AROHA!

My first experience in Hawaii was when my parents took Matt and me as teenagers. The Polynesian Cultral Center was one of my favorite things we did. While we were there, a very enthusiastic man of asian descent stood up on his canoe, waved to everyone and said "AROHA!" Thus explaining the title above! Anywho, Todd and I took Katy and Jordan to Ohau during fall break to party and visit Skippy, Heather and kids. How fun to play with cousins in Hawaii! Skippy (Todd's bro.) is doing an externship at BYU Hawaii, so how could we pass up the chance to visit while they were there. We also gave the kids their b-day presents early--cameras! This was the best idea ever! I hardly had to take any of the pictures and it actually looks like I was on this vacation! Lest I ramble on and bore everyone to death, I will just provide an outline of the big funs that we had each day!


Thursday:
*Checked in at Turtle Bay (North Shore of Ohau)

*Plate Lunch (first things first) for dinner with Skippy, Heather and kids/Tour of their living quarters

Friday:

*Got right to the beach at the hotel. It is a bay that is so fun for swimming/walked around the resort

*Lunch at Hale'iwa Joes

*Ted's Bakery for the Pineapple Macadamia cheesecake (see the slideshow--especially Emily!)

*Found Magnum P.I.'s estate "Eagles Nest". Todd looked it up on the internet and had to dodge waves around some rocks to get to the title pool Magnum swam in below the estate. Sadly the house is torn down and a new something is being built.

*Liae Point-hole in a rock!

*Dinner with Skippy and Heather at the yummy Thai place. Jordan and Austin babysat the kiddios

Saturday:

*Jordan and Mom ran sprints on the beach and saw turtles

*Todd and Katy joined us for a morning swim in the bay

*Breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe (Like on 50 First Dates) with the cousins--delish

*Swap meet......Heather and I walked around in circles looking for the car. It all looks the same!

*Pounders Beach--picnic and big waves. The boys and the kids had fun on the boggie board. I am afraid, but I did have fun playing in the big waves. This was one of the favorite things! Funny how the beach is always the kids fav. and it is free!

*Back to the hotel for swimming/hot tub

Sunday:

*Pearl Harbor (seems like a quietish sunday activity) with the cousins

*Sunset beach for our sandwiches

*Back to the hotel for naps on the beach--heavenly

*Temple-visitors center and a very interesting "musical" fireside (the term musical used very loosley. We don't know who these people were. I think they were tourist that decided to grace the locals with their presence. They should stick to vacationing!)

*Dinner at Skippy and Heather's--Thanks Heather!

Monday:

*Todd went golfing at the Turtle Bay Palmer course

*Beach-snorkeling/pool at the hotel. Jordan loved the snorkeling, but Katy is more like her mom. We don't want to know who or what is playing in the water with us!

*Polynesian Cultral Center--Heather and the kids came to the villages with us and then we went to the Luau and Horizons night show. (We had to say goodbye there and everyone got a little teary. It was terrible to say goodbye, but we had a blast hanging out in paradise with you.)

Tuesday: (plane leaves at 9:40 p.m.)

We decided to fit in some of Mom's list of sights, and hit some favorite spots again!

*Breakfast at Hukilau....again

*Pounder's Beach.....again

*Bonzai Pipeline Beach--this one had the really big waves, almost too big for my liking!

*Waikiki Mall--looking for the Hilo Hatties and for Le Hing!!!!! Lunch at the food court--plate lunch of course for Mom and Dad...the kids wanted pizza!

*Drove to Diamond Head but it was closed

*Pali Lookout-Some say it is the most beautiful view in the world, me being one of them!

*Walked on Waikiki Beach in the dark then turned in the car and headed to the airport for our all night flight.

Wednesday morning:
*Arrived home at 7:30 a.m. and got the kids to school. Of course it was picture day for the girls so I had to figure out something in that department.

*Picked up Allyson from Melody's. She didn't want to leave. She said "There was a lot of baby holding" while I was gone. The girls are still talking about their "2 nights at each persons house."

Thanks so much to Matt, Cortnie, Jack, Nana, Papa, Melody, Jonny, and Julia for taking the girls while we were gone. They had just as much fun playing with you guys as we did with the cousins!

Anyway, we miss you Peck fam! Thanks for the awesomely fun time in Hawaii! Love you guys!

SOCCER!!

I finally remembered to sign the girls up for soccer! They ask me about it every year, after the season has already started--thank you Mother of the year! We have had a nice long break from soccer since we made Jordan narrow his extracurriculars to merely 3 sports per year! That's when I put it out of my mind forever. I actually thought maybe the girls wouldn't be so interested in the sports side of things, but Katy loved softball in the summer and who knew she could run like the dickens!! Man, when she kicks it in she can get down the field in a hurry! Katy made quite a few goals for her team, and by the end they had even learned how to pass to each other. After Jillian's first game, I asked her if she liked it. In her ever so dramatic way she answered "I don't like it....I LOVE it!" I loved how she came over to the sideline in the middle of the game to give me a kiss, and her thumbs down if the other team scored. She was always interacting with me during the game which is a fun change from the more intense games of the older kids. It reminded me of the end of One Fine Day, when the kid was playing soccer and he was just excited to kick the ball! That was Jillian, just happy to be there and have fun. The highlight for her was having Melody, Jonny, Lili, Jeff, Matt, Cortnie and Jack come to her last game. Thanks guys--what awesome aunt and uncles! So, good exercise and fun times had by all. Football is still in session, but what a relief to only have 1 game a week this month instead of 3. Katy's and Jordan's games were on the same night so things were pretty hectic during Sept. What do people do? Only let one kid be in a sport at a time? I don't think that would fly around here, but I certainly don't want to be one of those parents running around with thier head cut off! I finally got prepared last week and carefully planned out our meals so we didn't have to eat tacos at 9:00 for dinner. Maybe when they talked about overscheduling our kids in conference last time it was for the parents benefit. How can we do the important stuff when the trivial things are taking over? Hopefully things will calm down now, but surely something else is right around the corner--never a dull moment round these parts!!!!!

Please continue to ignore the black spot on every picture. Apparently I have dust on my sensor and will be paying 35.00 to have it cleaned!