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!