Random Haps in July 2012

I love finding pictures like this on my phone. I have a whole bunch more of Aaron making weird faces but this one takes the cake. Every time I look at it, it has me LLOL (Literally Laughing Out Loud).

 Ok, so we all like making funny faces! It's so fun!

 Kids in action. They can not sit still. I have a love/hate relationship with that.

 Princess Raya. I love this foam crown.

 As much as I love roasting hot dogs and making smore's with the Laie Fourth Ward Youth, I hate the smell of smoke on the clothes. Thanks to the suggestions I got from friends, I hung it outside on the line to be "un-smoked". It was a lot cheaper to hang than spend $1 on washing that small pile of clothes.

 Raya likes to make super funny poses now. She also picks out her own clothes. I love that she does that. Plus, it's much easier having her pick it out than me doing it and her refusing to wear it. AND I think I've watched too much Ugly Betty because I'm actually not minding the outfits that Raya puts on. Hahaha! (and no, she's not flipping me off)

 My friend from Canada was here on her honeymoon and came to visit! We ate at Hukilau Cafe and had some ono food. She's so much taller than I remember.

 My sister Olivia took this picture of the kids the other day when we were both at work.

 We were at Aaron's hearing aid appointment at Queen's and while we were waiting, they occupied themselves by watching David play the Nintendo DS.
We actually haven't been to see his audiologist in over a year. WHOOPS! She was not happy with us, or me, since I was the one that forgot to make his appointment earlier (as in a year earlier). He was supposed to get a new ear mold last year. WHOOPS! We go again to see her in three weeks.

 We went to Costco because we were running low on food and tried out this new Filipino restaurant, Max's of Manila. There was a menu board outside and we literally stood outside reading it for like ten minutes. We couldn't decide if we should go in or not. We saw some Filipino friends outside who recommended it so after taking some suggestions, we finally decided to go in. I'm SO glad we did. I have been wanting to eat pancit FOREVER.
We ordered the pancit bihon and it was DELICIOUS! I seriously want some right now.
We got an appetizer that came with friend squid, calamari and lumpia. Aaron loved the calamari and asked for more. We only ordered two menu items (plus 3 scoops of rice) and it filled us all up. Mostly David and I but the kids ate most of what we gave them. I definitely recommend this place and would go back in a heartbeat. The prices aren't too high but they're not cheap either. They serve the food family style so everyone just takes what they want. I was also expecting the place to be a dingy hole in the wall restaurant but it was real nice, clean and classy and bigger (as in more space) than I expected. It was a welcome surprise. The service was really awesome too. Nice friendly servers and bus boys.

 After our lunch, we did some shopping at Costco but not before we could try on the 3D glasses. The kids look so cool.

That was basically the last bits of July. I'm pretty sure the parts after the reunion in the middle of July was just us at home cruising and going to the BYUH Pool when it was open. I loved having nothing of importance to do. 

Welcome back to the real world, Carol. Back to work.

Laie Days Bash -July 20, 2012

Free cotton candy! Raya didn't even wait for me to take the picture, she's already grinding the cotton candy! 

Aaron and Raya had fun in the bounce house!

 I love how Raya's just sitting down and resting in the bouncey gladiator house

 She loved jumping!

This was a pretty fun night!

Glad we went kinda early since the lines were kinda short. The longest line was for the spinning ride. I think we waited in that line for over half an hour and I will NEVER do that again! I keep thinking I can get over the whole "I hate getting dizzy" thing I have but...it turns out I can't.

We waited in that long line with Mike and Jamie Akinaka's family and we had fun standing in line together for the rest of the night.

Aaron and Ammon (Mike and Jamie's son) had a lot of fun together. There was a ride inflatable that was an obstacle course there. Aaron and Ammon were a little too short to go in but the attendant said that if they could make it in, they could go on. The boys gunned it, jumped and made it in. They went back a bunch of times, good thing that line was pretty short.

Raya liked going down the huge inflatable slide and we went back like four times. Ok, I admit, I really liked going down the slide and didn't mind going down after Raya!

Next year, we are definitely going there early and avoiding the huge long lines!

Yamamoto Family Reunion 2012

We went to Big Island during July 12-16th for a family reunion. 

 David's father's mom is from a big family. She's the third out of fourteen children. (the fuchsia flag) 
I love the portraits of her parents right in the middle of the banners. 

 Grandma Kaluna's parent's gravestones.
We had family service project where we cleaned and decorated about 20 graves at the Kohala Cemetery.

The family that came to clean the graves pose by Great grandpa Yamamoto's gravestone. (This isn't even all of David's immediate or extended family. Not a lot of people could make it this year and we missed each and everyone of them!)

The pictures are all out of order because Blogger is being wonky and I can't add any more pictures from earlier so just bear with me. 

This candid group photo was taken Saturday night as we were done and cleaning up! Don't you just love their smiles? 

We ate at Kohala Burgers and Tacos after we did the service project and helped set up at Kamehameha Park for later that day. The food was pretty good and I don't think I'd eat there again. Not because they had a really funny spelling of our last name but because the prices were outrageous. The onion rings were really good though but again, mucho moola. Maybe if I didn't have to worry about money, I'd go back :)

Raya's head injuries. I just felt really bad for her. 1. She fell of our bed at home in Laie like a week before the trip. 2. She fell off Grandma Imi's couch a couple days before the trip. 3. This was from having a huge inflatable volleyball hit her square in the face and knocked her down on her bum. She cried for like ten minutes but then calmed down. The welt's gone down by now but poor thing! THREE injuries at one time! Glad she's a tough little girl!

This was when the gathering first started and they didn't put the volleyball net up yet. They had a giant inflatable football and volleyball. It was really fun playing in the gym. David of course played basketball. Once they had the volleyball net up, we took the giant volleyball and played with it. It was really fun! Even the little kids got into it. The game ended though when it landed on the pole and got a huge hole in it. The next night, they used a beach ball instead. 

While cleaning up, the band was still going and Uncle Billy got a dance party started with Raya and Makana.

Kawika was taking pictures all weekend and Aaron really got into taking pictures too. I love how he's fully imitating what Kawika's doing.

There was a rock wall in the gym and Aaron totally started climbing it. Raya, of course, wanted to climb the wall like Aaron. Aaron was a great brother and tried helping her. I honestly don't remember what happened but then a whole bunch of kids got to the wall I'm pretty sure I took the kids away before they got hurt.

We stayed at the Waikoloa Hilton Bay Club. It was super nice. The toiletries smelled super good! It reminded me of Bath & Body Works White Tea and Ginger scent. The swan towels were originally on our bed but we moved them and I had to take a picture! I loved the iPod dock alarm clock. It was pretty cool!

Aaron asked if this was our new house. I really wish it was! I loved all the orange tones the place had. The paintings, the couch, the lamp, the curtains. I LOVED it! The beds and pillows were soo comfortable! I wish I could have taken some pillows home!
We had the kids sleeping in another room but that didn't work out. The first night, Raya came on our bed and Aaron came out crying and freaking out. The second night, Aaron slept on the sofa bed instead and Raya slept on our bed again. The kids slept on the sofa bed the last night and I laid on it for a bit and it's not lumpy like other sofa beds I've been on. (I can't wait until we can afford a place where we can finally have our own room separate from the kids.)

ThT

This was David and Aaron on the plane on our way to Big Island. 

Raya and I posing for a picture. She was not a fan of flying. She wouldn't let go of my arm and would insist I stay close to her. Funny girl. 

This was Raya on our way home reading the safety manual. She told me she was "reading a story".

This was Raya on the way back to Oahu looking at the safety booklet. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was "reading a story"

I found Raya sleeping like this one time after a car ride to the reunion. I guess the A/C was super cold.

This tailless gecko was hanging on for dear life on our rental car. It kept trying to climb up to the top of the car & the wind kept pushing it back until finally it got high enough to the top where the wind blew it right off! It was so gross I had to take a picture! 

Mimo and I taking pictures of some of our bracelets that we made. Love it! Wish I could have made more!

More pictures to come!