AALLLLOOOOOOHHHAA!

We made it to Oahu, and it was NOT easy getting here, I can not tell you. The day before we arrived, it took literally all day to pack everything up to bring here. We packed a few suitcases, and put the rest in boxes. I had to take advantage of every last pound possible, and could not even allow for the 10 extra pounds a suitcase holds. I was SO tired by the end of the night, that my mom was asking if certain things were going, and I just said no. I'm leaving it. I couldn't even keep my eyes open for ONE MORE SECOND! I went to go put the kids up to bed, and ended up falling asleep, waking up at 12:30am and realizing I had slept way too long! When I went downstairs, I found my mom still awake in her computer room doing some work, and she said she had done everything! I could not believe it. The car was all packed up, and I could actually rest a few hours! It was a good thing we had packed the car the night before, because we woke up the next morning to rain...and not just sprinkles, but POURING! Thankfully we made it to the airport uneventfully! The flight, however, was NOT my favorite thing. There were only about 50 of us on the plane, which was really nice, cuz we could all have our own rows, but we ended up checking in the car seats, which I won't do next time, and that caused huge problems. Because of the turbulence, they NEVER turned the seatbelt sign off. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to have a 2 year old SIT for 5 hours....straight?! I don't know WHY I didn't drug them this time. I guess I thought they would get tired on their own and sleep. They eventually did, but OF COURSE, at different times. I was glad when we finally arrived! I am sure my mom and I looked like lunatics! We each had a carry on, plus personal item, the car seats, and the stroller. And when I said each, I mean the babies too! And, unfortunately, Hawaiian Airlines' terminal is quite a distance from the main terminal. It would have taken MUCH longer to board the shuttle, than to just walk...so, we did it. Luke felt the need to pull his sisters suitcase, which is pink, by the way...so you can only imagine how his mother felt! At that point, I honestly just didn't care. I was just anxious to get to our final destination! I was able to pick up my car, which had gotten there a few days before, we headed to my grandma's for a little while to say hi and visit, and then headed out to the north shore. We were glad to see Nathan, and I am sure he was even more glad to see us!

We had a VERY warm welcome! All of our neighbors are SO nice! As soon as they had seen we arrived, a bunch of the guys around came out to help unload the car! We were able to do it so fast, and since we really didn't bring much more than clothes, and some toys, the unpacking process was a breeze. We are lucky to be staying in a place right now that is already furnished, so that I don't have to hurry and rush to find the essentials. We got the proper Aloha that night, let me tell you! As soon as it got dark, we had the WORST storm I have ever been in! I was honestly so scared we were going to have a hurricane! Because I am not really aware of the SIGNS of a hurricane, and the winds were blowing SO hard, and it was raining SO hard, I thought FOR SURE we were in for one. I thought, great, what a GREAT way to start out here! The storm lasted what seemed like ALL night, and I just kept seeing lightening what seemed like every second, and heard EVERYTHING blowing around outside. At some point, the power went out, and when we woke up the next morning, found out that all the power on the windward side of the island (which happens to be OUR side) went out. You can imagine how excited I was about that, especially since the night before we had just bought $250.00 worth of groceries, which, in case you were wondering, doesn't get you much. I have learned that you need to do your shopping at Costco and Walmart, which are both an hour away, to keep the costs down. An example, a gallon of milk here costs $5.00. I used to pay $6.00 for 2 on the mainland. My children drink about a gallon a day. I'm hopeful they will take a LOVING to water! LOL We decided that since all the schools and everything else were closed down for the day that we should head into town and make the trek to Walmart. We were successful in buying almost everything we needed, as well as spending entirely too much money. So, on top of the grocery shop that cost a lot for not very much, and our big purchases at Walmart, our car battery decided to die. We had gone almost 4 years without ever having to replace it, which was nice, but I guess I didn't feel like spending yet ANOTHER $100 on a car battery. I can think of a lot more things I would have like to have gotten! We had a great time together in town, and shopping around, and went to my new favorite mall, Ala Moana, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Nordstrom will finally be coming to the island in March of 2008! Hooray! The mall is filled with just about every other store you could possibly want, so I guess it's a good thing that its an hour away so that I don't spend ALL my time there!

We headed to my grandma's house afterwards to go visit her, and have dinner. So, something fun happened on our way to her house. She lives at the end of a private road right on the beach, and as we were entering the private road, out comes Matthew Fox in all of his spandex glory riding his bike! It was raining hard, but I could tell it was him even with him squinting his eyes to keep the rain out! I yelled to Nathan, Oh my gosh, that's Matthew Fox! He turns to me like, yeah,? who cares! So when I went to my grandma's house, I was talking to one of her care takers who informed me that he lives right around the corner from my grandma...you know, RIGHT NEXT to Oprah's house! Um....WHY did I not know that EITHER ONE of them live right by her! I asked my grandma if she took Oprah cookies when she moved in, and she laughed and said she didn't think Oprah ever came to that house! ha ha. I drove by both houses, and sure enough it is the one house Oprah owns in Hawaii that looks like a big plantation. For some reason I thought that she lived in Lanikai, which is a very expensive area not too far from where my Grandma lives. In fact, I thought Matthew Fox ALSO lived there. It turns out the majority of the LOST actors live in Kailua. Maybe I will have some more "STAR" sightings! Anyway, we helped my grandma decorate her Christmas tree, which was really fun for me, since we really aren't decorating around here. It's sad, I know. We did put a little artificial tree up, but honestly, we won't even be here the last 2 weeks of December, and we have NO room to store ANYTHING....even if I WANTED to buy Christmas decorations. I just put some bows on the tree, and I think actually I will pop some popcorn later, and have the kids string some popcorn, and put that on the tree....until I find some aunts and cockroaches and then its coming down! It rained almost every day of last week, our first week here.

We went to dinner in Haliewa for my uncle Troy's 50th birthday. It was fun to be with his family, and I have to say, I really love living so close to family. My mom left on Saturday which we were all really sad about, but we will see her in just a few weeks. My sisters tell me that its amazing how much you see my parents when you live in Hawaii. I know I will see my dad once a month, but I hope my mom will be able to make it over fairly often as well. Saturday was our first day that was actually sunny and no rain until the evening. The kids have been going stir crazy in small quarters and I knew we were going to HAVE to do something to get them out of the house, so what other fun activity could we do than go to the beach?! I loved laying out in 85 degree weather, although, I have to say, I do get a little bit jealous when I see everyone elses blogs about their first snows. I miss the snow so much, especially at this time of year!

Here they are, waiting for the waves to break by them, so they can RUN!

After getting taken out a few times, she was finally done. Can you believe she was actually ASKING to go home? Not THIS water baby! She was ready for a nap!

Later Saturday night, we went over to our friends, the Kantoes house for a little Christmas party. It was fun meeting their friends, and getting to know more people around here! Our ward is great. I think its always hard to change wards, especially when you are so familiar with your own, but there are some of the nicest people in our ward. The only current downfall is that church starts at 8:00am, which, with twins, makes it REALLY hard to get to on time, but are grateful that the time will change in January. I spent my first Sunday of course in Nursery, mainly for Luke. I am hopeful at some point, he will branch out a little more like his sister, and not have quite so much stranger danger. I'll give it a few weeks, but then I am out of there! This nursery has SO much structure, which my kids really need, so I think they will love it. The nursery leaders are great too! We had sunday dinner, where we will pretty much have it every week, at my Uncle Greg and "AUNTI" as they say it here, Kyndra's. My kids love it, and love my little cousins. They have 5 kids that all range from 2-11. Jayden (the 2 year old) and Livi have already become 2 peas in a pod, and enjoy jumpy jumpy on the trampoline, playing on the swing set and slide, and roaming around the ranch. I fear showing Livi that there are horsies and all other kinds of fun animals just up the road, because we will end up spending all our time there! We went Christmas Caroling that night with a bunch of the same friends from the night before at the Ponds at Punalu'u which is a really nice retirement community. I always LOVE Christmas Caroling, and they seemed to love us being there, and especially seeing all the young kids running around. We spent the day in town again yesterday, for yet, another Walmart trip. Still a few more things were needed to kind of get us set up around here. It was still raining yesterday, and I am trying to find some things to do around here for my kids indoors. We don't really have any fast food out here, except for a Taco Bell/ Pizza Hut, Subway, and McDonald's, but not even the McDonald's has a play area. Anyone who has lived out here have any ideas of fun things I can take my kids to do that doesn't require me to take them to town? Today is a new day, and I think we will go meet Nathan at the Seasider for some lunch. I need to go post some "Wanted" cards too on the bulletin boards, looking for someone who is available to part time nanny during the day, so that I can get out of here as well, and maybe go make some money! I'd love to get back into doing hair in a salon. The only problem is they don't even have any preschools out here that will take kids under 3 and that aren't potty trained. I guess I COULD take them to town, and get a job in town, but that sucks too! Anyway, I'll keep you updated as much as possible! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas Season!