My 12yr old

Alison is now 12. She got braces, ears pierced, was the youth speaker in Sunday today, and gets to do baptisms for the dead next week (with family names she found herself). Welcome to the beginning of the teen years. So many changes all at once. She is still a kid at heart and was so excited to play with her microscope that she got for her birthday. But true to a preteen girl, the ant was gross (but cool) under the microscope. She had her party at the beach and we had a great time running in the waves and digging for money (coins I pre-planted. Thanks for the idea Janene). I am so proud of the wonderful girls she is becoming.

Camping in Hawaii

Our kids have been wanting to go camping for some time. We finally found a campground that wasn't at the beach but was nestled at the base of Pali Lookout. It was beautiful to be in those mountains. It rained all night and the next morning. As we walked that morning there were huge waterfalls on the face of the mountain. So cool. They had catch and release fishing at a pond in the campground. The kids had so much fun with their bamboo fishing poles.

Isaac had no problem catching fish. Pretty much every time he threw in his line with bread, a fish would come out. It must come from his grandparents since it doesn't come from Jared or I.

Grant was getting frustrated since he wasn't catching as much as his siblings. Finally, he brought out a fish. It looked more like bait for that duck there.

Isaac with another one. Sariah caught a few but she had more fun helping Isaac get his out and off the hook than fishing. My little mother. She is happiest when she is nurturing others.

Finally Grant caught a big one. He is so happy he is kissing it.

Alison caught a bunch too. She even made her own fishing pole from bamboo she found and it caught a ton of fish.

Lost Teeth and some feet

Isaac has been asking when he would lose a tooth. All his siblings had lost at least a couple in or before kindergarten. Well, two weeks ago his two bottom teeth were lose. He has been asking most days if it is ready to pull out. He just wanted Dad to yank them out with pliers. He came home from school on Friday with a very happy face. Grant pulled it out for him after school. When Dad come home he asked him to pull out the other one. Well, Jared yanked with pliers and voila, both teeth gone in one day. He couldn't wait to go to bed so the tooth fairy could come.

I got to teach my first Hawaii Footzoning class this weekend. With four brave students and a new curriculum I forged through. It was great. I really love teaching this tool so that others can be empowered with their health.

Videos

Since I haven't been able to post videos here lately I posted some on my face book page.  I know some of you wanted to see the kids dance at May Day, so I posted all three that danced on facebook. Hope you are having a great Sunday. We are so excited to visit Utah in a month.

USS Missouri

I tried to get some videos loaded but I couldn't. It kept erroring on me. Sorry I will figure out the May Day videos but I thought you might enjoy these pictures from Alison's field trip. We started out at the submarine Bowfin and toured that. Then on to the flight museum and hanger 6. Then were ended at the USS Missouri battleship (by the way, the new movie Battleship was filmed on it). We slept there and left in the morning to tour the Arizona. It was a great trip. We learned so much. They told lots of stories I have never heard. Our tour guide took us through the maze of the ship and then turned off the lights. She asked the kids if they could find the way out. Then she told of the men who swam down through the maze with the ship upside down and out to escape. 12 of the made it. It became more real as you were able to see it.

Alison learning to fly a plane.

This is our berth. Alison slept on the bottom and I slept on the middle bunk. Another girl slept above me.

Here is the boat we sleep on. It was such a wonderful field trip.

Hawaii May Day

In stead of TaVaci we got to go to the production of May Day. (Only I didn't have to pay for it and the kids practiced during school) It is a huge production and lasted 3 hours. (we thought TaVaci was long). The kids had a great time. Isaac and Grant were so excited to not wear a shirt. The girls were not so excited about their immodest costume but if you are doing a cultural dance about the island it is hard to have a modest costume.

Sariah got sick the night before but woke up in the morning thinking she was good to perform. She ended up on my lap and just watched everything instead. Her fever had come back but her teacher urged her to just stay and watch. She was tired but glad she at least got to watch it. I make her head piece and grass skirt with real ti leaves. That was fun. Here island was Marqueses.

Grant did Samoa and Isaac was Tonga. We were playing hostage (a form of tag) on Monday night and Isaac was it. He stopped running and yelled out a war chant in Tongan, made a mean face and then chased us. It made Jared and I crack up. He comes home with new words all the time. He said, "Mom that was so not pono. Do you know what pono means? that is Hawaiian for good." 

Alison is so grown up. She did so good at the performance. She is a natural on stage and has gotten really good at this style of dancing. Her island was New Zealand. If you look close in the video she makes a scary face called the "pukana"

My Hiking friend

This Friday instead of just hiking with my friends I got to hike with Sister Elaine S Dalton and her husband. She was here for graduation as a speaker and we got put on her schedule to take her and her husband on a hike. She is just as sweet as she seems. She posed a good question for me. She said that if YW knew what virtue and chaste meet they would be more powerful for good. The bishop (who came with us as he is one of the women in our group's husband) said when asking youth if they live the law of chastity before getting a baptism recommend they all say yes. Then he asks what that is. They usually say, It think it means to love other people. So here is the questions. Have I taught my daughters this? So I came home and tested my girls. Sure enough, they didn't know the meaning of either of those words. It was a fun conversation as we talked about the meanings and why you have power with those words.

She taught us other wise things and told some funny stories about being in meetings with the brethren. It was very fun and uplifting. I told Jared all about it that night and he asked if I got a picture. No, I didn't! What was I thinking. She took pictures of us and even made us walk up the hill singing Arise, Arise, Arise but I didn't even think about getting a picture myself. Neither did any of the others there. Oh well. Maybe she just need to be a friend right then and not a celebrity.

Whale watching

Yesterday we took advantage of an opportunity to enjoy Hawaii tourist activities(at a Kamaaina/local rate). We booked a whale watching tour on a cruise ship. We started out with breakfast and then headed to the decks to look for whales. We lucked out and found a really active baby and mother. We followed them for about 30mins. On the way back to the harbor we got to see another mother and baby. It was so fun. Then we went to the zoo to see some more wild creatures. We are so thankful for all of God's creations.

Spring Break

My girls read in their Daring Book for Girls about how to die you hair with Kool Aid. We attempted it on Monday. Alison wanted green for Saint Patty's day but they only had red at the store so she settled for that. Once the boys saw what they were doing they wanted to try too. Isaac left it in for 1/2hour, Grant for 1 hour, Sariah for 2 hours, and Alison left it in over night. It is supposed to come out and just be temporary for a few days. Here's hoping since it has been four days and 3 showers later and it is still red.

Card Game

I pulled out the Hansen card trick tonight with my children. I haven't done it for years to them so they had forgotten how amazing it was. Isaac was just shocked. He said "Holy, how did you do that????" I decided Alison and Sariah were old enough to be trusted with the secret. They have a long spring break and thought it would be a great time to practice. They have been sworn to secrecy. :-) They asked who started it and I couldn't recall. Anyone remember? They practiced it most of the night and are now fooling their little brothers. They are so happy to be intrusted with such a great magic trick.

By the way, so you don't worry too much about our town, here is a picture of our neighbors house about 4 hours later. A little pumping and no rain and the water is gone.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Jared and I looked at some homes to buy last night. Lots of questions. Can we do? Do we want to do it? When we woke up this morning this is what our town looked like. Doesn't make me want to go and and buy a home. :) Luckily for us we live on a hill and don't really have any water around our house beside puddles. The picture with the white truck is the house behind us. They are a lot lower than us. The streets are our ward and as you can see BYU-H field is now a lake. But on a better note, Alison competed in a physical fitness meet yesterday that we drove down to. On the way back we saw a whale jump out of the water. It was so cool. A big humpback jumping then splashing down. So I guess it is not to bad to live here.

Isaac finally got his turn as "super citizen". He is quite the class clown which is fitting for his name but it was also fun to see him return to his class and have all of the girls jump up and hug him. Ladies man and class clown. What is a parent to do. Laugh and enjoy him.

Sariah invited 10 girls over for her party. That combined with the 6 boys that were over to play at the neighbors made for a crazy and giggly party. We decorated doughnuts, stuck hearts on heads, karaoke, and coloring contest. I was not surprised when Sariah was ready for it to be done and head to basketball to burn off some steam. She played more aggressively than we have ever seen her.

Grant wanted us to video him playing basketball so that he could improve (his idea). He loves that game and was so disappointed this Saturday when the game was cancelled due to rain. By the way it is still raining. We have lakes starting to build around the city.

More

Here is some more. Winter in Hawaii, so different.

A few pictures

Bob and Janene sent me some fun pictures from when they were here. I thought you might enjoy some of these. They have a great camera. You can click on them to see them bigger.

My Birthday

Because I love my husband and am thankful for this present I am posting this video. Jared took Sariah's ukulele last night and we learned almost the whole song "I Do Adore" by Mindy Gledhill. Really good song. Check it out. It was fun to play these together. My fingers need some caluses though. To bad I can't play with my knuckles. :)

Sariah's Big Island Field trip

In fourth grade in Laie Elementery I got to fly to the big island and stay there for five days for a field trip. It was very fun. We stayed at hotels and went to many places. Here are some of the places we went to. We went to a space museum at the airport, hiked through a crater, saw a live volcano, and went to an astronomy center and watched a show called Wildest Weather. We went to a school that did experiments with sharks and strawberries, as well as a huge waterfall called Akaka Falls and Rainbow Falls. I got to stay with my good friend Jane. It was fun but I was excited to be home with the family.

Grant's baptism

Grant got baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a couple weeks ago. It was a great day but we had to go with the flow a little bit. As you can see from the picture the church building was all locked up. We couldn't get a hold of anyone to unlock it for us. 45mins later, Bishop got a hold of someone with the key. Luckily the font was still full. We couldn't open the font doors all the way because we didn't have the keys for that but it opened enough for his Grandpas to witness it. Amidst all of that, the spirit was strong and Grant was beaming. His Grandmas gave great talks and it turned out wonderful. It is so fun, as a parent, to see your children happy while making good choices. I know the Church is true and so does Grant. He has felt it more keenly as he now has the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was so nice to have my parents and Jared's there during that time and I am thankful for the Lord's tender mercy for having them there.

New Year's Eve

We had church at 8:00 in the morning on Jan. 1, so we decided to play with the kids and go to bed earlier (10:45). It seemed like such a great plan. Little did I know what New Year's Eve was like here. I was in bed by 11:00 and kept getting woke up by fireworks. When midnight rolled around it sounded like bombs were going off around the city. You could see fireworks all around you in the sky. It made me think of the good old days when I would go out with my cousins and bang pots and pans to welcome in the new year. This was much louder than pots and pans. Amazing enough though my boys slept right through it. I almost wanted to wake them up to see the show. Oh well, I will know better next year. :) Happy New Year Everyone.