Hannah's Cowgirl Quilt

This Hawaii stuff is just taking forever. (Not helping that, until recently, most of my Hawaii pictures were still in Hawaii, on my husband's laptop.) I just have to break it up with a sewing post.

I haven't been sewing much this year. 

It's been sad.

I've just been alternating between too busy and too tired.

So, I brought a couple of projects on the road with me this summer, hoping to finish something or another.

My little sister gave me some cute cowgirl fabric...

...(with one of her horse-crazy girls in mind) for a doll quilt. Remember back in the day, when I was making those all of the time?

Well, it ended up being more of a lap quilt (with the doll quilt made from it's scraps).

The back isn't too Christmasy looking, right?

One thing I didn't bring with me on our summer trek - my sewing machine. I thought I'd be pretty safe bumming off my mom and sister. Nope. When I spent a week in Oregon, not doing much and hoping to quilt this baby, my sister had all of her sewing machines at girls camp with her. Thus, the cowgirl quilt is tied and hand-quilted. With love in all of the stitches, Hannah! :)

Polynesian Cultural Center

My lovely children, at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

It took us two tries to see the PCC. The first time we attempted it, Jon was complaining about not feeling well. Nothing new. And, being the wonderful mother that I am, I decided we would go anyhow. (We had already bought our tickets...and I was tired of sitting around indoors in Hawaii!)

That trip lasted about half an hour. We went to 'Samoa', watched a cute boy (with an awesome 6-pack description from Sofia) climb a coconut tree, and got to see the whole husking, opening, and shredding of the coconut. But Jon spent the whole time lying on a rock wall, holding his head in agony.

I mustered some sympathy and took everyone home.

Take two: everyone feeling better and we made it to most of the cool things.

In 'New Zealand' earned that Cozette is very afraid of the Haka and some poi ball basics. (We came home with one pair of poi balls, from the flea market...and then Tony brought us 2 more, from Target!)

James was the most enthusiastic. Sofia kept hurting herself with them. :)

'Tahiti' will always win the award for best native dances. Sofi was bummed that she wasn't chosen to go on stage and dance with the Tahitian guy. At least she got a picture with him afterwards. Dream fulfilled.

Annika and Cozy on the canoe ride.

Anthony, not complaining. Yea!

The guy pushing our boat was very funny and we managed to keep Cozy from falling out. She and James want pet ducklings.

We saw a bunch of them in 'Fiji".

James and Cozette, holding hands with the tiki for one last picture.

Success! No one puked or had a migraine! 

Annika, Sofia, and I came back for the show that evening (sans whiny, tired kids).

The Dole Plantation

I took the kids to the Dole Plantation, in spite of their professed hatred for pineapple.

Sorry, kids, but I remember the first time I saw a pineapple plant, and I thought it was amazing and weird.

I had to pass that moment on.

We stood in line for the "Pineapple Express".

I think my kids aren't as impressed by trains as they used to be.

Remind me to take them to Cabin John Park and make them ride the train tomorrow.

Cozy and I, listening to the very informative history of Dole, as we took selfies on the train.

James - looking like he's listening intently....when he's really just thinking about something entirely different. If you interrupt such a moment for James, he typically answers with something like, "Mom! Stop talking to me! I'm trying to think about the evil farmer!"

Cozy - looking equally unimpressed by the biggest sundae she's ever seen in her life. Cranky pants.

The older kids were more appreciative. I actually have an adorable picture of Annika having a similar sundae placed in front of her AT DOLE, and, at just 18 months, she thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Much to my surprise, it was the maze that garnered the most enthusiasm.

I was on a team with the little kids, while the four oldest ran off together. They beat us soundly, but we still had a good time cutting through gaps in the hedges, searching for the markers.

Grumpy pineapples:

Hula pineapple:

Ukulele pineapple:

...and thank goodness we have a big brother to carry a tired, tired little girl to the car.

McHawaii

We had an afternoon flight to Oahu - thank goodness! I'm so tired of having to rush places early in the morning. A 4pm flight gave us plenty of time to drive up to Bellingham and check in.

I bribed all of the children with movie players on the flight, so the were great, and we arrived to see Tony waiting for us at the gate!

(He always manages to sweet-talk his way past security.)

Ooo...I looove Hawaii! It's so beautiful. Just being there makes me take a little happy sigh and relax.

We stopped to get some fast food on the way to our place.

You know you've left the continental US when they have region-specific items on the McDonalds menu. (Think they serve Salmon or Moose in Alaska?)

Saimin, which I ordered with no knowledge as to what it might be.

Taro pies: much yummier than their cousin, poi.

I was crushed that they stopped serving the haupia pies before I got there!

You can also get a local breakfast, but we just had ours at our townhouse. My cooking skillz are good enough to make spam, eggs, and rice myself. :)

And...ahhh....Hawaii....

It's hard to be sad while you're looking at rainbows.

Pioneer Day in Snohomish

The day we got back from Cousin Camp wasn't Pioneer Day; however, it was the Snohomish Stake's Pioneer Day activity, an event that was much talked of and looked forward to by everyone except my tired teenagers.  Sadly for them, it was also mandatory, as their Uncle James and Grandpa were going to be performing as part of the entertainment. :)

They were great, of course.

Yee-haw!

Really, it was an amazing activity. There were about a billion booths, where you could do things to earn "pioneer pennies".

You could haul water from one "well" to another, hunt buffalo (yes, they had archery and pellet gun booths), make butter, do laundry....

(Annika and Cozy, earning a penny or two. I gave each of the little kids buddies, so that I could roam and keep an occasional eye on all of them....even the lazy teenager, reading and declaring he was much too sick to be there...He wasn't.)

...pan for gold...

...work at the mill...

...fish. The kids even got to brand "CTR" onto a slice of wood at the blacksmiths.

At the end, you used your pennies to buy your dinner and dessert (and play some of the games).

The whole thing made me want to plan out a pared-down version for our ward next summer. 

Think I could talk anyone into it? 

...and, of course, it made me want to sew bonnet after bonnet after bonnet.

I was responsible, resisted the urge to sew period garb (for the time being), and packed for our flight to Hawaii the next day.

The Luau Finale

Why haven't I finished writing about our Hawaiian Cousin Camp? ...because I've been much to busy enjoying our trip to the actual state of Hawaii. 

Still, I'm determined to squeeze out one final post about camp:

On the last evening of cousin camp, Grandma and Grandpa had planned a big luau, to which all of the parents....

...., great grandparents (Grandma Cozy).....

(Little Cozy really wanted to tease Grandma Cozette and play with her hat. Naughty.)

....., and local cousins (Allicia and her kids - we were so lucky they were there visiting, with all of their moving craziness!)....

...were invited.

The Mom/cooks tried to make sure everyone had a brush run through their hair. All of the camp shirts had been washed and the campsite tidied and decorated.

My Mom's friend Paulette (along with her sister and niece) cooked us an authentic Hawaiian feast, with laulau, poi, haupia (the best I've ever had), fried rice, and all sorts of other dishes! Yum!

The campers provided the entertainment for the evening. They sang songs, danced, performed very silly skits, and Grandpa even did the Hawaiian war chant (which sounded very pretty and not at all threatening. It must have been performed differently back in the day.)

I still catch myself humming "pupu, hinu hinu". (Guess I'd better learn the lyrics. Then I could at least sing it as a sweet lullaby instead of having a phrase of a song just stuck in my brain!)

My parents have been working their master plan all year, to get the luau together. Beyond finding hula lessons, they made sure each family got a ukulele for Christmas.

Grandpa worked on learning to play enough chords and songs on his ukulele, while a few of his grandkids were doing the same.

The result was adorable.

All week, there were kids sitting around, strumming their ukuleles (which has to be the perfect camping instrument - so portable.) 

I often think that part of enjoying your family is developing enough common interests that you like hanging out together. 

And isn't it darling seeing Chloe sharing sheet music with her Grandpa!

Sofia, of course, cranked out her version of Imagine Dragons' Apocalypse. Just wrong. 

I told her it wasn't a happy enough song to play on that instrument. 

No one is going to be playing the ukulele during an apocalypse. No one. 

One Direction songs were a little more compatible.

And all of the work that went into this week...

...you could see it working...building and strengthening relationships between relatives who are usually far apart. They don't get to swim and camp and play together as often as we would like, so I hope they remember these fun times.

I know Cozy was loathe to give up her "buddy", who she never, ever wanted to share with anyone.

(Autumn may just become the sweetest Mom ever...someday.) 

Those sweet cousins were definitely all worth the drive. :)

I'm pushing for a "Camping on the High Seas" theme for the year after next. Then we can feed the kids hard tack and teach them sea shanties and knot-tying.