| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Rebecca is learning to play violin:
and was on the Principal's Honor Roll (for all A's on her report card)
Jaden was named Citizen of the Month (Dec) and we were so proud of him!
Wheezer made gingerbread houses with Jaden's class:
And sleighs with Rebecca's:
This year we went up to Massachusetts for the Page Hayride:
and the kids got to play with Page cousins:
and spend time with Nana:
Then it was time for Santa!
This October, I was lucky to join Chris at Disney's Wine & Dine Half-Marathon. By joined, I mean, I accompanied him down there while he actually did the running =)
He had a great time and we actually had a relaxing vacation at WDW!
Did I ever mention Rebecca tried out for and was selected to play on the U9 Girl's Travel Soccer Team, called the Blast?
Here she is as a striker, but she also really enjoys playing goalie:
Jaden played this year too - meet the Lava Tigers:
As soccer winded down, we had a mild Halloween, allowing the kids to dress up as a vampire (Rebecca) and Anakin Skywalker (Jaden).
We came home from Hawaii just in time for the kids to start school (Jaden in Kindergarten and Rebecca in 3rd grade):
and of course, an earthquake and hurricane Irene, which caused us to delay celebrating Jaden's birthday party;)
Originally he was going to have a movie theater party, but because of the storm, we moved it to a local playground and had a huge kickball game which turned out to be a ton of fun:
On our last day in Hawaii, we met Jess and her son Mason again at the Bishop Museum, a museum full of Hawaiian artifacts (and a dinosaur exhibit too, which is how we got the kids to let us enjoy the Hawaiian part of it, hahaha).
For instance, all these ceremonial pieces were actually made from feathers from a bird that is now extinct:
After the kids couldn't take it anymore, we brought them over to the interactive science part of the museum, where they could learn about volcanoes, etc:
We said goodbye to Jess and went back for a few more pictures on the beach
And as we left for the airport, we saw one last Hawaiian rainbow, which was ironic as we were greeted by one when we got here:
On our last full day in Hawaii, we visited Iolani Palace, the only palace in the United States, and the residence of the last royal family of the Hawaiian monarchy.
But first,across the street, we saw the King Kameahmeha statue in front of one of the governmental buildings:
Then we walked across the street to Iolani Palace:
Palace Coat of Arms:
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was beautiful and a little sad to think of the proud Hawaiian ancestry overthrown by our "civilized" culture.
I couldn't wait to get my hands on some Dole Whip! We took a trip up to the North Shore again to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Don't the kids look THRILLED?!!?
But once the obligatory picture was taken, we checked out how pineapples are grown:
And then boarded the Pineapple Express =)
We saw how they planted the fields:
And then after the ride, we went over to the Pineapple Maze:
and after the maze, we got our dole whip:
After Dole, we headed over to Giovanni's Shrimp Shack for the legendary shrimp:
and then continued on to try to see the sea turtles that are often found on the north shore. and we sure did find them!
It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO neat to see them so close!
I could have watched them ALL DAY!
Chris, Dad, Jaden and I got up early to hike up Diamond Head. I really thought Jaden was going to back out at the last minute, but he insisted he was going.
And he was AMAZING. This was NOT an easy climb!
You drive into the crater and start from the middle:
It's definately not a very pretty hike to look at from the inside:
we got closer to the top:
and stop to check out the lookouts:
and then we continue on and finally see our "reward":
Honolulu:
I think my dad has the pictures of us together up on the top, but we also got a certificate showing that we made it!
After our brisk hike, we took a drive to see if the Blowhole was blowing, but it wasn't blowing very well. ;)
So we headed over to the Pali Lookout, which was SO WINDY, and pretty chilly:
The cliffs:
The kids and Chris took a short? hike up but since they were only wearing flip-flops and it was a very steep trek, they had to cut it short and come back down:
On Sunday, Chris signed up to run a 15k. Dad and I got up in time to watch him cross the finish line:
He had a great time.
On our way back, I took his picture by the statue of Duke, the father of surfing:
Then we all got cleaned up and went to brunch:
On Saturday, we drove up to the North Shore to visit our friends who move to Hawaii. Their son was on Jaden's tball team so it was such a joy to meet up with sweet Jessica and her sons Kevin & Mason!
We met them at the Shark's Cove, a great place to snorkel. It was even better than when we went to Hanuama Bay.
The kids actually tried to snorkel a little here:
After we got our snorkel fill, we went over to the Waimea Valley Botanical Gardens. We took a long walk through the beautiful park and eventually got to the Waimea Falls.
This water was fresh water and FREEZING compared to the ocean. But we swam out to the falls.
and I attempted to hoist my fat butt up on the ledge right under the falls (and failed!)
Rebecca had better luck:
Chris with his tball boys:
The kids weren't as interested in snorkeling, so thankfully we bought tickets for a submarine ride to a reef right off Waikiki.
We took a boat out to the sub:
We climbed down into the sub and got ready for our ride:
Of course, my pictures don't do the real thing justice...
fish
sea turtle!
When we surfaced, we saw a school of dolphins. Pretty neat.
