Firefighters, Last Day of School, Swimming, St. George, Las Vegas, Harley's...How Long has it Been Since I Blogged???

The last week of school, the Mesa Fire Department came to visit with Ashley's kindergarten class. Hunter and I were able to go too. As much as Hunter loves fire trucks, he did not want to go near the firefighters when they had their fire gear on! He is definitely one of those kids that would be hiding under his bed if we had a fire! He did, however, enjoy his little walk through the fire truck and was so proud of himself sitting on the fireman's shoulder!Ashley's favorite part was when they each got to take turns holding the fire hose. Hunter didn't want any part of that!

Ashley's kindergarten class

Brooklyn & Alyssa have been taking piano lessons since September and they had their recital in May. They both did so well! I remember being sooooo nervous to play in front of all of the parents!

On Ashley's last day of school her class had a party and an awards ceremony. Ashley's teacher name was Mrs. Mellow and she gave Ash the MOST MELLOW award. She said Ashley got this award because nothing ever riled her. She told everyone about when she fell off the monkey bars during recess and it wasn't until later in class someone went and told the teacher Ashley's chin was bleeding. She asked Ashley if she wanted to go to the nurse and Ash shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess.". She ended up getting stitches after I picked her up. Her older sister Alyssa needs a lesson from Ashley on not going to the nurse for EVERYTHING!

After her class party we went to the kindergarten musical. It was so cute! If you are wondering which kid is Ashley...she is the one whose mouth is open the widest:) She was soooo expressive during this performance! Ash is my little actress!

Alyssa had Mrs. Vierra this year. Lissy got the MOST MOTIVATED award. Her teacher said that Alyssa would always quickly finish her work and then go up and ask the teacher for more:) I guess that is why Alyssa was sent with LOADS of homework when we went to Hawaii:)

Brooklyn had Mrs. Schafer this year. She didn't have an awards ceremony this year:( But, I'm sure she would've gotten one for being the sweetest! My girls all had such wonderful teacher this year!...Hopefully next year is just as good:)

My girls can finally play Rock Band with us. We have to do it on the no fail mode, but at least they can play:) Alyssa is amazingly good at the drums...she gets that from me:)!!! Hunter was just busy trying to play Ashley's DS. It is really funny if he can just get the game to go to a different screen, he thinks he is winning a game:)

Here in sunny Arizona, we spend many hours in the pool!

Ever since I can remember, my girls have used our waterfall to pretend they are on Splash Mountain at Disneyland...Not quite girls:)

Ashley and Hunter trying to get a sun tan...Keep on trying Hunter...maybe one day you will get one:)

I love summer because I get all kinds of help around the house. My girls love to do tasks that most people dread. Wiping windows, cleaning toilets, unloading dishwashers...it's great! Unfortunately, I would rather do those things too, than pick up toys. I need a kid that likes to do that!

We went to St. George a couple of weeks ago and stayed at my Grandpa's condo. St. George is our one vacation destination where we really just relax. The kids loved being able to eat their cereal outside while watching the small airplanes land at the nearby airport.

No trip to St. George would be complete without a photo shoot at Red Hills. Too bad this picture isn't zoomed enough to see the scared look on Brooklyn's face! She wasn't happy that Rob made her climb up and scoot to the edge:)

The kids had so much fun hiking up the rocks! They were, however, a little nervous to go near any caves once we saw the biggest lizard I have ever seen in my life!

They finally made it to the top!

Rob wanted the kids to climb under this ledge for a picture. None of them wanted to.

After a long search for lizards, Alyssa finally went in. Hunter got close, but he wouldn't actually put his head in:)

Ash & Lulu over looking St. George

Rob's parents drove down from Las Vegas to spend some time with us in St. George. Grandpa Bob played tennis with the girls and watched bats flying around our heads...YIKES! Grandma Jeanne played on the playground with the kids...sorry, no pictures:)

After St. George we headed to Vegas for our nephew's baptism. Here are the kids watching Kitt Kittredge in our hotel room.

After Tyler's baptism, we went to Rob's brother's house for dinner and the kids had a blast playing on this water slide.

Luckily nobody broke any bones while piling on the hammock:)

The girls all played dress ups...they even dressed up Hunter. My poor son is likely going to have gender confusion:( Choncho, you can thank me when you are older for not taking any pictures of you as a girl:) But, I think Grandpa did:)

I guess living in Arizona makes Ashley think that putting on a nice furry coat is playing dress ups:)

Last week Rob's boss was in town and so we went to his house for a BBQ. He took Hunter out to his garage to sit on his Harley.

When Rob asked Hunter if he was going to have one of these when he grows up, Hunter smiled really big and nodded his head yes:)

"Uncle Jerry" (as my kids like to call him) gave Hunter this airplane hat. He also made us some yummy hot dogs that were flown in from New York.

The girls spent about 6 hours swimming in the pool with Jerry's granddaughter Julia. The kids all slept very well that night:)

Happy 6th Birthday Ashley & Our Trip to Utah

Happy 6th birthday Ash!!! We love this little girls so much! Every year Ash asks if she can have her birthday in Utah because Brooklyn and Alyssa always get to (Brooklyn's is the week of Fall Break and the week before Rob's deer hunt, and Alyssa's is around the 4th of July). By the time May 1st rolls around, my kids have maxed out on their allowed absences. This year she lucked out because my brother Dave is deploying to Iraq:( and we all wanted to get together before he left. It worked out perfectly for her! She was such a good sport spending her whole birthday either at school or in the car on our long drive to Utah.I love her excited expression! I hope my kids always act this excited by the gifts we give them!
Ashley blowing out her candles with the help of her cousin Karli
Ashley wanted a Jonas Brothers party, but with my last minute shopping for party supplies, I was only able to find Hannah Montana stuff. So, all of the drooling granddaughters watched the premiere of the new Jonas Brothers Disney show while they played with the Hannah Montana party paraphernalia. Rob and Brooklyn really enjoyed this new Disney show!
Liberty with her Hannah Montana sunglasses (today she was the Little Mermaid...each day she was something different:) She was rarely Libby!)

Our family with my brother Dave

What do you get with 14 grandchildren under one roof? This! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Hunter almost pushing Cooper in the pond:)...or Cooper almost falling out a two-story window...or Jaxon falling off the bed onto a glass picture frame and cutting his arm to pieces...or baby Addison putting her finger in Jessica's hot soup and burning it so bad she had a HUGE blister. I can't believe nobody ended up in the hospital!

Too bad we couldn't keep them all locked up in the Sheriff's office that my dad built for the grand kids...Dad, I think you need to make the bars closer together so they can't slide through:)

Liberty was either schmoozing Cooper or Hunter all week.

Dave and his family (with another baby on the way)

My grandpa just turned 85. He is so amazing! We love him sooooo much! We had a special family home evening in honor of Dave leaving for Iraq. My grandpa shared some experiences about being on the USS Missouri when the peace treaty was signed during World War II. What a great honor it is to serve this great country!

When Dave was in Florida for 5 months doing training, my niece Mckinzie wrote a song in a letter to him. It was entitled "My Marine". My sister-in-law's sister and mom put the song to music and taught it to the girls to sing as a surprise to Dave. There wasn't a dry eye in the room! I will have to post the video of it!

These girls were all so busy playing outside the whole week that we hardly saw them. Why is their skin pink? They thought it would be funny to color themselves with chalk. I don't know if Brooklyn is the only one who didn't have pink skin because she thought they were stupid, or because she was the one that colored everybody else???

Libby moved on to Hunter...he is much more manly than Cooper...I'm glad she is smart enough to see that:)

The boys took a night to take the rhinos up to Hog's Hollow to go shooting. Check out that view!

Two things we learned about Dave this week...He can outrun and out shoot everyone in the Clark family!

What is it about men and guns???

Rob can't wait to buy himself one of these

My little brothers:)

This time I think Hunter is coming onto Libby...He thinks Dave's car is Lightning McQueen:)

When we got home Ashley's kindergarten teacher went to all of her student's homes to read her students a bedtime story. Isn't that sweet?!!! Ashley had so much fun showing Mrs. Mellow her bedroom!

Ragnar Relay, Newport Beach & Disneyland

This weekend I ran my first race...the Ragnar Relay Los Angeles. 12 of us made up our team called the Village People (named that because we all live in the Villages). We started our route in Santa Barbara and ended in Dana Point. There is no prettier place to run than along the Pacific Coast Highway...Why do I live in the desert???I was the unlucky runner that had 2 out of 3 of my legs cut because of permit issues with cities along the route. I was originally supposed to run 12.5 miles and was suddenly cut down to 3.5. So, I doubled up with my friend Rebecca on one leg, and then our van of 6 people ran our own leg at the Santa Monica Pier. I ended up running 12 miles...I am so proud of myself by the way!!!
We had so much fun running together! I was on the best team, and we all enjoyed being entertained by Wayne and Ryan:) After running so many miles and only sleeping for 2 hours in 2 days, we all got a little delirious...especially Wayne:)
I have never seen so many grown men act like school boys as I did at the finish line. Especially my paparazzi husband that took many photos like this one. Do you recognize the girl in the black sweatshirt? Every man on my team did..."Kelly" from Saved By the Bell. They were all trying to one up the other on who got to get close enough to touch her and who got the best picture of her...sorry "Kelly".
We all ran into the finish line together...I'm not entirely sure why I was the last one in. It was either because I had Ashley running in with me (even though even she is ahead of me), or because my legs were too sore to move any faster. Our van got to the finish line before everyone else, so we were all able to get some well needed massages...I guess mine wasn't long enough!

I have no idea what we placed, but we had a blast!!! I'm ready for another one!

We had a rental car for our van, so this was the extent of our car decor...You should have seen some of the crazy vans other teams had!

I brought this ice pack for my legs, but Alyssa ended up needing it more than I did.

When we were sitting in the hot tub at our hotel after the race, Alyssa decided to swim across the hot tub. Apparently she didn't have her eyes open because she hit the other side...Check out her goose egg!

Since my family was nice enough to meet me in California after the race, we were able to spend the next few days at the Hyatt in Newport Beach. When I signed up to do this race, Rob had desperately tried to keep from going out of town so that he could babysit. Knowing that my mom had a hysterectomy 8 days before I had to leave for L.A., Rob found out 2 days before my departure that he was going to have to be in Maine. As we frantically searched for babysitting options, my mom said she would come down to babysit...Thanks Mom! Poor Rob has been in 4 different time zones in the last week. Despite Rob and I being sleep deprived, we still had lots of fun.
After Rob and Brooklyn played tennis, we all played ping-pong in the courtyard of the hotel. Hunter kept trying to steal the girls ping-pong balls:)

Rob and Alyssa

After eating lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant (El Terasco), we headed to the pier to watch the surfers.

Brooklyn found a crab that had been partially eaten but was still alive. I'm not sure why she will hold a crab...minutes earlier at the Mexican restaurant, I had to pay she and Ashley $10 to eat a piece of shrimp...They both gagged from the moment the shrimp entered their mouth, until the moment it was swallowed.

Rob and the girls playing jump rope with a piece of sea weed

Ashley scaring away a flock of sea gulls

The kids playing in the sand

We also spent a day at Disneyland. This is Hunter with his glasses on for the 3D Bugs Life movie...Which he didn't like very much!

He did however, like the Pixar parade at California Adventures. Anyone who knows Hunter knows his love of cars. He LOVED this parade!

The girls said their favorite part of the parade was seeing how excited Hunter got when he saw Lightening McQueen...so cute!

And finally...Mater:)

We even took the train all the way around Disneyland this time...Hunter enjoyed the train, but he HATED the dinosaurs...He isn't much on being a tough guy!

Easter Fun

On Wednesday night we went to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple. It was awesome! It is such a great way for the kids to understand why we celebrate Easter. Hunter was nervous of the soldiers at first, but he quickly warmed up to them and wanted a picture with one. We had great seats this year because we got there 3 hours early to put blankets on the seats that we wanted to save...Even though there was a HUGE sign saying "NO RESERVED SEATING". We were only gone long enough to eat dinner at Sullivans, I swear:) On Thursday Ashley had her Easter Egg Hunt for her kindergarten class. She was really fast at collecting her eggs:) Thanks to 5 years of being trained for family egg hunts! This is Ashley and her BFF Hannah.
For Easter weekend this year, we decided to go camping. When we made our campsite reservations 3 weeks ago, we imagined the weather to be perfect like it was when we went camping over spring break...Not so! Lucky for us we have a heater...Not so lucky for the family next to us that was camping in a tent. The temperature dropped into the low 30s during the night...that family miraculously stayed 2 nights but they were packed up and gone early the second morning. I think I would have gone home midnight day 1! The heavy rain that didn't let up all night on the second night must be what finally scared them away! We were able to dye our eggs up there, but we got rained out before we had our egg hunt:( Ashley was sure excited by the color of this egg that she dyed!
Hunter was really nervous at first. He doesn't like to get dirty, so he started by just watching Alyssa and playing with the stickers.
This egg was Rob's pride and joy this year. An Alexander family goal is to dye the most natural colored eggs so they are REALLY hard to find. I think this is the best one I have ever seen! Paas made a camouflage dying kit this year...It is awesome!
Hunter loved the color of his blue egg! WOW!!!
Anyone that knows Brooklyn, knows that she is quite the "Daddy's girl". Rob is perfect in her eyes! She made this egg that said, "I love Daddy!" Unfortunately for me, it was not followed by an "I love Mommy" egg:( ...that is until Alyssa and Ash made one for me:)

Once Hunter started to put eggs into the dye, he couldn't stop. He would even take the eggs that had already been dyed and put them in a different color. I love babies hands after they've dyed eggs!!!

The kids had fun playing horse shoes. Alyssa and Brooklyn tried to throw from the same distance as Rob...Ashley at least threw them, but not from very far away...
Hunter's idea was the best...To heck with throwing, why not just get a "ringer" this way?!!!

Hunter worships the ground Ash walks on! Anything she does, he wants to do!

I bought hat looms for the girls to make beanies. Since I had to teach myself by reading the instructions, I thought it might be too complicated for them to figure out...it wasn't! They spent HOURS knitting these hats. Even Ashley could do a lot of it...all she needs is a little more patience:)

Alyssa was the most dedicated...Unfortunately for her, she used the baby size loom on her first one and that hat only fits her dog's head:(

My poor left-handed daughters! It took a while for Brooklyn to figure this out, until I taught her to go backwards. Then her fingers could finally do what they needed to do. Once the girls hats were done, they didn't take them off until we got home. They want to start a business selling hats:)...Apparently they think $5 would be nice pay for a hat that takes them 2 hours to make:)

Rob and Hunter took a nap while we made hats

The kids had so much fun at our Easter Egg Hunt this year! They have gotten really good at finding the "hard" eggs! Even Hunter found one that was hidden in the grass. Brooklyn found the most of everyone. After we thought we had found all the eggs, we only counted 73 out of 75. There were 2 missing. Since Rob took a picture of all the eggs when he numbered them, (yes, he really did) he was able to tell the kids what colors to look for. The deal was if anyone found a missing egg, they would get $10 per egg. Ashley found both of them. She got $20 for that, and then she also got 2 out of 4 of the grand prize eggs. (Amazing since she found the least amount next to Hunter) Her prizes were 1 day with no jobs and a Daddy-daughter date to McDonalds, which she was really excited for. After she went last night, she admitted to me that it would have been a lot more fun if the other kids would have been there to play with her.

I think this may have been my first Easter dinner that did not have ham as the main dish. Since we got rained out of camping a night early, we still had all of the stuff to make tin foil dinners. Rob made us some really yummy ones in our fire pit in the backyard.

Alyssa grand prize for the Easter egg hunt, was a mommy-daughter date to get pedicures. We had so much fun together and even got matching toes! Brooklyn and Ash were really jealous!!! Actually, I think Hunter and Rob were too:) Hunter was jealous of the nail polish, and Rob was jealous of my nice smooth feet:) Maybe they need to go have a father-son date:)

I finally pulled Ashley's second front tooth out today. The 1st one came out a couple of weeks ago, but this one was not going to come out on its own. The permanent tooth was already growing in behind the baby tooth, so today I told Ashley it was either coming out with me pulling it, or with pliers (like her first tooth). I couldn't get a good grip with the pliers, so I pulled and pulled with my fingers, and it finally came out. Isn't she cute! Now we get to look forward to the perfectly sized permanent front teeth!...yay!

Rob's Birthday, St. Patrick's Day & Camping

How do you know when you are getting REALLY old??? Answer: When it takes 3 adults to light your birthday candles:) 36 candles this year for Rob...YIKES! Rob likes pie for his birthday instead of cake, so this year I made 3 (in order to fit all of the candles). It was either that, or buy a Costco-sized sheet cake:) Rob and his brothers played Zarahemla, and the cousins all had fun playing together.
St. Patrick's Day is always an early morning for our family. Almost as early as Christmas...I'm not kidding:) The Leprachaun always brings a little treasure for the kids.

Brooklyn wearing her glasses from the Leprachaun

This weekend we went camping up north of Payson, AZ. We found a great new campsite that isn't as cold as the rim(where we normally go). There was an army of ants nearby that the kids and Rob(especially Rob) were fascinated with. Rob got quite the sun tan holding one of our solar panels that charge our trailer battery while trying to burn the ants. I apologize for not having pictures:)The kids spent a few hours hiding and finding plastic Easter eggs. Rob likes to start training the kids well in advance, so that on Easter they are experts:) The only difference in our real Easter egg hunt, is bright plastic eggs are NOT allowed. In keeping with Rob's family tradition, we dye real eggs in browns and greens so that they are really hard to find. Only a nickel size of the egg has to be seen. Luckily my girls being the girls that they are, we do still get a few pink and purple eggs:) Even after 13 years, I am still not very good at finding these eggs.

The kids always love playing on the top bunkbed in our camper, yet not one of them will actually sleep up there. The only kid that slept in their own bed on this trip, was Brooklyn. We don't get very good sleep while we are camping, but we sure have a lot of fun!

Ashley played with the walkie-talkies for about an hour. She would talk to anyone that would talk to her. After the girls and I stopped responding, she even tried to have conversation with Hunter. Since he has no clue that he has to hold the button down to talk, Ashley had to stay nearby so that she could hear what he was saying with the walkie-talkie turned off. Hunter thought he was so funny and big!

Rob and Alyssa playing Checkers. Rob isn't bored by the way...he's strategizing. Poor Alyssa lost this game after I walked over and asked her a question. She made a wrong move and lost 2 of her Kings to Rob:( Sorry Lulu!

Ashley and Brooklyn riding bikes

Aloha! Hawaii

We have been home from Hawaii for almost a week now, and I just finished unpacking our last two suitcases yesterday(both of which were full of unused clothes...note to self-next time pack more swim suits and cover ups, and less clothes for the kids). After going through our almost 2,000 pictures that we took, I am also finally blogging our vacation. Rob had to go to the Philippines on business, and when he found out he had a layover in Oahu, he suggested that the kids and I meet him there. We of course didn't hesitate, because the kids and I have never been to Hawaii. Rob seems to luck out by having me travel alone with our 4 kids. I am always most stressed out about making our early morning flights and having to park the car and get all of the kids and our luggage into the airport. At least this time we started out at the right terminal:) It was a breeze this time...not one of the kids had to be wanded or have their bags ransacked at security (this is the first time). The 7 hour flight was great, I can't believe how good the kids were! As we were getting off the plane, Brooklyn looked at me with the biggest grin and said, "Mom, Hawaii is my favorite place ever!!!" How she knew this before we were off the plane, is beyond me. My girls could not stop smiling! Alyssa told me that she likes Hawaii even better than Utah...for those of you who know Alyssa, that must mean Hawaii is pretty incredible! Question: What was the biggest clue to all of those nice Hawaiians that Rob and I were from the southwest??? Answer: When they would say Aloha!, our first response was often Hola! I caught on after the first day...Rob, however, never really caught on:)

Rob took a few pictures of his trip to the Philippines...He went from one tropical place to another. Sitting in the lobby waiting for Rob to check in, the girls sat in awe! Ashley took this opportunity to have a photo shoot:)
After getting settled into our room, we walked down the street and found LuLu's Surf Club. Alyssa (a.k.a. Lulu), had to eat here. The girls were all in love the the server that keep spraying the birds with water to get them to fly away. For the record...he wasn't very cute:)
This is Hunter when he wanted to go into the ocean...

This is Hunter after getting knocked over by a wave seconds later:( He didn't want to go in the ocean for the rest of the trip. This was Day One:(

Sorry dude...I don't think you're tough enough to be a surfer!:)

We spent a day snorkeling and playing at Hanama Bay. This place is gorgeous and the sea life was incredible! Does anyone look good with a mask on???

I'd like to refer to these girls as "my two snorkelers", but that would be misleading. Alyssa did last longer than Ashley, but not by much. As soon as we saw our first fish, Ashley demanded I take her back to the shore. Alyssa lasted for maybe 10 fish and then she wanted out.

Hunter did a lot of burying on the beaches of Oahu. At Hanama Bay he buried his Crocs...one of which we never found:(

Good thing he's so good looking!

Since our underwater camera is floating around somewhere in the Sea of Cortez, Rob and Ashley bought this one from the gift shop at Hanama Bay. Ashley took pictures of everything with this (above water pictures only of course :)...even when it didn't have any film. Yes, I said film. When my kids saw us have to load the camera, they said, "What is that?". They didn't understand why they couldn't take endless amounts of pictures and review them afterwards. Digital cameras are awesome!!!

Some of the fish that Rob and Brooklyn saw

The biggest fish that they saw

Rob in his snorkeling gear

Brooklyn in hers

We saw a lot of these strange looking trees. Ashley and Alyssa decided to play Tarzan and try swinging from the branches.

Alyssa got the highest

Brooklyn- just looking pretty:)

The girls playing in the waves. Hunter...take note!

This is the "Checkered Robot" that we found on the street. He had a cup that said he would dance for money. Rob put a handful of change in the cup...no dance. After realizing he had been a cheap skate, Rob put some dollar bills in his cup, and wallah...we saw the "Checkered Robot" dance.

The weather in Hawaii is crazy...either that or I have gotten used to 365 days of sunshine and blue skies. It rained every day while we were there, but usually only for a few minutes. Then there was almost always a rainbow. See the one over Ashley's head?

Bryan Jones, Rob had Brooklyn take this picture for you. What is a beach vacation without sipping virgin pina coladas by the pool?

The view from our hotel balcony...Diamond Head on one side...Waikiki Beach on the other. I didn't go out on this balcony too many times because we were on the 21st floor. I'm not very afraid of heights, but this made me woozy!

Just a cute picture of Hunter and Ash

One of our favorite things was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This place is so pretty! We took a train around the plantation and it was interesting to see how pineapples grow. I'm ashamed to admit it, but everyone in my family,except for Rob, thought pineapples grew on trees.

The girls on the train

We did the "2001 World's Largest Maze" at the Dole plantation. Throughout the maze there were 6 stations that we needed to find and then stencil the clue on a piece of paper. It took us about 20 minutes before we found the first one.

We only ended up finding 3. We learned to just listen for someone to yell "I found one", and then try to follow their voices. Brooklyn decided to be funny and yelled that she had found one when she didn't. She laughed so hard when she heard some boys say that they heard someone say they had found a station:) She is definitely Rob's daughter!!!

We had the BEST pineapple ice cream and fresh pineapple.

One of my favorite parts of our trip was hiking through Waimea Valley up to Waimea Falls. We saw the most incredible plants and trees! It was a mix between Jurassic Park and the beginning of Arachnophobia where the scientist find the spiders.

The kids all had to wear life jackets in order to swim in the water. Hunter is smiling only because he has no idea why we are putting a life jacket on him.

The kids and I went out first so that Rob could get a picture. The water was soooo cold! Hunter and some of the girls floated out on boogie boards, but Brooklyn and I jumped all the way in. I have always wanted to do something like this!

Rob actually stood under the waterfall. That is him with his arms up in the air. He said it was so hard to stand and the water hurt coming down on his back.

Love this place!!!

Hunter was happy to be out of the freezing cold water and on our way back down to the car.

We ate at this cute place on the North Shore...We were fooled by it's cuteness.

Would you eat this? I couldn't. I ordered the chicken and shrimp plate, and this is what I got...I'm not sure that was even chicken.

Rob and I quickly learned that when in doubt...order a hot dog. The kids never had a bad meal!

This is the Holana Blow Hole. It was very cool to see. The lady at the Dole Plantation told us that years ago her husband's friend was sucked down the hole while trying to get close...YIKES!

The wind was blowing so hard it almost knocked us over:)

Brooklyn dressed Choncho up with her clothes and sungasses while keeping him warm at the pool...this is better than the pink nail polish that she put on him yesterday:)...Poor kid!

Since Sunday was a "no swim" day, we went to Pearl Harbor. This is us on the boat over to the memorial.
This is a picture of the "Tears of the Arizona". You can still see the oil dripping out of the ship. There is such a reverent feeling at the war sights we've visited. What an amazing sacrifice men and women make by serving in our armed forces. I'm so proud to have my brother in the military!!!

After Pearl Harbor we went to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. This is the best place to get souvenirs! We bought a coconut for the girls to try. First they had to drink all of the coconut juice, and then the guy that sold it to us scraped out the flesh for them to taste. Brooklyn drank the most, but we ended up dumping quite a bit out on the grass. I feel sick even thinking about how bad it tasted!

Our girls have been earning and saving their money to spend on souvenirs. This is the best way to take kids shopping. They really only bought things that they couldn't live without. Alyssa even came home with $40 left. She tried this hat on, but didn't buy it...thank goodness!

After the swap meet we drove up to the Punchbowl. I had never even heard of this place. It is a memorial and cemetery for the men that died in wars in the Pacific Ocean. It was kind of like a mini-Arlington.

We always run into so many nice tourist that offer to take pictures for us. Thank you tourist lady!

Isn't the view incredible?!!!

Why are elevators so much fun, and why do kids love to be the one that gets to push the button?

Hunter burying his cars...we never recovered these either:)

Our Sunday "no swim" day ended by being the only fully dressed people playing in the sand...except for Rob, he just couldn't keep his shirt on:)

The girls decided to give Hunter a taste of his own medicine by burying him. We did however recover him:)

A Hawaiian "almost" sunset

This is the visitor's center of the Laie Temple. We saw the neatest presentation there and Brooklyn told us how much she felt the Spirit.:)

We met the cutest sister missionary from Hong Kong that took this picture for us. It was so fun to see the sister missionaries wearing traditional Hawaiian dresses instead of regular clothing.

The Laie Temple

This McDonalds may not look like the ones on the mainland, but the food tastes the same:) Ashley had been begging to go here ever since she found out they were giving Pet Shops with their Happy Meals. My poor deprived kids only get McDonalds when we are on vacation.

Our next stop was the Polynesian Cultural Center. This place is unbelievable! We spent all day here and could've spent another day. The landscaping is incredible and the people are so much fun! This is the kids playing with some balls from some polynesian island (I obviously didn't pay attention to the details). This place has a village with an activity that is native to each island. Great place to take kids!!!

Here are the kids playing a stick game...Poor Brooklyn got stuck having Chonch as her partner. He didn't follow the directions very well:)

Hunter is a pretty shy boy, but he LOVED this guy!

He was nice enough to give us our tattoos.

The kids showing off their first...and last tattoos that they will ever have...Hopefully!

In the village of Tonga we learned how to weave fish with leaves

In Samoa we saw a man climb a cocount tree. The girls thought he must be crazy.

The kids were able to go on stage and do a dance with coconut shells. Hunter even played along. Meanwhile...Rob was chosen to go across the village to learn how to be a cook. Apparently in Samoa, all the men do the cooking.

Rob racing to beat another guy by making fire. I see smoke!!! I see smoke!!!

Can any man really look tough when he is wearing a skirt?!!!...

Or, dancing with flowers in his hair? ...I guess they can!

At the luau we got fresh flower leis...all of us were excited except for Hunter. He couldn't wait to get his off...Ryan Clark, I think he deserves a "man point"!

I'm afraid my girls may never eat pork again. Once they saw these guys take a whole cooked pig out of the ground, they decided they no longer eat pork. They missed out because the pork that was served at this luau was delicious!!!

More pina coladas! The girls couldn't get over being able to drink one out of a real pineapple:)

Half way through dinner, Hunter's head dropped as he fell asleep. This poor boy was such a trooper to go the whole week without a nap.

All of the elementary aged kids were invited to dance on stage at the luau. There was no way Brooklyn was going to go all the way down there, but Alyssa and Ash did.

Our favorite part of the night time show was definitely the fire dancers! Ashley thought it was so funny when they sat down on the fires and caught their grass skirts on fire. Sorry about the dark picture...no flash photography:(

Finally...a beach day! The girls were so excited to use their $2 beach mats that they bought. These were among the few things that did not make it home on the plane with us.

Ashley, trying to get a tanOur hotel was just down the street from the Honolulu Zoo. We had so much fun seeing animals that we don't get to see at our zoo.

This zoo has a great area for the kids.

On our way to the airport, we stopped at the USS Bowfin and the USS Missouri.

From the USS Missouri we were able to get a better picture of the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

It was really fun to go on the USS Missouri not only because this is where the peace treaty for World War II was signed, but also because my Grandpa Smith was on this ship during the war. It is soooo big...yet the inside seems so small. I can't imagine living on this for months at a time.

Heights don't seem to bother these two

This is the spot where the peace treaty was signed. So cool!

Sadly this trip came to an end. Our only regret was that we couldn't stay longer!

Stitches...Again, Choncho's New Backpack and Valentine's Day

Yesterday about 10 minutes before I was heading out to pick up the kids from school, I received a phone call from the school nurse. I wasn't too alarmed because I either get a phone call or a note almost weekly for my daughter Alyssa. Alyssa is a tough kid at home that NEVER complains, but it seems like the littlest thing will put her nurse's office at school. When the nurse told me she was calling about Ashley, I knew something must be wrong. She told me that she had fallen off the monkey bars at recess and cut her chin. She wasn't even going to tell the teacher, the kids in the class are the one's that told. This is one tough kid!!! She never made a peep or shed one tear at the doctor's office getting her stitches...Me, on the other hand...that is another story. I should always make Rob take care of these incidents because I don't do well with blood. I did okay watching them clean out her cut, and I was even okay to watch the doctor numb her chin. But as soon as he was ready to stitch her up, I started to feel sick to my stomach...really sick! I looked away knowing that this is how I start to feel a few minutes before I faint. I kept getting sicker and sicker and the doctor said, "Are you okay?" At first I said yes, but I quickly told them I was going to pass out. I made it to the chair just as my ears started to close off and I started dripping with sweat. The nurse said, "Put your head between your knees!" I got my head down just in time to keep myself from making a fool of myself by falling to the floor. Phew!!! Next time Rob gets to go to the doctor!I bought this car backpack for Hunter to pack all of his cars in when we go to Hawaii. He LOVES it!
How cute that he fell asleep with it on his back and full of cars!
I had way too much fun making my girl's Valentine's boxes this year. My Cricut helped the "un-artistic me" to be able to come up with something cute. I actually let Brooklyn help make her's.
Poor Ashley only got to pick out the paper for her's. I tend to be a control-freak sometimes!

Alyssa picked out the theme and chose the ladybug and helped "bedazzle" the flower. Rob also helped with the bedazzling:)

All of the girls had their school parties during the same hour. Rob and I were on 20 minute shifts so that our kids would only be parentless for 20 minutes. It didn't work quite as well as I'd planned. Rob had to leave Brooklyn's class because he was paged to move his truck.

The girls were all much happier to be able to introduce Choncho to their friends. He was bummed each time I dragged him off to the next class.

Brooklyn was sooo excited to have her dad help in her class!

Rob and I went to lunch on Friday to celebrate Valentine's Day. So, Saturday we spent the evening with the kids having a fire...

and lighting sparklers.

Rob finally found the big M&M Nascar for Hunter...Sunday we were so excited to watch the Daytona 500 hoping that the car Hunter loves was going to win. We were very disappointed that he crashed and missed half the race:( Maybe next time!