Tuesday, September 02, 2008

whirlwind visit

as i mentioned before on my blog, my sister and younger brother both came out for a visit in the middle of august. malia for 2 weeks and kawika for 4 days. it was such a blast to have them visit! i made sure that we had plenty of fun activities planned while they both were here.

 

the first day after kawika (my brother) got here, the breaks on my car went out so we were carless for that day. so, we made the best of it and took a walk to nani's elementary school to play on the toys.

 stroller ridegirls on slide

  kawena slide

kawika kawena swing lala swing

nani kawena slide

 monkeybarslala umbrella

mom lala on slide

 

the next morning, we woke up very early and, after dropping all the kids off at bridget's house and jumping into the ball's car, we headed to the river for a rafting trip! unfortunately, we didn't have a waterproof camera with us and didn't get any pictures, but it was a great trip. some of us got a bit banged up on the rocks as we went down the natural waterslides that suck you under and spit you out, but even still we kept going back for more!

 

if you want to see the proofs of the pictures the professional photography companies took of us on the river go here and (scroll thru pictures 155 to 161; oak springs rapid) here and (scroll thru pictures 136 to 143; wapinitia rapid) here (scroll thru pictures 86 to 89; boxcar rapid).

 

on the way home we stopped off at multnomah falls because kawika and malia had never seen it before.

ohhh

they were pretty impressed!

 

photo terrorist

although, they did have a run in with the "photo terrorist", aka andy ball!

 

thirsty kawikathirsty malia

they got a little thirsty from being on the river all day, so they took a sip!

 

we were wiped out after that long day, but it didn't stop us from getting up early the next morning to head to another river. this time on dustin's wakeboarding boat.

kawika wakeboardingmahina skurfing

malia skurfing

malia nani surfing

malia lala surfing 

kawika and kawenakawena surf

even this little one got on the skurfboard. she loved it so much that when uncle kawika wanted a turn and kicked her off she was NOT happy!!

 

kawena mad

she is a little waterbaby! she wasn't phased by the cold temperature of the water! anytime the boat was not moving she would be doing this:

kawena head in waterkawena head drip

and kept asking for more!

 

lala on board

lala even asked to go wakeboarding, too, but this was about as far as she got.

 

nani flag

nani took her job as "flag girl" very seriously! and she did an excellent job, i might add. no one from our boat got ran over!

 

mitch and girls

the love of my life with our three lovely ladies.

 

nani lala

i don't know about you, but i would venture to say by the looks on their faces that these girls had a great time!

 

lala pooped 

yep! this is a sure sign of a great time had, wouldn't you agree?

 

if that wasn't enough to wear everyone out, as soon as we made it home from the river (about 2:30), everyone headed off for some rock climbing (everyone, that is, but me and the baby because it was nap time! whew! good thing, because i was all tuckered out!)

malia climbmitch climb

kawika climbkawika descent

nani climb lala climb

nani and lala even climbed for their first time! nani in her crocs and lala, of course, barefoot (sounds painful to me)!

 

wow! that sure was a lot to cram into three days, wouldn't you say? but man, it was worth it! i missed out on the rock climbing (bummer) but all that we did together sure was a great way to spend time with my little bro and sis!

 

kawika left the next day, so before we went to bed that night we HAD to play a few games of this:

ticket to ride

okay, now i am thoroughly worn out! i'm going to bed!

*most pictures are courtesy of my sister malia. she's an awesome photographer!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks like you guys had a ton of fun. when my little sis comes down here to visit us we try to cram a bunch of stuff into the few days she is here.

Becca said...

looks like you guys had a TON of fun. Nice way to say goodbye to Oregon. The "drinking" picture at Multnomah falls is funny! Your brother looks like you.

Merilee said...

Um seriously, how did you all not just fall over? It looks like a total blast!
I see photography skills run in the family.

Merilee said...
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Tonya said...

Looks like so much fun! The boating pics make me miss waterskiing as a kid. I haven't been on a boat in years! The Multnomah Falls "sip" picture was great! How did you think of that? So funny! Rafting sounds like a blast. You guys are adventurous:0)

Darilyn said...

What a great weekend. What is up with the umbrella in the sunny weather? The waterfall pictures crack me up.

shauna said...

So you guys really know how to have fun!

I have a few questions for your sis.

a) What kind of camera is it?
b) How did she dare take it anywhere near the water?

And what kind of camera do you have?

Ps I love that game. I have only played it once, but it was a blast.

Michal said...

what a great couple of days together. your girls look like they had a fantastic time. we need a boat.

jessica said...

Okay we totally own that same blue walmart umbrella!

I'm so jealous of all that fun! My family has done those same rapids and the rock climbing.... ahhhh... did I already say I was jealous?????

mahina said...

pineapple princess:

malia has a nikon d300 and i have a nikon d200. both very excellent cameras. the water pictures were actually taken with either my canon powershot sd1000 point and shoot or with my brother's nikon (don't know the model) point and shoot. neither my sister or i wanted to get our nice cameras around the water!

shauna said...

Sweet cameras. Colorful pictures. Now I know where you got your blog title from.

Now, I just wish you lived closer so you could give me some lessons! Doesn't help to have a great camera if you don't know how to use it.

Melissa-Mc said...

Looks like you had a blast! I love the picture of you and Lala laying on the slide.

Elizabeth Dimit said...

Whew! You guys did have so much fun!

Rich Vial said...

Once again the photo's are incredible. Don't stop! Wish I had started early like you. From an old guy!

paula said...

So fun!! Great pic to tell of fun times. They don't even need words. But thanks for the words. They flow like poetry. Paula

Bridget said...

I'm tired just reading about it all. I love the picture of Lala just sacked out in the boat.

kelly said...

all of these pictures are awesome! (i especially loved all the shots at the park!) looks like you guys had a great time!

Dustin and Camila said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dustin and Camila said...

Camila and I were glad to be a part of Whirlwind-palooza 2008! BUT, it seems almost UNRIGHTEOUS to leave out the fact that your bro Kawika SAVED MY LIFE while he was here!! Of course, I WAS choking on a gummy bear HE GAVE ME. But oh well, he's a LIFE-SAVER and the world MUST KNOW!

A shout-out to my life-debtor, Kawika... Kine style, m'friend! Kine style!

Sarah said...

That seriously looks like so much fun.

By the way, I'm a huge fan of ticket to ride. We've had it forever and we love it.

Katie Smith said...

Wow! It looks like you guys had so much fun. Then again...any activity that involves water (and particularly boats) is a fun time for me.

I've never heard of "ticket to ride." We are always looking for some fun games to play, maybe we'll have to check it out!

Ilene said...

Summer CAN'T be ending. Ah, I miss Oregon summers.

Amanda D said...

What a great post! It all looks like so much fun. Love the picture of you and your daughter on the slide. Adorable.

And those "thirsty" pics are cracking me up!

Stephanie said...

wow, you weren't kidding, you were busy! That's how it will be when I move away from my sisters. You have to fit months worth of fun in a few days!

Malia said...

Haha... sorry for not commenting sooner! I told you thats the problem with me reading all the blogs on google reader... how will you ever forgive me?!?!? Sorry for stealing pictures from your blog although some of the pictures I stole were from my camera that I took but whatever =) Love the post loved the trip loved all of the adventures we had!!! LOVE YOU!!! Love the game ticket to ride! I introduced stuart to it online and we have played quite a few times! I miss you all! Love you tons!!!Thanks for the trip out there!!!

Jessica said...

Hey! Nobody told me you could do those cool "drinking the Falls" photos when I was there.

I feel gypped.

Nikki said...

I was just showing your blog to my sister Erin and my kids were looking on. When I got done scrolling through, Kate said, "I want to go all those places that they went." I actually agree--it looks like you all have been having a lot of fun. It's fun to have this way to keep in touch with you guys.

Teresa said...

Those waterfall photos were pretty funny! I love the dipping of the child into the water too;-) Loved all the photos!!