Hawaii Revisited

Since we never really gave any glimpses of our Thanksgiving trip to Hawaii, I thought I'd post a few now. Cause really, what is a blog for if not to include a bit of a travel log? I'm sure Jen won't mind.

So where to begin...
Most of you know that we were really excited to book some great deals for this trip. Great flights, great car, great condo. So much of the burden of traveling was lightened by knowing that by golly, if you are going to do Hawaii, you can't get a better deal.

So this is where we came from just the week prior to Thanksgiving. Leaves were down, jacket weather was upon us. Jen was feeling pretty good in her second trimester and food was tasting good again. That was all well and good. Just according to my plan. We had slotted this vacation before the pregnancy began, actually, so we were rather fortunate that the timing of it all lined up. So anyway, Monday came, and off we went. We stopped in LA for the night. It was up for debate whether to take two 5.5 hour flights back to back or break them up with an overnight. I think we did the right thing with an overnight.


Tuesday as soon as we arrived Ian and I had to get to the water as soon as we could, so while we left Jen to rest in the condo a half-block form the beach, we hit the sand and surf.

The night we arrived, we were pleased to have dinner with my mission president and his wife at a nice Italian family eatery. It was SO good to see them! We hadn't been to a mission reunion since moving to Boston, and actually that same time frame was when they were leaving Boston for the west, before taking a position at BYU-Hawaii.



Wednesday we did Pearl Harbor. We have lots of pictures, but most of them look like everyone else's pictures of Pearl Harbor.







Thanksgiving we went to Hanauma Bay for some nice snorkling. I did several donuts through the bay and saw some fantastic fish. I was even pleased to be within feet of a sea turtle. I think he said his name was "Crush." Jen didn't take too kindly to seeing what was swimming with her, so Ian and I ventured out on our own. And when I say "Ian and I," I mean Ian was in his tube and I was his motorboat with my snorkel and fins on.
We had Korean food for our Thanksgiving dinner.


Then Friday we did the Polynesian Cultural Center. Since it didn't open until lunchtime, we stopped at the Laie LDS Temple visitor's center in the morning and took in the ambiance. Ian loved that the pictures on the pass-along cards "matched" our view, and that there were flowers to wear on our ears.
The PCC was fantastic. We honestly could have spent several days there. As it was, we only got to see the cultural presentations, and basically had to skip many of the demonstrations of cooking/crafting/playing. I think Jen was happy about that part, because those type of activities give me open opportunities to embarrass her.




Saturday we did North Shore. We went to Waimea Valley, had Matsumoto's Hawaiian Shave Ice, and also spent several hours watching folks surfing in preparation for the big wave competition.





Sunday was a reverent day at the Punch Bowl. They had monuments to all the soldiers lost in the East who were never retrieved, as well as displays illustrating the conflicts. I thought it was a very reverent atmosphere there in the extinct crater. In the evening, Ian and I took a walk down the boulevard among the tourists and the Jehovah's Witnesses who had gathered for their big convention. Admittedly, we felt fairly safe amongst so many god-fearing tourists!


Monday turned into a shopping day because the weather in the morning was so sour. The rain had come and scared us away from the beach until the afternoon. It was very windy and drizzly, so what better day to hi At least we could go deal hunting! After our attempts at deal hunting we hit the beach again before going to dinner with Jen's Auntie Jean and Uncle Hugh. They were wonderful hosts to us. We went to a famous Hawaiian restaurant.


Tuesday we went to a playground, because that's all Ian required to have a fulfilling vacation. I think it was on our plane ride in that we asked Ian what was on his list to do during vacation. Honestly, all he said was, "I think I'd like to play on a playground." Throughout the week as we ventured and would pass a playground, Ian would ask, can we go to THAT playground? But really, either we weren't dressed for it or we had somewhere to be. The times when we had nowhere to be we were sitting on the beach!

And now we are back home. Finished with sand for the time being, content with snow, ice, and rock salt covering to feel between our toes. New England has much to offer, I'll give it that, but it is severely lacking in the Spirit of Aloha sometimes.


There are TONS more pictures of the trip, but really, I'm fairly certain that very few folks are still reading after such a lengthy outline. So with this picture of my Hottie at Christmas dinner, I bid you adieu.

Christmas Festivities

MMMMMMMMMM. I love Christmas. More than I can even say. Here are some pictures from the past weekend. (Is it really over already?) I'm totally having withdrawals. Ian was thrilled with his haul--which was all mostly a bonus, since the only thing he asked for was a doll (who is affectionately named Chippy).

We started things off by having a Christmas Eve brunch with friends. Food was a joint-effort....I love enjoying the food exploits of my friends. =) Lemon scones with lemon curd, roasted potatoes, fresh pineapple, Canadian bacon strata, lemon rosemary cake, apples and applesauce. I would like to relive this brunch again, please.



As is tradition, we made ice cream on Christmas Eve to have with our Christmas Day bread pudding. No need to buy ice, Joe simply empties the gutter spout, breaks it up, and voila! Ice! This year's recipe called for an entire half-gallon of half-and-half and not a ton of cream...in retrospect, I'm sorta wishing we used more cream. (Shocking, I know).



Joe got socks. Lots of socks. The good kind. Every time I give him socks for Christmas or a birthday or whatnot, I always get the 'there-are-few-things-better-than-good-socks' shpeel. Gives me warm fuzzies every time.



At my baby shower for Ian, I was given a piggy bank as part of a shower game....and Ian has been so in love with it.....until it cracked. So he got a new piggy bank (well....it's a cow, if we're getting technical here), and proceeded to play with it for 15 minutes. (One of the benefits of a small Christmas at home is the flexibility to take six full hours spanning two full meals to open/play with gifts). Pure bliss.



Christmas morning at our house wouldn't be complete without Eggs Benedict. (Note: Santa brought Joe new safety glasses. Apparently, Santa had a good idea). =)



I like to call this: Slinky, Take II. This is Ian's second slinky. I'm much more confident in his abilities to not twist it all up this time. He loves it.



What has Joe been asking for? Totaling two full years of asking, it's a 100-foot extension cord. The joy in his face was fantastic. I love it when that happens!



Joe and I both have one, so we thought it was time for Ian to have his own balaclava. It's a win-win, because now he can get a secondary use out of it by dressing up as a bank robber for Halloween.



Dinner. More warm fuzzies.



The spread. I learned from mistakes of years past and made a more manageable amount of food for just the three of us. Though, 90% of the ham is still in the freezer in the basement. Last year, however, it was like I was cooking for the entire BYU offensive line.




Please excuse the inclusion of the discarded fatty bits of ham in this picture.

Happy Christmas from our family.

"But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen."

-Ether 12:8-

Cookies for Santa

Every year, Joe and Ian make cookies for Santa to put out on Christmas Eve. This year, Ian requested to make gingerbread cookies--which I'm sure is a nod to his friend, Ada, and her gingerbread-man-decorating-birthday-party. He's been talking about gingerbread cookies ever since. So I made the dough this afternoon and the boys went to work after dinner. A good time was had by all. =)

The First Snow

It's going to be a white Christmas here in Massachusetts. We got hit by The Big Storm you all probably heard about....but it was relatively calm by the time we got it....only about 8". It was timed just right, though, that they had to cancel church (about 30 seconds before we were about to get in the car and head out)....

You can imagine how excited I was that my enormous self struggled for 10 minutes to put tights on. =)

After lunch, Joe and Ian set out to shovel and go snow-shoeing. (Ian is showing marked improvement on his snow shoes since last year....where "marked improvement" means "he can actually use them without falling over.")

Two things

I'm sorry I've been a terrible blogger. 'Tis the season for a mushy brain, I suppose.

1. Ian and I made peanut butter cups yesterday. It was more of a warding-off-cabin-fever strategy, if I'm going to be completely honest with you. Ian's job was to spread out the muffin cups (which was, apparently, his dream job).

2. If Ian is good and pleasant during our grocery store trips, he gets a cookie at the bakery. Do your grocery store bakeries give kids free cookies? Mine does. It's awesome. Grocery shopping is always so pleasant! And usually, the cookies are smallish sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies...but apparently, they were feeling particularly holly and jolly this season. Check out the size of the cookie they gave out on Thursday. (And at that point, he was already halfway through the thing).

An Aloha Thanksgiving

Greetings from Waikiki!

As I sit here in my bed, Ian is watching 'Curious George' and practicing breathing through his snorkel. Without the luxury of my mother and grandmother's cooking today, we decided not to even attempt to cook a traditional Thanksgiving for ourselves....but rather, we'll be spending the day firmly rooted at the beach--giving thanks just the same.

We arrived here in Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon, after 2 very long flights, 1 night in a very mediocre hotel in Los Angeles, and many, many visits to the airplane lav. (Bridget, you'd be so proud of me. I hadn't used an in-flight toilet since the beginning of this decade--no exaggeration). But being nearly 6 months pregnant, and not wanting to die of deep-vein thrombosis, I was able to overcome my distaste (understatement) of airplane lavs. And you know what? It wasn't that bad. By the end of it all, my ankles still looked liked knees and my shoes didn't fit, but whocarescauseIjustlandedinhawaii!!

It took me less than 5 minutes on the roads to realize that my goal for this trip was to simply relax. That's the Hawaiian way, you know. No one's in a hurry. No one breaks the speed limit. Heck, no one goes the speed limit. =) And even though there's a significant bit of aloha that courses through my veins, I apparently did not get the relax gene. At least, not to this degree. BUT...being Hawaiian can also be a learned behavior, I think. At least I hope so.

On the docket today: snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and relaxing at Kailua Beach. And lots of swimming. And eating. And playing in the sand. You know, intuitive Thanksgiving stuff.

And while we realize that no amount of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts or Hawaiian sweet bread can make up for missing out on my mother's rolls and pies, we're happy to be here...

October Review

In October, we were so excited for Shara and Jackson to come visit for a week. Apparently, the brisk Wisconsin weather decided to follow them here, but we had a FANTASTIC time. It was a great Boston-in-the-Fall week together. Below are some fun moments from our visit to the Boston Children's Museum.

Here are some other October highlights---------------

Apple season was in full swing at our house--which provided Joe and Ian with some fantastic cooking opportunities. For the record, Ian owns two aprons.

A family in our ward had us over to carve pumpkins...it was quite impressive....

...and then Ian found the trampoline... =)

For Halloween, Ian was a "silly green monster." I thought he was adorable...but once again, we got our annual cold/ear infection at Halloween (it's the third year in a row), so he wasn't as into it as I'd hoped. Here are Ian and Joe at the ward Halloween party.

...And it wouldn't be right to show pictures of our family without pictures of Chester. =)