November- A visit from Grandma & Grandpa and Coen Gets Baptized!

I was starting on a blog post for November and I had WAY to many pictures, so I'm splitting it in half. 

My parents arrived on Friday November 3. That morning I had a medical appointment in downtown Honolulu so I drove there in the morning and then got Chick Fil-A for lunch (I hadn't had it in months!). I ate my lunch at the beach nearby and just had some me time. Then I went to a library and worked until it was time to pick up my parents. 

I picked up my parents, and then we had to take advantage of being in town, and we stopped at Costco and Walmart for groceries. Then home for a late dinner, where the kids were excitedly waiting Grama and grandpa. 

The next morning we went to the North Shore and checked out Waimea Bay. We had thought maybe we could snorkel there, but no! In the summer the bay is super calm and you can snorkel, and in the winter it turns into a washing machine, and churns the water and creates super high waves. We were now to high wave season. We stood in awe of the waves, and then headed over to Shark's cove.

My parents brought snorkels so that the kids could learn. This was the perfect place- the rocks create a natural cove away from the waves, and there were TONS of different kinds of beautiful tropical fish. The water was shallow enough that Ava could stand up so I wasn't worried about letting her go off on her own. She took right to snorkeling and loved it! We were cracking up when she was getting on her snorkel.

We had 3 snorkels, so while some of us snorkeled, the others played in the sand. In the background of this picture you can see how shallow the water was. Just wading through the water, you could see quite a few fish, but when you went under with the snorkel to swim with them, you realized there were SO many more fish! It was a spectacular experience!

That evening we went to Food Fest at BYU-H, which is where students sell food from their different countries. Here we are with one of Brent's students at the Thai food station.

On Sunday after church I took my parents to a beach about 10 minutes south of us. We hadn't been to this one yet- there are so many to explore! We played a koosh badminton and Ava and Audrey had lots of fun playing in the water like always. 

Ava found this shell that she wanted to keep, but it was a little creature's house and I told her she couldn't evict it.

A video from the beach:

On Monday after school I had parent teacher conferences. Both kids are doing great. I'm proud of them for how quickly they adjusted- first day they just jumped right in. Afteward, we went to explore Kahuku and the old sugar mill area.

We got shave ice at Ange's behind our house. Brent was teaching all the day and it was nice to have my parents around for company!

Tuesday my parents went to the temple while everyone was at school and working, and then in the afternoon it was PCC day! 

Here's Audrey with the man who started the "shaka." This is one of Laie's claims to fame. The man who started the shaka was from this area. He lost his middle three fingers in a sugar mill accident, and so after he was given a new job as a security guard the mill. When he'd wave to people, he'd do the shaka, and the local kids started to imitate him and it spread from there.

My parents got us dinner from the PCC food trucks and then got the kids McDonalds, and we went back to their Marriott hotel for a bit. My parents stayed with us on the two weekends they were here, and then at the Marriott during the school week in the middle. 

We enjoyed the night show at the PCC- it's so impressive!

On Wednesday after school, we went to Turtle Bay. We were surprised to see the waves were bigger and the tide was lower, so our favorite swimming pond looked so different! The kids still had fun and it was beautiful.

Thursday my parents went to Haleiwa, which is a fun touristy surfing town on the North Shore. The rest of us had a bit of a normal school day. Here I am dropping Brent off for his Thursday temple service. 

My parents took the kids swimming at their pool and I had a few moments to myself! After dropping Brent at the temple, I decided I would enjoy temple beach since it was sunset time. 

My mom's picture from the Marriott pool:

Coen played basketball with Grandpa:

On Friday morning we went to the Marriott where we learned the hula and how to make ti leaf leis. I really enjoyed learning the hula- I love how it is so slow and peaceful, almost like yoga. Here we are twisting the leaves to create a rope:

Oh, and we had a ukulele lesson:

With our finished leis:

After this, we picked up Brent and headed south to likelike falls. The mountains in this area are just gorgeous!

The waterfall wasn't super impressive, but it was still a beautiful hike around the mountainous area.

After our hike we went to the National Memorial Cemetery, which is set inside of the Punchbowl crater.  There was a beautiful rainbow when we arrived! 

Besides the veterans that are buried here, the cemetery honors 18,000 missing American soldiers from WWII and 8,000 from the Korean war. I looked up a few names (so handy to have google on your phone now!) and read the stories of a couple soldiers whose names I saw on the wall. So sad. It's amazing to me what these men and women went through, and how awful war is.

Here are the kids each pointing to the state where they were born. Each soldier's information included their rank, where they were from, and the approximate date they went missing.

So many walls of names.

This quote from Lincoln to a mother who lost 5 sons in the civil war: "The solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of Freedom."

Saturday was Coen's baptism day, right on his birthday!  A couple weeks before I took Coen to the beach to take some pictures for his baptism. He loved having all my attention and was smiling so big. Here are my favorites:

At 8 years old, Coen is a bit of an old soul. He still believes in following all the rules and can be quite the tattle tale if his sisters are doing anything even slightly off. 

Coen loves to read and reads pretty advanced books for his age, like Lord of the Rings, and a biography on Tolkien. Coen seems to be really good at most anything he tries. He's the best little basketball player and is excited to be starting his second season. He started taking piano from my mom over Facetime just a couple weeks ago and seems to have a lot of talent with music. His singing voice is so sweet and pure and he can hit the high notes right on pitch.

Coen can be so whiney and has zero pain tolerance, so he's constantly screaming in pain from Ava's punches and slaps. Those two are the best of frenemies. 

Coen is crazy smart and memorizes things very easily like Brent. Brent taught him when each of the Disney movies came out and also all of the Dreamworks movies, and Coen memorized them in an afternoon, and still knows them months later. 

Coen is so non-dramatic compared to his sisters and can be so sweet with Audrey. If he's not in the mood to be nice though, they can fight like cats and dogs.  He's as much of a peacemaker as our family has :) He has the sweetest heart and sometimes I watch him interact with all of the girls in his life thinking, he's going to be a great husband one day.

Even though Coen can be a mini-man and so mature, he still loves "mommy" and likes to hold my hand when we walk. We sure love our Coen and are so grateful to have this amazing boy in our family!

Here's his baptism invite we sent people. His baptism was at 9:30 in the morning. 

We had permission from our ward to do it on a non-stake baptism day so that my parents could be here. I created the program, with Coen choosing who would do the talks, etc. 

I gave a talk on baptism and Grandpa gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Coen sang a solo, "I Like to Look for Rainbows." We had family and friends join via zoom.

I love the tradition of everyone bringing leis for special occaisions.

The bishopric members (Bishop Uluave is on the right).

It was a beautiful baptism and everything went smoothly (except for a hiccup getting zoom up and going at the beginning). The sprit was there, and Coen said he wanted to get baptized 100 more times. Brent told him that he'll be able to go to baptisms for people who have died in the temple.

After the baptism we came home and Coen opened his birthday presents, and then we set off for our adventures. We stopped at a beach on the north shore because sea turtles were out! Here's the lucky birthday boy with a sea turtle behind him. This one was just resting in the sun, but we saw a few more swimming in the waves.

We decided to stop at the Dole planation for lunch. The food was really good! 

I had been wanting to take my parents to the botanical garden in Wahiawa so we did that next. It's so beautiful and peaceful there.

This rainbow eucalyptus tree is awesome!

Then around sunset time we made it to our destination, which was the Aulani (the Disney resort). It was beautiful, but we were all a bit disappointed that it wasn't more "Disney." We were picturing Mickey Mouse shaped trees and swimming pools, and just for it to look a bit more like DisneyLand. Instead, it looked like a beautiful regular Hawaiian resort. 

We did find a Disney store inside and my parents bought us a couple things to validate some of the crazy expensive parking.

It was beautiful, but we decided we didn't need to splurge to come back and stay. The beach across the street from our house is just as beautiful!

That evening when we got home we decided to get Coen a shave ice for his birthday cake. I can't remember exactly what happened besides the fact that it was Coen's birthday, but Ava was having a rough time, so she didn't get to go pick it up. Ava has had some really big, rough emotions. 

Here's Coen blowing out his trick candle:

Brent woke up really early so he went on a walk along the beach and took this picture:

These pictures are a little out of order, but here we have Sunday evening at "the point" which is the point of land in Laie that sticks out into the ocean. Most of our ward lives on the point. If you drive and park at the end, you can see beautiful views, and an arch. It was super windy this evening! Here's my dad blowing away:

See the arch behind Ava?

Oh the wind!

Sorry, had to include so many pictures because the ocean was just looking so beautiful and mysterious! It is interesting living so near the ocean, how it can look so different every day. In the summer months when it was not as windy, it was so smooth, and bright turquoise. In the winter, there are so many white caps. And then every day between, the shade of blue/turquoise can vary.

I took some pictures of Audrey at Brent's campus after church. I wanted pictures to hang up in our living room so that it feels more home-y! Here are the best ones I got of Audrey, who by the way, has become such a carefree barefoot running Hawaiian girl.

On Sunday we also went to visit a friend, Spencer Taggart, that we knew when we lived in the Philippines. Spencer and I ran into each other at Costco my third day here, and we did a double take at each other and said, "wait... I know you..." Spencer and his wife work with Brent at the temple on Thursday evenings! Spencer wanted to see my parents so we drove out to their house, which is about 15 minutes from us. They live up in the hills on a beautiful property where they've planted fruit trees, vegetables, and many tropical plants. Here's Spencer taking my parents on a tour:

The view from their upstairs- you can see the ocean out there, and the kids in the yard below. The kids loved playing with their bunnies.

We had a fun visit!

We walked around the temple on our way back- a great Sunday activity!

The kids love to color pictures when they go to Brent's office. Audrey is such a good little artist and stays in the lines- check out her coloring job below:

On Monday I drove my parents to the airport- they were here for 10 days. It was fun for them to be here and break up the monotony of school and work with lots of tourist activities. Right around the time they were here, I started noticing I was feeling better and having more energy. I switched my iron pills and was kicking anemia to the curb! I really didn't want to do iron infusions at the hospital, so I tried hard to remember my iron every day and eat iron rich food. 

 The ocean looked so beautiful as I drove home from the airport!

After work, I took Coen's class a birthday treat. The otter pops were a hit as all the kids were hot and sweaty coming in from recess!

Here's Coen being the center of attention as the class plays a guessing game. He's fairly shy, but I could tell he was really enjoying it.

Then, we were off to a doctor appointment for Ava (while Brent watched Coen and Audrey in his office), and then an optometrist appointment for the older two. They both got performance glasses for reading and computer. 

And that concludes the first part of November- phew!