Waimea Falls

This was our townhome in Kaneohe. It wasn't fancy, but it had enough beds for everyone! Plus having a kitchen and laundry room was huge. With all of our swimming, we made quite a bit of laundry.

...and the maids made our beds and took out the trash every day. Bonus.

Next door were much cuter, newer apartments. I like to think they were small. :)

My first big outing with the kids was hiking to Waimea Falls.

(Yes, I posted Dole and the PCC grossly out of order, chronologically.)

Cozy was holding our newly-purchased bird guide, so that we could put names to all of the cute, feathery things we came across. (Waimea has a great gift shop!)

BUT FIRST, one must fortify oneself with Hawaiian Ices. Tradition. (No one ate the melon flavored ice.)

The first birds we saw - Jungle Fowl (otherwise known as chickens). There always seemed to be a chicken or two everywhere we went - even at McDonald's, often with broods of fluffy chicks following them around. Sofia wanted to kidnap a couple of chicks and bring them home as souvenirs. (And she would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for her meddling Mom!)

If it wasn't up hill, I would have called it a "stroll through a lovely botanical garden" instead of a "hike".

Hey, at least we didn't take the tram. What a shame it would have been to miss out on all of the beautiful trees and plants. Many of them are so amazing they look like they couldn't possibly be real.

Little zebra doves, scurrying around after crumbs and hiding behind leaves.

And...the waterfall. It looked much bigger in person. I swear.

The last time we visited this waterfall (roughly a decade ago), they had a hula show and cliff divers. 

No more. However, before, the time you had to swim in the lagoon was pretty limited. Now they have life jackets available and you can swim as long as you like! Yay!

I didn't swim....something about hiking back down in wet swimgear...

So, the big children each got paired with a little child, and I got to sit back and watch.

The one rule (not even my rule - an actual, real, posted rule!) was not to stand up in the waterfall (an injury avoidance thing), which one of my children immediately did. :)

Aside from that one infraction, they were all lovely and played nicely, only occasionally forcing each other under the waterfall. 

Cozy, taking a break. The water was pretty chilly, and Cozy hasn't got much body fat to keep her warm. Poor dear. I'm sure it won't last, but in the mean time, she gets blue-lipped from swimming.

Annika, in the ideal vacation shot. I should have made everyone sit there for pictures! Alas, too lazy.

One the hike back to the car, we stopped and looked (probably a bit too closely) at some of the interpretive sites. (Please be recreations and not actual ancient ruins!)

...and posed as the Avengers for a group photo.

Lovely outing.

Hannah's Doll Quilt

Finally, that whole project is wrapped up and no longer in my house. It only took about a year too. ;)

Jonathan is one who decided what Hannah's doll quilt would look like

...because he couldn't stop playing with my scraps. 

I got the top together at my Mom's house, so that I'd have something to work on during my trip home (during down-time that mostly didn't exist.) Lucky  for me it was a small project.

I backed it in the same roses that were in the border and one of the squares.

I hand-quilted around the squares, the diamonds, and the border.

Then I whipped out a tiny pillow case once I got home. 

FYI: don't leave those tiny pillowcases around to be accidentally vacuumed up by inattentive Moms. I nearly destroyed my vacuum cleaner with one....recently.

...and the horse pillow I bought for Hannah last year...that Cozy found and tried to claim.

I'm a mean mom, I know.

...and a real pillow case to match Hannah's quilt....because I have trouble walking away from a project.

Can't wait to show you what I've been up to lately. Obsessing about headbands!

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.