11.17.2010

Iolani Palace & Capitol Building

Our friend, Steven, came to visit us (and bring our cat to us! But that's another post for another day...). He stayed for five days, and we tried to cram as much Oahu sight-seeing as possible in those five days. Mother Nature didn't agree with our plans most of the time, though, and we were rained out on pretty much everything we tried to do.

The first full day Steven was here, we tried to hike Diamond Head crater. It was raining most of the morning, and when it finally stopped, there were still tons of clouds around the crater. The main point of the hike is the awesome view at the top, so we decided against it for the day. We were already in the downtown area, so we decided to take a tour of the Iolani Palace (it was indoors!)

This is Jeremy and Steven in front of the palace.


And Jeremy and I.


This is the "Coronation Gazebo".


This is the gate to the palace.


Across the street is the capitol building. We did not go inside it, but we did take a couple pictures - it's pretty!


This statue is Kamehameha I.



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11.16.2010

Gavin's adventures....

We took Gavin to a classmate's birthday party in September, and he broke his arm. He was playing on the bouncy castle, and had a misadventure. Luckily the emergency room was really close, and we were well taken care of.

Gavin had to get xrays to check out the break, and then they put a splint on him. We had to follow up with Orthopedics later.


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11.15.2010

New Ceiling Fan

Our lanai (fancy Hawaiian word for porch thing) needed a ceiling fan. It gets hot in there, especially during the afternoon. As you know, ceiling fans are fairly expensive. But we got lucky and found a really cheap one at a garage sale. 

This is the original light fixture. Not too great.


And this is the cheap fan we found. Cute huh? Jeremy actually wanted to leave it like this, but I didn't let him.



I wanted to paint it, so I took it apart as much as I could (ok, as much as I felt like).



I spray painted the fan blades black, let them dry, and then painted the other sides.



Then I let them sit in the lanai for a few days. Jeremy got a little impatient, so he helped me paint the rest of the fan. I may have to do that more often. ;)






And Jeremy installed the new fan for me! Yay for guys who know how to install electrical things! (I can do a lot, but electrical just isn't one of my fortes.)



And here's my new fan in action! Isn't it so much nicer?




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11.14.2010

Hailey's Birthday

Colette has made a really good friend since we moved to Hawaii. Hailey is in her class, and the two girls hang out all the time.

Hailey had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and we all went. This picture is Colette and Hailey with Chuck e Cheese.





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11.13.2010

Soft Pretzels

We made soft pretzels a while back, and they turned out awesome! They weren't the prettiest pretzels ever, but they tasted so good. We used this recipe from CDKitchen. 

It sounds intimidating, but it's not hard... and the results are so worth it!

Here are some of our pretzels before baking.



This isn't the best picture, but I let Colette spread butter on the baked pretzels. Then I sprinkled them with sea salt.

They are soo good!

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11.12.2010

Sea Turtles! (North Shore)

Wow, it's been forever since I posted! The thing is, I've had a ton of stuff I've meant to post, but...... yeah. I can't even say that I've been too busy, I just haven't felt like it. But know I'm trying to play catch up.

We went to this beach on the North Shore, and saw a ton of sea turtles. I mean, I can't even tell you how many we saw. It was so cool, they would swim around you, and come right up to you!

I don't know the name of this beach, it's one of those that you park on the side of the road, and the beach is on the other side. It's beautiful, though, and I got some great pictures!

The pictures of the turtles aren't zoomed in or cropped. That's actually how close I got. It was the coolest thing. :)



Yeah, I'm a dork. I was pretty excited about seeing the turtles up close.


Gavin spends most of the time when we are at the beach playing in the sand.


Colette is so funny, she's been striking a pose whenever I try to take a picture of her.


Isn't my hair awesome? Hawaii humidity is insane. The other day, weather.com said we had 93% humidity. Yeah, try to tame your hair with that! It just isn't happening. :P


I hardly ever get good pictures of Jeremy & I. But I like this one.


See, isn't this beach just beautiful? Doesn't it make you want to come visit me?


I had fancy toes, and I had to take another picture of my toes in the sand. I love those pictures.


Gavin is so white & his hair is so blond - we have to put sunblock all in his hair, so he won't get a sunburn on his scalp. So he always looks like a little surfer guy at the beach. :)





This turtle was just hanging out on the rocks.


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