ok, so we're not done yet!

nani started in with a headache tonight at 4:30, just as we dropped the girls of with their cousin so we could go see the bourne ultimatum (awesome movie! a must see! we loved it!). oh, and mitch was feeling better enough to go to the movie, too! yea! not back to normal, but well enough, he didn't want to miss it we had been planning this all week. in fact, we had to re-watch the first two bourne movies just to have them fresh in our minds and to be up to speed with this third one!

anyway, i digress. when we picked up the girls nani was lying on the stairs about to lose her dinner. luckily, mitch got her to the sink in time avoiding a large mess! nothing worse than having your child vomit on somebody else's carpet!

i guess, once someone gets well, somebody else gets sick. we couldn'y possibly have a sick free day this week, could we??!!

i'm definately asking for an extension on our vacation time here in newport beach!!! we got jipped! sorry! i am just so done with this! someone has been sick everyday since tuesday!!

can we all just be healthy?!

i am sick of sickness! can the sick bug just leave us alone, already? is that too much to ask? my goodness! this trailer sure gets cramped and super small when there is a sick person in it! i don't know how, but it shrinks!

lala got sick again last night, fever, headache, and throwing up. she's better now, thankfully! but mitch has been bad, sick all day yesterday and still hurting today. he is just miserable and it is getting to me! 2 days ago, i woke up with it, but it only lasted about 3 hours and i was at the beach by the afternoon. nani had a short stint with it tuesday night, but woke up fine the next day.

i just want our vacation back! please!!!

happy 1st anniversary!

just wanted to wish my sister and brother-in-law, malia and stuart, a happy 1st anniversary! you made it through the 1st year! congratulations! and you are still so happy and just as much in love! thanks for being so good to my sister, stuart! you two are so cute! we love you guys!

today's photo essay

2:00 pm: BEACH, i don't know that i would call it the beach because a beach, to me, is where there are waves from the ocean. this was the beach at our rv park which is on more of a lagoon that eventually leads out to the ocean.

cousin kele came with us and we built sandcastles. we forgot our sand toys, so we were very limited on "tools" for building. a nice girl shared her sand toys with us. i made a drip castle with lala, after which she said, "i don't really like drip castles." well, fine!! she then asked daddy to build a castle with her, a much bigger castle than my drip castle!



5:00 pm: PIZZA BAKERY, 1 pepperoni pizza and 1 white pizza. super yummy!

6:30 pm: BALL FOUNTAIN @ FASHION ISLAND, there is the neatest fountain at this outdoor mall. it is a flat surface with holes in the ground. you can walk on the fountain as it shoots little balls of water up into the air. you better watch out, because you just might get wet!





kawena and i both got wet while at the center of the fountain, but we just laughed about it!



7:00 pm: GELATO PARADISO, the best gelato ever!

7:30 pm: stop at the KOI POND on the way to the CAROUSEL, i loved the tiger lala picked to ride!



8:00 pm: stop at one more FOUNTAIN as we are leaving. mitch, nani and i were playing with the fountain trying to get each other wet. in the process we got an innocent bystander wet. she loved it and encouraged us to do it again!



8:20 pm: go down the ESCALATOR, go up the escalator, go down the escalator

8:50 pm: arrive back at tutu's house

sicky-poo

dear lala:

please get better soon! i miss your energy and excitement for daily life. i miss your silly faces. i miss the songs you are constantly singing. i miss hearing you say, "mommie, i want to play mommie, daughter, daughter, baby, and daddy." i miss your laughter. i miss your cute squinty eyes when you smile so big. i miss your constant chatter all day long.

it made me so sad tonight to see you laying on the couch inside when auntie barbara, kele, katrina, uncle kawika and the tutu's were over tonight for a bbq. i can't believe how burning hot your skin feels each time i touch you, and you still want your blanket because you are cold and have goosebumps on your skin. i wish i could take the sickness away so we can have our fun lovin' lala back. please get better soon! i pray that your fever will break tonight as you sleep!

sleep well my sicky-poo! please wake up bouncing around and full of life. we need the energy and sunshine you bring into our family! i miss you!

i love you!
mom

just call us rule breakers!

i understand that this may get a bit confusing with me jumping back and forth from current events to past events and back to current events, but please try to keep up.

today, or i guess it would be yesterday, seeing as it is past midnight already, (man where does the day go?) we broke the rules four times! you see we went to wild rivers today with my brother and his family. yes, wild rivers is another water park. we really are into the water parks this vacation, it would seem. and today, as at sea world, we experienced the same phenomenon with our two girls. you know, the one where the older, taller one does not want to go on the rides with height restrictions, while the younger, shorter one does.

as we were walking in the gate to the park lala is pointing at nearly every ride saying, "i want to go on that one! that one looks fun!", while nani is saying, "where's the lazy river? i want to go on the lazy river!" and the whole time i'm thinking, "why did nani get all of the height?" and "lala i sure wish you would eat more food so you would be tall enough to ride all of these big rides. it breaks my heart to see the disappointment in your eyes when i tell you, yet again, that you're too short!"

most of the day the adults took turns staying with lala and nani at the kiddie area and in the lazy river while the others would go on the bigger rides. i felt so bad leaving lala behind knowing that she wanted so badly to go with us. finally, after lunch, we decided to try to sneak lala onto one of the inner tube rides that had a double inner tube. the ride was called "chaos" and just like every other non-kiddie ride, the height requirement was 44", and, well, lala isn't even close. she is 38" a whole 1/2 of a foot shorter. if anyone was really paying attention it would be obvious!

we got the tube and waited in line. as we got closer, we strategically placed the huge tube between lala and the line of sight of the "ride attendant". we made it to the front of the line and quickly put lala in the tube behind my brother, hoping that he wouldn't see. just at that moment the attendants were trading shifts and lala slipped by them unnoticed. SUCCESS!! let me tell you it was so worth it. she was extatic when she came out of the tube. i have never seen such a proud and happy look on a little girls face. she said, "mommie! i was big enough to go on the ride! i was big enough!"

i thought that maybe we just got lucky. so, we tried it again because, of course, lala said the moment she got off the ride, "o-gain! o-gain!" as she jumped up and down, up and down, with the hugest smile on her face! so we got back in line. i got a single tube because there were an odd number of us in our group. while i was waiting lala was standing next to me. i got my tube and then waited for the rest to get their double tubes. then the ride attendant walks up to lala and says, "hi!" and i'm thinking, "oh great we're busted!" then he trys to hand her a single tube. i'm thinking, "hello? can't you see that she is three times smaller than that tube and would just fall right through the hole?!" then it dawned on me, he is just a young teenager working a summer job and he probably could care less about the height requirement. sure enough, after that we took lala on two other rides that technically she was 6" too short to ride on and no one even raised an eyebrow.

i know we shouldn't be breaking rules, i mean what are we teaching our girls, right? but any reservations that i may have had about it disappeared when the first thing i heard from lala as i exited the rapids ride was, "mommie that was so fun! the bumps made me feel like i was so high up! that was so fun! mommie, i was big enough! it was so fun!" lala was such a "big" girl today and so brave!! i wish you could have experienced her excitement today!

sea world, part 2

so, thursday we went back for some more sea world fun in the sun. this time mitch had written up a schedule of where we would go and at what time we would be there. we were serious sea world goers the second time around and we were not going to miss anything!! that may seem weird and unspontaneous that we had it all scheduled out, but it actually worked out very well! our schedule looked something like this:

feed dolphins: 1:30
dolphin show: 2:30
shanu's happy place (i think it was actually called shamu's happy harbor, but we liked happy place better, hehe! basically the playground): 3:00
pet's rule show: 4:00
polar bear's: 4:30
manatee: 5:30
haunted light house: 6:30
shamu night show: 7:30
seal show/rapid ride:8:15

we didn't go until later in the day because we wanted to see the shamu night show, but didn't want to be there all day. we didn't enter the park until 1:28 so we thought our schedule was shot from the beginning, but we were able to feed the dolphins on time! i just love dolphins! they just are such happy animals, always smiling. the kids had fun being so close to them and being able to touch them.




the rest of the day was great fun! the weather was sunny and warm. mitch, katrina and i wanted to get wet all day, lala was undecided, and nani and kele wanted nothing to do with the soak zones during the shows. come on! i mean, who goes to sea world and doesn't want to get wet?!







the hot and sweaty non-soak zone kids waiting for the dolphin show to start







the brave, sensible soak zoners waiting for the dolphins to cool them off

i just realized that this computer is weird. i can only view my post in html format while typing, so this may be all skiwampus. i will just let it go and not let it bother me, which is more difficult for me than you night think because of my perfectionistic tendencies. it will be ok!

alright, back to sea world. right before the shamu night show we had time to go on the shipwreck rapids ride. those of us that wanted to cool off and get wet got the chance. unfortunately by then the sun was starting to set and as it set the temperatures cool quite a bit. by the time katrina and i got to the front of the line we were shivering and we hadn't even gotten wet yet. but since we had waited in line for 45 min, we decided to go. talk about DRENCHED! though we shivered the rest of the night it sure was worth it!

it arrived!

my mom called and told me that my camera arrived at their house!! i can't wait to get it! my dad's camera is great, but it's still not mine! his camera is so super duper up there and advanced that i'm sure it took great pictures, but it was too fancy, you know what i mean? it's like professional grade. the shutter speed is so incredibly fast that we could make a moving picture out of it. i was taking pictures of the shamu show and i just barely touched the button and it took like 10 frames in a second. okay, so maybe i am exaggerating a bit, but wow is that thing fast!

i'll get it on friday! i hope to post pictures this weekend! we'll see!

curious conversations that gave us the giggles

conversation one: mitch and mahina

background: we were in line for the journey into atlantis ride. mitch was reading the warnings sign and it said something about not riding if you were pregnant, or had back or heart problems, you know the normal things that they have to say. in this same sentence it mentioned not to ride if you had a cervical brace or neck brace.

mitch: "you're not wearing your cervical brace are you?"

me: "uhhh?? no?! what do you mean?" very confused look on my face

mitch: pointing to the sign, "up there! what's a cervical brace?"

me: "oh, it's like a neck brace, i guess. you know for your cervix!"

mitch: "uhh, mahina, i don't have a cervix!"

realizing what i had said, my eyes got huge and the giggles ensued, you know the uncontrollable ones that make you cry and your cheeks hurt?! we couldn't stop giggling! kele and katrina were wondering what was so funny!

-------------------------------------------

conversation two: mitch and the kids

background: mitch and katrina went to in n out to pick up dinner after sea world, while tutu and i went back to the trailer to get the rest of us ready for bed. tutu wanted a burger with extra grilled onions, but instead they ordered extra onions which tutu does NOT like ( i don't blame her! yuck!) tutu, the baby and i were eating inside the trailer, while everyone else was eating outside. when i grabbed tutu's burger to take it in, i noticed the onions and told them that she asked for grilled onions. a few minutes later this is what we heard:

kele (seven years old): "now, remember guys, tutu lady only likes girled onions!"

katrina (12 years old) giggling: "yeah, she doesn't like boy onions, just girl onions! because girled onions are soft and sweet and boy'd onions are hard and raw!"

giggles ensued outside all around the dinner table, while tutu and i laughed from inside the trailer.

sea world, part one

so, we went to sea world yesterday and, oh my goodness has it changed from the last time i went when i was a girl. it is a completely different place! the girls loved the dolphin and shamu shows, as well as the sea lions and otters show. they also had this crazy cirque de la mer show with acrobats and jester-like looking clowns, it was weird but super cool! there was this one lady that was seriously the most flexible person i've ever seen, it was almost creepy. then, if you've ever seen oceans eleven, there were like 10 "grease men" that were climbing up poles and hanging off them in all sorts of crazy angles. they were so strong!! it was an amazing acrobatic show!

we saw sharks and polar bears and penguins. we picked up star fish and touched sting rays (i will post pictures one of these days).





sea world even had a few rides! they never had rides when i was a kid! of course the lines were long so we didn't wait in line for all of them, we actually only went on one. we got a 2 day pass because it was the exact same price as the one day pass, so we will be going back again tomorrow and hope to catch the rides we didn't go on, and mitch wants to feed the dolphins and the sea lions.

as we were parking, we could see one of the rides from the parking lot. it had some pretty steep drops and curves and i told mitch, "i'll bet you that lala won't be tall enough to ride that, but she will want to go on it and nani will be tall enough, but won't want to go." sure enough, lala wanted to go, but was 3 inches too short (that girl needs to eat her veggies! ;-) and got turned away and nani didn't want anything to do with it! poor lala! maybe she will remember this and start eating better! we can always hope, but knowing her it won't change a thing!

the best part, was that tutu lady (my mom) came down monday night and brought kele and katrina (the girls cousins) with her. my mom was only able to stay one night and left after sea world, but kele and katrina are staying with us until we go up to newport on friday! everyone has been having so much fun. we've gone to the pool twice already and the park, here at the koa kampground. kele and nani are a year apart and the are having a great time playing together. boy, i wish we lived closer!

we all look forward to another fun day at sea world, tomorrow!