Hawaii 5-0

Check me out. Getting 2 blogs up in a day. Honestly, I'm getting kinda tired of posting all these pics. Next trip, not so many pictures. Yeah right, who am I kidding. I'm hopelessly trigger happy.
Today's viewing pleasure: Ryan and Regine's wedding, New Years Eve, Waimea, Polynesian Cultural Center and Pupukea.
Ryan and Regine got married on December 28th and it was a wonderful wedding and reception. We all love Regine and are so glad to have her as part of the family.
Doin a little jig as they came out of the temple

Family Picture

Everyone stayed up all night the night before and totally transformed the gym. It looked amazing.


They were brave enough to ask me to do their wedding cake. It was my first attempt at one and I still cringe when I look at it. Lets just say mediocre skills combined with high humidity and heat is not a good combination. It was eaten and quick which is unusual for a wedding cake so I'll call it a success.

Dang these kids are good looking

After all the hard work it was party time!


The day after the wedding Junior and I got to enjoy 2 days alone down in Waikiki (Thanks Mom and Dad, best Christmas present EVER!) We relaxed, slept it, surfed and just enjoyed being able to go places kid free.

Cuddling up after a busy day

How do you tell the difference between a mainland party and a Hawaiian one?
In addtition to all the barefeet, New Years is 100x more enjoyable then one in Utah. Nuf Said!

Spent some of New Years Eve with some very good friends. Thanks Meredith/Palepoi families for the good times!


Kids lining up to get the fireworks from Uncle

It got a little loud at times!

Don't know why people complain about a smoke problem on New Years. The air is like that EVERYWHERE on the island.

Day at Waimea.
Waimea is one of my all time favorite beaches. I started out a little apprehensive with the boys playing in the big waves but it wound up being an absolute blast.
Grandpa and Kalei playing it safe on the sand

Brayden getting thrashed by a wave

Everytime the waves would receed, we'd hurry and grab the boys as they were getting sucked out. Quite the responsible parents.

Grandma letting Leilei test the water

LOVE this picture

Got sand?

Whenever we needed the kids to sit still, we'd just put them here

We took many a walks to the point. Another place I love

Couldn't go the trip without hitting up the PCC
Our good friend Kap. Favorite part of going was meeting up with all the old friends.

Trying to make fire

Boys getting ready for the canoe pageant

Kalei was too busy flirting to watch the show

Jammin out on the Tongan drums

Showing of their tattoos

Kalei testing her skills at the poi balls

Going on a voyage

The Iosepa, memories of working on that thing.

The boys could've spent the whole day fishing

Daddy and Kalei patiently waiting for them to catch one already

Met up with some more friends after the night show. Crazy to remember the days when we were all running around single. Now, we're all married and pretending to be responsible.

Exhausted after a busy day

One of Junior and mine all-time favorite spots: Pupukea lookout at sunset

Valentines Day/ Hawaii #4

Sheesh! I have been trying to get this post up for weeks and Blogger wouldn't allow me to upload pictures. Looks like it's finally decided to work so, lets give this one more go.
I've spent so much time procrastinating blogging our trip that I'm starting to miss out on a lot of everyday things. Like the fact that the boys are trying to earn their "blue star" for Taekwando as well as fill their charts to earn money for Disneyland and reply to everything I ask with, "Yes Mam!" and off they run. It's been stupendous and hope they make a habit of it. I definitely consider Taekwando to be a worthwhile investment!
Or the funny sayings like Brayden taking a bite of dinner last night, sitting back, savoring and then saying in a heveanly tone, "SPLENDID!!!" (Don't know where he learned that word)
-or-
after dinner tonight Tavita running up to me and says (while making his hands a mouth for his tummy) "My tummy says, 'thanks for dinner'" then runs of again
-or-
Kalei refusing to lay claim to the bombs in her diaper. When asked if she's stinky she replies, "No, Bowzer stinky" then gives him a nice hard look like "How dare you"
-or-
Our activities like our fun Valentines Day. Junior and I have never made much fuss over Valentines and went out the Friday before. So the actual "Day of Love" was spent celebrating the love of family and friends. We had a fun breakfast of pink heart pancakes. Had all the other deprived children that had to watch their siblings and friends run off to their school parties over for a fun Valentines party. Then we enjoyed a nice candlelight dinner. Table was set with all things Valentines with individual boxes of chocolates on their plates and a nice heart-shaped Shepherds Pie. I think the boys had a harder time falling asleep on Valentines Eve then Christmas Eve. We loved it and hope to continue the tradition of making it such a fun day. Of course I didn't take a single pictures of anything. Luckily me good neighbor snapped some pics of the party and sent it my way.
It couldn't be called a Valentine's Party if sugar cookies weren't involved!

Leilei's cookie decorating capabilities were quite impressive. She concentrated very hard on spreading smoothly and evenly.

I wonder why the entire neighborhood all seemed to get sick right after this!


They also made little holders for their Valenitnes

Next was lunch which included this adorable little boquet made by the ever so talented Erin

The kids enjoying their lunch of Heart-shaped PB&J (I'm all about being classy), heart shaped cheese and the fruit boquet. Dessert was of course masses of sugar in the form of cupcakes and cookies.

After lunch we watched the chaos that is bound to ensue after surrounding kids with peers and pumping them full of sugar. It was quite enthralling to watch the speeds these kids were able to reach.
Once they worked the sugar out of their system we did what every responsible parent does and pumped them full of more sugar in the form of Valentines candy.
The kids exchanging valentines

Tavita and his friend Brooke

Brayden with two of his good friends Jeremy and Bree

Little gymnist Olivia

Most of the gang from the partay!

Alright and alas more pics of Hawaii. This episode: Christmas
3 kiddos in front of the tree. So much more enjoyable then standing bundled in front of the tree

Everyone gathering for Christmas Eve festivities. We read the Christmas Story (acted out by the children moving figurines. Not quite to the point of being able to put on a play!), had some fun Christmas trivia, sang some songs and allowed the kids to open one present.

Brayden and Tavita leading the group in their rendition of Deck the Halls

Not to be left out of the spotlight, Jenson and Kalei joined in.

The kids choose to open the present they'd been drooling over from Uncle Jon

What's better then a giant inflatable slipper!

It wouldn't be Christmas if you didn't get up with the sun!

Tavita checking out the goods in his stocking

Brayden also examining his loot.

Kalei discovered the candy and couldn't care less about anything else

All Brayden wanted was a Toothless costume (How to Train Your Dragon). I told him not to get his hopes up as I'm not sure they exist. However, Grandma totally pulled through with a killer costume made by a very talented friend. He wore that with pride for days after we got back and was the envy of the neighborhood.

Little Ballerina

Growing up "Santa" liked to have a bit of fun at our house. We didn't awake to presents under the tree. Rather, we had to army crawl through mazes of string (yes I have memories of my poor grandpa crawling on all fours trying to get out to the living room). There were 6 strings all of which began at the tree with each of our names attached to a string. This year we decided it was time for the tables to turn.
Dad, climbing through the web working his way to the 2nd story window where his string began.

Brayden following suit

They went low

They went high

Good thing Grandpa had such good helpers. After a good 1/2 hr-45 min he finally reached the treasure!

After opening presents we took our traditional trip to Hukilau Beach.
Tavita making use of his new army men and cowboy and indian sets

Brayden of course was immediately in the water riding the waves.

Kalei would always start a trip to the beach covered

Inevitably she would end up like this

The water didn't have much appeal to Tavita since he couldn't get his head wet. He spent hours with these guys

Everyone out playing

Through it all, Brayden never abandoned his board!