So, So Behind...

Oh man a million things have happened since my last post like what, 6 months ago?

The latest and greates of these was our recent family trip to Hawaii to visit Grandma Selfaison as our annual vacation.  It was an awesome trip, and unfortunately, I lost my camera 2 days before coming home.  I spent those last 1 1/2 days running around the island trying to capture some more precious memories.  I know people say that at least no one can steal my memories, but my memory sucks since pregnancy.  Haha.  I had some super cute pictures of Kaylana, especially at the beach.  Even sadder, the only decent family picture with Grandma.  We tried to take more, but Kaylana just would not cooperate.  Fortunately, I snapped a picture of the one on my camera to text to my family back in Cali, and so I have a grainy version of it on my phone.  Anyhow, so I will attempt to make written memories instead of photographed ones since I have no choice.  So this may be long...

We arrived Thursday, March 10 and went straight to the Ilima hotel.  It was great, away from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki strip but close enough to walk to the beach.  Plus full kitchen and free parking.  I highly recommend it!  Kaylana was amazing during the flight, probably because she spent the majority of the time sleeping since it was an early morning flight LoL.  We went straight to visit Grandma and spent the whole afternoon with her.  We went through all the photos I brought, naming everyone and reminiscing about when I was growing up with Grandma and Grandpa taking care of me.  I cherish the sleepovers, the BART trips to San Francisco, and the frequent Arby's stops for oreo polar swirls!  Also Grandpa letting me pull up the emergency brake at every traffic stop so that he could rest his feet.  Hehe.  Even though we spent a good 4 hours with Grandma, she still couldn't remember my name, but she was able to name all my siblings so that was good.  She loved watching Kaylana and kept saying how pretty she was.  I thoroughly enjoyed our reunion.  Before going home we hit up Wal-Mart and Don Quixote for some groceries to get us through the week so we could take advantage of having a kitchen.  We were quite surprised when we got to Walmart and found the shelves more than half empty.  I told Rigo "Gosh, this Walmart SUCKS at restocking their shelves."  So after this awesome store called Don Quixote (kinda like a Japanese Walmart-y type grocery spot) we headed home to settle.  When we got to our hotel room, we got a bunch of texts and calls from family members back home...is everything okay, what's the news there?  Rigo and I were like, huh?  We turned on the news to see the horrific events in Japan and the tsunami warning for Hawaii.  WELL, that explained the lack of food items in Walmart.  Silly us, huh?  I laugh, but it is something to be admired that the people of Hawaii strive to be prepared for the possibility of danger.  We were advised by the hotel staff to remain in our rooms, and since we were on the 9th floor, we were told not to worry.  When we looked up the map we saw that we were just past the border of evacuation, for which we were grateful.  That night we didn't sleep well, as the tsunami warning alarms were going off every hour in addition to our anxiety about what might be going on.  Fortunately, all we saw on the news was the tide rise in Waikiki, but no ginormous waves or flooding.  The tsunami warning/advisory was cancelled at 8am, but Rigo and I decided to stay away from the beach that day.  Since Friday was supposed to be beach day, we instead hit up the local Costco and got to know the area.  It was just a chill and relax day, the kind that we love to have (but rarely do with wanting to sightsee, play, and all) during vacation.

On Saturday we went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, where I got a couple super cute signs for removing your shoes and one that said I am a child of God.  Also a license plate frame, some hair flowers, earrings, and kukui nut necklaces.  Oh yea, and what I was looking really forward to getting in Hawaii: SCRUBS!  I love the beautiful patterns of Hawaii and even when the regular scrub stores here try to do a Hawaiian style print, it's just not the same.  Especially for $9 a top!  That's a steal!  Comparable ones are around $20 here, so I was excited.  We managed to spend less than 3 hours going around the whole flea market (my sister who came to Hawaii the week before spent only 2 hours and said she only got through 1/4 of the whole stadium!  I think she was looking at every single thing...haha).  Since we were walking in the sun, we went home to shower before going to my cousin, Sonya's house in Mililani.  It was nice cuz she lives in an area that's less hustle and bustle with real community neighborhoods.  Made me wanna live there.  Haha...if I could survive living on an island smaller than the Bay Area 2,000 miles away from my family, and Rigo's.  I only say that because you know if you only stay in Honolulu, it seems so cramped cuz you know, it's not a huge island and hello, it's Hawaii!  Anyhow...it was fun cuz in addition to Sonya's family, my cousin James and his family were there, along with Jenn and Paul and my cousins who are attending BYU-Hawaii, Janelle and Jessica (yeah I have a lot of cousins - I think 64-and that's just first cousins).  I finally met James' wife, Melissa, whose blog I often read...it was nice to put a real voice and face to the stories!  Hehe.  The kiddies were so darn cute.  After having some yummy food we played a couple games that were super fun.  We were laughing having such a good time...they will definitely be played again during our family and friend get togethers here.  The kids kept occupied with all the fun toys, and honestly just with each other.  It was nice.  The following day we all got together again, this time at my Auntie Tessie's house.  More hecka good food and fun times reminiscing and catching up.  Gotta love family.  I think it is great that even though we don't see each other for years, when we do get together again it is like we just pick up where we left off and just enjoy each other's company.  I was thinking of how when I was younger we had these huge family reunions (Grandma Selfaison had 8 kids) and all us grandkids would run around and have a blast.  I was in the middle age group so I remember watching little ones run around and the older ones wanting to go out.  Haha.  When I look at our family reunion pics I just laugh cuz we were so young and things were different.  Now we all have our own families and it is a trip to watch our kids run around and play with each other.  I love it!  I wish we had more family get together with everyone.  Unfortunately my family is spread out all over the country so it makes things difficult when you have your own young ones to take care of.  But when the opportunity arises, I am grateful we are able to take advantage.

So I got through half the week we were in Hawaii but I have to put Kaylana to bed so I will continue this later...