December

our "princess"

Shalom,

Glad to all be around still. For those of you who thought the world was going to end on the 21st of December 2012, should have read something a wise being said 2000+ years ago: "No man knows the day or hour".

We had some special "visitors" to the island recently and had a wonderful time with them. Below are a few photos of some of our adventures.

My relative, Jeronimo, brought loads of kite surf gear and an abundance of patience from the mainland. He needed both of these as he attempted to get me up and on, rather than merely in, the water. By the way, did you know that one can drink some level of salt water and be just fine, regardless of how it may feel at the moment. If you ever try to learn to kite surf, you will know what I mean. I never really was able to actually get on the water, on the board. I did however have some experience getting launched over the water. As I was accelerated out of the foot straps of the board, and skipped across the water with the kite flying through the power zone, (there's an understatement) I felt like I was surely flying. Kind of like "to infinity and beyond". It can be very thrilling. I have a new definition of "kite flying" now. It is better when you fly the kite rather than the kite flying you.

Jeronimo & Abba in background, Gertie & LeeAnn foreground

We had a great time learning to surf in Haleiwa and near the research pier by makapuu.

after the session

Henny rockin on the short board

Only the sun going down gets these surfers off the water (Henny, Abe, LeeAnn)

 We had a good time in Haleiwa surfing and stand up paddle boarding (SUP). We also saw two turtles on the beach.

pupuloa beach

 This place was super cool. Pounders is the name of this beach for good reason. If you don't duck dive at the right time you will surely be pounded. Abba still has water in his ears weeks later. The waves were enjoyed by all. What was not enjoyed was that one of the group, ok it was me, stepped in cold human poo poo (not mine). can you say "truly revolting" ? I don't dare go into details for the pain of the memory. lets just say I hope it was a once in a lifetime event. We couldn't decide on renaming the beach pupu-ondafoota or pupuloa (poopoolowuh).

LeeAnn and Abe after Haleiwa session

paying tribute to Taylor Swift

Kailua babes

Antee Lucinda and cousin LeeAnn with shorter peoples

Charlotte

cuzs, cuzes?, LeeAnn & Abe

how many can fit in a one bedroom?

Week of Surprises

Hello friends and family!
 This is Ella, here to write about this past eventful week we enjoyed. Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt "Annie", and our cousin "I" came in last saturday and stayed a mere ten minute walk from us at a popular timeshare place. We enjoyed the next day hanging out at the beach and having a nice dinner at their timeshare. The next morning, while I was busy doing my online school, Aunt Annie called us up and said that she had a note slipped under the door from our younger cousin in Chicago and was wondering if we had left it there the day before. Of coarse we hadn't, and we started wondering if they were possibly here and hadn't told us, or if it had fallen out of their luggage not knowing it was brought. Henny, Sara, Charlotte, and Gertie headed over to hang out and investigate. Soon enough we got news that another note had been passed under the door but this time from his younger sister. Sure enough, (Aunt and Uncle) Isabella and Raul had surprised us with a visit! It was a complete and wonderful surprise to everyone, and sadly they had to stay away another day so as to not expose Charlie to sickness. Henny, Charlotte, and I saw them at the presentation thingy when all the kids, including Charlotte, got up and "danced" by order of The Chief.

  We hung out at the beach (or pool) everyday after that around noon and got some great pics of us enjoying our cousins, aunts, grandparents, and uncle. :)

Isabella and Raul

Raul tossing "I"

Ella and her cuz making a sea turtle

Gertie and her Cousin singing and playing

Jumping from tree and being "dangerous"

Sisters Isabella, Eema, and Annie

Cousins :) 

Gertie and her "Best Friend"

Cuzzies in Treezies

The Choo Choo Train

We had a wonderful time with our equally wonderful family, and enjoyed every moment spent together. We were all sad to see them go, and I will admit that few of us had dry eyes. 

On a side note, I stepped on a rat. A live rat. On the golf coarse. In the dark. No joke. I was running barefoot with Henny and Sara at night when I tripped over what I thought was a plastic shoe. Wondering what a plastic shoe was doing in a golf coarse, I went back to see what it was. It ran. I'm surprised y'll in Washington didn't here my surprised scream. Henny went over and investigated to find a rat looking at her from the base of the tree. That was an interesting experience. So thankful to G-d that it didn't bite me! 

 I personally feel sorry for all you "back home" who have to experiance gray, cold, rainy days. It really is a blessing to be here! Hope you enjoy our blog :) 

Ella

Day before Thanksgiving

Shalom and Peace to all.

We are celebrating and giving thanks for much this week. Ella turned 15 years old yesterday. Woohoo!! Charlotte turns 8 big ones on Thanksgiving day.

 unsupervised children

We just moved this last weekend after much effort. The move was pretty easy, finding a place was not. It was a new experience to be discriminated against for having a large family. People, somewhat understandably, do not have much interest in 8 people running around their home. I understand, but it presented some small level of stress when house hunting. One friendly guy took our $50 credit check application (that's an experience I have not been through in a long time) and was upbeat about us moving in until he found out we had 6 kids. Another older gentleman simply told us that we had too many people for his house.

We looked at homes in Hawaii Kai, Kailua, and Ko Olina. We ended up, somewhat under divine providence I think, at a beautiful home, on a golf course, in Ko Olina just a short walk to the beach. We love it in this part of the island. ABC has a high end store just 5 minute walk down the road. The Landlord had doubts when I told him up front that I had 6 kids. I sent him to my company website and to this blog and he was cool with us. The previous renters are from Renton WA and are believers.

Gertie says bye bye to fishees

It looks like we will be here at least 6 months since we signed a lease for that length.

We are looking forward to Ema's parents and sister coming out this coming weekend to a timeshare down the street, and my bro and his family coming to the island soon after. Too bad they will be on the opposite side of the island :(

Here are some random pictures

Sunset at the lagoon in front of Disney

Last day in Kahala walked to the west end of the beach

Training her young

Beautiful girls at our home for the next 6 months

Tsunaimi Madness, Day after; beauty

Aloha from the land of hyped up non-natural disasters.

So Saturday afternoon, we discovered that Abba had been incorrect regarding just.a.big.family not all fitting into a Scion Xb. Abba had walked to the local mall with two big ones and a 3 year old. This was a mile walk in the blazing sun in the middle of the day (perhaps the reader does not feel the sympathy they ought to at this point in the narrative if they happen to be looking outside at their local weather). Anyway, the munchkin may have had flushed cheeks but she was a trooper.

The pedestrians hooked up with Eema at the air-conditioned mall. She had driven there earlier. Regarding getting back to base, the decision was made just to have Abba walk back while 7 piled into the Scion. Photo one is taken with Abba out of the car. Somehow Abba managed to get in the front seat and the kiddos merely squeezed a little tighter in the back.

Nice and comfy

"charlie" wants more space 

This ended up being an important (albeit fruitless) exercise for later in the night.

Skip forward many hours to a time when when little Charlie was fast asleep as was little Gertie. Around 8:00 p.m. we heard an odd knock on the door. Upon opening the door, the security guard informed us that the sirens outside were indicating that a tsunami was on the way.  Well, with a family of teenage and soon to be teenage girls, that can be very exciting news let me tell you. After much excitement, and waking up two children, we headed up to the 4th floor and waited for a few minutes. Abba decided to check on his phone what was up. It was discovered that the impact time was going to be 10:28 pm. Plenty of time to get out of Dodge. Abba suggested just staying on premises (which is ocean side) while the majority wanted to head to high ground. Abba relented and eight, yes that is 8, people crammed into the scion and headed for high ground. Eery sirens sounded the warning even on the hillsides.

Charlie and Gertie were now wide awake and very restless. What followed can be summarized as two hours of unpleasantries with very tired, but awake kids, and cranky adults. Exhausted, the family returned to the beachside building around 11:30 pm (before  the all-clear) and fell fast asleep in their ground-floor unit. Charlie, as usual, awoke before 5:00 a.m. to start a new day

Hawaii's news crews are to "tsunami preparedness" like Seattle news crews are to "snow storms" where 1/2" of snow blows through in the foothills. We were expecting 3'-6' waves with mega-power to destroy. What we got was 1.5' swells and avery disrupted sleep.


Sunday afternoon, Abba, Ella, and Henny went to snorkel or fish near Makapu'u. Unfortunately, the weather changed and was not conducive to fishing or snorkeling. The beauty remained constant :-)

Enjoy November

weekend of 10/18,19/2012 more good times

Ahhh, it was a nice weekend. Our new-found shabbott service moved from Honolulu to the Waianae Coast, too far to drive with half the family. We missed out but had a semi-relaxing time all the same.

Abba took Eema and the three youngest on a munchkin sized adventure that Eema really enjoyed. It was a stretch for her at the Makapu'u lookout though cause the thought of one of the little ones randomly climbing a three foot high stone wall, running 20 feet and thrusting themselves over the cliffs was sometimes on her mind. You just never know what might happen on an adventure at a very popular tourist stop.

We headed to some fun tide pools near Sandy's beach where #5 was somewhat skittish with the nearby waves and decided to move more quickly than her balance allowed. She really knows how to turn a simple activity into an adventure.......things are always more fun when you are wet.

Lastly we headed to a research pier (no one fell off) and saw some needle fish. All in all we had a nice little Adventure with the little ones. (the big ones walked to the mall)

Charotte with a hermit crab at the tide pools

we only saw a few fishies cause people legally net them

at Makapu'u looking at rim islands

at the research pier

 On Sunday, after church Abba took the 4 oldest to the 2nd most popular hike on the island, Manoa Falls? can you guess the most popular hike? Yes, it is very near Waikiki.

The hike is only 0.9 mile one way. We decided to leave the trail which was fairly pedestrian except for the mud, and head up the raging river, slight exaggeration. It was more like a slight stream. We caught crawdads and the mosquitos caught us.

friendly crawdad

Over the trail

the stream was more fun than the trail

these critters aren't found on the trail

starting to get a little muddy

the falls

Just Chillin. Life is good

Thought I would share some random pix from around the house.

Sister helping drink blueberry something 

Tastes a lot better when you have the cup by yourself

A happy 3 year old "reading"

Shabbot at the beach

and at the pool

The following video is at a nearby hotel at sunset. The birds love this particular tree. One just has to be mindful when standing below.

October 19th Week in Review

Abba here. I see that it has been a little while so I thought I could do a little catch up.

Work is sooooo slow, just continuing to plant seeds,  so lets move on to the family.

Little "Charlie" loves any sand hill he can find. he went up and down this one several times before we could move on down the beach.

Apart from enjoying walks on the beach, the family also enjoys being in and on the water. Abba has learned that paddling against the wind is very good exercise. The wind and the flow of the current consistently go one direction. Paddling the other way can be quite a challenge.

Today we decided to brave Koko crater one more time. The hope was to catch a beautiful sunset from haigh above it all. That sounded like a good plan. If only we had left our residence at 5:00 pm instead of 5:40 pm. It would have been perfect. As it was, we had a nice sunset from about one third of the way up. Note to any visitors to the islands; twilight does not last very long here, as we knew in theory but experienced in reality......... Remember, the difference between an "activity" and an "adventure" is that  you don't really know the outcome of an adventure.

 this time we brought "Charlotte". Of course she was the first one to the top just ahead of Abba. We had to (got to) wait for the older three for 10-15 minutes before they made their way up in the dark.

read the whole sign good warnings

started a little late around 6:00 pm base of stairs

"charlotte" makes it first to the top with Abba (actually darker than appears)

rest of crew makes it up eventually

really dark on the way down

Thankfully, Abba was bright enough (pun intended) to bring some headlamps for the slow trek down in the dark. Nobody twisted an ankle or went slipping down the side of the crater.


We have been enjoying Shabbot at little congregation in Waikiki but the service is moving to Waianae this week. Not sure if we are willing to drive that far in two shifts.cause "just a big family" can't all fit in a Scion Xb.  Thankfully, we are also enjoying New Hope Oahu at Manoa on Sundays.

We will need to order a battery charger for the "real" camera as somehow it disappeared in the Washington house.

Shabbot Shalom to all and lila tov.