No turtles at Lanikea Beach

In the attempt to purchase a gallon of milk under $6, we made a 40 minute drive to Costco this Saturday. On the way, we decided to stop at a nearby beach famous for its Hawaiian sea turtles that frequent the beach daily. Despite going at one of the peak sighting times (late morning) the only things we sighted were signs about the turtles...no turtles...just signs. It was a little overcast, so I think they decided to stay indoors. Boe and I spent the remainder of our trip discussing the premise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and what made it so popular despite being based on such a weird idea.

This is what we had hoped to see. The Malama na Honu volunteers set up camp everyday to make sure the turtles remain protected. When one creeps up, they place a red string around to remind visitors to keep their distance.

This is all we saw:

Our house (Evanson Hale)-the cat belongs to the neighbor but the princess bike is definitely ours. I love the blue trim. The landlord(lady?) owns two units just behind ours that have roof tiles that are the same blue color but with a glossy finish. They remind me of Legos. I wish I could knock them down as easily as Legos because then we'd have a direct view of the beach.
The view from our side yard with some nice local art. Yes, that is a cactus peeking over the wall...just like home.

Your daughter is a princess if...

How to tell if your daughter is a princess:


She calls an umbrella a "Belle-Rella"

She calls Taco Bell, "Tinker Bell"

She makes you put on her headbands Rambo-style, like a crown

She will do almost anything for Disney princess spaghettios

When something is too high to reach, she states "I need a fairy" (to fly up and get it for her)

She starts singing, "Someday my prince will come" every time she sees a lady wearing a pretty dress

Every Sunday you have to make a castle out of Hymnbooks for her princess figurenes to play in

She wants to wear a dress everyday...even resorting to dirty ones in the dirty clothes pile if necessary

Her dresses are named according to their predominant color and corresponding Disney princess: yellow and orange ones are Belle dresses, Blue ones are Cinderella dresses, green Ariel dresses, red Snow White dresses, and pink Aurora dresses


...all of which have led me to the conclusion that my daughter is in fact a princess.

Turtle Bay and the PCC

We were honored to spend the weekend with some very generous family/friends at Turtle Bay Beach Resort on Oahu's North Shore. Along with the occasional crab, we also spotted Sean Penn eating dinner and The Hoff (yes, David Hasselhoff himself) at the resort gym. Kenz and Dixon provided Sean Penn's private dinner entertainment as they chased each other around what was supposed to be his secluded table. He was probably thinking the children's silly parents must be making some sad attempt at getting a celebrity's attention. In reality, we were just really hungry and wanted to eat, I guess at the expense of his private evening. Thanks, Sean, for being such a good sport and babysitter. I saw the Hoff at the spa/fitness center, walking at a steady pace on the treadmill, and unsuccessfully trying to balance his morning newspaper on the treadmill stand. At one point, he even tried to pay tribute to his Baywatch days by kicking the pace up to a jog, which only lasted 5 seconds. Jogging is too much of a hassle for the aging Hoff. Ironically, the gym television began playing a commercial advertising a new " Beating Alcohol Addiction." He looked pretty sober to me though (other than trying to balance an open newspaper on the tiny little treadmill stand).

At the pool with Dad

I'm guessing this beach is Turtle Beach as it borders the resort. Kenz and Dixon took every opportunity to hunt for various sea "monstors". Lucky for the crabs K and D's hunting tools were flimsy dried leaves.

What better way to spend vacation than lounging on the hotel bed watching tv with the cousins?At Waimea Bay where we did some boogie boarding. I need to practice a little more before I do that again...the waves here are pretty intense.The weekend was capped off by a trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center. The park is organized by the Polynesian islands Figi, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Aealand, Tonga, and Samoa. Each "village island" has authentic dwellings, structures, performances and activities central to their culture. In Figi, we learned to play a bamboo stick, while in Tahiti we were tattooed. I wanted to leave Kenz's TWO tattoos for nursery the next day, but decided against it.

The daily Canoe Festival. Each island (Figi, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa) represents their style of dance and dress while being paddled around a small lake. This is Hawaii's canoe. I think this was Tonga or Samoa's canoe At the Fiji island village after a performance. Kenz though she was getting eaten. The big guy on the right had come straight from Fiji only two weeks earlier. He is attending the Y to pursue a degree in business management. Kenz will be doing no business with him in the future.
Our luau buffet consisted of purple sweet potato salad, purple rolls, pineapple, kalua pork (they smoke a new one underground every day), teriyaki chicken, island fish, saimin (basically pico de gallo with pices of raw, lemon-marinated salmon), clear noodles with pieces of chicken, spinach, cucumbers and carrots in something sweet, coconut pudding squares, a bundt cake with coconut glaze, chocolate cake, and all sorts of tropical nectars.

Ha Breath of Life Night Show. The performances were great and the story line had some subtle references to Mormon doctrine. Kenz kept smiling and saying, "Mommy, they shakin' their bootie!" Pretty accurate if you've ever seen authentic island dancing.

Merry Christmas!

Our ward party this year was well worth the drive to Laie from Honolulu. Good food (still no Mexican) and great entertainment provided by the ward members. The Relief Society sang a Maori rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I was part of the "8 plants of puha" group. Here is the sheet of words we used with some helpful translation (Kenz provided the nice and colorful background...nothing is safe from her artistry here):

Christmas PJ's accessorized appropriately with a Cinderella headband and Snow White socks. Christmas dress which she has worn every day since receiving it one week ago.Boe won a gift basket at his work Christmas party that included various delicacies including this turtle. We were surprised to find... ...these hiding inside. I didn't feel right eating them, it being Christmas and all.

More Christmas

Kenzie's Christmas tree. We're displaying it in the lobby of our residence. The hotel is having a contest for residents/tenants to guess how many lights are on the tree. My plan was to count the number of plugs that could be seen then multiple that by the number of lights in a standard strand, but we ended up making an uneducated guess of 850. We'll find out on the 23rd...

Invasion of the Shaka Santa. He's everywhere! This is right outside our condo rental.

Honolulu thus far

Holiday Honolulu Christmas Decor. I love how Santa is riding a wave pulled by a team (pack?) 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 us mainlanders) 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. If I were a bird of any sort, I'd live here too. No migrating necessary.

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 for about three minutes). Finally she left and Dracula had all of the candy to himself...-ah!-ah!-ah!