Jace's new baby... (grand)

It's been a dream of my very talented, musical SIL to have her very own baby grand piano. So when the opportunity arose and a friend of a relative was giving one away for FREE, she was overwhelmed with joy. The joke in the family now is that it's Jace's new baby. My mom-in-law hired a man to tune the piano, but that it!

Below is the process of moving the baby grand in. I am proud to say that even though I was the smallest one, it was my legs that pushed the piano out of the trunk. I'm sure a lot had to do with the angle of the push and the fact that Aaron's cousin Baba stood behind me to give me something to push against.
Elise and Elijah immersed themselves in the task of polishing the wood. They did a fine job!

They polished every surface...
and then we attached the legs to the piano.

Here's the brawn. Aaron and his good friend, Gavin and cousin, Baba (in the yellow shirt), Aaron's dad, Jace and me all flipped the baby over. (Aaron and Gavin just finished playing some basketball.)

And the finished product!

We are now blessed by the musical talents of Jace and Aaron quite often. Aaron, has a beautiful voice and Jace plays jazz, classical, contemporary - you name it. She's a gifted improv artist and sight reads music really well.

Sweet & Silly Sayings

I don't know about your kids, but our kids' prayers turn into kind of travelogues. Elijah always starts out, "Heavenly Father... Daddy come home. Mommy stay here, with us..." and tonight he added "Elise go on adventure (but it sounded like ab-benture)."

Lately, Elise is much more expressive in her prayers. It's humorous to hear what she comes up with, although I wonder if she knows what she is saying... Recently she's prayed, "We're so grateful to pray and to listen and listen to pray." During FHE, "We're so grateful to pray about Jesus with all of our friends..." and tonight before dinner, she prayed after much rambling, " to make good choices."

One night before bed I told Elijah I loved him. It's not what he said so much as how he said it. Matter-of-factly, he exclaimed brightly, "That's right! You love me. And you love Elise!" Whew, I got that one right! He still has an adorable little lisp.

When we sing songs before bed, I like to hear the kids' version of songs... At the end of 'I love to see the Temple' Elise used to sweetly sing, "my sleeping beauty" instead of "my sacred duty." After much coaching she's evolved into saying, "my sleeping duty." Ah well, we're getting there. : )

Kona Hawaii Temple

Getting to the Kona Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes about a 2 hour drive one way but I can't complain - at least there is one on the Big Island. The grounds are simply beautiful! I think I may have found a couple willing to make the drive with us and do a babysitting swap/picnic sometime. As you can see we got up so early for this trip that Elise never got out of her pajamas...

1st day at Pre-School & 1st Haircut

On her first day of pre-school at Haili Christian, Elise was really excited. She smiled with Gramma Lynette and Elijah pre-haircut. As you can see, Elijah can't wait to go school too! Elise and her wonderful teacher, "Aunty" Pam. Right now they are practicing writing letters and numbers and learning phonetics. She also teaches the kids songs about Jesus. Before bed the other night, Elise said, "Let me teach you a song about Jesus." Then she sang all the lyrics to: "Jesus loves me yes I know for the bible tells me so." I know that song, but I've never sang that with her for some reason.

Elise immediately started playing and making new friends. I felt kind of lost because she was so at ease in her new classroom. Joyschool must have prepared her for this.

So while Elise was at school, we took Elijah to get his first professional haircut with Daddy. I think they look so handsome! When we picked Elise up from school, we all went out to eat to celebrate since they released the kids early on the first day. Normally she goes from 8 to 2:15 every day. She loves it! I hope to get Elijah invovled with "Keiki Steps" a free pre-school program for toddlers and their parents soon...

Little fishes

Soon after arriving here in Hawaii, Elise learned how to swim! Elijah can also swim shorter distances. They are such little fishes! It's great to have a pool in the backyard, especially when it's so humid outside. The kids went from being buoyed up like this:

To holding their breath under water, treading, getting more air and swimming quite far. These pictures were taken in Maui with an underwater camera my dad bought.
Elijah thinks he can do everything Elise does, which can be a little dangerous at times, but he's doing really good and is so independent.

Here are some of Elise's idols and new playmates - her second cousins, Keisha and Ka`anela.

Here's Aaron's lovely sister, hamming it up for the camera.

Sorry about this video, the shutter was stuck, so there is a very small window to see the kids do their tricks.

Coming home

Yesterday a good friend sent me an email entitled, "Are you still there?" It made me laugh. I hadn't realized that I hadn't blogged in a whole month! Wow, I'm such a slacker. Thanks for inspiring me to get posting again, Trina!

Elise often describes her memories from when we were "in Silver Spring Maryland" but she already needs prompting with remembering some people's names, which makes me sad. Before we left, while we were packing, we turned around to find the kids had made a makeshift table out of boxes and carseats.

Our kids are at an age where it's not exactly a nightmare to travel (still not a piece of cake) - having their own seats seemed to help! Both of them fell asleep just fine and had a lot of fun playing with their new water paint brushes and re-usable tablets. Elijah did get yelled at for kicking a guy's chair when I wasn't paying attention, but the trip was otherwise (thankfully) uneventful.

When we arrived in Hilo, we walked down to baggage claim and were greeted by Aaron's dad and sister holding a big welcome home banner... So sweet and thoughtful!

We had a wonderful, joyful reunion with the Auna Ohana.

It's good to be back. : )

Our last suppers with...

The Palmer and Chinh Ohanas! So this will be my last post about the east coast, even though I could write a book about all the wonderful people we met out on the east. But it's only fitting that I will end by writing about the Palmers, who always showered us with generosity & aloha and made us feel like we were in the islands,

and the Chinhs, who are such a wonderful family and they were still doing nice things for us up until the time we left the east. Gina kindly gave us a ride to the airport because we sold our Rodeo. She was always doing thoughtful things for us and I wish I could have reciprocated more! Gina is a dear friend - she inspires me to be a better person. She's such a dedicated mother; she's always teaching, learning and serving. She has so many creative talents, and is a fabulous cook. I love how assertive and articulate she is, and wish I could be more like that. She is very insightful and while she has strong convictions, she is very open- and fair-minded.

The night we got together with the Palmers, we our sides and cheeks hurt from laughing so much. Tua mimicked a Polynesian comedian's act he found on the internet and had us rolling! He's hilarious. We talked with him and Dana into the night, reminiced about our childhoods (bottlecaps, garbage pail kids...) and Tua brought out his favorite childhood marbles... Nizhoni laid them out aritistically on the table and I had to take a picture! Of course, I also had to take pictures of the delicious food: bbq chicken, pasta salad, fresh fruit, Hawaiian sweet bread rolls, fresh green beans and onions, rice and chocolate cake... We miss you guys!!

Our night with the Chinhs was so nice and relaxing, full of sweet hugs between the kids. It was close to when we were leaving and didn't really have any food in our fridge so it was so nice to eat such delicious fish tacos. I love the way both Gina and Dana cook! Gina made us homemade peach ice cream - such a treat - with a white cake topped with coconut! Of course, I took a picture of that too. This is a tangent, but the reason I like to take pictures of food is because people work so hard to make something so delicious and pleasing to look at and then it is gone! I like to remember all that went into it. : ) I love all the sweet hugs!! We love and miss you guys!

Reminicing... Michelle & Damon

I'm nostalgic, but it seems so long ago when Damon, Elise, Ethan, and Ches were this little... (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the back of Ches' head! : ) I believe this was taken at Michelle's house when the kids were around 16 months, before Elijah was born. I can't write a post about them without reminicing.
I miss those round, baby faces. In this photo, Damon is around 2 and Elijah looks to be about 8 months.

The last time Elise and Damon got to hang out with each other, they came over for a swim in our pool.

Our three cuties warming up on the benches.

This is my absolute favorite of Damon. You just can not take a bad picture of this kid - seriously! He should famous, he is so photogenic and cute.

Michelle is so lovely and we adore her sweet new baby, Brixton. She is such a true, dear friend... always generous and thoughtful. Once when were all home sick from church with something, she stopped by with a plateful of delicious brownies and a card addressed to "Sweet, Sickly Aunas." It made us smile! She was always more than willing to watch my kids when I had an appointment or errands to run. Once she drove me to the temple twice when it was raining because I had forgotten my reccomend!

Michelle always makes laugh, she says things I wish I could say with tact and humor. She's is out-going and warm, and a best friend to so many people! I'm grateful for her and how she kept me sane while we were neighbors. I am so grateful that I could confide in Michelle all about the challenges I had with my kids, the joy I found in their development, and that we could encourage each other in our goals. I'm so grateful for the great memories of going to the Olive Garden, parks, pools, picnics and watching fun shows on my laptop. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Aaron and the kids floating on a sea of foam noodles.

Our free picnic dinner, courtesy of Summit Hills. : ) It was a fun way to say goodbye, and the kids really enjoyed seeing Damon one more time before we left. We love and miss you guys!

Catching Fireflies...

For Elise and Elijah, the wonder and excitement of catching lightening bugs never wore off. We loved chasing them and watching them glow in our hands. This had to be one our favorite experiences of our summers on the east coast....

Random Kensington pics & Slideshow

The great guys who moved our heavy sleeper sofa down 5 flights of stairs!
A most welcome surprise - the beautiful Fordham family. They dropped by and surprised us the night before we left! It was really sweet and thoughtful!

Sweaty Jackie and the lovely Young Women's Presidency. I admire these ladies so much and learned much from them. Rachel just had a baby in this picture and looks fabulous. The rest of us played basketball with the girls that night.

Annie is hilarious and makes me laugh - that's why I posted this picture. Ameri & her daughter are also kneeling on the ground. Brenna, Ari, Madeline, Becca, and Copeland are behind them.

Lovely Barbara was one of the women I had the great opportunity to visit teach.

The awesome Kensington Young Women.

Aaron and his good friend, Aric.

The rest of the pictures I took on the Sunday we left and when the Fordhams visited us the night before we left.

Kensington EQ activity...

How can you go wrong with a barbecue? We topped it off with firefly chasing.

Aaron and his friends from the Elder's Quorum. I know he has great respect for each of them, especially Adam, the one right next to him.
Sweet Camille and her daughter Eliza. We were delighted that her husband went to BYU Hawaii and that he and Aaron know each other.

Cute Asher and Elijah tangle up the tether ball.

I really like this picture of Ilsa and her friends, they are quite photogenic!

Emily and her family warmly welcomed us into the ward, and we are so grateful for their sincere kindness.

Brenna has such a gift with children! Our kids adored her.

We love Allison, Brad and their sweet family. They are so warm and down-to-earth. Also, they love our mutal friends the Tanigawas - how could we not love them?

Wheaton Carousel and Train

The week we left we met up with our cousins one last time at Wheaton Regional Park for a Carousel and Train ride. Coincidently, we had the happy chance of running into our sweet neighbors: Maricel, Mike, Katherine and Jacob. They are so wonderful!

Little Audrey is such a ham!

I hope the kids remember...

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Annika, Elise, Mark and Christopher. I took over 200 pictures at this playdate, but this is one of my favorite.)

A bright, gorgeous day for swimming with friends. We're grateful for all the people who planned these get togethers, and for Sue's generosity wih this particular playgroup activiity. It was one of our last chances to see everyone before we left the east. Sorry for posting so many pictures, but I really wanted to post at least one pic of everyone (in no particular order) because we love everyone so much....

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Annika & Elise. I loved catching these two in the midst of sweetly playing, unaware that anyone was watching.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Elijah, Mark and Christoper huddling for warmth. Elijah admires these guys so much and became their little shadow.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Sweet Hannah & Elise.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Happy, smiling Imani.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Lovely Gina & Anna.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Beautiful ladies: Sue & Tiana)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Elise & Elijah taking a little break to warm up.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Sunny Callie, Hannah & Madeline)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Pretty chicas: Tiana & Ellie)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Radiant friends: Elizabeth, Robyn & her cute son)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Delightful Allie & Will)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Classy and talented: Mary, Callie & Madeline)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Cheerful Abby.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Flavorful fish tacos.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(Three amigas: Taylor, Hannah & Elise. It was so heartwarming to watch their imagination at work as they scooped up tiny, sleeping water babies and placed them on a kickboard bed.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(I love this action picture of Andrew.)

From Swimming Playgroup w/ Sue

(A floating peaceful Ches and sister in the background.)

DC 4th of July & Night Hike w/ Kat

For our last fourth of July, we spent it down on the DC Mall. Yes, we are a little bit crazy to make the trek downtown & stake out a spot for hours with little ones - but it was a beautiful day, overcast and not too hot. We are grateful that we decided to go. We met up with our beautiful friend, Kat who lives in Orlando, Florida. We had the best time with her, she is such an uplifting and inspiring person to be with. We really love her and her sisters, Debs & Erika!

Independence Day is a huge celebration in DC with Smithsonian cultural exhibits. This year they had Welsh (Cymru) booths featuring cultural food, crafts, & music. It was great fun walking around & observing the storytelling, cooking, planting traditions of the Welsh culture.

Around 8:30pm, Elise asked me for a hot dog. I figured that was plenty of time to get one vefore the firework show. So Kat and I took the kids and waited in line. As the fireworks started we were 1 person away from ordering so we stuck it out, shuffled with our food through the masses and plopped down on our blanket. I quickly took some pictures and within 30 seconds, the show ended. Crazy! Good thing Kat has such a laid-back personality! We just laughed about it. The kids conked out right after the fireworks' show, which made our night walk amongst the monuments really peaceful. : )

Reflection of the Washinton Monument in a pond on our way to the Lincoln Memorial.

Aaron kneels in front of the Vietnam Memorial. I like how you can see the Washington Monument faintly reflected on the Wall.

The beautifully pillared Lincoln Memorial.

Where do we start?

We have a lot of catching up to do, so I think we'll just pick up where we left off... somewhere in the middle of July!
We really miss our cousins out in the east... Before we left we did a wonderful 4 day babysitting swap with them. They went to a relaxing beach in Virginia, and we went to New York. We are so grateful for them for lovingly watching our kids, and they even braved a Sacrament meeting with 4 kids under 5! When I went to pick up our kids from Audrey and Aley's house, I envisioned a joyful reunion, but they really didn't want to leave their cousins!!

Here are some highlights from when our little cousins stayed with us:

Monkey-ing around at our apartment's playground.

Lots of swimming at the pool! The Aunas are little fishes. Audrey showed Elise how to swim and hold her breath under water! We were so impressed!

Bathtime and silly, soap beards.

Miniature golfing, in other words, hitting golf balls with clubs.

Bedtime laughter/ silliness while camping out together.

We love you!