Hawaii Temple

Arnie and I are in Hawaii and had planned to go to the temple yesterday. We have been taking the bus everywhere and after a long circle-island bus ride, discovered that the temple has been under construction for the past 16 months! We did get to see the newly renovated visitors' center and see a cool 5 min film about the history of Laie, the temple, BYU-H and the PCC.

Arnie walking up the road to the temple

Arnie's head is hiding the scaffolding.

Of course, there is always lots of beautiful flowers.

Happy Birthday Malia!

Malia had her 9th birthday on Monday, April 12th. Grandma and Papa Hammari were there along with her Auntie Crystal and her two boys, Wyatt and Peyton. She asked for a puppy cake. I had the idea for coloring coconut green for grass and putting plastic puppies on top. The credit for bringing my idea to life goes solely to Auntie Crystal, though. She found the cute little puppies and actually made the cake! So a million thanks to her for putting this huge smile on Malia's face.

Malia with her "Puppy Cake"

Easter Egg Hunt

The neighborhood Easter bunny distributed around 500 plastic eggs around the neighborhood last night. This brought my children out of their beds early this morning to scour the grass and playground for any stitch of colored plastic. Kaitlyn felt inclined to get dressed up for the occasion. Jessica didn't gather as many eggs as the other children because she felt it necessary to shout out to her friend Will every time she found one.

I am holding the bag for Jessica

Bethany on the hunt!

Malia scaling the heights for the hard to get candy!

Oh! the simple joys of youth!

Kaitlyn loves her new dress!

Kaitlyn amidst the bounty

My runner

I wonder sometimes why I still push a stroller around anymore. Jessica's preferred method of travel is fast or faster. It is only when she wants to slow down that she will get in the stroller and you can probably guess how often that happens. I keep telling Arnie that he should focus his attention encouraging our budding track star, now that he has been forced to take it easy on his own running career.

Jessi running ahead

Dennis the Menace Park

There is a big park here in Monterey called the "Dennis the Menace" playground. The last time I had gone, it had rained. Today it was a sunny and the girls had a blast. This is the type of playground where it was impossible for me to station myself in one location and see all of it. Good thing I was following them taking pictures :)

Jessi stepping in the train

Kaitlyn modeling the train

Bethany on top with a couple of her friends
(she didn't jump around like them though! phew!)

All of the girls going down the "roller" slide

Jessi not so sure about the roller slide

This was a favorite (obviously)

Jessi up on the bridge

Kaitlyn and Malia on the big bridge

Kindergartners and the Aquarium

Back at the beginning of March, I had the opportunity to chaperon Kaitlyn's class the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I had gone as a chaperon with Malia's class and thought it was only fair. However, in Malia's case, with a class of eleven, I only had to take care of her. Not so in this field trip! I had decided to save gas and parking money and ride the bus with Kaitlyn, my first mistake. Also, I had to watch three other innocent looking girls from her class. (HA!!!) I spent the majority of the time chancing the little buggers through the crowded school-age child infested aquarium wondering if their mothers had installed ear plugs in their ears to perhaps protect their delicate hearing systems from hearing their frantic chaperon's pleas to stay with me and to not lean so far over the edge of the ray tank! I am happy to say that I managed to come out with the same amount of kids that I went in with and they were relatively unscathed from their adventures. I, however, was very glad that I brought an Excedrin.

Kaitlyn's Kindergarten class

My group as barnacles

Kaitlyn mesmerized by some anemones

A view of some of Kaitlyn's school mates across the "touch the ray" pool

Kaitlyn being hoisted up to see the otter and the pup she is playing with.

A cool school of sardines....they let them into the large tank since theirs was being cleaned.

My group of hoodlums! Don't let those cute faces fool ya!

Cousins at the Beach

Arnie's brother Josh and his family came to visit us last weekend and we had a full house, a full weekend and a blast! The girls woke up at 5:30am on Saturday to find the power was out and watched the sunrise. After a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and gravy provided by Anna, we were off to Carmel beach to play in the sand while Arnie surfed. We also went to the tide pools of Asilomar and got nice and wind blown. Our girls enjoyed introducing their Minnesota cousins to the beaches and educating them about the wildlife that they have come to love. Because of the high wind and waves, we weren't able to see any sea otters, though. Maybe on another trip.

Kids watching hermit crabs at the tide pools

The huge waves against the rocks at Asilomar

The whole gang at the tide pools of Asilomar

Kaitlyn and Eli goofing off on the rocks

Josh and Luke watching Arnie surfing in Carmel.

A Bethany sugar cookie

Malia, Jessi, Bethany and Henri daring the waves to mess with their sand castle.