Honolulu thus far

Holiday Honolulu Christmas Decor. I love how Santa is riding a wave pulled by a team of dolphins. The Shaka Santa and Mrs. Claus. Each of the figures, 21 feet tall, 15 feet wide and weighs 4,000 pounds, is lugged our annually to make appearance at the Honolulu City Lights. Kenz makes the shaka sign (“hang-loose” sign to Californians) now whenever she sees or hears of Santa. It’s pretty cute.

A holiday village set up for The Honolulu City Lights.

Rides at the nighttime festivities.

Christmas trees Downtown.

Poinsettias all over Downtown.

Fire-dancer from the Honolulu city lights parade on the night of the official city lighting

Christmas crafts at the library all of which have since been destroyed.

At the Triple Crown surfing event in Sunset Beach.

This picture was taken before the largest waves in decades hit about a week later, making the beach access now a cliff. This dog kept coming up to us with a coconut (see between his legs) which we would throw into the ocean and he would retrieve (knocking K over a couple of times in the process).

A rainbow from our apartment view.

At any moment it is not unusual to find stray chickens wandering on the beach.

Our winter snowman. Some tourists from Ohio even took a pic with it. Next time I'll charge.

A beautiful sunset.

Crazy banya trees at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Greeted by some friendly faces outside the Polynesian Cultural Center. The beautiful temple.

Pineapple fields on the way to the North Shore.

Eating some Matsumoto's shaved ice in Haliewa. Not as good as Bahama Bucks in Mesa, but I won't complain. Our favorite flavor is lilikoi (passion fruit). The real die-hards eat their Matsumoto's smothered in sweetened condensed milk. The waves at Waimea Bay seem to break right at the shoreline. In 1978, Eddie Aikau, the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay and well-known surfer, was part of an canoe expedition that was following the ancient route between Hawaii and Tahiti. The canoe ended up capsizing so Eddie decided to go get help by paddling on his surfboard towards the nearest island. The crew was later rescued by the Coast Guard, but after the largest air-sea search in Hawaii History, Eddie Aikau was never located. So in his memory, the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay was created. As a requirement, the event only occurs when the waves reach a face height of over 30 feet, which has only happened eight times since 1985 (one of those times was a couple of weeks ago when swells reached record heights in decades!). His memory also lives on in the saying "Eddie would go".

Kenz and Dad at the beach.

At the BYU vs U of Hawaii basketball game. BYU did us proud.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

If children could get drunk off candy, this is what they'd look like. Notice the smeared face paint and glossy neck from haphazardly consuming anything wrapped in a bright package.Two princesses... I guess with Aunt Rachel that makes three. I was busy handing all of her candy we had just acquired out to late trick-or-treaters. Meanwhile, she was making a deal with Dracula. Good thing Dracula wasn't up for a fight because Snow White was going through withdrawal (she hadn't had candy in about three minutes). Finally she left and Dracula had all of the candy to himself...-ah!-ah!-ah!

This is the sunset at sunset beach. Pretty beautiful place.

This is the temple in Laie. They are doing some renovations so there are scaffolds up.

This is Kaneohe beach. My company had a party last week on the island you can see. It was pretty cool.

This is Pali Lookout. It is up next to the top of the mountains. This is looking down on the windward side of the island. Honolulu is on the other side.

Here is another picture from Pali Lookout. The wind really blows up there.

Kahuku CACTF job

Here is a picture of part of the jobsite where we will be building the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility. As you can see, it is pretty thick. Lots of dense trees and undergrowth. It's on the north shore of the island. You can see the ocean in one of the pictures below.

Batch plant for mixing concrete on site. We are so far away from concrete mixing yards that we had to set up a batch plant on site. We have two concrete trucks on site. This plant adds the right quantities of aggregate, cement and water.

Here is a look at our storage/lay-down yard up there. We cleared this area and put down a good layer of rock. One thing about this area is it rains a ton. We need a good clear area that is rocked for storage of materials and equipment.

Here you get a pretty good look of the surrounding area. This is actually a helicopter landing site that the military maintains. This is an active training area, so if anyone is injured they are taken to this clearing where they can be air-lifted to a hospital. As you can see, it is the only clear area around.

Our last hours together

Here are some pictures one of my childhood bff's took so Boe wouldn't forget how darn cute his family is. Check out her talent at shutterblissphotography.blogspot.com.

We are moving

This will be our new home for five years. I guess it's okay.

So adios to my beautiful cacti:

And Aloha to Honolulu.

The reason for this unexpected but exciting change? Boe is starting a project somewhere in/around Honolulu at the end of August that requires a move on our part. Unfortunately, I attend a silly graduate school that requires me to stay in Arizona. Thus Kenzie and I invite you to a pity party we will be hosting for the next four months until December when our family reunites in Honolulu. We are actually excited to spend some time with Kenz's aunt, uncle and cousins while Boe is away...Kenz will have a dog to bother/torture and all the cheetohs, chocolate milk and princess movies her little heart desires.

Did you know they have castles in Coronado? We were lucky enough to spend some at this one. Some of the festivities included long-boarding (I showed up Boe in this sport), kayaking, speed-boating on the Casino Royale boat, dolphin-watching, inflatable ball olympics, and enjoying some local Mexican shrimp burritos. A funny story: One of the boats docked next to the castle had a nest of some endangered bird on the top of its mast. The government won't allow the owner to move the boat until the bird leaves. Two years and many bird droppings later, the bird has decided the life of luxury on Coronado Island is quite appealing and is subsequently taking advantage of the no-eviction perk of being endangered.
Can you see the seals that were striking a pose for the camera?
In one twist of fate during our Casino Royale boat ride, a life-jacket (unattached to anyone in the boat) flew overboard. We quickly turned to retrieve the jacket when no more than five feet from the vest was a pod of dolphins. Boe's brother wanted to create a magical moment and swim with the dolphins, so he quickly jumped in, nearly missed landing on one! In my heart I like to think that the dolphins were coming to save the person (if there had been one) in the life-jacket...why else would they have surfaced at this exact moment around this exact object?

Two powerhouses four-wheeled it up Powerhouse Mountain.

Picking wildflowers in the Idaho mountains.

Something more spectacular than sparklers was happening in the sky.

Kenz getting friendly with a dog at the fair.

Buried treasure at AZ beach

This past weekend weekend we spent some time at the beautiful beaches in AZ. Yes, that is water. I think I even saw a couple of dolphins. Maybe not. At one point during our trip to the AZ oasis, Boe disappeared underwater. On the shoreline at the time, I yelled out to a friend who was in deeper waters with Boe to inquire if he had gone looking for "buried treasure". She replied a very honest, "yes". Little did I know how honest this was. A couple of minutes later Boe appeared out of the water, borrowed some children's goggles from a family camped next to us, and disappeared back into the water. Did he really expect to find a pirate ship with undiscovered booty, or even better, an old football? Apparently, luck was on his side...he struck gold. His own gold, that is. You see, smarter beachgoers would be sure to remove their wedding rings before treading unknown and dark waters, but not Boe. Donning pint-sized goggles he swam back to the x-marked spot where the ring was lost and proceeded to make a number of nose-to-lake-bottom dives. I'm still not sure how he managed to locate the ring. Perhaps the spirit of Jack Sparrow guided his hand to that oh-so-valuable treasure, and perhaps Jack also lent him the courage to share his discovery with me.

Wicked...hairbows...

In preparation for our attendance at Wicked the musical, we have been listening with wreckless faith to the Wicked soundtrack since Kenzie was born. Yesterday she surprised us with some sing-along during "Popular", prefacing her solo with "he coms, he coms, he coms" (trans. "here it comes!!!!!!!!") She's no Mariah Carey, but we were proud.


Aunt Sara made some hairbows the other day, Kenz was kind enough not to rip this one out.





My attempt at a hairbow.


Not the best hiding spot.

Cousin Dixon

Kenz's cousin Dixon was in town from Houston, so we decided to show him a good time here in AZ. First stop in the tour of AZ was Mccormik-Stillman Park in Scottsdale. Here we rode horses (in a circle and attached to poles), burnt our skin on playground equipment, and took a train ride.

Some random hats we forced on the children.

On the flesh-burning playground equipment.

Newton's 3rd law (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) in action.

Kenzie is a cautious child especially when it comes to carousel rides. She holds tight lest the horse becomes detached and rides away... I don't think I'll be showing her Mary Poppins any time soon.

Yet another swimsuit.

The splash pad

Playing the piano. Note the gash on her upper, outer left eyebrow...Nursery got a little physical on Sunday.

Petal pouncing.

The San Tan splash pad. This is about as daring as she got with the fountains. I think she was caught offguard with all of the children screaming spastically.

Every couple of minutes she'd take a breather on the sidelines until some little girls would grab her hands to do "ring around the fountain". Kenz soon discovered that a wet diaper is not the best thing to "all fall down" on.

The Easter dress was a huge hit at church.

I went a little crazy and bought three swimsuits for Kenz, not intending to keep all, of course. Though my sisters insist little girls need approximately three swimsuits per season, this is the one that came in first place. Kenz was a good sport as I tried, retried, and then re-retried the suits on again.

A runner up in the swimsuit purchase.

Kenz now thinks she knows how to feed herself. The food ends up in a combination of the following: her lap, her hair, the cracks of her thighs, her elbows, her highchair, the floor and other surrounding areas around but not in the target.

The newest Disney princess

Never though I'd say it, but I have a princess for a daughter. Kenz will line up all of the "prinches" to face her, and then smile at them adoringly. As usual, Ariel is her favorite.

What the Disneyland?!?

I think I am in the Twilight Zone. I'm not quite sure what day it is. Last I remember, I left on Friday afternoon with group of high school ASL students to Disneyland. Every road trip has some great stories and this one was no exception. We left on Friday with bus driver Bobby Hitt--an old tyme country singer(check your local casino listings for playing times)--who referred to himself as the 'hitman'. Not exactly the name of a person you want behind the wheel of your transportation. Throughout the trip up, Bobby self-dosed himself some Robitussin for a persistant cough. I think a bus counts as operating heavy machinery (see Robitussin side effect cautions). Bobby is a free soul, which can be mistaken as lazy. He denied us the opportunity to use the commode on the way up...not sure why but probably had something to do with the fact that he is the bus's janitor. Despite Ricky Bobby (our new nickname for the hitman), we made it to Dland safely and proceded for two and a half days on a very faithful 6am-1200am schedule. The kids were great except for a couple trixsy ones, who were, well, trixsy.

The Aladdin show. This was one of our favorite attractions. Rachel and I were confused at the characters in electronic cruisers-like the ones at Walmart-it was a little distracting.


Apparently I am a peasant who is not allowed in the presence of princesses. All I wanted was a couple pictures to show to Kenz with anything Disney princessish. I didn't need to wait an hour with the rest of the four-year-olds and their moms for them to tell me I too can be a princess if I listen to my parents and do my schoolwork. The "gatekeeper" (I got a little annoyed at how in character some of the workers get) absolutely refused to let me take pictures over the Enchanted Forest's hedge, but here is one I snapped as Aurora and Cinderella were leaving for a shift change-only three princesses are out at a time. I think Cinderella thought she was a real princess because she didn't even make eye contact with me, a commoner. I left the Enchanted Forest wanting to have a smackdown with Dland's prettiest.


Rachel and I in line for the new Toy Story ride. Fun, but not worth the wait.

Jedi training. Apparently they only pick little kids for Jedi Training even though I know I was born with the Force. By the end, I had all of the moves down anyways, so I hope they don't miss my skills when the Sith (sp?) attack again.

This pic is for Kenz. She loves "BeeYoons".

The classic Disney pic.

The trip home consisted of Ricky Bobby's songs with the bus travelling at a pace of 25 mph. Something was wrong with the thrust something or other and we had to stop, no go, no stop again, no go again, no stop for maintenance to diagnose and fix the problem. Made for a 10-hour trip home, but a safe return was made.

So now I'm having some sleep deprivation-Disneyland exhaustion backlash and feel as though the Tower of Terror may just have transported me to the Twilight Zone.
Let's hope it's nothing permanent.

And we're back!!!

Kenzie got these much needed sunglasses for Easter. The Easter bunny known as Aunt Sara also found some Disney Princess cookies which added to Kenz's Easter sugar high.

Kenzie is not the easiest to wake in the morning. We especially love her morning-do. It resembles a big ball of fluff in the back and shaggadelic on top and in front. For one who is not skilled in hairstyling, mousse has become my favorite friend. If it ends up like a rat's nest at the end of the day, at least it smells good.


Kenzie is in love with my toothbrush. I wish I could have it back someday.