Great Visit

Daniel is off at work today so I can write without missing spending time with him. I have not updated for that reason. Daniel had Friday and Monday off so I was busy doing things with him and I didn't want to take the hour and a half to blog. I do apologize. ;)

The tour of the island on Friday was wonderful and I have a few pictures to post. They are not in the order of how we saw them, sorry.
Iolani Palace downtown Honolulu.
Here we are at the Pali lookout. It started as a gloomy day but cleared up by the late morning.










Here is Daniel and Charles looking at the tile mosaics at the Punchbowl Memorial to the World War II battles of the Pacific.

The picture on the right has the Goods in front of the Kamehameha statue on King Street, downtown Honolulu.
The waves on the North Shore were massive. This picture can barely show you the size and power of these waves. The little black dots in the picture are surfers, brave surfers. We estimated the waves to be about 15 feet high and that isn't even close to the height they can get in the winter months.


The Saturday night of the last entry we ended up going to a luau. It was Daniel and I's first time to this specific one so it was new for us too. The sunset was perfect and we got lots of pictures in.

The show was great and I am glad we were able to enjoy it with them. They even threw in a few Hawaiian Christmas songs at the end instead of doing just a regular show. The picture is blurry but worth putting in.

Sunday we attended Faith and found that Charles had a connection with the pastor's father. They were able to chat briefly before the service. It was an unexpected surprise.

Sunday afternoon we had a nice lunch and decided to catch The Chronicles of Narnia. I was busting at the bit to see it and I was glad everyone else wanted to also. Vacations are a nice time to just relax a watch a great movie too. We all enjoyed it and it inspired Marsha to start reading the novel. I need to pull it out again and re-read it also.

Marsha and I finally got the gingerbread men made. They turned out really cute and we had fun decorating them together. We made enough to last the rest of the week and to share with people.

Tuesday Daniel and Charles went diving again off the west coast. They took several underwater pictures which turned out great but I have to find a scanner so I can post them later. They saw an octopus and turtles and even have several shots of whales as they took the boat ride out to the diving location. I will try to post those soon.

Marsha and I went downtown to the Mission House Museum. (Sorry I didn't take you there Lolly) It was an excellent museum that showed the stages of the early missionaries on the island. They came from Connecticut in the 1600s and were very popular with the islanders. When they came there was no written Hawaiian language. After 46 years of missionary work, 3 out of 4 Hawaiians had learned to read and write in their own language. Their work was definitely an act of God. The museum was comprised of three houses they used for living quarters, school rooms and places of worship. It was decorated with period furniture and had some original pieces still in it. Very neat visit! One of the exhibitions was a display of Hawaiian quilts. That was one reason why I wanted to come. I love the quilt patterns here on the island. That exhibit was great to walk through as well. Unfortunately photography was not allowed so we did not get any great pictures inside. I do have a few pictures outside on the disposable camera to scan from that visit as well.

Tuesday night we had the Morales' over for some steaks and shrimp Charles had picked up at Sams when Daniel and had to go buy front tires for the Grand Prix. Charles ran across a good buy and decided to bring it home. It was great! It gave Daniel another reason to start the grill up. We bought the little grill the day after Thanksgiving and we have grilled everything on it and even roasted some marshmallows as the fire died. (Thanks Ashley for the idea!) Here are the guys grilling the yummy shrimp.

Wednesday we stopped by the Swap Meet for some shopping for souvenirs. It is a great place to buy anything cheaper than most stores. We stayed for a couple hours, got some lunch and I had to leave the group. I had the last AWANA meeting to run off to so I left after lunch. I was reluctant to go but I needed to be at AWANA to lead music.

Daniel and his parents decided to explore the Navy Harbor and check out Barber's Point where Charles' brother was stationed when he was in the military. They spent the afternoon exploring and hanging out on a beach on the southwest side.

Wednesday night we had our Christmas meal and time together. I threw a ham in the oven before AWANA and came back to fix potatoes, corn, green beans and cranberry sauce with Marsha for dinner. We sat around and chatted about Christmas memories and what we learn each year about the birth of Christ. We moved into the family room and opened gifts. The evening was a good time of learning the Good's traditions at Christmas.

Thursday we woke up early and went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I love SNORKELING! Of course I was excited to get out there. It was a perfect day and the sun was shining brightly. Marsha and I went out for about 45 minutes with the guys and then decided to rest on the beach. The men went out again, this time outside of the reef area to see what was outside. There are so many incredible creatures to see underwater and it never ceases to amaze me when we go snorkeling. We have several underwater pictures of that visit as well and yet again I have not scanned them in yet to share with you.

We spent the afternoon recouping from a full week of activity and the Goods started packing up to leave that night. It was an excellent visit and we loved having them here. I look forward to the next visit!

Our weekend flew by with errands, Christmas card writing, mailing off packages, and the general things to do before a deployment.

Sunday we went to a Christmas party thrown by my friend Lydia from South Pacific. It was good to see her again and meet her friends.

Yesterday Daniel changed the oil in both cars and changed the half shafts on the front of the Acura. I was running errands for him and the car stuff, but I got in some much needed house cleaning.

We are taking the week easy before he leaves. I am still planning what we are going to be doing Christmas day. I want to make it a special first Christmas, so we'll see what ideas I have up my sleeves.

Have a great week before Christmas family and friends!