"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore..."

Or the Show Me State either for that matter! We had a luau for Ohana Night (ward social--but we have these every first Friday of each month). Yumm-o! Everyone brought enough main dish for their family +2 (and the same for dessert). Then we set everything out buffet style. Soooooooo good!

Marcus checking out dinner--he was fascinated!

I can't wait for McMom & Papa and Mom to attend one of these!

The Rainbow State

We literally see rainbows at least once or twice a week. They appear out of no where (and more often than not, have a shadow rainbow right next to them) and in huge archs too. I've tried catching some on camera.....

Ryan and I were driving along to church for Ohana Night when a brilliant rainbow appeared. I think our mouths dropped when we actually found the END OF THE RAINBOW! It just drops into the field right here. (No leprachauns, no pot of gold--Julia was quite keen to get out and look for little green people).

I love this particular shot becuase it gives you an idea of how VIBRANT and bright the colors are.

I couldn't quite get the full rainbow in one shot...so here's the right half.
And here's the left side...amazing, huh?

Sneak Peak of my girls learning to hula....

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center last weekend. Talk about a blast! We found one hut that was giving hula lessons. So of course my girls raced right in. You can almost hear Evelyn squealing just by looking at her in the pix!

Pictures by Julia

Julia found an ancient camera of ours and asked if she could use it for her own. Here's a bit of what the world looks like through her eyes....

She LOVES flowers...

And she loves bird watching (she gets that from you, Papa)...

Beach hopping

Over the holiday weekend, we decided to hit the beach every day. I think over three days (Thursday thru Saturday), we hit four: Bellows, Turtle Bay, Sunset, and Waimea. Whew! Talk about lots o' sun, water, and FUN! Sunset's waves were entirely too big and strong, so we only stayed for maybe 30 min there. Turtle Bay is nice--very touristy--I don't see us going back there to hang out all day (plus the fact that they charge for parking--BY THE HOUR).


By far, our favorite was Bellows. :):):) I simply can't wait to go back there! Lots of waves--but not the ones that knock you off your feet and drown you. These were big and PERFECT for boogie boarding!

To top it off, this place is on an air force base--so it's not always open to the public. (ie: less crowds). Jason--I'm soooo taking your family here whenever you guys decide to come.

You can't tell just from looking, but this sand is INCREDIBLE! Powder soft. It's incredibly fine and so smooth.

We've acquired a few body boards over the past couple of weeks. Evelyn's thinking that she might be able to surf on this one....

Jacob's expression absolutely cracks me up!

Nice size waves--we got out the body boards and rode these straight back onto the beach.

Taller than me! I couldn't believe this preggo woman next to me...I was riding the waves to keep my head above the water and getting shoved around a bit--I can't believe she was JUMPING in these things too!

Julia's finishing riding a wave...again, LOVE Jacob's expression. :)

Jacob got courageous and hopped onto a board too--and ever since, he only wants to go to beaches that have good waves so that he can boogie board.

We weren't about to leave all that fun to just the kids! Ryan and I took turns going out. LOVED it!

When Sunset didn't workout, we headed down the street to here:

Race you in!

"I'm winning! I'm winning!"

"Geranamo!"

Something else we discovered this weekend--snorkeling. Oh my gosh, I think it's my favorite past time now! LOVE IT! We bought a couple of masks and the mouthpieces and we're ready to go! I especially love it since I'm not the greatest swimmer (like, at all). All we have to do is don the mask and mouth piece and literally lay face down in the water. Since it's salt water, we stay afloat without any effort whatsoever.

Here's Ryan and Julia. Ryan and I took turns going out. We went over near the big rock that everyone jumps off of--there's some cool coral over there and TONS of fish. We saw hundreds of tiny silver fish in a school, lots of sea urchins, and some of the most AMAZING colored fish I've ever seen--purple, green, and orange (all the colors on just one fish), striped white and black ones (like a zebra), some larger than my head.

It looks like Julia is swimming--but she's just using her feet to actually move forward. Otherwise, you literally just lay there and enjoy the scenery.

I'm thinking that this is going to be my one child who learns how to surf.

The end of our three day beach hopping--and everyone is tuckered out. Marcus actually fell asleep on me--so I covered him in towels and layed him down on all the other towels (and liberally applied sunscreen to his exposed face). Jacob was nodding off himself here.

Plant update

Check out the progress on my plant!

Can you see the little purple flecks in it? I couldn't zoom in as much as I needed--those are actually tiny buds! I think I might have flowers within flowers. How cool is that?

So my question of the day--what on earth kind of plant is this thing?

Fourth of July

We actually went beach hopping during the day (those pictures may be posted later...I don't know--is everyone tired of seeing beach pix?). There was a whole celebration going on post all day long--but it was soooooo expensive that we decided to scratch that idea. We did visit in the evening in time for the fireworks though (if we wanted to do fireworks at our own home, we would have needed to go to the city council and get permission--uh, no thanks). So here we are, all decked out with our heritage colors.

Ryan got some of those glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets for the kiddos--who doesn't love them?

I caught sight of a very pretty sunset while waiting for night to come.

And here's what it looked like just 10 minutes later...so pretty!