Aloha

Aloha means hello, goodbye and I love you. Lorrie and I left on Jan 6th for our trip to Hawaii to go see Toni/Andre and Brandt/Amy and their families. We were so excited to say Aloha (hello) to them and Aloha (I love you) we said many times, but so sad when it was time to say Aloha for the last time as we were leaving. It was a good trip and we had lots of fun. For the first days I spent most of my time at Brandt and Amy's house and Lorrie stayed with Toni and Andre. Then we traded and I went to Toni's and Lorrie went to "The Other Lancasters". Actually I said Aloha for the last time sooner than Lorrie did. I left a week earlier than Lorrie. She was lucky enough to be able to take more time off than myself. Most everyday we all got together and went somewhere on the island and had fun just being together. The kids were good, but I am sure they got tired of being in the cars and their car seats. The events listed below are not necessarily in order of the days that we went.

Lorrie and I went to the Polynesian Culture Center. It was a great day. We saw lots as we walked around to the different areas that represented the different islands of Samoa, Figi, New Zeland, Hawaii, Tahiti and Tonga. It was fun to see their different dances and modes of living.
We went to the LDS temple (which was closed) and we saw the temple grounds and went into the visitors center. It was a nice visitors center and had a Christus that you saw when you first walked in. It was awesome. We went to a buffet later that evening and then to the evening program which was very good. The best part was the fire dance that they did. I wish I could have taken pictures of it, but we were so far up and it was so dark they wouldn't have turned out so I didn't even try.

These pictures are taken of the river program. We watched as the different islands presented themselves in their costumes and did their dances for us, as they went up and down the river.

Lorrie and I in front of a big bunch of coconuts

On the dinner cruise. Lorrie, Brandt, Amy and myself all went on a dinner cruise. It was a lot of fun and we had a good dinner of chicken, rice and salad. The only bad thing that happened here was that our cameras batteries died. Now what a fluke that both cameras die at the same time. We did get a few pictures, but there was a beautiful sunset and some whales that we didn't get.
The dancers

We got a complimentary non alcoholic Mai Tai. It was very good

We headed out earlier than usual, so we could climb Diamond Head before it got too hot. Andre carrie Olivia on his back, Toni carried Elena and a backpack and Bella walked. They all did great. This was Elena's first hike. She did great!
Diamond Head

Livie is just totally limp on her dad's back

Pictures of the waves beating upon the ocean. I loved the ocean and the waves. They were just beautiful.

This is a sunrise that Amy and I saw after we had taken Brandt to work. We sat on the beach and watched the sun come up and listened to the waves come in and out and watched the sand crabs digging. It was so peaceful and relaxing.

We went to the Flea Market to see what we could see. Just about everything we saw in one booth we saw in the next, but it was still fun to wander around the big long line of vendors.
Flea Market

Toni and Andre blessed Elena on Sunday and we were happy to be a part of it. I was surprised at how big of a ward they had. And of course the people were friendly and welcoming. I loved the church that they had-the halls were all outdoors. I thought how appropriate for a Hawaiin church.
Elena's Blessing Day

Amy, Brandt and myself went to the Royal Birthing Stones on Oahu. Here is some interesting info about the stones. This is the most sacred site in central Oahu. For 800 years, this is where the Royal women were brought to give birth to potential alii (Were managers of people and land and were thought to be gods). It is believed that all children of royal lineage were thrice blessed and elevated to a higher status if born at KuKani Loko, the center of the earth. Also, the rocks, according to Hawaiin belief, held the power to painless childbirth. Birth rituals included 48 chiefs who pounded drums to announce the arrival of newborns who were likely to become chiefs and the chiefs also were the ones who would give the oral recitation of the birth, since nothing was written at that time. Some of the stones were used to map stars and seasonal changes.

Birthing Stones

When the baby was born a runner would take it and run about 500 ft. to this place where they would then bury the umbilical cord and placenta

This is a flowering bush that was at the site where the placentas were buried. Very unusual and exotic
We then went to Wahiawa where the Keanianileihuaokalani healing stone is. Tradition says: When the most sacred of Mo'i, wahine, (the royal women) after childbirth, would bath in the cool springs of Haelmano. It was this mingling of blood and water culminated into the healing mystic rains that fell upon the land, people and most importantly Keanianileihuaokalani giving the healing stone its healing powers. On the day of a royal birth, all work stopped in anticipation of the first healing rains that would be generated from the blessed event.

We went to Pearl Harbor and took the tour over to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was pretty awesome to know that over 1,000 soldiers died within minutes on that ship and over 2,000 total.
Pearl Harbor

One little monkey with another little monkey on his back

We were glad Austin came with us. Not sure how many times he has seen this, but he was a good sport and accompanied us that day

On the boat that took us out to the memorial

When you are on the memorial, you can look down and see the USS Arizona where the 1,000 sailors are buried

I love the way Livie sits like this

Part of the USS Arizona

Livie with her little Baa that she just loves so much

Bella with her Pound Puppy that she loves too

Went to the one of the beaches to see if we could find any turtles. They often come onto the beach to bask in the sun. We were lucky because 35 year old Butus, the sea turtle was basking in the sun. They have him roped off so no one can get too close because he will bite you and bite hard. We were also able to see some other turtles swimming in the ocean. It was pretty cool.

Of course we had to make a trip to the Dole Plantation. We took pictures, walked around and had some pineapple ice cream that we all shared. Mmmm mmmmm good. We all enjoyed that.
Dole Plantation

This strange tree is a eucalyptus tree. It was very interesting with all the different colors on the trunk

And of course we had to feed Goldfish Coy.

A baby pineapple

We went to one of the Botanical Gardens. What we saw was very pretty but we were quite disappointed because there wasn't too much to see. We started out on the upper level but couldn't get the stroller down to the lower level. When we asked one of the people there she said that we shouldn't take kids down to the lower level. So that was that and we left.

This is a eucalyptus tree

Look how big the leaves are compared to Livie

I thought this was a really unique plant

standing in a bamboo grove

My last night there I was going to go camping with Brandt and Amy on the beach. However Andre was told he was going to have to work all night and since I was there to help Toni I decided I had better not camp overnight and stay and help her out. However, Toni, the girls and myself went to the Bellows camp site where the Lancasters and Lorrie were camping and we had a barbeque and the kids played on the beach and then they played hide and seek in the dark. Needless to say they had a ball and when it was time to leave there were two little girls that were not very happy.











Some Parting shots