Hawaii Thus Far

Our home for the next 2 1/2 months

Tayson's new bed, Camden still sleeps in a pack-n-play. Tayson loves his new bed (with his Christmas pillow that his Sunbeam teacher back in Utah made for him- it came with a special poem to read each December). My mother-in-law's house is the only house in Hawaii that I would allow my kids to sleep on the floor, because I know how clean she keeps it and it is very very very rare that there would ever be a cockroach or gecko in the house to climb on the kids while sleeping. I've just had too many bad experiences with cockroaches and/or geckos (such as in my hair) when I lived here during school 6 years ago. Most houses have cockroaches in them on frequent occasions, but NOT this one. Thank you Susan!!!


View of the temple from our front yard

LDS Temple

This was the kids 2nd trip to the beach. The kids and I went on Monday morning. We don't have pictures from the first time which was on Friday (the day after we got here), since we didn't take our camera, but I sort of wish someone had been there to video us or take pictures, because it was an eventful outing. For those of you who know Hawaii, you know the weather is SOOO unpredictable. It will be sunny one minute, two minutes later it will be pouring rain, and then two minutes after that, the sun is back and the rain is gone. Well, we went to the beach and the weather was sunny, however the wind has been pretty strong the whole time we have been here thus far. Brady and Tayson had some fun riding waves on the boogie board, as well as Camden. Later on, the kids and I were on the beach and I had my back turned to the water watching the kids play in the sand. Brady was in the water boogie boarding, when he saw the rain at The Point (a landmark in Laie not far from where we were). He started heading toward shore figuring he could help with the kids when the rain came, but the rain and wind hit HARD the moment he hit the sand. Because the wind was so strong, sand was blowing hard and it hurt and the rain was coming down hard enough to hurt too, so the kids FREAKED OUT! They were crying and running. I grabbed Camden right as Brady ran past me. I realized he was running after the arm floats that the wind had just taken with it. He caught one but we lost the other for good after it crossed the highway about 100 yards away. While Brady was running for the arm floats, Tayson was running after him crying (staying in the rain and wind longer). I had Camden and was holding a towel around him and over his head while he cried "owie" over and over again. The rain only lasted about 2 minutes total, but it sure scared the kids. They were ready to leave at that point and didn't want to go back (I wonder why). So I made a point of taking them to the beach on monday to give them a chance at a good experience so they would realize the beach is fun. I got a couple good pictures that time. We had a much better experience on Monday, though the wind is still rather strong this week and blows the sand. At the same time I like the wind which keeps it cool around here and keeps the mosquitos away. There is good and bad. I'm sure once the wind is gone I will wish it was back to cool things down.