. There was only one small check in area and one tiny terminal. Everybody was just cruisin' up there. No one was in a hurry to do anything!

The only terminal in the airport

Our tiny prop plane

We are in the front row of the plane, and that wall is the back of the plane
(DANG! It's blurry)

When we got home the girls were so happy to see us and so was Grandma Erickson. Poor thing has had trouble with a kidney stone since they arrived here. She said the kids were pretty good at letting her rest when she needed it. I really hope they were, because that is miserable!

Saturday

We had portuguese sausage and rice with eggs for breakfast. Then we headed to Kahului for the swap meet near Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping Center. It was small compared to the one on Oahu, but I found what I was looking for nonetheless. I got the girls each a wooden bracelet like the ones I got on Kaua'i only they say "Maui".

We took the long-ish, SUPER wind-y road up to Haleakala National Park. It was beautiful up there. You could see the snowcaps of Mauna Kea on the Big Island from up there. The whole experience was breath taking.

In the viewing area at the top of the summit

Such a happy baby!

**Funny story I don't want to forget**

On the way up to Haleakala, we were eating some chocolates that I bought at Wal-Mart the night before. I was totally going to town on the PB cups and when Kapua asked for the bag back, she was like "Where the heck are all the Reese's you stingy little..... (HA HA HA!). When I looked in my lap there were like 8 crumpled up little wrappers, so I handed them to her and said "oops. sorry. MY bad!" We were totally dying laughing. Then I felt totally sick and they didn't have any sympathy for me.

We had read in one of those tourist guides about some smoothie place on the road to Hana. It was supposedly one of the first stops along the way, so we decided to head over there for some good smoothies. We had the address punched into Kauwe's GPS ("Maggie"), but we could NOT find it. After asking a few people about the Hana Juice Co, we still couldn't find it. Then we stopped at a gas station and the lady said it was right across the street. We felt so dumb. It was RIGHT THERE. So we looked for parking and walked over there. We went inside (the door was propped open) and started looking at the menu. The girl sitting behind the counter says "Oh, we're actually closed". WHAT?! It was only 4:00 in the afternoon and they had just closed at 3:30! We were so ticked. We decided to go next door and get some Gelato ice cream, instead. It was pretty good. DANG expensive, but good.

That night on the way home, we stopped at the boardwalk in Lahaina to eat at another sister/brother restaurant to Kaua'i's Keoki's. It was called Kimo's.

I was SO disappointed. The menu was just 2 short pages. There were only 2 chicken dishes, both of which were teriyaki flavors and both were over $20 for the plate. I didn't feel like eating fresh fish (the only other choice besides salad), so I decided to order a cup of clam chowder. The chowder was actually pretty good, but I was so looking forward to something GOOOOD! The sunset from the balcony where we were sitting was beautiful though.

After we got home, they put Kezley to bed and we went out back to sit in the hot tub. When it closed we played cards again. GOOD TIMES!!

Friday

The guys went spear fishing first thing this morning. They weren't able to catch anything substantial, but had a blast out there anyway. One of Kauwe's cousins had lent them the spears.

We ate lunch at the Hula Grill,

which is owned by the same people as Keoki's where we ate at on Kaua'i. It was pretty good. Our table was out on the lanai with a view of the ocean.

The sandwich I got was just ok (Kauwe got the same), but Kapua's fish and chips were DELISH, and Will's food was super YUM too.

After lunch we stopped at Star Market and picked up food for dinner. We decided to BBQ steak (Kauwe style) since the boys didn't catch any fish.
We spent the afternoon talking and going out on the beach by the condo.

There is a pool just before the beach, as well. While the guys were prepping the grill, Pua and I went swimming in the pool.
Dinner was EXCELLENT! The sunset was gorgeous

and we had a nice relaxing evening.

Kapua fell asleep feeding baby Kezley around 10, so me and the boys stayed up playing cards and talking.

Thursday

We left our house this morning along with the girls on their way to school. We ended up walking out to Fort Weaver Rd in order to catch TheBus to the airport because Mary Lou didn't feel comfortable driving us to the airport. She didn't think she'd be able to find her way back. The bus ride was interesting and took me back to when we first lived on the island and had no car. We arrived at the Kahului, Maui airport in mid-morning. We picked up the rental car and drove around the central northern part of the island waiting for Kai's to arrive. I does seem smaller over here. More laid back and WAY less traffic. When the Kai's arrived, we picked them up from the airport, grabbed 2 dozen Krispy Kreme's (only available on Maui) and went to the condo. It is GORGEOUS and only steps from the ocean. The best part about it is that it is FREE!!! Kauwe's dad works for Budget Rental and I guess it's the company place or something like that. There is a video tour of it below.

For dinner we went to Kauwe's Aunty's house in Lahaina which is near where we are staying. It was fun to visit with their family and meet some of his cousins. They were very hospitable.

Oatmeal

Tatum has found a new love. The first clip is of her "exfoliating" herself. The second is of her getting pretty good at using a spoon.

HPU Pinning and Graduation Ceremonies

I have to be the proud wife for a minute! I am so proud of Will for all his hard work. The pinning on Monday night was really special and I was glad to have been able to take part in it.

On pinning night, Will was honored with the first award of the night. He received the Clinical Excellence award as voted by the instructors in the nursing program. They also awarded 13 nursing students with accolades according to the GPA received in HPU nursing program (3.5 or higher). Because Will is considered a transfer student from BYU, they used his GPA from there to average his graduating GPA from HPU. Unfortunately, this disqualified him from graduating with honors at the main University ceremony on Tuesday. When they began announcing the 13 on Monday night, I got my camera ready because Will's HPU GPA is 3.875 and so I knew he'd be receiving one. When the 12th name was read, I started to get nervous. The announcer said..."And the student with the highest GPA in the class is....Chrisma (something). WHAT?! Why didn't he get an award?!! hmmmmm

Well today, Dr Burrell, asst dean, called to say that she wanted to apologize to Will because they had meant to give him one of those awards and she didn't realize his name had been overlooked until she started receiving emails and phone calls from other students inquiring why they didn't receive one. So they are going to mail it to him.

real quick

I have been so busy with family in town since a week ago Monday. We've had a baptism and a pinning ceremony with the graduation tonight. I wish I could say that I will be posting all the pics soon, but we will be heading outer island to Maui on Thursday to Sunday with our friends Kauwe and Kapua Kai. Will's mom will still be here to tend the girls.

p.s. I mostly mean those things (the pet peeves on my 100's list) about myself or immediate family members. I am an obsessive person, but I love my friends just the way they are! =D

Mother's Day

Our Mother's Day started last night when my dad took us all out to dinner at Hapa Grill in Kapolei. It was my parents, Jackie and Mike Hathaway (my sister), Mary Lou and Cory (Will's mom and brother), and us. We got a sitter for the kids.
We had a really nice day. Mariah was also welcomed as the newest member of the Ewa Beach 2nd Ward and did a really nice job saying her favorite Article of Faith (#4) over the pulpit.
My dad bought each of us mom’s lei to wear to church. I am so happy that both of our moms are here to be together on Mother's Day. I can't believe there are only 3 more weeks till we move.

Mariah's Baptism

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning and the worries about where everyone would park and if people would be able to find us had all dissipated. We had pretty much prepared everything last night and all that was left to do is get everyone ready. Trying to explain that "no, we aren't going to church, we are going to the beach in church clothes" was a little interesting, but all the kids were actually really good all morning.
It was an absolutely gorgeous setting for this sacred ordinance. The beach was empty, except for 2 moms with their small kids.
The service was short and the spirit was strong. The image of her being plunged below the placid blue water is engraved on my mind. When she came up from the water, she didn't even look as though she were wet. It was a serene and very surreal moment.
She was thrilled to receive her own set of scriptures with her name engraved on the front from Grandpa and Grandma Jones. She has spent most of the day flipping through the pages and reading here and there. She said she wants to start at the beginning and read all the way to the very end.

I noticed after I was putting together the slide show that I didn't get any pictures of just Mariah =<. If anyone that was here did, can you send it to me? I am planning to take her to Kiddie Kandids as soon as we move back to get professional pictures of her in her dress.

Baptism videos

This one is an overview of the setting and those who attended.

I gave Will and Mariah matching Hawaiian CTR bands.

When no one was looking, Tatum sat herself down in the shore water and had a ball!

a gift from Grandma 'E'

Officially...

I had my "real" ultrasound today and I can say that I saw for myself that it is, definitively, a GIRL! The tech did give me some new pics, but they are mostly profiles and the one of the actual baby girl parts is really fuzzy and doesn't look like anything.

Baptism Invite

You are ALL invited!! I know most of you are too far away to attend, but you're invited anyway. =D

RSVP to Kristy @ 689-3900

It's going to be at Lanikuhonua @ Ko'Olina. It's easy to find. Go to Ko'Olina Marriott Resort and the 1st entrance just past Paradise Cove is where it's at. There is a stone sign that says "Lanikuhonua". Hope those of you on island can make it!