On Friday Megan and I took the kids to the Honolulu Zoo. It was a fairly decent zoo with some pretty fun things to see. When we first got there, we saw a flock of flamingos all resting their heads under their wings and standing on one leg. The girls were really excited to see flamingos in real life. Then we went to the monkeys which was honestly the highlight of the day. I can't even remember the name of the monkeys that caught our attention the most because I was too enthralled with watching them. I've never been to a zoo where the animals were that active before! You should have seen them swinging around..... just like you see in the movies, and then the noise they made.... it was so loud and fun! I had to shout just for the girls to hear me above the noise!
Later at the chimp exhibit we were watching three big chimps that were just sitting there peacefully when all of a sudden one of them ran towards us and banged on the glass. It was really LOUD and right in front of Addie's face (she was sitting in a stroller). I'm really surprised it didn't make her cry. My heart was definitely beating a little harder. We had a fun time.
Justin and the older girls went crab fishing again yesterday, (with nets this time) and caught 5 crabs. They put them all back though because none were big enough to eat. We heard if you go at night its better... we'll try that next time.

This morning we had a mini disaster and ended up not making it to church. About an hour before church started, Addalie found some purple nail polish in Haley's closet and somehow got it open. Haley found her first and by the time she got there, Addie had nail polish all over her right foot and splattered on the carpet!!! When I found out, I saw the carpet first and was trying really hard not to get mad or frustrated and then I saw Addalie's foot and all I could do was laugh. The whole thing was purple. It looked like it wasn't getting any blood or something. So, I had to go to the store to get some polish remover and something to try to get the stain out. It's most of the way faded out and Justin is going to use his mad carpet skills to try to cut out the rest. If all else fails, we can get a seaming iron and use the extra piece of carpet here to patch it up. I guess we're nearing the terrible twos or something.... we're always having to keep constant watch on Addie's cute little trouble hands.
Anyone had a success removing polish from carpet? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and probably needed sometime in the future. With all these girls its bound to happen again sooner or later, right?

Here to stay

Last night I asked the girls
"who likes Hawaii?" they all said "me!" and raised their hands, (including Addie).
Then I asked, "who's glad we came?" they all raised their hands and said "me!"
Then I asked, "who's ready to go back to Utah?"
It was dead silent. No one's ready yet. They all miss everyone, (Rachel was crying over missing Savhannah, Addie asks to call Shane) but no one wants to actually go back. That's good I guess since we're here to stay a while.
The girls are LOVING the library and have read over 50 books already! Unfortunately I've only read 1. Sad, but true. Not that I don't want to read more, but with 5 kids, someone is always interrupting or needing attention, (ahem.... ADDIE!)

We were at the Pearl Ridge mall, spending the girls birthday gift cards from Grandma, and saw some really cool lego sculptures. There was one of a huge spider, a life size dog, a swimmer, a rock climber, a full size man, and tons of others, they were really cool! The girls LOVED them. After walking around and checking them out, I bought the girls a chocolate covered gecko to eat... mmmmm. A couple of them were really worried that it was a real gecko!
The mall is split into two sections and has a little monorail type thing that connects them. It costs 50 cents a person to ride it one way. The girls begged to ride it and I thought it would be a fun, (cheap) way to please them and do something different. While on the ride over to the other side, we sat by a couple from Australia who also had 5 girls. The wife said her husband knew how to make boys, he just wouldn't tell her. They were here on a shopping trip for the 9th time. This is their favorite shopping destination. I asked where all the great shopping places are since we're new here and they told me they love the outlets at Waikele (which I had been to) and they also love... are you ready for this...... Walmart, Kmart, and Ross!!!!!!
I decided not to follow their shopping advice.
We also got to see Pearl Harbor from the roof of the mall (parking lot). Finally.... I've been trying to get a good glimpse of it but hadn't till now.

On Saturday we tried to go crabbing with Megan and Andy, but an orange Home Depot bucket and chicken legs weren't really the best traps so we're going to get a crab pod this weekend and try again. Free crab anyone??? Any good crab recipes???

The girls have been using the new snorkel gear, and floaties we got them..... we just need some more towels! There are never enough towels around when you swim so often!

Rain and Church and stuff

So we finally got that good Hawaiian rain we've been waiting for. It's dumped on us twice. The first time we were home and within just a couple minutes there was a river of water on the road outside, running down to the drain. The second time was on Sunday when we were about to have a BBQ at our friends house. That had to be moved indoors.
Speaking of Sunday, that was our first time to church here. I had found our church on mapquest and even seen the road it was supposed to be on so when sunday came, we weren't too concerned about finding it. Well.... we drove up and down the street twice and didn't see a church. I started wondering if it was in the grade school there or in some other building. By this time church was already starting. We decided to try one more time and this time we saw a church steeple peeking through some trees off to the side. We took a side road and finally saw it. When we got inside there was a member walking out of the chapel who let us know there were some open seats right up front!!! (OOOOOooooooo, yea! Right up front!)
We walked in and started going to the front. I could feel dozens of eyes starring at us. Picture this if you can..... a chapel full of dark hair, 15 minutes into the meeting, (LATE!), a group of 7 walks in. FIVE of them kids! ALL of those are GIRLS! ALL 7 are BLOND! (and I had to be wearing my heels that day.... what was I thinking???????) My first thought was "whoa, look at all the black hair!" My second was also "whoa!" when I looked up front and didn't see any caucasions sitting on the stand. That was a bit of a shock, I was just praying that Lilly didn't say anything about how "there are a lot of black and brown people here". I found out later that Justin was praying for the same thing. Its not that you don't expect it to be like that, its just crazy to see when you're used to a bunch of whities. I don't remember the last time the girls sat that still and that quiet during a sacrament meeting, I think they were a bit shocked too.
Because it was father's day, they gave candy leis to all the men and the bishopric had additional flower leis. That was pretty fun and came in useful for Justin when he had Addie in priesthood. When we seperated for classes, a group stayed in the chapel for a Samoan class and later relief society split into English and Samoan groups. I got out of most of relief society because the bishop wanted to sit down and talk to me and Justin just to get to know us. I was afraid I might get my primary calling on the first day.....next week maybe.
The girls were nervous to go but after church was over, they all said they liked it and had fun.
Church was only 2 1/2 hours because they are remodeling the building after some kids set fire to it a while ago. It's an old building so they probably needed an update anyway. Everyone was so nice and we met a ton of people, including Sister Brown who has homeschooled before and had some good info. I think I got kissed on the cheek about 3-4 times. (Definately an adjustment coming from an emotionally handicapped family) I didn't mind, it was just... different. Okay, maybe I even liked it.

Everyone gets a card

Yesterday, I had the girls all excited to go to the library. We got everyone ready and drove the 15 minutes down to Kapolei, just to find out it was closed for Kamehameha Day. Who knew??? Earlier that morning I had walked down the road to a newspaper vending machine thing so I could check out the paper and see if there were an activities going on for the holiday that the girls and I could go to. I was hoping for a parade or something. There wasn't even a word about it in the whole paper! So much for that, I think it was just an excuse for some of the businesses to close down and everyone to play for a day..... the lagoons we like to go to were CROWDED! We ended up at a friends pool for the afternoon, which made for easier clean up. (NO SAND!)



The girls saw some webkinz in the window of a shop called Bundles of Aloha (a baby botique) and after quite a lot of jibber jabber about it I finally told Lilly that I'd take her today to get one. I thought that would make her shush up about it for a few minutes but all it did was bring on a load of questions..... "when we wake up, can we go get the webkinz?..... are we going there first tomorrow?....... After I get my webkinz, can I play webkinz on the computer?......"

I thought if I heard the word webkinz one more time, I might drown myself in the ocean! I finally just told her if she asked me about it anymore, we wouldn't go until Friday.... that worked.

Until this morning. As soon as everyone was up, Lilly asked if it was time to go. (It was only 7am.)

Finally we were all ready to go and it was a reasonable time. Since the whole purpose of driving that way was to go to the library, we stopped there first. The library was fantastic! It is the youngest library in Hawaii and we found out from the librarian that all the libraries here are connected so we can borrow books from one library and return at a totally different one! That was cool.... not only that but we can use our cards at any of them too! I love that! I was actually a little worried that they wouldn't give us cards because we live in Waianae and the library was in Kapolei. Yeah! I had to fill out five applications, one for each of us, and when I took it up to the counter the lady said "all of you?" But she said it with a smile instead of the normal shock of seeing a family with 5 kids. She asked how long we had lived here and when I told her not quite two weeks yet, she smiled even more and said, "and the library's one of the first places you visit... that's wonderful!" After getting our cards, we signed up for the summer reading program that just started and only lasts 5 weeks- since there's year round school here. The girls get weekly prizes for reading and are pretty excited about it.

I told the girls that one of the books they check out has to be on something they want to learn more about. Bella got a book about dolphins, Lilly picked a book on all kinds of sea life, Rachel picked sea turtles and Haley picked Egyptions. (Way to be different!) I tried to pull a Karen Marshall and just grabbed a bunch of books, hopefully I find one in the bunch that I like. (I like that method, Karen, it was fun!) When we checked out the books we were helped by the same librarian that gave us the cards and she just smiled the whole time. I think she was really impressed by the girls book choices and that they were excited to read and have their own library cards.

When we left, to our surprise, it was raining!!! A real rain! We've only had a few drops on a couple different days but it was really raining! The one thing I noticed is that no one was running in from the rain, they all just walk around like they almost don't notice it. Once we were outside, I realized why. It felt lighter and mistier than it looked and it was warm rain, just like Justin said. I was a little dissapointed because I've been hoping for the Hawaiian down pour where it drops buckets in just a few minutes and then its sunny again. Maybe next time.



After the library we FINALLY went to get Lilly her webkinz. She picked a pink and white cat (no surprise) and named it strawberry. They were doing a buy one get one half off sale so, since she had extra money, she decided to get one for Bella too. She picked her a tiger. Bella was so super excited and I think a little shocked that Lilly did that for her- she named the tiger, Fudge.

Needless to say, as soon as we got home, the girls headed straight for the computer. If I hadn't given them a 30 minute computer time limit/day, they'd still be on it right now, I'm sure- instead, their reading their new library books!!!

Time flies

The last few months have gone by so fast and we've packed a ton of stuff into no time at all. With Justin being out of town a lot over the last year, we wanted to do a family vacation and spend some time together. We planned a fun trip to Disneyland, originally for the week of Haley and Rachel's birthdays but once our life changed because of our move, we had to reschedule for March, the week of Isabelle's birthday. Mindy and Jared came along with their kids and we were so glad they did.... it was great time with the cousins before we had to move.
When we were planning the trip we realized Justin hadn't used his Tom Petty race car experience yet and it was going to expire in August. We decided he better use it and scheduled that for the same week as the Disneyland trip- since we were going that direction anyway (it was in Vegas). We were gone from Sunday to Sunday- a crazy, busy, long vacation!

Haley and Rachel decided they wanted to do one last birthday party with their cousins before we left so we invited all the girl cousins (around their age) from both sides of the family. I think their was around 11 girls there....... it was a BLAST!!! We had pizza and played a couple games including decorating cupcakes and the skittles game where you try to suck skittles up onto the end of a straw and deposit them in your own cup before someone rolls doubles and its their turn. The object: to get as many skittles as possible because in the end you get to eat them all! We also watched GAMEPLAN and played a get to know you game so the cousins from each side could meet each other. I was a little worried about someone getting left out or their feelings hurt but as far as I could tell, everyone got along great! It really was a great time! The only problem came when I was watching the girls together and realized that would be one of the last times for a long time that we would all be together like that. I had to focus on Madelyn's infectious laugh in order not to let them see me sad.
Justin was gone to Hawaii for the whole month of April, working hard and saving their backs once again. The girls and I packed up the house and finished last minute things before we had to be out on May 13th. After that, for a week we stayed at Allyson and Dustin's for a week and watched their kids while they went to London. The girls had a great time there too especially Bella who loved spending time with Kate. The highlight that week for all of them, I think, was when the ice cream truck came by and Justin bought them all a treat. Despite all the fun I think Kate and Bree were glad to see us go.
Our last ten days were spent at Shelley and Chad's (best hosts EVER!) Shelley made cinnamon rolls with the girls, bought chips "just for Justin" and provided super good food that we needed in those last few crazy days. But best of all she provided me with more time with her.... I miss you Shelley! I told her we should have been roommates. (But then again, maybe not. Its only been the last few years that we've really been good friends). The only thing I regret about staying there is not being able to clean her bathroom before we left and "de-marshallizing" (she knows what that means.)
During those last few days we also had FANTASTIC family parties with the Marshalls and Wrays. We had a BBQ with the Marshalls at Mindys and played games at the park. It was perfect except that Rob couldn't make it! (We missed you!). We had a great planned out Luau put on by the Wrays where we got to have Mahi Mahi, relay races and show the girls what a coconut is like on the inside... they even got to try it.
The night before we left I spent time with my family in the temple and Justin took the girls to spend one last night with Nana. We both wished we could have been both places but felt like we were where we needed to be. The only thing I wish I could change was that I didn't get to say goodbye to my FABULOUS in-laws, (no I'm not being sarcastic or trying to brown nose, they truely are the best!)
Friday morning came quick. Shelley got up early and made us really good pancakes (Amy's recipe- thanks!) and Allyson surprised us by coming to say goodbye and bringing doughnuts! Sometimes you guys are too much! Even Mike showed up to say good-bye since he wasn't able to come to the temple the night before. Abby and Jeff came to help the emotions stay at bay (my request) and to help my parents drive us to the airport.

Now were here and it seems like we always have been. Its crazy how easily you can slip into a new life. I hope you like the pictures I've posted. I thought I should do something other than the beach and Hawaii since thats all I might have for a while.
I keep checking airplane ticket prices for you all..... So far they're still around $650. I'm crossing my fingers they come down so you can all come visit! We love you!

A little too much fun????

I don't know if its legal to have this much fun!
Several of you have told me I need to set up a blog, so guess what???? I did it and didn't need any help!!! I am so proud of myself, afterall it wasn't that long ago that I needed help to cut and paste!
I'm posting some pictures of what we've done so far. Obviously most of them are the beach because that's about what we do everyday. Anyone feeling sorry for us??? I actually feel bad for Justin who works 30 feet from the beach sometimes and can't stop to play. He's really looking forward to this weekend. We're going to try to go on a short hike and to the beach.... AGAIN! (Yes, Mom, we're using sunscreen... everytime... lots of it!) Thanks again to you Wray ladies who helped put together beach bags for the girls. The 5 bottles of sunscreen are about half gone already!
I think we'll also work on our backyard a little more. Haley and I have pulled all the weeds including three cherry tomato plants that were out of control. We originally wanted to save one of them but after trying to make sense of it, we decided it wa too big of a mess and just ripped it out. We want to plant a small garden and then HAWAIIAN BEAUTIFY the rest! I can't wait. The front of the yard actually looks really nice because its been maintained by the association here but the back and side yard were all weeds.
We'll also be making a Cosco trip soon... hopefully it will save us money compared to Safeway. We're crossing our fingers!
We havn't seen any banana trees yet, the girls keep looking. But we've seen coconut and something that is either mango or papaya... I'll need Dad to come visit so he can tell us whats what. We've seen the pineapple plantation but we'll wait to go there until one of you comes to visit. We've also seen some black swans and some military jets. Those were both really cool!
We still havn't been over to Honolulu or Waikiki or Diamond Head..... we have to save something for later, right? Actually we'll be returning our rental van tonight at the airport... maybe we'll check out Honolulu while we're there.
We miss you all and hope summer break is full of lots of great plans! (including visiting us!)