I’m sure we’ll get previews later, but we got some family pictures taken by Natalie Norton- the kids had never had so much fun taking pictures. She was so good with the kids and especially Hali’a, she kept asking if she could do it again.
After pictures Natalie had to run to town and my kids weren’t finished playing with her boys so we took Raleigh and Cardon with us to have lunch and play at castles beach, it’s always fun to have friends around too.
So after the hukilau Rigby insisted on getting a fish and cooking it. He and Eric got one from a local fisherman and after church and our nap we (as in Margret) scaled the fish and cooked it in coconut milk with cabbage and onions. It turned out great if you don’t mind fishy fish- but the good part was the purple sweet potatoes cooked in coconut milk- those were awesome, and the good company with even a Tahitian dance by Nia!
Happy 4th of July!!!!!!
We are glad we are still here and we didn’t even get bombed by North Korea!
We woke up early and got to our last farmer’s market in Waialua before we leave the island! Then we went with the Jones’ and some of their friends to a secret beach near turtle bay- it was perfect for the little ones- a little Ko olina! We swam a lot and made a home made slip-n-slide into the water, then we had a nice little BBQ. Then everyone had little ones that needed to go home and take naps, we were also tired but we decided to take a nap on the beach in our tent instead. After our nap we played a bit more and caught more fish and crabs (the fish in the pictures Eric caught with the net).
After beach FIREWORKS! On our way over to the fireworks we met a local guy that gave the kids some nice cold coconuts- for some reason the kids seem to attract lots of gifts. Then we went over to the place for the fireworks and the booths and found Simeon and Margret Vance with their kids and watch the fireworks with them. After that we went down to the beach and did sparklers and threw some of the spinning flowers into the ocean.
The ward we have been doing activities with was having a hukilau at Hukilau beach, so Eric had to forfeit his sleeping in and we got to go to the hukilau. What they do at a hukilau is they get a long net and a long rope. They tie lau leaves to the rope so it acts as a predator and scares the fish into the net then everyone pulls the net in. It is quite a process, but it seems to get a lot more fish than the fishermen. The man in charge told us there were to rules:
1. watch the divers so if the net gets stuck on the coral we stop pulling until they get the net unstuck.
2. don’t touch a fish if it looks like a shark- because it probably is a shark and it will bite!
We had fun and we got to see an octopus and also got to learn how to pop off a fish’s head and gut it and scale a fish with your thumb. It was a neat thing that we were able to do.
Then finally Eric got to do something that he wanted to do- go get fish tacos. We had to go to Mililani to find some tacos, but it was a nice little change, we also got to get a lot of fireworks for Saturday!
By the time it came to my day we just needed a nice relaxing day, so that is what we did. We spent the day at castles beach.
For Rigby’s day we did what Rigby loves to do- play with friends and be with people. We went to the ward camp out breakfast and had some good pancakes and fruit- we played there for a while and came back to our place and Rigby went off to play with Brady, a friend that he’s made here that lives in the faculty housing right next to us. He was there for the afternoon then we went to the Rutherford’s to play and have dinner and ice cream mochi. Then we made some peanut butter balls and went to the ward camp out again to their taste-testers and game night. We went from tent to tent and tasted some good polynesian food and played some fun games and say goodbye to our new friends- they left back to Sandy, UT the next morning.
Liddy’s Day- Liddy’s plan was to go back to the beach that we went to for Hali’a’s day for a little bit then go to PCC for two hours and then go to castles beach. We started out going to Kawela bay and the Rutherfords were at their house and came to the beach with us. They have two boys and two girls, the littlest girl is almost 1 year, but the other kids got along so good that we changed our plans and stayed all day. Liddy even played with the girls. The was also two other girls that were in a different house there on the bay. If anyone knows liddy, they know she isn’t always the most social little girl, but this day she was almost as social as Rigby. We ate coconuts for lunch (Also Grant ate one of the little fish they caught and Rigby decided to eat one too!) and then we went with the Rutherfords to dinner at our favorite thai place- Haleiwa Eats- They still have the best coconut rice! Then we called it a day!
We decided that this week we would let everyone have a day that they get to choose what to do. Monday was Hali’a’s day. First we went and played with the sidewalk chalk. Then she wanted to go to a beach that had really little waves. We happened to meet the Rutherfords at church the day before and they were staying at Kawela Bay and let us come and park at their place and go to the bay. It is a nice bay that has hardly any waves and it also had some coconuts- Hali’a loved her day!
We woke up early and went to Laie 1st ward at 8:00 to my friend’s baby blessing (Niki Jorgensen Martins). Then we came home and had a nice little family nap and then the kids decided that Grandma Connie needed to meet our pet chameleon. We took a few pictures of the temple being remodeled and the chameleon in mom’s hair. The last picture is the kids with their grandma connie- we had a nice relaxing day!
We had so much fun at the farmers market last week that we decided to go again. We gave each of the kids 2 dollars and let them go and pick what they wanted. They ended up getting a pineapple and a big bag of guava’s. They’ve found a lady that loves them and lets them try anything and then gives them way too much for their money. We also bought 2 avocados that are so sweet here (Marty- I think these are the kind that you could make an avocado smoothie with) and some taro walnut cookies that are so ono (good).
After the farmers market we made a little pit stop in haleiwa and got some matsumotos shave ice and then on to the waimea bay overlook. The kids liked this little hike- Liddy told me that this was a fun hike, it didn’t even make her legs hurt- I guess I’ve been taking them on some long hikes and she’s been a little trooper and hiked almost all the way on most of them. On the way back down to the road we also found more vines to swing on.
Then we came back to byuh campus and met up with one of my high school friends Niki Jorgensen Martins, we had lunch with her little family and caught up then came back home. Rigby went with his friend Moses to his ward camp out, Eric and Hali’a came home and slept and Liddy and I went for a walk. All-in-all, quite the fun mostly uneventful day.
