Hawaii: day 7

12.30.2014

On our early morning walk we ran into this little guy.

He looks biggish in this pic, but he was really small.

A few days later I turned on the sink in our dark kitchen (night) and his cousin either fell out of the faucet or was already in the sink.

I didn't even scream!

We spent the morning playing/relaxing.

Yesterday at Costco the kids all picked out "souvenirs." We wanted to get them something they'd actually wear again. Bekah and Harry both picked rash guards.

Harry's fit fine, but the smallest size they had was size 10, so yeah, Bekah's was too big. We figure it will be the gift that keeps on giving, since it will fit her for five more years.

In the afternoon Stick and the kids all went to Waikiki for surfing lessons.

When Stick told the kids he had booked lessons, they all immediately started to panic. We've seen a lot of CA surfers over the years. We've also seen a lot of CA surfers get clobbered over the years. All of the kids from the biggest to the littlest were scared.

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Stick and all the kids came home triumphant with success.

They all did it! Granted they were on beginner baby waves, but they all stood up on the boards and all rode waves and they all felt pretty proud of themselves.

The surf school was recommended by our landlord. They did a group lesson but only had one other person in their class. A Japanese girl who asked Rachel if she was from Russia and told her she had such "beautiful eyes." Ha! Interestingly enough, the lessons were also taught by Japanese girls.

I wasn't there and obviously couldn't take pictures, but I'm pretty sure it looked exactly like the postcard below!

I can't figure out why Rachel doesn't want to put this sticker on the Subaru.

That night Rachel, Aaron and Thomas all went to a Stake YM/YW's " New Year's Eve Eve" activity that they'd been invited to on Sunday. We dropped them off at the church and a lady from the ward drove them to the stake center. (This is why we stopped at Ross yesterday, so the boys could get a shirt with a collar on it which they were told was required.)

They were pretty wowed by the activity. All the kids met in the chapel for a Mormon Message, then they had the run of the whole church. In the gym and a bunch of different classrooms they had the following:

fuze ball

air hockey

ping pong

basketball shooting game

board games

tic tac toe- bean bag toss

musical chairs

nail painting

inflatable dodge ball arena

inflatable bungee run

letters to missionaries

video game room

movie room

food room

family history room

photo booth

food donation room

dj

cupcake decorating

And a meal which included:

ice cream sundaes

rice

red (hawaiian style) hotdogs

chili

nachos

cookies

ice cream sundaes

At 10 PM they had a pretend countdown to midnight with poppers, and balloons. Then the stake leaders introduced the youth theme for the new year and the kids got mini flashlights and little boats. It was a pretty amazing activity. The boys had lots of fun and Rachel sort of had fun, she thought it would have been more fun if her own friends could have been there. Oh, and our boys were the only ones in the entire church with collar shirts on......we're still not sure what that was about.

Back at the bungalow we finished off our day with movies and a couple of nail biting games of "Doc McStuffins Uno."