Back to 24 Hour Fitness

Here's our 24 Hour Fitness location. It smaller than the Pasadena location we're used to. No basketball courts or indoor pool. Although I must say the machines seemed cleaner. Sherri, Shayna and I noticed that after someone uses a machine the person will wipe down the machine with paper towel and a cleaning spray (maybe rubbing alcohol). That was good to see.

The 2 girls and I walked/jogged on the treadmill, bicycled and lifted weights. I had a good time with Sherri & Shayna but I miss my exercise gal pals. Where are you Stephy, Leah Beth and Jennifer!

Josh finishes Summer School

Josh finished summer school today. He has 2 weeks off before starting the year-round school year. Poor boy, he left his Pasadena school 3 days before the end, because he had to start summer school the next day after our arrival.

This is Josh at the end of summer Band Concert. Band is the very reason why he got a geographic exception to attend his former school in the district we used to live in. Doesn't he look good in his aloha shirt?!

Josh is enjoying connecting with old friends. Josh left Hawaii in the 2nd grade and he's really changed in the 4 years we were gone. One amazing reunion was his best friend in preschool - Luciano.

The Grandkids ...

So here are more pics of the grandkids. I've been spending my days watching the kids. We've been enjoying them and their parents as they've been sleeping over and spending 24/7 with us. I guess you can say we're making up for lost time.

Maicah is growing attached to me and you can say, I LOVE it! Guy & I are affectionately called "G-pa" & "G-ma" short for grand-pa and grand-ma. Maicah loves ice cream so that's his G-pa time with Guy since Guy does have a sweet tooth for ice cream.

I truly LOVE having our kids and grandkids around. The house gets messy but who cares!

Knowing the landmarks

The other day I realized that I am truly back in Hawaii when I was giving my cousin directions to our place. In Hawaii, we are directional challenged when using north, south, east, west, exit numbers, etc. Our directions are based on landmarks for example, mango tree, green house, elementary school, etc.

This urged me to take a picture of what we use as a landmark to give directions to our place. So, if I were to give you directions, I would tell you, from the H-3 (or highway 3 - we only have three highways: H-1, H-2, or H-3), turn right at Burger King on the corner. So here is the infamous Burger King that you would turn right at. Do you see the Koolau mountains in the back drop? Yes, we're that close to the mountains.

Complete directions to our house would be: from H-3, turn right at Burger King, then a left before Hawaiian Memorial park, just pass the old folks home. Of course, we'd throw in a few pidgin words like, "eh", "da kine", and "you know".

Only in Hawaii ...

4th of July ~ on the Pacific Ocean

Thank God we live in AMERICA!

Our 4th of July was spent on the Pacific Ocean, on our friend Billy's boat. About 3:30pm in the afternoon we left the boat harbor and sailed to a spot in front of Waikiki Beach. We anchored to let everyone swim. We even got to see spinner dolphins in the water but I couldn't get to the camera in time. I made it though without getting seasick. About 830pm the spectacular fireworks show at Ala Moana beach began. Since the fireworks are launched from the beach toward the ocean, we had front row view (from the ocean) of the fireworks. Very cool way to spend our 4th of July!

Maicah & Pohai

Our family is enjoying Maicah and Pohai. We are bias - they are the cutest kids! Pohai looks exactly like her brother.

We are having fun with all the funny things Maicah says.

Mango Season

This is what we've missed in Hawaii. FREE, FRESH fruits! We already have had 3 deliveries of mangoes from several different people. Plus 2 papayas and lychees. This picture is only a small portion of what we've gotten. Our kitchen sink would have been overflowing if we had filled it up with all that we've gotten.

Hawaiian pidgin word for the day: delicious = ono

The Transformation

Our family and friends literally felt like this was an HGTV show. Stressful! Here is the HGTV transformation of our living room and dining room. A lot of blood, sweat and tears!

Hawaiian word for the day: good = maika'i

Our Arrival in Hawaii

It's been 16 days since our departure from Pasadena. It's been non-stop go-go-go. More shopping for supplies to do minor renovations, painting, cleaning and household changes. We got the keys on Friday, June 20th and stepped into major HGTV mode. We called in the crew of family and friends and we did a major overhaul. We called in every "favor" for help. We had 3 full days to get the ugly smoked pink mirror tiles removed (thank God in the 70s they used double stick tape and not glue), the wall repaired, the walls painted and the laminate wood flooring installed before our shipment would arrived. Our shipment came on time on the 24th and everyone was ready to unload. You could stay we pretty much shocked our family and friends with how much stuff we had. We unloaded in an hour and had our beds set-up as first things first. That was priority!

Hawaiian pidgin word of the day: CHOKE = plentiful, abundant
"We get choke stuff in the container."