Half of Us Back to a Routine

Kids are sick around here. Wes threw up last night, in the sink in the kids bathroom, gross. And then he tried to wash it all down and ended up just filling up the clogged sink. Hyrum saw it out of the corner of his eye and though Wes threw up like 2 pounds of food. I had him scoop it all out and pour it in the toilet, and then we unclogged the sink and washed and sanitized it all. Would have been nice if he could have made it into the toilet, but in the sink is better than on the toilet. Then Abi threw up at 3 am... also in the sink. The same sink Wes did. And I had her clean it up also. Gross. I really really hope I don't have toddlers throwing up around here tomorrow, cause they probably wouldn't make it into the bathroom at all. 

Also, I guess vomit and diarrhea are symptoms of covid, so we had them go get tested with Joseph today, just in case. We'll get their results within 48 hours. Abi was really looking forward to going back to school. Instead they looked like this all day. Wes on the left, Abi on the right.

The elementary kids were fine and happy to go back to school, especially cute Owen. It really seemed like a long vacation from school with the Thanksgiving break.

Big smile underneath that mask! His friends were very nice and came running toward him as he and I walked to the bus stop~ "Owen! You're back! You were gone a long time!!" 

His bus driver is so nice too. "Owen! You're back!" he said, Owen replied "I go to Hawaii". They are glad to be back. 

Today we had a first with Peter - he fell asleep at the counter!!

Super sweet. We enjoyed talking with Mel and Ethan. Ethan always has us laughing. 

I'm trying to do better at writing them on Sunday. We're kinda slacking, but they confessed they haven't read all of the emails we have sent, so then we didn't feel so bad. Also from yesterday - Wesley going into Corey's office for his zoom Youth Council call - formal on top, casual on bottom. Nice socks! He held the computer down over his shorts to hid them "don't take a picture of me!" but I got one, and told him it looked worse with the computer covering his shorts - that made it look like he wasn't wearing anything! funny. 

Corey and I were asked to share with our ward what we do during our Come Follow Me lessons at home to help our kids participate. Corey took care of all of it. I didn't know what he was doing until he started sharing his slide presentation, slide one of which was a picture of me. 

I'm Mary. Unlike Martha, Mary let's dinner and cleaning slide. For a Mary like me, spiritual nourishment takes priority! I'm not troubled over all the many things I could and should probably be troubled about. So I think this was a kinda nice tribute Corey made to me, thanks sweetie. "One thing is needful..." (but I'll try to be a little more Martha...)

We are consistent even if it is late sometimes. Corey draws kids in with a little Studio C, Dr. Phil, and the like (although you'll notice 90 Day Fiancé wasn't on the list he shared, ha!) They come like moths to a flame, they can't resist.

Then we get to have some spiritual enlightenment.

So that was fun to share, good job preparing that sweetie. It's nice to be back to a routine.

Weekend Report

It was a good Saturday here at home. One item of possible significance from today is that tonight Joseph found out that his roommate tested positive for Covid. Like his room roommate that he shares a room with. Where they breathe each other's air all night. They were last together on Tuesday, so there's a good chance that Joseph was exposed. His roommate started feeling sick yesterday and got tested, and got his result back today. Joseph has been here with us since Wednesday, so maybe we've been exposed too? He's wearing a face mask since he heard and we're keeping our distance. He's going to go get tested on Monday.

The house is a little more unpacked and some laundry has been washed, we still have a lot to put away. None of us are really in the mood yet to get it all in order. The kids are enjoying being back and playing with their toys again. Trains, legos, Daniel was pushing Peter around very carefully in this little toy cart. 

Yeah, those wheels don't really roll that well with a toddler in the basket. Daniel wanted a turn after Peter, and he made himself fit in the cart, but it was definitely top heavy, so we had to go very slow. The girls have done great using their journals today. 

I helped Owen and Daniel make journals too and they have joined the fun.

They boys are more excited about the stickers than writing, but that's ok. It's cute to help them write. I am going to try and write down the things that they say, like when Mel used to do "Abi's Words". I have a few pages in Abi's scrapbook of Mel's writings from years ago when she would follow little 3 year old Abi around and write down everything she said as she played. She captured some gems. 

Lily's been creative with google docs - she sand her friends share a slide show and make pictures. 

Lily's made a gratitude list on there. That's a good form of journal keeping that Lily was doing on her own. Good job Lil.

And other than that, I'm still thinking of what this little boy might need to be able to stop nursing without too much crying. I thought maybe if he had a toy that he slept with or a blanket, like Owen did, that that would help him. I got out Ethan's old Blue toy to see if there was any magic there. 

He liked it find, but he really loves his McQueen cars. Maybe I need to find a stuffed McQueen. He sleeps with the little metal cars sometimes when I nurse him, but fidgets with them so much that usually I take them away. 

Peter is doing good at sleeping in his own bed and in his room. The only complaint is that when he wakes up screaming at night and cursing me for not giving him "nana" , but I'm nursing him ONLY one time each side at night, and THAT'S IT. Not this constant sucking on me all night long, cause that sucks and I'm getting too old for that. (Love you Peter.) 

Bullet Journals

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to try and catch up on life. The kids practiced today, did homework, and I did laundry, ran some errands, and I caught up on Marco Polo messages. There is a new group on my polo for Lily and Sophi - it's an "activity days" group for the primary girls. Using Marco Polo for it is a new idea to help them keep at it during this time of social distancing. The plan is to give an assignment and have all the girls try and do it during the week and then have a new activity the next week, etc. This past week, they challenged them to keep a bullet journal. I was totally impressed by the bullet journals that the Powley's are keeping! The Powley's gave the activity this week and I was inspired. I want the girls to keep journals. Sure I keep the blog for our family, but they should start to get in the habit of writing down their own thoughts and memories, cause a lot of things happen to them that I don't know about and that don't make it here. I have kept journals for years, and it's important. I brought up my journals from downstairs for some show and tell. 

My journals from 8 years old, high school, college, mission, and a few years of marriage are on the left there, and my planners and calendars are on the right. The Powley's bullet journals looked like they are a creative outlet artistic planner/calendar/journal all in one. I might make the transition to that this next summer when my current academic planner ends, we'll see. I like the idea of writing down the bullet points from each day - kinda like writing down my Wins that I used to do with Holly. The girls hadn't listened to the Activity Days polo yet, but I was prepping to make sure they were inspired too. One problem I have is that I tried to keep too many different journals for: Sunday notes, Study group notes, planner, EJC notes and challenges, workout notes, etc - like I have over a dozen notebooks for different things and none of them are used right now cause I'm not organized. I spent part of the day collecting all of them onto a shelf in my closet, and I'm not sure what I'll do yet - I might rip out pages I've written on if I'm not doing it anymore and use it for something else, or maybe I'll keep what's been recorded but just use them all for future bullet journals. It's ok if they aren't uniform. My journals started as 3 ring binders - just what my mom was able to put together to get me started. The first entry in my red 3 ring binder journal is from the day I was baptized, and was half written my my mother. Junior high moved onto the teal binder, and then for years I've used the hard bound 8x10 journals from Deseret Book that they still sell. I have 2 of those right now that are both half written in. Anyway, it was fun to talk to the girls about it. I read them some of my journal entries, like of when I was on a date with Corey after my mission, and we went by Deseret Book and I got the blue journal and had "Tiffanie Wride" engraved on it even though Corey hadn't proposed yet, haha, I recorded that Corey called it "a relationship defining moment"! Also the first date we went on after I was released from being a missionary and we went down to temple square and had an amazing moment when President Hinckley came in to thank and encourage a youth symphony on their upcoming Christmas concert, and then the conductor persuade him to take the conductors baton and direct the choir and orchestra in Handel's Hallelujah chorus, it was so fun, and I'm glad I wrote down what happened, cause if I hadn't, I wouldn't remember as much about it. So - moral of the story - Sophi: keep your journal, cause you're not going to remember what your life as a 9 year old was like! Lily: write in your journal, cause 30 year old Lily is not going to remember how 11 year old Lily felt about things. I gave them all a task to write about Thanksgiving and about our Trip to Hawaii and then I went and got some journals at Walmart for them to use. And fun stickers, pens, etc. :)

ALSO, when I was out, I first went by Dollar Tree for stickers and a few things, and on my way to Walmart after that, I passed the DI, and I thought I'd just run in real quick to look at snowpants, cause yesterday we didn't really have enough big snow pants for the big kids - Joseph Hyrum Wesley and Abi. It helped that Abi didn't go skiing, but I knew we needed a few more big kid snow pants options. Plus I still didn't have any snowpants yet (I had officially donated my old ones from when we volunteered for the 2002 Olympics to Hyrum) and I had to ask a lady where they were - they're with the coats. I looked through the women's coats and found one pair. Then I looked at the boys coats, then I totally hit the jackpot over at the Mens section!! I FOUND very nice snowpants, that were brand stikin' new for $10!!! Originally $225!!!! The ski sale at Ski N See can't beat that deal!! And I tried them on at home and they ALMOST fit me perfectly, they fit Abi great. They'll fit me after I stop nursing Peter and finally lose this baby weight, but yay, I was so excited!! What an over the top blessing!!! Hawaii was over the top, this was another over the top, wow! Thank you Heavenly Father!! 

What are the chances of finding snow pants that are such good quality and that are my size when I happen to run in to look? And they are black and match my black coat and my red and black coat perfectly well. Pretty amazing. I don't believe in the prosperity gospel, but I do believe that God helps us when we are doing our best to help ourselves and others.  

And then we had another fun surprise on date night. We called in and ordered food for Corey at Blue Lemon. I decided to skip spending $ on an entre because I was working on the left over arugula salad from Thanksgiving that needed to be eaten before it went bad. We picked up Corey's order, then were driving away when they called - they had given us the wrong order. No problem, we said we hadn't touched it and could turn around and bring it back. She said "No, you can keep it, but we will have your correct order here ready for you." So we went back and they gave us Corey's fish tacos order, and the order we got that wasn't ours was a delicious sandwich and pear salad, something I probably would have ordered, so I did end up getting a delicious meal anyway!

AND they gave us two desserts to say sorry for messing up. Like, what's up with all these blessings? Hawaii, great snowpants, an extra date night dinner and dessert? It has seemed today like God's showing off a little bit. He does go over the top in a lot of ways, huh? Like all the amazing kinds of flowers, pink sunsets, the incredible variety of weather and what happens in each season, not to mention the miracle of life, babies, the human eye, hands, heart, breain - how everything works and we get to live and think and experience it all. Maybe the Give Thanks challenge of President Nelson is having an effect on my thinking, or maybe there really are just miracles and blessings all around us everyday, if we just pause to notice them. And sometimes God is really obvious so we can't miss it. I have seen his hand blessing my life today. Thank you Heavenly Father. These are important things to record in my journal! I'm going to try and keep a personal journal more now, even though for the past few years this blog has been my main source of recorded memories. But there are things I'd write for myself that I don't put here, more of my feelings and stuff. So yeah, keep a journal and write your story and with eyes to see, we will be able to look back and recognize all the ways God helps and blesses us everyday. GIVE THANKS!!

Skiing and Thanksgiving

We're back from our trip, and there was a little bit of snow that came while we were gone. It was enough that Alta is open, so Corey took almost all the kids skiing today. He is more prepared this year than ever before, Corey has been prepping for for months! Car with 4 wheel, rack, cargo box, etc.... He went through all the winter clothes in September and we had kids choose their snowpants, gloves, coats, hats, helmets, and then we took note of who still needed what. Corey got face coverings for everyone, plus thermal undergarments at Costco which he was super excited about. They still had some hick ups along the way. Corey said he will bring a backpack next time with some supplies. He hit a low point when O and D had to use the bathroom. Probably can't do anything about that...

Cute Daniel and Owen all ready, buying tickets. 

Corey got Mountain Collective ski tickets for all of us back in Aug when it was a really good deal, but not for O and D cause he thought they would be free at most resorts. Alta isn't one of them. So Corey spent his time on the rope tow with O and D, Hyrum came over there to help him sometimes. 

So it didn't go over totally smoothly and perfectly, but it was good. We'll work out the kinks and it will get better each time. Joseph took little kids up the lift.

After seeing Corey work so hard with the little kids and not be able to ski at all himself, Joseph asked him "How do you do it?" (like how has he taken kids skiing for many years (earliest documented here is 2012) and how do you have the fortitude to do this today - to take 8 kids skiing!?!" 

Corey's reply: "Resentfully." 

(That was a little joke, but he was also being serious.)

Corey's hands were full, so he didn't take any photos, but Joseph got those few. Everyone went except me, Abi, and Peter. Abi stayed home and helped me cook food and she set the table and decorated. Good job Abi, you'll be a wonderful homemaker! Peter helped too, and was most helpful after he went down for a nap. We worked hard for several hours and listened to Christmas Music and I was on standby with Corey to come up to Alta to pick up Owen and Daniel if needed, but Corey never phoned me so we just kept plugging along with the meal and we were happy to have a lovely warm festive meal ready for them after they got back from a full day of skiing! They got home around 4:30. Everyone had changed their clothes and we sat down.

Everyone say "Give Thanks!"

Melodie and Ethan were both able to call today so it was fun to talk to them. They ate with us "virtually". We all shared something we're thankful for:

And then we ate.

My favorite part of the meal was the vegan stuffing and this Brussel sprouts side dish with with cranberries and pecans (I substituted sweet potatoes for the squash). I'm going to have leftovers of that for several days, since no one else particularly cared for it.   

After everyone (except me!) ate too much, we watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and enjoyed two small cookie platters. I love that movie. I saw on the plane ride from Honolulu. It is so good, Mr. Rogers has totally inspired me and I feel like some things are coming together from that at from the depiction of Jesus on The Chosen of how to become more Christlike - they make it seem possible and demonstrate ways to be kind. Mr. Rogers, from his wife in the movie, made it clear he is not a Saint, but he works at it intentionally. We all need to work at it, and I can more clearly see some of the next steps forward for me. Mr. Rogers was my #GiveThanks yesterday on facebook - 

I am thankful today for Fred Rogers. I loved the movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and just watched it on Monday on our flight home. I've been thinking of it since. It was healing and left me wanting to be a better person, to look at my children in the eyes more and be present with them, to acknowledge their feelings. "Feelings are mentionable and manageable" - Pray for people everyday by name. What a great man and example he was to all of us!

Life is wonderful, God is good, It is a Beautiful Day in our neighborhood! My heart is filled with Thanks, Everything is amazing. 

Unpacking

Hey there. Just a short entry for today. We're back, and Hawaii was just a dream. Now Thanksgiving is upon us. We were going to all get together with Corey's family in Park City, but we are following the urgings of our government leaders to not gather as family and that's ok. So it will just be us at home tomorrow with a home cooked meal. My mom is an angel and stocked our fridges and freezers on Tuesday, AND brought us by Costa Vida for dinner, so we had a meal ready for us and all the shopping done for Thanksgiving. Turkey, potatoes, pies, she got it all. I ran out today for whipped cream and ice cream and gravy packets, but other than that we're covered. Thanks Mom, I hope to be as kind and helpful to my children someday. 

We were talking with Abi tonight about her crush, about relationships, about how things change. Corey told the kids, kinda jokingly, that he felt like he got the bait and switch with me - like I was all about Corey Corey Corey during dating and our courtship, then once I had him, it switched to babies babies babies. I admit, the desire for children came upon me like a switch, and it was unexpected. Kinda like playing violin. I don't know where it came from, but, like my developing violin talent (ha), children also are a good and worthy thing to desire. We'll be glad in the long run, sweetie! And I know you're glad now too. I know it is hard and a lot of work, but it is doable and it is worth it. They are turning into great adults. I picked up Joseph this morning from Frontrunner. It's nice that he will be able to be with us over Thanksgiving. I haven't done much prep work for the meal, I'll do it tomorrow. We're trying to find out where the kids stand on homework before they go back on Monday. Also trying to get them practicing again. We slacked a little bit in Hawaii. We have a lot to unpack and put away. There is a mess everywhere, and that's to be expected, and it's ok. (Trying to channel my Fred Rogers). There's lots of laundry. This is the opposition that comes after a nice vacation. The kids aren't in the mood to help me clean, and I'm not really in the mood to clean either. And that's ok. Corey'd like to take them skiing tomorrow. Right now (7:24pm) we are not on target to have the house clean any time soon, and I'm not in the mood to cook a big meal in a messy kitchen, and that's ok, so we'll just see what happens. Maybe my mood will change by tomorrow and I'll have the spirit of service and gratitude. 

Goodbye Hawaii and LA Layover

It has been an amazing vacation. We woke up early this morning to head to the airport for our 8am flight back to the continental US. Here was Peter this morning, we woke him up right before we said a prayer before we left the room - 

"Where am I and what is going on!?!?"

Cute boy. He was pretty cranky after that... whining as we unloaded the car before check in.

He was very good on the plane though and the flight to Los Angeles went by remarkably painlessly. He was entertained by plugging in and unplugging the headphones. 

Over and over again - That's right! That's how you do it! You are so smart Peter! 

And then he practiced repetition with the seat belt. 

And then he fell asleep. I watched Toy Story 4 with Peter, then Aladdin (Peter napped through most of that) and then I watched the Mr. Rogers show and I didn't know what to expect but I loved that! It made me cry and made me want to be a better mother and human. We landed right before I finished so my top priority on the plane to Las Vegas is to finish watching that. Corey was on a row by himself and said it was the most productive 5 hours he's had the past 12 days. He took Peter for a moment as we descended. 

Now it is all a distant dream. This is my first chance sitting down with my laptop for the past few days. When I had a free moment in Hawaii, the kids usually asked to use it for school. We have a few more hours of our layover here in LAX and then we'll spend the night in Las Vegas and drive home tomorrow. 

This has been a great vacation. I'll catch up blogging it after we get back home tomorrow. 

Sunday Songs

DRIVE - shiny

We know the way

(This version is better!)

Looking over the cliffs at the Wakapu'u tide pools is so amazing! We didn't stop at the lookout, but next time we'll have to do some hikes along here. I was glad that Corey drove so I could look out the window. Beautiful rough blue waters. I loved the views and the drive - Waimanalo beach and then around Kailua and through Kaneohe

Wild chickens somewhere I think in Kailua (with cute baby chicks!) We headed toward the H3, but stopped at a lookout point to take in the ocean view. We saw a bird that appeared to us to be injured. We gave him some bread and Lily said a prayer that he'd be ok. 

We hopped back onto H3 and headed back to Honolulu, driving through the Tetsuo Harano tunnels through the Ko'olau Range (our video of driving through the mountain, the mountains are gorgeous) and back to Ko Olina. I really loved driving through the mountain. I would have liked to drive around the entire island, but we'll save that for next time. We made it up to Laie last Sunday, so it's ok. I knew we couldn't do both, and through the mountains to Ko Olina was over an hour less time in the car, so that's what we did. Back at the room, we had a lot of food to use or leave, so I made lots of smoothies - the kids ate on the balcony.

I made a feast for dinner while Hyrum entertained the kids - they played Simon Says. 

"Simon Says look at mom and say cheese!"

We so much that the kids were complaining from stuffed stomachs. It's hard to calculate food for our group, but we knew that anything we didn't eat would be left in the freezer and probably thrown away by the housekeeping (I hope they do something with it, atleast with the unopened things). We had bought food at Costco on our way home from the bishop museum. Probably too much. Corey joked that we are a traveling group of competitive eaters. I think we should be ok with 2-3 meals a day, although I don't know how to enforce that. Wesley went to look at the gift shop. Some deep thought from Hawaii - 

"Life's better in Hawaii!!" I agree!

 

We have loved not having dry skin during this trip. And I dare say this place has cured my throat phlegm that I"ve had since the solar Eclipse. Seriously, that night before the eclipse, I thought a gnat flew in my mouth or something and got lodged in the back of my throat, and it's stayed there since. I even went to a throat doctor to get it looked at (Oct 2017). He was like "Yeah, mucus changes as you get older." Then I got a $150 bill and swore off going to doctors in the future. But hey, Hawaii's climate might have cured me! We may have to move to Hawaii for my health. 

We packed up tonight because tomorrow morning around 5:30 we're going to wake up and leave - our flight this morning was a 8am. We're thinking if we're on our way around 6 that will be good. We went for a brief walk to try and catch what we could of our last Hawaii sunset... Kids silhouettes at the bottom of the photo here -

This has been such a wonderful blessing to take this trip. 

Bishop Museum and Last Swim

It is our last Saturday in Hawaii. Corey got tickets for us to visit the Bishop Museum at 9 am, so we headed out. We also had a room change again - so we had to pack up everything again. Our food and suitcases were stored by the luggage people, it was nice that they had a cooler too, then tonight we got our new room - we moved from the 11th floor 31118 and 31120 down to 30504 (it has a lock off, but the lock off doesn't have a separate entrance). I left my swimming suit in the room, so thankfully they did find that and had it when I called looking for it, along with Peter's white noise machine and a toy boat. Ugh, moving rooms has been a bit of a pain, but it saved us some money, so it's the sacrifice we had to make. I got the kids to the car while Corey and the boys moved everything downstairs to be held for us at the check in desk. I took pictures of flowers as we waited. Peter got in the front seat to let us know he was ready to get going - 

It wasn't a long drive to the museum. A little drizzly rain had fallen. Everyone walking in - 

I didn't get good pictures of any of the kids inside, but there are a few of them in this pic.

I took a lot of pictures of things that I wanted to finish reading but wasn't able too cause of the kids. 

I personally am of the belief that the Nephites and Lamanites that left in Hagoth's ships are among the ancestors of Polynesians. I know that wars among brothers has been in the history of most countries and civilazations, but this one did sound so much like the wars described in the Book of Mormon - (Kauhi's Last Stand at Ka'anapali by Herb Kawainui Kane 1980, Giclee reproduction signed by the artist)

"This scene illustraes the battle of Koko o Na Moku, 1738, between brothers Kauhi'aimokuakama and Kamehamehanui over the right to rule Maui. Both obtained the assistance of other island chiefs. It is said that the blood of the fallen warriors flowed from stream to ocean, causing the sea to turn red. Kamehamehanui defeated his older brother and ruled Maui for many years."

"Kamea was chief of Waikele' Ewa. Pohukaina was the chief of Kahuku. Haho was chirf of Kuaikau, Wahiawa, Kalauawa the rulign chief of Kailua. In Manoa Valley, the chiefs lived in the west half." - Bishop Museum Hawaiian Ethnographic Notes

I thought this was interesting - the birthing stones of Kukaniloko. A display at the museum:

"It is said that Nana'ulu becamse the ancestor of people of Kahiki and that their descendants came back to Hawai'i nei. The genealogy of the Hawaiian people has been put in order from Nana'ulu and his brother 'Ulu. The land is full of his descendants - they are all around O'ahu, and the lands mauka of 'Ewa and Wai'alua and Ko'olau are full of them." Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau, 1869. 

So I was just looking up what those rocks were - it's an ancient birthing site here on Oahu. We're probably too late to go see it this time here, so we'll have to come back, since it's one of the most significant historical sites on Oahu. (We drove right past it too! Darn!) "This ancient sacred site is located in the center of Oahu near Wahiawa. It was here where royal women were taken to give birth in the old Hawaii. Kukaniloko, which means 'to anchor the cry from within,' was built in the 12th century by an Oahu chief whose son Kapawa was the first birth here." Interesting! Won't it be so interesting to see the whole history of Hawaii and the world someday? I fully expect to be able to binge watch the whole history of the Earth after I die - and to watch all the "behind the scenes" histories as to where people came from, how their cultures and traditions began, it's going to be so fun to learn it all. Corey looking at a display with the kids - 

Another fun display that I didn't have time to look at - the 'Oihana Lapa'au Medical Practice: 

"Now, the medicine, there is a tradition where they always put on to pthe body five times. Five, five. Not more than give, not less than five, but five times. Why five times? Because this body has five members, all joined together to make one - the head, the chest, the stomach, the hip, and the leg." David Ka'alakea 1991

I wish this one were more clear - it's of some "Creation" chart or something.

"The One God" - "As Islanders embraced Christianity, they infused it with their own cultural symbols and ways of worshipping that reflects their cultural heritage." 

Well it was just all so fun. I feel like singing the Tarzan song "I wanna know! Can you show me! I can see there is too much to learn, It's all so close and yet so far, I just know there's something bigger out there! I want to know, can you show me? Tell me more, please show me!" Some eternity we'll be able to learn all about it. 

Next we went to the Surfing Exhibit called "Mai Kinohi Mai" which means "from the beginning" (made me think of Genesis and the creation and God and the history of this world again). It was pretty cool. 

They had a replica of the 30+ foot wave that Duke rode all the way to shore. Peter stood under it, looked up, and said "Scary..."

From a display: "This wave replica is 27 feet tall. It's approximately the same height as the wave that Duke Kahanamoku famously rode in 1916 from Castle's surf break off Diamond Head nearly all the way to the shoreline, where his statue stands today at Kuhio Beach. Duke estimated that wave to be 25 to 30 feet tall. Stand here and imagine taking that ride yourself!"

After looking at displays there and sitting down for some cool surfing footage in a huge surround screen theater, we headed outside for a fun tapa making hands on event. 

Peter tried to make a run for it a few times. 

The nice lady doing the presentation showed us a large tapa cloth. Then they cut up some mulberry branches into small sticks for us. We used a shell to scratch off the green outer bark. Then you make one long cut up the stick and then peel the fibrous inner bark off of the stick. 

And then you proceed to whack the fiber bark flat - 

We sound like Santa's workshop!

Abi working on her tapa

Owen and his tapa 

It was really fun! And then they got to put stamp designs on their finished work. 

Corey kept Peter entertained with some chips and juice from a nearby food stand.

It was really fun, and a good cultural lesson. Then we went by Costco for food to survive the next 48 hours, and we went back to the hotel to spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying our last day swimming in the pool. Peter teaching me about "FOUR!"

You're so smart Peter!

"FOUR! EFF!! TEE!"

He knows all about 4 feet.

The rest of the kids in the pool. We didn't have a reservation, but it was 3:30 and it was open until 4:30, so we thought we'd go see if there were any openings. There were, so we signed up, got our wrist bands, and went for their last swim with the slide. Corey was up in the room with the older kids, they were doing homework but would join us later for a 5pm swim reservation, but the slide would be closed by then. Natalie and Sophi loved the slide. I got them back for a quick little kid group photo.

We all went swimming at night. A pretty Hawaii sunset behind us. Corey got Peter to put on his floaties and swim/float on his own. 

He was fine until he saw me, then I had to baby him for a bit.

It only took a week of warming up to the idea, but he did great floating! Little video of him here - It's fun, huh Peter! (He's not so sure) He might have finally gotten a taste of swimming independence! 

Peter can fly! And some smiles from him too in this last video.

It was a perfect night, a perfect weekend ending to this amazing trip. We are so thankful to have had this wonderful vacation together!!!