Constance, the Photographer

Constance has recently discovered how to operate the camera function on my phone. Here is a sampling of her recent accomplishments:

 A snow storm came through recently. I thought she was taking a picture of me but I guess she mostly just wanted to get the snow and I was in the way.

Then she wanted to take a picture of Ana . . . .

I showed her how to do a proper selfie.

 And I realized that if I wanted my face in the picture and not just some random arm or leg, then I needed to scrunch down.

 Constance did her selfie and sent it to her favorite contacts: Daddy and Grandma.

 Of course she wanted to keep taking pictures of me.

 And she finally got a pretty nice one. But it was first thing in the morning and my hair wasn't brushed and you can tell I was tired.

 Then she tried her photography skills out on Daddy.

She got a pretty good one with my help--one that included Daddy's biceps!
Oh, and his beard.
Tom may complain about his job but he is a truly committed employee. So committed, in fact, that when the boss's wife says he should keep the beard, he keeps the beard . . . for an entire month!

 Another day, another selfie.

 Another one of me.

She's getting pretty good.
Constance also relishes in sending text messages to Daddy during the day. These messages consist of a bunch of random letters and every emoticon she can find. But sometimes there is a theme too: such as the day when she sent him a message with lots of money signs, money bags, dresses, shoes, and necklaces.

Oahu - the last few days in Hawaii

Oahu is an interesting place. A lot of my mom's family is from there and some still live there. When I was growing up, we used to take a plane over to Oahu every month or so to run errands, do music lessons, attend the temple, and pull the weeds in Obaasan's yard.

The best description I have for this island is that it's like someone took the mainland and squished it onto an island. The traffic can be horrendous, the crowds crazy, and the stores everywhere.

But I have lots of fond memories of our huge family gatherings on Oahu during the holidays. Sadly most of us have moved away, but we had a mini family gathering at Aunty Dawny's house Sunday evening.

The next day we went into full tourist mode.

We drove over to the Dole plantation to get our Dole whip and ride the train and support the local tourist economy. It's funny because the entire time that I actually lived in Hawaii, we never visited the Dole Plantation. Instead we would drive past it on the way to Laie and my parents would remark, "There's the tourist trap!" The Dole Plantation does get incredibly busy with all the tour buses stopping there throughout the day.

When my mom was younger she used to work at the Dole Plantation where they actually processed the pineapple. From her descriptions, it didn't sound like a pleasant job. She wore plastic gloves while handling the fruit but after a while the acid would eat right through the gloves and her hands would bleed. (This is also why you shouldn't eat too much fresh pineapple because then your tongue will bleed. Trust me, I've done this before.)

 Tom kind of spoiled me on this trip. He bought me some plumeria earrings (look closely at the picture below), then he got swindled into buying the pearl from an oyster they cracked in front of us, then he got swindled by a Japanese lady inside who found what she declared was the perfect dress for me, then he also bought me a beautiful purple Hawaiian dress at PCC. There was lots of swindling going on. I protested quite a bit but being the persuasive lawyer he is, he won all of the arguments.

 PCC was great as usual. A bit more challenging this time since we were toting two kids around both of whom were tired and missing their afternoon naps. Thank goodness for that Tula carrier that I used over and over throughout the trip!

 Ana passed out while we were walking around to the village shows. And Constance lasted until a few minutes into the night show.

 

While at PCC, Tom and his brother Daniel got in some dance practice. They were really good sports!

 While we were on Oahu, we tried to eat as much local food as we could. For breakfast, we stopped at one of the fruit stands along the north shore. Tom got a delicious fried banana for only $1 (in retrospect, we should have bought 3 of those) and I picked out some apple bananas, pineapple with Li Hing powder on it (Constance's request), and what the Filipino lady said was "Chico" but what I call brown sugar fruit. The fruit literally tastes like brown sugar. It was all so yummy!

For lunch another day, we stopped in Haleiwa for some wraps. I talked Tom into getting the Kalua pork sandwich and he did not regret the choice.  

 On our way back to the car, I spied the shave ice and had to get it. Another thing that I have never tried even after growing up in Hawaii. My parents always said it was just sugar and water, which is quite true. But it's still good. The girls loved it and I had to fight for a bite.

 Other than the shave ice, the apple bananas, and the pineapples, Constance wasn't much for trying local food. We went to one of the restaurants at PCC our last night on Oahu before flying home, Constance told the waiter she wanted "Cheeeeeeese!!!!" So he brought her a plate of cheese.

Unlike our red eye flight to Hawaii, the flight back home was during the day. We still had our layover at Seattle but this time it was at least long enough to get a bite to eat and walk around before boarding the connecting flight. During the layover, Tom told Constance stories of the cookie ghost while she twirled her hair; and Ana fell down and got a blood-filled mouth from biting into her upper lip. It was a very sad moment.

 But she recovered quickly and went about squeaking in her little squeaker shoes.

From Seattle to Denver, Ana slept peacefully on my lap while the gentleman next to me sipped his wine and read his magazine.

We made it back home to Colorado Springs around 1:30 am. And I thanked all my lucky stars that the kids slept in a bit that morning.

Tired Kids in Hawaii

While we were in Hawaii, the kids did fairly well the first few days without any of the regular afternoon naps. But it caught up to them eventually.

In the meantime, we had lots of fun on Saturday first going to the old Kaluakoi hotel and watching the surfers . . .

. . . then going to to the lookout before dropping Grandma, Papa, Jessie, and Daniel off at the airport (they were heading over to Oahu 1 day early).

Someone fit right in as a tourist . . . .

 While at the lookout, Constance discovered a long twisted stick and recruited it to defend herself from spiders. I don't think she actually saw any spiders but the story and the stick were believable.

 We visited my Dad again that afternoon and confirmed plans for church the next day. He got a phone call while we were there so we went outside in the yard while he he took care of his very important business.

It's funny but I don't really miss the small red house I grew up in. . . (I slept on the floor, the water heater only worked for 20 minutes at a time, there were one too many windows in the bathroom and all of them in the wrong places, my room was the gateway to the backyard . . . )

. . . but I do miss the yard. I remember all the weeding, picking, raking, transporting of horse manure, and digging of compost holes that went into preparing the ground for those fruit trees. I remember faithfully watering those trees, weeding around them, and dreaming of the day when I could taste eggfruit, oranges, strawberry quava, avocado, mountain apple, longon, lychee, fig, jaboticaba, and sapote. I've only tasted a few of those since I left the island over a decade ago and my dad has been the only one around when the trees started fruiting.
He just lets the fruit fall on the ground.
I scold him every time I visit.

 I mean, look at that. The yard is basically a fruit orchard!

The banana patch is in the backyard and it's still going pretty well.
Ah, that's the other thing I really miss about Hawaii: apple bananas! They are smaller than regular bananas, firmer, and have a lighter taste.

Then there's the old water catchment. It was my mom's plan to collect all the water off the house roof and store it in that huge tank then use the rain water for household needs. She even bought a thousand-dollar water pump to pump the water through the house pipes. That thousand dollar pump is still sitting underneath the house unused and probably rusting.
There's also a compost toilet under the house that is no longer used.
Yep, it was an adventure living there.

 That building behind the guava tree used to be the chicken coop. Now it is a surfboard-making shed.

But enough about the historic house and yard . . . .
The next morning we woke up bright and early to go to church. Dad decided not to join us even though we offered him a ride, because his cut "bled a drop" the night before. It was just as well. The kids were grumpy enough waking up in time to drive straight to the church building in Kaunakakai.

 We got through the first hour of church with lots of screaming and taking Constance out into the hall. We were all tired and it was definitely catching up to us. So we went and said goodbye to my Dad then drove back to the West End to put everyone down for a nice long nap before we left for the airport.

Tom and I even snuck in a little rest as well . . . and then we felt much better about life.
Finally, one afternoon in Hawaii where we just sat on a comfy couch and relaxed.