Hawaiian Odyssey Part IV - Hilo Hattie

Apparently, Hilo Hattie is the place to go for Hawaiian clothing, tchotchkes, and other touristy stuff. We decided to ride the free shuttle trolley, instead of driving, which, in hindsight,was a poor decision, even if we did get a marginally amusing tour of Waikiki. As we were waiting for the shuttle, Grant made an important discovery.

Directly across the road from the shuttle stop is a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant! As you can see, the name of this fine establishment isn't clearly visible but Grant said that he figured it out from the color scheme of the awning. I've never been prouder.

Anyway, after that debatable thrill, we settled in to wait. Shuttles run every 30 minutes so naturally we waited closer to 40.

On the trip we saw many exciting sights. Well, we did see the Duke Kahanamoku statue.

Bryn was obviously enthralled.

But we finally arrived and took the obligatory photo by the world's largest aloha shirt.

This makes my eyes hurt.

We bought a pearl, which had to be taken from the oyster at knife point.

Aww, ain't it cute?

Bryn, as usual, was drawn in by a book and plopped down on the floor to read it.

After we were done we waited another 40 minutes for the return shuttle. We amused ourselves as best we could.

Some were less amused than others.

And some amused the rest of us.

Hawaiian Odyssey Part III - Gotta Boogie

We started the boys' birthday celebrations off with presents: underwater cameras from their cousins...

... and boogie boards from their parents.

Their cousins were suitably impressed.

We walked down to our local ABC store and let the kids choose their own beach towel. Bryn clutched her pink choice as we walked back home.

Our beach of choice this day was Sans Souci Beach, at the east end of Waikiki, where we were told we could snorkel and boogie board. They were right, and we did. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Some of us were content to just lounge in the water and enjoy the sun.

Hawaiian Odyssey Part II - "This is the Way We Waikiki"

We left the airport via the deluxe Dollar car rental shuttle. While we were on the shuttle tsunami warning sirens started blaring across the city. Not to worry, apparently, they test the warning system on the first day of every month.

After getting our rental car and arguing with our GPS, we finally found ourselves greeted by... COUSINS! They live in posh tropical surroundings with a koi pond and everything.

Before we could head to the beach, we gave the boys an early birthday present: their own matching snorkel and fin set. Cole was wearing his old mask while opening his new one, just in case a sneaker wave found us on the 31st floor.

Finally, we hit the beach and the kids began a game they call "Kingdom", which mostly involved building a house upon the sand and then acting alarmed when the rain came down and the flood came up and the house on the sand washed away.

Meanwhile, Bryn tried her hand at boogie boarding.

The photo is deceptive because it makes it look like she enjoyed it. In truth, she had brief moments of joy interrupted by long stretches of terror and frantic clinging.

Cole, on the other hand, was born to boogie.

Now let me close this beach episode with a couple photos of Bryn playing in the Kingdom ...

... and dancing in the surf.

Aloha!

Hawaiian Odyssey Part I - "Flight of Fancy"

Our journey begins at 7:12 AM on the first day of March. The location is Portland International Airport, gate C-3. Three children, who didn't get enough sleep, and two parents, who got even less, are waiting to board their flight to Hawaii. A couple of inches of snow fell at our house during the night. Fortunately, the airport was nearly snow free and our flight is not delayed.

Two hours later, Grant has made himself comfortable. At this point he has probably only asked how long we've been on the airplane a dozen times. By the time we land, that tally, combined with "how long until we land?", "are we there yet?" and other, horrifyingly similar questions, is rapidly approaching triple digits.

Cole brought a friend along to keep him company (and guard his bottle of apple juice).

Bryn and Sue shared a bonding moment... for 6 hours. I helped by taking Bryn on several potty breaks. She declares the airplane toilet to be "fancy". Grant concurs.

In an attempt at keeping two 6 year-(minus one day)-olds entertained I relinquished control of the camera to Cole and he produced this brilliant photo.

Ten minutes before we land, Bryn finally falls asleep. She's like the proverbial canary in a mine for knowing when we're almost at our destination.

Cole's first impression of Hawaii: "It looks like the same airport." Actually, until we left the gate area, I had to agree.

Coming soon: Part 2, in which we leave the airport and enter Aloha-land, AKA the Sandwich Islands, AKA Hawaii.

Cole's Credo

Here's a boy who's got it all figured out.

Of course, that last line may need some updating...

My Brother Made Me Do It

Bryn (after tattling on Cole): Dad, I wasn't tattling.  Cole was making me tattle.

Don't Tie Yourself in Knots

In the January issue of the the Friend magazine, there was an article about making CTR Pretzels.

CTR Pretzels
By Heather Brinkerhoff
1 teaspoon salt
2½–3 cups flour
1 tablespoon yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
melted butter

1. Mix the first five ingredients until they form a ball. Then knead dough until smooth and elastic. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for one hour.
2. Pull off sections of the dough and roll into long ropes. Form the ropes into the letters “CTR” or make the shape of the CTR shield.
3. Put the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and bake 8–10 minutes at 450°F (232°C). Brush pretzels with melted butter.

We followed the recipe but put our own Cruncher spin on it.

Astronomy With a Capital G

After watching Wallace & Grommit in "A Grand Day Out" I asked the kids, "Do you think the moon is really made of cheese?"
Bryn's immediate response: "No! The moon is a cookie."

The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky

(What the Little Girl Said)

The Moon's the North Wind's cooky.
He bites it, day by day,
Until there's but a rim of scraps
That crumble all away.

The South Wind is a baker.
He kneads clouds in his den,
And bakes a crisp new moon that . . . greedy
North . . . Wind . . . eats . . . again!

-Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)

Snow Day!

We only got a couple of inches of slushy snow but it was enough to build a real snowman...

...and even make a few sledding runs down the hill in our backyard.

Yes, Grant is wearing his jammies. Fortunately, they are polar bear jammies so I'm sure he was warm enough.
Or maybe not.

I Like Sno Man.

As soon as I saw this I just fell in love with this striped "sno man" that Cole produced at school.

The wonderful depiction of our family, including the two cats, is also quite striking. I'm pretty sure that the orange, egg-shaped object above the snowman's head is meant to be a symbol for both our chickens and our bunnies. Or maybe it's the sun, which has been shining entirely too much this winter, making dreams of family snowman building an impossibility.

You'll notice, of course, that he got a "First Rate!" rating, which confirms what we've always known about this Boy of Destiny.

Who's the Boss?

Well, obviously. Just ask him.

Can You Spot the $25?

Sue invited Grant to help her shred some old bank statements. She was cleaning out our mail caddy and had made two piles on the floor: one to keep, one to shred. She indicated to Grant which pile to shred so of course he immediately went to the non-shred pile, grabbed the first thing that caught his eye and put it into the shredder. Sue caught a glimpse of it as it chattered through the slot. From her shriek I thought he might have shredded the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta. Actually, it was a Target gift card we received during Christmas. Once she identified it, I shrieked as well. Without much hope I suggested that she fish the pieces out and see if the numbers were still legible.

Okay, I purposely obscured a few of the numbers in the picture for the hindrance of our more enterprising readers but they were all there. It was the most expensive puzzle I've ever tried. When we entered the numbers into Target.com, they said "giftcard information entered is either invalid or incomplete." We checked the numbers again, made a couple of corrections and voila! $25 is ours.

Go Ye Into All The World

Grant has recently been asking questions about how the government works. Sue has been answering him and trying to help his 5 year old understanding try to grasp why we even need a government. A couple of days ago she remembered that she has several small books about various aspects of the United States, including one that has a short biography of each of the U.S. presidents up through George W. Bush. Since then Grant has insisted on taking the book with him wherever he goes and showing whoever is nearby some of the portraits of the presidents. Not surprisingly, his favorite is our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.

Today he took the book to church with him and shared it with other kids, the people sitting in the pews in front of us and behind us, his Primary class teacher and one of our favorite people, Brother Longfellow who walked past us in the foyer.

I thought Cole looked like Grant's mission companion in this next photo, adding his testimony while Grant prepared to present the next topic.

If you'd like a couple of LDS missionaries to visit your house with a message about Jesus Christ and the importance of families, visit mormon.org and submit a missionary request. If you'd like a couple of kindergarteners to visit your home with a presentation about their favorite U.S. presidents, Church presidents (try to guess Grant's favorite), and other interesting historical figures, drop us a line and we'll arrange a time. Either way, cookies are appreciated.

She's Our Sunbeam, Too

Today was Bryn's first day in the "big kid" Primary at church. She was a little shy at first and needed Mom's support.

Dad needed some support, too, but I had to be satisfied with taking surveillance photos through the window. Bryn eventually came around, let Mom go and sat on her teacher's lap for a while, then in her own chair.

By the end, she was excited to find mom to show her the picture she colored and tell her about her first day in the Sunbeam class.