Trip to the Hokule'a

Austin and I joined in with Kindergarten and grades 3-5 at a fieldtrip to see the Hokule'a, a Hawaiian ship that is making an around the world journey in 2014.  Austin and I went with the kindergartners.  Siblings weren't supposed to be invited, but I thought he'd love a tour of a boat so Mrs. Gundermann hooked him up with a St. Mark's uniform and he was a Kindergartner for a day.  After the day was over, I realized a couple things... 1.  I wish I would have left him home with his dad.  He was ticked off because he had to wear "socks and shoes like a school kid and I don't WANT to be a school kid."  He was like "ticked off, screaming in the van" mad.  He settled down, but it was lame and I wondered why I went to all the trouble of asking Mrs. G if he could come along.  2.  I debated on whether I should try to send Austin to Kindergarten.  In Hawaii, he makes the deadline and some of his academic skills are kindergarten-ready.  However, his "following direction" skills aren't and he was a real punk to Elise.  Like drew on her flag picture and was really grumpy when they were in the same small group.  It's going to be good to have them in separate grades.  Those were the "lows" of the day, but all in all, it was a good fieldtrip and quite interesting.  I'm quite positive I would never want to sail on the thing though.  At least if it was anything like our fishing trip in November.  :)

pondering the route

trying to steer

ahhh.. there's a good sibling love picture

their square for a "peace flag"

rope tying lessons - Elise was great!

caught a glimpse of Lu on the boat

Randoms of Sept

September was one of those "way too busy" months.  After lots of fun events of August, it was time to get busy getting ready to move.  Boo!  We listed lots of things on Craigslist, signed 1400 papers to separate with the Air Force, shipped the van, and cried often when we thought of leaving our friends.  One thing we did not do often was clean the house.  Most of the time it looked like this.  scary!  But as Austin reminds, just relax.  It will become even messier!

Lacey and I found a make-up kit for Elise on clearance at Ross.  It has been put to good use several times.  :)

Ice cream at McDonald's.  Love the big Hawaiian mural

It was the PCC's 50 anniversary.  We drove up to Laie on a Sunday and listened to the choirs from around the world.  This one is a Children's Choir where all the children were dressed in clothes from the country of their ancestors.  There were a lot of choirs and each sang 1-2 numbers, almost all in their native tongue.  Our favorite was probably the Samoan Choir.  They were so professional and sounded amazing!

Trip to PCC with the boys while the girls were at school

wood carvings on display were really cool!

We pulled the girls out of school and went to the PCC one more time.  We always enjoy ourselves there and even stayed to watch Ha! at the very end.  We loved the Imax movie about Hawaii.  I cried during parts of it seeing the beauty of that land.  At the end, it said something like "I am in Hawaii.  Hawaii is in me."  But it said it more eloquently.  I hope I remember and learn the aloha spirit that we've felt here.

Another of our favorite things was the Samoan Luau.  We'd never done that one before and we loved watching bishop Laulu sing and play ukulele.  We sure love and admire that man.  The young 12 year old fire knife dancer was pretty impressive and the kids were thrilled when bishop gave them palm tree headbands.  I thought the food was fabulous but couldn't help wonder if I'd have thought that 3 years ago.

Ward temple night at Laie temple
Mataele's always volunteered to tend.  We love them!

Most of the time, temple trips ended with a stop at
7 Brothers (same owners as Kahuku Grill).  Fries are fabulous!

Elise decided she wanted to come with Lucy and I to Wednesday Ukulele classes.

last time at library story time
We LOVED Mr. Kurt!

TV heads watching Bolt after a fabulous dinner at the Storms

typical lunch

last time for Hula performance
Sheraton Waikiki with Sydnee

Cole LOVES to jump in rain puddles!

Austin learned to play checkers
but not really how to be a good sport

Ben Brophy's Arrow of Light ceremony
with an Indian Hoop dance by Joseph Ahuna - cool!

met Ruth's baby Jennie
These babies weighed exactly the same at birth.
Amazing what 3 months can do!

dad started reading "Danny Champion of the World" by Roald Dahl

Austin was especially a fan!  Cole... not so much.

Date night with Chris and Channy Tuitele!

We really wanted to eat at Haleiwa Joe's one more time.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  By the time we got in, we had 15 minutes to eat.  Too bad because we had the best seats in the place.  And I had the best fish I remember eating!  YUM!!!

We raced over to Les Miserables at the Paliku Theater.  Our friend, Marlise Ahuna, was in the show.  The boys dropped us off to park and we ran to pick up our tickets at will call.  The ticket  ladies wanted us to sit down, but we didn't want to leave our dates.  The boys sprinted over and we laughed and laughed at how close we cut things.  But it was fabulous.  The music of Les Mis is so inspiring and we loved hanging out with the Tuitele's.

Wednesday Farmers Market at Windward Mall

sign in our bathroom

During one of our many trips to Hickam AFB, we drove over to the Pearl Harbor side and had lunch with Geo.  The boys loved the big ships and the batman toys!

September flew by in a whirlwind!