I looked out the window....

On Saturday the kids were all playing at our house and when I looked to see what they were doing outside this is what I saw. I love it! 6 princesses and Ethan jumping on the tramp.




This weekend Jeannie and Trent blessed Parker. Danny and Mark both came up for the weekend so we had a fun weekend full of family. I love watching my kids play with their cousins. They all have built-in best friends and they are just so dang cute together. We decided to take all the kids to the Carl's Jr playland for a few hours and the "big boys" left to go play wallyball for a few hours. The entire weekend the kids just played and played and played.

Westridge 5K & Fun Run

Since all my favorite girls were putting on a 5K for their school I decided to join in on the fun. I got to help out with the race which is something I've never done before. I've run plenty of 5K's but I've never helped run one. It was really fun except for the fact that it was 30 degrees and snowing off and on the whole time. I signed the boys up for the fun run and they did it on their scooters. Tayson was a speedy little guy and was in 3rd overall until he zoomed past the turn in to the finish - luckily I saw him and yelled at him to turn around. He still got 6th overall and 1st in his age group. He was really excited and happy. Luke had a blast too. Todd met us there and did the mile with Luke. I love that my boys are already doing races. Let's hope someday they love running as much as I do.

Pinewood Derby

Tayson's first Pinewood Derby was while we were in Hawaii. I am so sad I missed it. Thank goodness there is always next year. He and Todd had a lot of fun making his car. They looked online for a fun car to make and chose the hammerhead shark. Then they went to the Home Depot and bought a new dremel tool- because Todd wanted one and this was a great excuse :)

The Audition

When we were in Hawaii we thought it would be fun to bring Luke home a Ukulele. And of course I brought the girls hula skirts. And we just knew Tayson would love poi balls. They got shirts and chocolate covered macadamias and we shipping some pineapple too. But I was really most excited about their performance gifts. When I gave them to the kids they all hurried to use them then I told them to put on a show for me. We watched some youtube videos so the kids would know what each of their gifts were for then the kids went down stairs to practice. After about 15 minutes Luke and Tayson came upstairs. I asked them where the girls were and Luke said "they didn't make the audition". Hilarious. Apparently Luke held auditions for his performance and since the girls didn't want to try out they weren't allowed to dance while he played his song. He played a great song while Tayson did tricks with his poi balls. Then later the girls came upstairs and showed me how the hula dance. Claire does more of the Hawaiian style dancing and Sophie is more Tahitian with her booty shaking.

You can barely see the poi balls since he is twirling them so fast.

Sophie was most excited about her top so she could cover her "bobo's"

Luke loves his Ukulele

Later that night Jeannie and the boys came over so for FHE treat we went to Farr's fresh since I heard they had Pineapple Whip as one of their flavors. I made all the kids try it and told them about the pineapples in Hawaii. By this time Sophie was only wearing a t-shirt, panties and her hula skirt. Maybe it wasn't enough clothes but she gets away with murder and I really didn't care that you could see her princess panties under her grass skirt :)

Update on the Floors

This is what I came home to. I am so excited for how it is looking. It is going to be awesome - the only problem is that I have no stove or dishwasher for who knows how long. It will all be worth it though.

My Type of Vacation

I know it's a good trip when I finish 3 1/2 books in 6 days!

Pineapple

We bought this pineapple at the Dole Plantation then Todd cut it up for a mid day snack. It was so delicious!

Polynesian Cultural Center

We spent a full day at the PCC. It was fun to learn about all the different islands and the different cultures of each section. We saw the show "HA. The Breath of Life" and it was amazing. Especially the fire dancers - they rocked. And the guys were so ripped it was crazy. The live music and dancing was so much fun but I got lost a few times in the story line since it was all spoken in the native tongue - but I got the basics and really enjoyed the show.

We started off with a canoe tour.

My dad trying out fishing in "Tahiti" - he didn't catch anything.

Todd tasting poi in "Hawaii"

Watching the canoe show at 2:30 in the afternoon was unbearably hot - we were dripping with sweat. Thank goodness the other shows all had shade.

The "Samoa" show was one of my favorites. This guy was hilarious. He showed us how to husk and break open a coconut and how to make coconut milk.

They climb the trees with nothing but their feet tied together - it was crazy.

At the dinner luau

The pig in the ground (kinda looks nasty to me) good thing I didn't see this until after dinner.

This was one of the best pina colada drink I've ever tasted and it was in such a fun pineapple cup.

I love the huge tiki men and the faces the boys are making. Classic.

The "Lost" Beach

Todd found information about going on a "Lost" tour to see the filming spots for the TV show. We love Lost and watched all the seasons (except I still have 3 to finish the very last season). Instead of spending a couple hundred bucks and 8-12 hours of our trip we picked one of the spots and did our own self-guided tour following pictures and instructions from Todd's phone. When we got to the parking lot we saw a van pull up with the Darhma logo on it and followed one of the actual paid for tours. It was awesome. We walked along the beach for a long time to make sure we found the exact place (based on a specific tree which we found). This is the only time on the entire trip I got a little sunburned (just my neck thank goodness).

I found this picture online showing the beach with the TV set still there.

The added benefit to finding this beach is that this is the beach we found all the turtles at - talk about killing 2 birds with one stone.

Turtles

We saw so many turtles on this beach. They were amazing. Everywhere I looked they were in the water and we saw at least 5 up on the sand. Don't worry I didn't touch any (although Timmy felt one of them to see how hard it's shell was).

Hawaiian Shaved Ice

They take a scoop of vanilla ice cream put it in the bottom put shaved ice on top and pour on any flavors you want. Talk about heaven for only $3.25. This little shaved ice place was amazing. If I go again I'm getting the flavor Todd got it was called "Sunrise" and I'm not sure what 3 flavors it had but the bite I had was delicious.

P.S. While I'm talking about food I'll discuss other foods we had while in Hawaii. We ate at a place called "Just Tacos" and it was nasty. I love Mexican food - it's my very favorite but when you are that far away from Mexico apparently it you can't get spices (everything tasted like plain old tomato sauce - yuck). We ate at normal American restaurants several times (Chilis, Outback, Cheesecake Factory, etc). And by the way - they had a special cheesecake with local pineapple that might have been the best one I've ever tasted from there. I had pulled pork with rice a few times too which was yummy and felt very Hawaiian to me.

Dole Plantation

I love Pineapple Whip! That's really all there is to say about that. It is delicious and the only other place I've ever had it is at the Tiki Room at Disneyland. Todd even had one when we got there and one before we left - because it's just that good.

The pineapple maze was a blast. We split up and had a contest on who could do it the fastest - we were all pretty close but Timmy won, then Todd and I then my dad. I had never seen a pineapple bush before and honestly I think before this trip I thought they grew on trees. The pineapple fields were huge and we drove past so many of them when we left to hit North Shore.

Hiking in Hawaii

I have no idea what this hike is called but it was a fun hike. It was between 3-4 miles total and had some very hard parts in it. At the end you climb down a rope and there were 3 pools of water and a small waterfall. One of the pools was really deep and had a rope swing that went into it - the rope was all tangled up though so we didn't have to dare each other to try that one.

check out that steep hill with all those roots - this was the hardest part of the hike

the rope that we used to get in and out of the ponds

Todd threw that rock at me!

the waterfall
Todd wore that same shirt when we were in Tahiti (9 years ago....ha ha)


The deep pool .... everyone trying to decide if we should jump in or not.

I jumped in first (which is so not like me) so my dad missed getting the camera out before Timmy jumped in. The water was super deep and cold and it freaked me out a little so I didn't stay in very long.

Shenene (Timmy's friend from HS), Timmy and I in the water.