Fun With Cousins

On our way home from Branson, we stopped at my sister's house. The kids enjoyed some fun with sprinklers and water guns. My niece and nephew prepared a birthday party for the girls, complete with signs and a place to sit to open presents. It was so sweet!

Silver Dollar City

Here's Ladybug after riding Wildfire. See the loops in the background that we did!

Here's our group trying to decide which way to go:
Here's Ladybug after riding Thunderation as we were waiting on the other children to ride again.

Activities

When we arrived in Branson, we headed straight to the hotel since we were an hour ahead of schedule. The hotel staff kindly unloaded our luggage in the pouring rain! From there we went to the Dixie Stampede. I don't have pictures from there because I was too busy eating the yummy food! For those of you who are not familiar with the menu - all the food is eaten with your hands - there is no silverware. I think all the kids enjoyed that!

After the show, we returned to the hotel and the kids enjoyed swimming together. It was a good thing that we went swimming that evening because the rest of the evenings were stormy or too late to swim!

The next day was the choir performance at the 60s Show on the previous post. After that, the children ate at Pizza World where they also enjoyed go carts, miniature golf and arcade games. Since it was storming and we were not able to swim, my room decided to have a girls night in our room. We invited several other girls their age to join us. We popped popcorn, ate M&Ms, had Root beer, watched tv and played games together.

Thursday was the trip to Silver Dollar City. I'll post photos of that on a separate post. Ladybug was a trooper. The first ride that our group wanted to ride was the Wildfire. Wildfire is the largest roller coaster in the park and has upside down loops. All of our group went on that ride right away. Ladybug was scared to death! She watched the 2nd time as some of the other children rode again. The went to the American Plunge next and cooled off with the water ride. Ladybug enjoyed that one. Next we rode Fire in the Hole. She was ok with that one although the occasional drops surprised her. The declined riding the Powder Keg. She did ride Thunderation since everyone was riding. She said over and over that she did not like that rollercoaster - it was too scary! She also told me that Wildfire is not a ride for a beginning roller coaster rider! So, I think we have established that she really doesn't like roller coasters. :)

In the evening we went to the Haygoods Show. They are a family - 7 brothers and 1 sister who do a variety type show. It was fantastic! They are incredibly talented and full of energy. Everyone had a fun evening!

Friday morning we loaded up the bus and the children headed to a retirement center in Springfield. They entertained the residents there and then headed for home. Brian and Ladybug caught a ride back with a family friend and we spent several more days in Branson with my parents and Brian's parents. We celebrated his Mom and Dad's birthdays and Butterfly's as well.

Choir Tour Performance

The Children's Choir went on a tour to Branson. Here is the theatre where they performed. They were the pre-show to the #1 Hits of the 60s Show. They did a great job!

This is a picture of the choir at their photo shoot:

How to Occupy my Girls

I don't think the kittens are getting any rest. My kids are having SOOOO much fun!

Aren't they cute?!

4th Birthday

Panda wanted her birthday party at Papa John's. So we invited her best friend and her family and enjoyed an evening at Papa John's.

It snowed on Panda's birthday, so some of the family was unable to come. But, we still celebrated with those who were here and had a great time. Here's her kitty cake. I made it and was please with how it turned out for as simple as it was. She seemed to like it too! I can't believe my baby is 4 already!

The 10th Day of Christmas

Sunday:
Since we'll be getting ready to get back on the airplane and head back home, I'm sure I won't have time to publish a post - so, this is a scheduled post. :)

I couldn't leave Hawaii without catching the sunset on the beach. So, I'll share it with all of you. It was just beautiful. (this was actually taken on Friday)

We leave at around 8 p.m. and get home on Monday morning. That will be the long part. And then the yucky part will be returning to the cold weather. I have absolutely LOVED this weather.

This is such a beautiful place to vacation, but as we talked to people, it is not such a fun place to actually live. Most people have to hold down several jobs to come close to making a living here. Cost of living is super expensive. If I ever get back, though, I want to go to a different island and just sit on a beach. I loved seeing all the sights we got to see, but I would love to just enjoy the scenery.

So, it's back to reality and back to getting completely behind on my blog. Hope you enjoyed following our vacation. I plan to upload a more photos to facebook sometime after I get back.

The 9th Day of Christmas

Saturday's activities:
*We hiked Diamond Head this morning in two shifts so that the guys and the big kids could go snokeling at Hanauma Bay. That is why you don't see Brian in these pictures. :) We left Panda behind - we weren't sure she could make this hike. It would have been pretty taxing for her. The bottom pictures are the view from the top looking toward Waikiki. It was just beautiful. Pictures just don't quite capture it.
*This afternoon the girls went with Gma and Gpa to the zoo while the others were snorkeling. I staying behind to clean, organize, shop and enjoy some time alone which I get so rarely at home. :) I think I'll even walk down to the beach in a bit and enjoy some more time there!

The 8th Day of Christmas

Thursday's activies:
*Slept in after being sick. But felt much better.
*Went to the Waikiki aquarium. It was really nice. Don't you love that giant clam?
*Walked back along Waikiki beach, ate lunch and rested. Heading back to the beach in a bit. Got to soak up all the sun I can. Sounds like it's going to be really cold when we return!

The 7th Day of Christmas

Thursday's activities:
*Went to the Polynesian Culture Center. Here's a picture of the 5 of us, the canoe ride, and Panda throwing a spear. I missed part of the activities because by the time we got to Samoa, I was throwing up in their plants. Rebecca and Jeanette were also sick, so we spent time in their little first aid resting station. (they had very comfortable beds) We missed the luau and the evening show and we so miserable that we didn't really care! The drive to the PCC was so much fun. We rode the bus and had a great driver who gave us a tour as we went. We had many different beach views.

The 6th Day of Christmas

Wednesday's Activities:
*Went to Pearl Harbor. Jeanette, Rebecca, Panda and I also made a side trip to the swap meet in the stadium and found some cheap t-shirts and a few other things. It's amazing to see the size of the ship. Brian and the other 2 girls also went to see the USS Bowfish Submarine. Panda was too young which is why she went to the swap meet with us.

The 5th Day of Christmas

Tuesday's activites:

*Brian had a success run at surfing - see above. He had a great time. I went to Walmart and helped get some things stocked up for our units - food, etc.
*In the afternoon, we were all tired so we let the kids rest and watch a movie and then we walked down Waikiki beach for a while.

The 4th Day of Christmas

Monday's events:
*Kevin, Jeanette, Janet and I went together to get the Kevin and Jeanette's rental van. The plan was to go to Walmart on the way back to pick up some food. We decided to take a side trip to a couple of beautiful beaches. (top two pictures) We had a hard time leaving. Those are the beaches you want to visit when you come to Hawaii. Much less busy and in a more natural setting.
*Came home and ate lunch and then we set out for Manoa Falls. It was a long bus ride via the city bus system, but we arrived and started our hike. The hike went through a rain forest on a path. The path was a lot of work to climb in certain locations. Brian's parent gave up after about half the climb. Panda made it all the way to the top - she was such a trooper. Ladybug, Butterfly and their cousin, Giraffe (she just came up with her nickname) posed for the picture above. The last picture is the top off the falls as it came down into a pool. It was really pretty.
*We ate a quick supper, showered and went to bed.

The 3rd Day of Christmas

Sunday's Events:
*Slept in - we were SOOO tired!
*Got up and ate breakfast and planned the day.
*Ate lunch in a food court. I had a Hawaiian taco salad and found pineapple salsa. MMMM - it was so delicious!
*In the afternoon we went to the beach and just played - as you can see from the photos. We had such a great time. The girls played so hard. Panda fell asleep before we could get to supper.
*We ate all together at Ihop. The girls devoured their entire meal. They love pancakes and all the beach play made them very hungry.
*Then to bed. No problem getting girls to sleep. :)

On the Second Day of Christmas

We got everyone up at 3 a.m. (I had stayed up all night) My friend came and took us to the airport at 3:45 a.m. Everything went smooth at the ticket counter. Security was ok - although they fed us through the family line and said it would be quicker - but, it was not! All the people they were patting down were sent to that line too. I felt bad as we passed them, because we got right through after waiting in line. Brian's parents and brother caught up with us.

The girls LOVED their first plane ride. The trip to Dallas was very smooth. Once in Dallas, we changed gates THREE times and made it to the 3rd gate change shortly before boarding began! Once on the plane, we waited... the plane had apparently sat too long. They had to run the engine and the let it sit so they could check the oil before we left. We departed and 8 plus hours later we arrived.

Wow! What a climate change. It was warm and humid. I LOVE it! The walkways between the gates and baggage claim are open. That was kind of interesting - can't do that where we live!

We arrived at the resort. It's so busy here. We walked down to the beach, found a Subway for supper and ate it on the beach. The kids played in the sand.

Panda said, after going down to the ocean, "Mom, the water came to me!" It was so cute.

After being up for 42 hours straight, I crashed. I'm looking forward to enjoying the sun and the warm weather! More later, hopefully including pictures!