Christmas Break

We had a really fun time during Christmas Break. We were lucky enough to have my parents come over and visit. It was so nice to have them come and we did a lot of fun things, toured the island and just had fun being with them!! They were able to go to Waikiki and watch the kids surf and enjoy all of the tourist, then Kailua Beach (that is where Pres. Obama was staying and you could see all of the beefed up security), then Pearl Harbor, and the PCC. We also took them to eat at Kua'aina (great burger joint) to the Northshore to body surf and eat a Matsomoto's shaved ice. The worst part about having people come and visit is that we have to let them go back home. Standing on the Bowfin Sub at Pearl Harbor

This picture was taken Sunday after noon with all of us in our backyard. It was a very special day. Brock was ordained and given the Priesthood. Boy how time flies!!

At the Hawaii Temple. Can't wait until it is open

At the Pali Lookout this overlooks Kaneohe

The Punchbowl is a beautiful veterans cemetery that overlooks Honolulu.

Thank You!!

This is the view from the top of the USS Arizona Memorial. Being here really makes you so GRATEFULL for those who sacrifice their time and even their lives to defend us so that we may live in this free country.

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. We had two families, The Alexanders and The Guthries, over to have a spooky dinner and pumpkin carving. I really wanted to make homemade rootbeer, but they don't carry the rootbeer flavoring or dry ice in the grocery stores. I guess that you have to go to some speciality store to get the dry ice and no one that I asked had ever heard of the rootbeer flavoring. We had a good time. The pumpkin contest wasn't quite as loud as the competition that we have with the Staheli's but it was fun to bring that tradition over here with us. For Halloween night our ward had a ward party. They went all out and had a spook alley and games to play and sloppy joes. Then people decorated rooms in the church for the kids to come to and trick-or-treat. They don't just give out a couple pieces of candy almost everyone had made little treat bags with 5 or 6 pieces of candy in them to had out. It was really fun!!
Brock left on his flag football uniform. Austin was Derek Jeter, we have some big time Yankee's fans in our ward and they have adopted Austin. They gave him an extra Derek Jeter christmas ornament that they had and even ordered him a championship t-shirt. McKenna was Hannah Montana. And Alyssa wore the Belle dress. They all looked so cute!

The final product!

Everyone busy carving.

Visitors

-We were lucky enough to have Mary Esther and Howard come over and visit. We had the got to show them around the island a little and here are just a few of the pictures from our adventures. We went to the Temple Visitor Center and the new director is Mark Eubank and his wife. We felt like we knew him personally since we were able to watch him on TV giving the weather reports. We did put his weather knowledge to good use asking him what the difference in rain fall is here. St. George averages 8-9 " of rain a year and Kaneohe averages 75" of rain.

Enjoying the view from the Pali Lookout. This is our side of the Island.

Picture before the show at the PCC.
At the monument for the USS Arizona. A Battleship that was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor it still lies on the floor of the ocean. It still is the final resting place for most of the men that went down with it.

Surfing

We finally figured out how to upload this video. Brock wanted something fun so he created this video. Great video, enjoy.

Day at Bellows

This movie is about our day at Bellows (airforce base). Mckenna and Brock wanted something fun to do so they made this. Enjoy

SURFING

Yesterday we were able to go to Waikiki with the Guthrie's (some of our good friends in our ward). Shane is a good surfer and and even better instuctor. Nate, Brock and Austin went with Shane at 5 am, so they would be able to surf with out too many people around. The girls and I showed up about 9 and we had a great time. Everyone was able to get up, except me, I only tried a couple of times and couldn't get past my knees. Next time I will put in a little more time and stand up, it really was fun.
Even Nate was able to surf. Living on an island has made him enjoy the water a lot more, and he as been such a good sport. Brock was able to get up and ride better on the smaller board, which is supposed to be a lot harder for beginners.

Austing making it look easy.

McKenna gets the award for the best form.

KING FOR A MINUTE

Our family went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Nate had the chance to be King and pose with McKenna and Alyssa. The PCC is a beautiful place with a lot of amazing sites. There is a lot of history to learn about the polynesian culture and its islands.

We are kama'aina (locals) now and have the ability to visit the center as often as we like. It is fun to go and hang out.

The Thunderbirds

Last Saturday we went down to Hickam Air Force Base to our first air show. Two other families from our ward joined us. They had been before and knew just were to sit for the good seats we were right on the front row, very nice since the kids were able to see everything. It was an amazing show, lots of flying upside down, near misses and super loud. Everyone had a great time and it renewed Brock's love of airplanes. He went right out to the book store and bought a book about all of the airplanes to study and learn about each of them. Besides the Thunderbirds there were alot of planes and helicopters out that you could walk through. Everyone really enjoyed it and the boys especially were in heaven and considering joining the Air Force. (Good incentive for getting good grades right.)

I am not sure how to work this blog stuff and I had to ask Brock how to do it, well he being a boy sort of told me and so I tried it. Well as you can see it didn't turn out quite right so I will have to keep working on it. Here is a little bit of what has been going on since I haven't posted in a month. The end of August we had Annette and Curtis and their family come and visit. They planned a quick family vacation over to visit us before Chance left on his mission on Sept. 9th. It was so fun I had a hard time seeing them go, and so did Alyssa she wanted to go home with them. We had a good time showing them around to the few places that we had learned about in our 3 weeks on the island. Of course we went to the swap meet, it was really big and there was a lot of good things to buy. We took them snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, it was alot of fun Chance and Austin and Joelle swam with a turtle, and the bay is so beautiful. We went to the PCC and the Luau and the show after was really amazing. We also went to Pearl Harbor, and the the beach serveral differnent times, Kailua, Waiminalo, and Waikiki. On the night that they were flying out we drove up to the Northshore and saw some tutles up on the beach and had a famous shaved ice. They weren't here very long but we had a great time.

Eating a Yummy shaved ice

Turtles on the beach at the Northshore.

The famous shrimp truck on the Northshore.

Chance feeding the birds.

The Luau at the PCC

Learning the Hula at the PCC

Wild peacocks here in the back yard.

These are the mountains with the waterfalls.

Annette's family at the beach

The Girls having so much fun at the beach that they decided to take a nap.

VARIOUS PICS

Pictures of our wonderful meal, including ham fried rice, spring rolls, yakisoba and some good ol' POG.

We have a wild peacock that come by and visits every once in a while.

Some things never change, Austin sitting on couch with neighborhood buddies playing the Wii. Could be out surfing, snorkeling, swimming with dolphins or sea turtles, but instead inside. (Kind of had to be, it was reminants of the tropical storm)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAWAIIAN STYLE!!

The Kaneohe 3rd ward threw a big bash for Alyssa. (At least we told her that was the purpose) They were kind enough to sing Happy Birthday to her in Hawaiian.

BEACH FOR ALYSSA BIRTHDAY

To the beach for Alyssa's B-Day. We swam and hung out. We were a little more prepared for the sun this go around. We returned home to have cake and ice cream with our friends, the Cieslewicz family. Alyssa is quite content with her simple party. She was a little bummed as we did not have any "fire" to lite her candles. We tried out scout intelligence, but mine did not get us anywhere. We made do!!!

HAPPY BDAY ALYSSA!!!

Alyssa had a very special birthday today. We invited both grandma's from the mainland. They were able to attend her party through the laptops. It was a lot of fun. You can tell that she is very excited to have her birthday.

Pearl Harbor with Family

Family at Pearl Harbor after their short school day. Learned alot about that happenings during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The video was really descriptive of the happenings there and made us appreciate our servicemen and women much more.

It was a pretty humbling experience to visit the area. We had a great time.

North Shore Hawaii

We had a fun family trip up the east side of the island to the North Shore. Our mission was to get a famous Shave Ice from Matsumoto's. The line is typically 1 hour long. On our way enjoying the scenery, our eagle eye Austin, spotted some sea turtles. We stopped the truck and played with the turtles.

Oh by the way, we ultimately enjoyed a Matsumoto Shaved Ice!!!

Mom and Alyssa catching Bird

Description of area we live in

Family at Temple Valley - Byodo Temple