Hello, I'm guest blogging at Kimberli's request. Currently Kimberli spends all her time editing her 2008 and 2009 blog entries into book form using a website called Blurb-Slurp (or something like that). She's highly motivated as she can save $10 if she finishes by the end of March. On a side note our children flushed $10 of hair conditioner down the shower drain so I guess we need that money.
Last week my family visited us for a week of fun and sun here on Oahu. The vacation was somewhat driven by my little brother Ben planning to serve a mission for the Church starting this summer and potentially missing the rest of our time in Hawaii (more on that later). We had a great time. Rather than blog chronologically, I'm going to break it up by activity just for variety.Snorkeling - this is usually my favorite activity and we got in four different mini snorkeling trips
1. Hanauma Bay - this is the classic place to snorkel and a good place for beginners as there are tons of tame fish, no deep water and I can pretty much guarantee turtle sightings if we go early - Bonus at Hanauma if you show up between 6 and 7 am there is no entrance fee and you don't have to wait in line to watch the "Don't stand on the Reef" video. We all went minus Kimi and the kids and my Mom and brothers and sisters all thought this was the best snorkeling they did on the trip so I guess it was a success. We did see a couple of moray eels and several turtles some of which were pretty tame although I had a couple take off as soon as I came up on them which surprised me because usually they're cool to be watched while they eat. For a few good underwater shots from
1. Hanauma Bay - this is the classic place to snorkel and a good place for beginners as there are tons of tame fish, no deep water and I can pretty much guarantee turtle sightings if we go early - Bonus at Hanauma if you show up between 6 and 7 am there is no entrance fee and you don't have to wait in line to watch the "Don't stand on the Reef" video. We all went minus Kimi and the kids and my Mom and brothers and sisters all thought this was the best snorkeling they did on the trip so I guess it was a success. We did see a couple of moray eels and several turtles some of which were pretty tame although I had a couple take off as soon as I came up on them which surprised me because usually they're cool to be watched while they eat. For a few good underwater shots from
Hanauma check out Jake's blog entry.
2. Kulima Cove - My Dad and I drove out to the North Shore Tuesday morning to check out Shark's Cove. It had pretty good swell moving through it and the trail down to the cove was taped off so we figured we ought to find someplace else until later in the year although by Thursday the tape was gone and it really did look pretty swimable with only small swells coming in near low tide. Anyway we headed back to a spot near Turtle Bay resort that I had originally planned as a good beginner's spot for snorkeling. It was a pretty good beginner's spot and Dad and I had a good time looking at fish and turning over rubble and finding some delicate sea stars that would quickly try to find a new hiding spot.
3. Waimea Bay - On Thursday we spent the morning at Waimea bay and it was a pretty good day to do it. Part of the time we spent snorkeling over on the right hand side of the bay. I thought the water was pretty clear and I had a good time weaving in the rocks with a little swell and saw a big school that I estimated at about 200 large tangs that I thought was cool. I did see one turtle on the swim over and we saw some barracuda that were a first for me to
see in Hawaii.
4. Electric Beach - I had snorkeled this spot once before and wanted to go again. Its on the west side of Oahu so the waves were not bad at all. The site for seeing the most fish is right above the outlet for cooling water from an electrical plant nearby. Due to the warm water there are lots of fish packed into a small area and large schools. There was another snorkeling group an
2. Kulima Cove - My Dad and I drove out to the North Shore Tuesday morning to check out Shark's Cove. It had pretty good swell moving through it and the trail down to the cove was taped off so we figured we ought to find someplace else until later in the year although by Thursday the tape was gone and it really did look pretty swimable with only small swells coming in near low tide. Anyway we headed back to a spot near Turtle Bay resort that I had originally planned as a good beginner's spot for snorkeling. It was a pretty good beginner's spot and Dad and I had a good time looking at fish and turning over rubble and finding some delicate sea stars that would quickly try to find a new hiding spot.
3. Waimea Bay - On Thursday we spent the morning at Waimea bay and it was a pretty good day to do it. Part of the time we spent snorkeling over on the right hand side of the bay. I thought the water was pretty clear and I had a good time weaving in the rocks with a little swell and saw a big school that I estimated at about 200 large tangs that I thought was cool. I did see one turtle on the swim over and we saw some barracuda that were a first for me to
see in Hawaii.
4. Electric Beach - I had snorkeled this spot once before and wanted to go again. Its on the west side of Oahu so the waves were not bad at all. The site for seeing the most fish is right above the outlet for cooling water from an electrical plant nearby. Due to the warm water there are lots of fish packed into a small area and large schools. There was another snorkeling group an
d 2 scuba divers out at the site and we found a pretty good eel on the way out.
View from the shore at electric beach
Fumi's shrimp - there are a few "shrimp truck" vendors near Kahuku on the north end of the north shore. Kimi and I have tried the three major outfits (Giovanni's, Romy's and Fumi's) and think Fumi's is the best. Kimi likes that have a little salad with their meals and I think their shrimp is a little better (they advertise live cooked). I got the spicy garlic and among the group we had a smattering of garlic, coconut, tempura that got shared around. The kids enjoyed harassing the stray cat that hangs out there.
Matumoto's Shave Ice - If you're ever on the North Shore this place is somewhere you need to visit. There are places in my life that ruin a certain thing for me simply by being the best (bakery - Wheatfield's in Omaha, furniture store - Nebraska Furniture Mart, ice cream cone - Kimball's in Concord Massachusetts, mangoes - Philippines for sure, Barbecue joint - Rudy's, guacamole - Budro's in San Antonio). Anyway, I'm adding Matsomoto's because it has the best snow cones (its probably sacrilege not to call them shave ice here in Hawaii) I've ever had. They're cheap and there is a continuous line of people buying them. They have around 40 flavors but Kimi and I usually stick with the Matsumoto which is lemon, pineapple and coconut as I've never been dissatisfied. My mom got Strawberries and cream, coconut cream and rootbeer which was an interesting choice and I know Lucy got Rainbow which is strawberry, lemon and pineapple. If you go for sure get the sweetened condensed milk on top and I like the beans (at least try them) but I'm not sure any one else did. Ice cream with it is also an option.
We broke out meals amongst the family members. Here's a quick run down.
Kimi and George - Quesadilluh (in honor of Napoleon Dynamite) bar
Mom and Dad - steak and fries
Mom and Natalie - Swiss cheese chicken and rice
Jake and Ben - build your own English Muffin pizza's with mini pepperoni, green pepper, onion, olive, jalapeno, ham and pineapple as options
Jake and Ben - build your own English Muffin pizza's with mini pepperoni, green pepper, onion, olive, jalapeno, ham and pineapple as options
Attractions
We spend a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We all wore matching shirts that my Mom had made up. They say Hawaii eleven-0 in honor of the fact that there were 11 of us (counting our fourth kid still inside Kimi) and it was 2011. I enjoyed the villages and we got to see our bishop giving a demonstration on Samoan cooking so that was fun. My favorite is the New Zealand show as I really like some of the music there and Lucy and I are big fans of the poi ball dancing. Elise and Austin were worn out and bonkers by dinner time so I took them home and sat out Ha:
We spend a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We all wore matching shirts that my Mom had made up. They say Hawaii eleven-0 in honor of the fact that there were 11 of us (counting our fourth kid still inside Kimi) and it was 2011. I enjoyed the villages and we got to see our bishop giving a demonstration on Samoan cooking so that was fun. My favorite is the New Zealand show as I really like some of the music there and Lucy and I are big fans of the poi ball dancing. Elise and Austin were worn out and bonkers by dinner time so I took them home and sat out Ha:
the Breath of Life but everyone really enjoyed the fire dancing.
Wednesday we relaxed and spent the afternoon running the maze at the Dole Pineapple plantations, Ben, Lucy and I tried to move as fast as we could and not use the map and see if we could beat the slower moving group (pregnant women, small children, old folks, Utah Utes and BYU Cougars) who had the map. We were somewhat unfairly aided by the fact that I had done this once before and had a general idea of which directions to move in. We finished in 47 minutes while the other group took and even hour to complete the maze. We fed fish and shared a pineapple split to finish up. 
Beach fun - We spent two outings with the whole family at the beach.Monday we went to Bellows beach which is an Air Force property on the south east side of Oahu. The water was a pretty blue and we boogie boarded, played in the sand and even rented a two man sea kayak. The real adventure of the kayak was trying to get two people aboard without flipping it over. Sadly we never accomplished this without external help but once we were up I thought it was fun to ride the waves in to shore.
Thursday we spent the day at Waimea bay. There was just enough wave to make for pretty fun riding a boogie board up and down the steep Waimea beach and Lucy and I swam out a ways from the shore which was also fun. I already detailed the snorkeling there.
Ben's mission call - Ben had been expecting his call for a couple of weeks prior to leaving on vacation but it turns out it arrived in Grantsville on Wednesday while he was away here on vacation. My mother arranged with the post office to have it overnighted to Hawaii so Ben could open it as soon as possible. It became a huge joke how often Dad would bring up concerns about if it would really arrive before they left Friday. In fact it arrived at the post office in time to be
picked up at 4:30 on Thursday and Ben opened it in front of us all. It turns out Ben didn't need to come here on Vacation to see Hawaii as he was called to the Hawaii Honolulu mission so we may run in to him over the next 2 years. He leaves June 8 for the MTC and was thrilled with the call. I think his ideal call was Samoa so he didn't strike too far off. Natalie posted the video.
Hanging out - Of course all fun things are just excuses to have good conversation and spend time with people you love so we did lots of game playing, chatting and enjoying being together. I always hope to beat Jake in a game of boggle but I think the last time that happened was around 7 years ago and now its not really close.
And if you're not family and made it through this blog .... ALOHA!
Lucy's school had an all-school speech festival on Feb 24. Each child memorized a poem or story of their choice and then they were divided into groups with a couple students from grades K-8. Parents came in the evening to listen to the group their child was participating in as well as one more group. That meant the whole thing was a little over an hour. Gotta love that.
She did a great job with all the words and we were really proud of her! It was a little hard to hear, but other than that... wonderful! Here's a video for the grandparents:
Here's some other things they've been doing...
