And the luau!

Let me just say that a trip to Hawaii is not complete without a luau, and I think we went to the best one possible. Kristopher's friend Kapena hooked us up - and it was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!!! Here are the highlights:

right when we arrived at the place we got treated like VIPs - leis around our necks and private photos with the performers. This dude had some rad Samoan tattoos on his body all underneath his garment here. Kristopher was especially freaked out by his belly button tat!


We did some crafts, like learning how to do traditional Hawaiian weaving techniques.


My finished woven crown!


Kris and Mel's!


Then we did some good old fashioned spear throwing. WOOHOO! Kapena was a crazy spear throwing fool!


And of course, it was tattoo time for the boys. First Kapena got one on his face, then Kristopher. By the end of the night these guys had started a trend - and you could see face tats all over the place!


And of course we girls wanted one too! Actually I just wanted that cute muscular Hawaiian boy to rub oil on my arm and draw pictures on me ;)


Aren't we so tough? LOL


It was finally Rick's turn...


And the boys... all done! hee hee!


The sun set on the horizon and we heard the sound of a conch being blown, which signalled us to the amphitheater where we were told the tradition of the luau and the kinds of foods we would be eating tonight.


And then a couple of very strong men took the pig that had been roasting out of the ground!


After that, dinner was served - we went to our table where we found these little plates awaiting us. Dessert was first! Pineapple, coconut cake, and a square of a sort of coconut-jello-ish thing that I can't remember the name of... Melissa does, though. Ask her.


Our salad course - with a raw salmon ceviche sort of thing on the side. I really liked the salmon. The salad wasn't anything spectacular though.


Bread! Made with taro root so it's purple! Awesome!!


We were in a rad VIP eating area (THANK YOU KAPENA!!) and got to have a personal visit with the Girl With The Coconut Bra Which Plays The Queen :)


And also The Cute Tattooed Boy That We Met Earlier Who Plays The King!


Finally it was time for dinner - pulled pork (MMMMM), a chicken wing, fish, green veggies, and THE MOST AWESOME RICE EVER. Sticky, flavorful... I had like 3 helpings of the rice!


Then the boys went up with 98 other people to learn the Hukilau. They even got certificates for graduating their "Accelerated Learning Course in Hula" haha


This was when Kristopher had already consumed several crazy drinks, including this one - called "The Slimer". Of course here he had taken a coffee that was on the table and had added it to the drink for what he called "extra flavor". Um. OK.


Me? I had plenty... plenty of Mai Tais. I think this was #5.


After dinner - the show! It was a beautifully entertaining piece with several dance numbers and costume changes. I was getting accused of only wanting to take pictures of the cute Hawaiian boys, so this one is evidence that I also took photos of the girl dancers!!


Boy With Tattoos was also the Samoan Fire Dancer! WOOHOO!! This part of the show was phenomenal!


It was an amazing night that not even the random rainshower could dampen. Rick and Kristopher drank too much (again!), so of course they were paying for it the next morning. Melissa drove us back to our hotel (which was literally blocks from this cove) and we got our swimsuits on and went in the hot tubs. The boys liked scaring people with their tattoo faces. They were like total 9 year olds! We were *so* not ready to have to leave this place tomorrow.

Day 2 part one...

Aaaah. After a lovely morning which involved sleeping in, we met in Kris and Mel's room for breakfast of french toast and bacon.

Only these are electric stoves and, well, we had a bit of trouble cooking the bacon.

Here's Mel trying to fan the smoke so we don't set of the smoke alarm :)

And Rick is setting the table. Mimosas, anyone?

After breakfast, we decided to go out to the cove to play cards and hang out. Only we didn't want to be in the sun, so we decided to go on the hill instead of the beach. Once we got there, it was windier than we anticipated, so we just fooled around with the camera for awhile until heading back inside for a rousing game of canasta!

Up next... the evening luau!! :) :)

Day 1 - that evening

Rick and I on our beach at the Marriott... we rented a cabana for the afternoon and took naps in it and just chilled. It was awesome! I read all sorts of fun stuff like People and Entertainment Weekly... brain fluff. Gotta love it!

For dinner we went the new restaurant on property called Chuck's. The boys shared a bottle of red wine while Mel & I had champagne. We had a table that overlooked the luau the resort was having, which was cool - tomorrow night we will go to our own luau! YAY!

The salad - a yummy all you can eat salad bar with fresh baked bread and really great soup.

I chose the seafood sampler platter - mmmm!!

After dinner, the boys ordered a Drambuie for each of them. Keep in mind, they had already shared a bottle of wine. You can only imagine...

Kristopher was having all sorts of fun with the spoon toward the end of the night,

And he insisted that I take this photo of his "butt". Here ya go Kristopher. Sigh.

More later! :)

Hawaii, day one, part one - in pictures :)

Our trip to Hawaii began late, late Wednesday night. We arrived at the airport around midnight Thursday morning for our 3 a.m. flight - and Kristopher promptly found a nice place to take a nap.


Melissa and I spent our time watching Grey's Anatomy on DVD (I have officially started watching... episode 1 season 1! WOOHOO!), playing cards, and listening to her iPOD. Here we are bringing SexyBack. heh.


For the most part, we slept on the plane. Direct flights are definitely the way to go. When we arrived in Honolulu, we got our rental car and then proceeded to Waikiki to visit with a church friend, Chuck Davison. He treated us to a lovely oceanfront breakfast buffet at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.


The food was AMAZING - and soooo fresh! The perfect way to start our trip. This was an awesome omelet made right before my eyes. They also had fresh mini belgian waffles, a smoothie station, and all the yummylicious pastries you can imagine.


Chuck was an awesome host to us - he showed us the suite at the Sheraton Waikiki he had, and generously offered to let us stay in the room for free! The suite had 2 rooms and 2 beds, so it would be perfect. Right on the 15th floor, overlooking the ocean. He was leaving the next night, so we could totally use it for the last 2 days of our trip! What an awesome blessing for us! We were stoked to know we could come back to this place in a couple days.

Afterward, we went to the place we were staying for the first two nights - the Mariott Ko Olina Beach Resort. Our friend Kapena hooked us up with a couple of rooms there. He used to livein Vegas but recently moved back to Hawaii and works at a sister property to this place, and got us the employee rate. We didn't know at all what to expect from this resort, and we were perfectly happy with the Waikiki Sheraton. In fact, we were considering just staying in Waikiki since we knew that place was cool.

That was until we saw this resort. OH MY WORD.
This place was freaking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

Our room (Kris & Mel had an identical one down the hall):

As you enter... there is actually a foyer! Marble floors, granite countertops, crown moulding. OH AND DO YOU SEE THE CHANDELIER??? And this is just the beginning...

The fully-stocked kitchen to the right. Hardwood floors, maple cabinets, full appliances, dishwasher, full fridge - and behind a cabinet on the right (not shown), a stacked washer and dryer (!!!!)

Looking left from the entry - the bathroom. That shower was freaking AWESOME. HUGE. And major water pressure! And look at the cool wall sconces! And marble floors!

The living and dining room areas... the couch is actually a fold-out bed too! Seriously though I cannot get over the chandelier!

There is a sitting room to the left. The slider led out to our Lanai... we were on the 4th floor. It was so nice to go out there and just relax. :)

On the balcony :)

And here was our view! The beach was just beyond the pool.

The sitting room - the perfect place to curl up with a good book! The bedroom is just off to the left of this room.

Looking into the bedroom... these cool sliding shutter doors closed it off and completely darkened it when we wanted to sleep.

The gorgeous bedroom! The shutters you see there open up to the bathtub, just on the other side. There is a huge closet on the left, right through the first doorway there, and you can see the bathroom (also accessible from the foyer) in the back.

The tub!! It was HUGE!! And DEEP! And it filled up in no time flat!! Did I mention this place has amazing water pressure? LOL! It was so cool to be able to peek out the tub into the bedroom and then out the window :)

You can see why we just did.not.want.to.ever.leave!!!!!!

More photos later - what we did on Thursday, and the dinner that night... :)

Sigh.

Sunsets in Las Vegas are just not the same.

More later - I want to recap the trip in photos and I will do it a bit at a time :)

Something's missing...

But I can't put my foot on it. Maybe you can help me figure it out??

(oh yeah... and 8 hours till I leave for Hawaii! The bags are all packed! My clothes *did* arrive! All is good and happy and fabulous and wonderful!!! yay yay yay yay yay! I'll be back on Tuesday!)

26 hours!

TWENTY SIX HOURS and I will be on a plane to Hawaii!! I cannot believe it! I am up right now, packing, writing lists, and organizing last minute things so I don't forget anything. Making sure all is arranged and ready with the kids and the house and the dogs... checking that the bills will be paid while I am gone... etc etc etc etc etc....

I had bought a bunch of sassy cute new clothes from ModBe for the trip - and they haven't arrived yet! They were supposed to be in last week, but because of their big sale (every piece was only $5), things got backed up. But according to UPS, the package will be in by 6pm tomorrow evening! YAY! Nothing like cutting it waaaay close. Hopefully the clothes fit. LOL!

I.AM.SO.EXCITED.I.CAN.HARDLY.STAND.IT!!!!!!!

charging camera battery right now!!! wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

LOTS of children.

I am babysitting my friend Erin's kids this weekend, so she & her hubby can get away, and also to prepay her back for watching my kiddos next weekend while Rick and I are in Hawaii. So since Thursday and till tomorrow I have 5 children under my roof.

In an attempt to wear them out, I took them to Red Rock Canyon for a hike and a picnic. They loved climbing all over the rocks... and of course they had no fear! We went to Calico #2 first and Lost Creek after that. No waterfall... sigh. But it was still fabulous - the weather was absolutely perfect and we really had a great time!

Here are the Rock Stars... ;)

THEY ARE HERE!!

My canvases have arrived!! Oh my GOODNESS they are awesome!! :) :)


Riley loved that his head was bigger than he was!


A side view...


Another look at the sheer size of them compared to my little dude...


And, finally - the view as you walk in the front door!
The smallest canvas is 16x20 and the largest is 20x30! WOWEE!

Conceding defeat.

Although this is a super bowl-related post, this is not about the super bowl. Cause I knew the Colts would win ;).

This year we decided to go low key. No going to parties or hosting parties. Just us and Liane & Carl. A non-party gathering at our house. Then we got a call from our friend Kristopher who didn't want to go to a party either. So we said he & his fam could come to our non-party gathering, which was turning out to be more party-like than we anticipated, but our friends are totally cool & low-key, too, so we knew it was all good.

Then Rick decided he wanted to move the TV downstairs. Yeah. The new one. And the TiVO. Sigh. I fought him tooth and nail. I didn't want the big TV taking over the downstairs. I liked it being more of a family room and less of a TV room.

Unfortunately I have to admit that it looks really good up there. Really good. And the smaller TV isn't so bad up here. It's not the best, but really it's fine. I think I will miss the TiVO the most.

So here I am, conceding defeat.
and possibly saying that Rick was right. For once. but don't tell him ;)

Let's face it.

Nothing's better than a sock monkey dress.

Quotable

After my son burped the other day:

"Mom, I farted in my throat."

Words of advice...

As a mom I realize that I am in a unique position to offer sage words of advice that will mold and shape my children into the citizens they will become. And nothing is sager than the advice I offered my son the other day:

"Riley, don't bark like a dog when you are excited. It just doesn't make sense."

Someday, when I am old - or maybe dead - quotes such as these will be attributed to me in a compliation book. I am sure it will be a bestseller. :)