Sunday on the Big Island

{I had planned on finishing my Hawaii posts before we left for our trip to California, but it didn't happen. Boo.}

The best part about being at a resort with cousins is that you get to do everything with them! Including eating meals together. This restaurant, Boat Landing Cantina, was the closest to our rooms and we ended up eating there several times.

Marc and Michelle

We went into Kona to go to church. The speakers were youth and leaders freshly returned from Trek. We also heard a really great Tongan a cappella choir.

(Rob & Lisa's kids were so jealous that we left after sacrament meeting. When traveling, we usually don't stay for all 3 hours of church. I hate to make my kids go to Primary and Young Men's classes where they don't know anyone, and I don't really enjoy it, either.)

Beautiful grounds!

After church, we wandered around the resort some more. I love the sea turtles!

Add caption

For dinner, we went to a delicious pizzeria, where we had Korean beef pizza, Kahlua pork pizza, Peking duck pizza, and plain cheese for the little ones.

Bob and Mim ended up coming to the same restaurant!

We watched the sun set while we ate. Al fresco dining at its finest.

Sunday in Honolulu

We got to Honolulu late Saturday night and checked into our condo right off of Waikiki beach.

We didn't have time to buy any groceries, so Bob and Mim took us to breakfast at the Shore Bird.

It was fun to eat right next to the beach.

So many of the restaurants are open-air, and it's delightful to have the ocean breezes wafting in (I greatly appreciated the addition of fans). We enjoyed a breakfast buffet with fresh pineapple and papaya, fish, ham, french toast, fresh guava and pineapple juices, and the most marvelous coconut pound cake.

Eva was pretty freaked out by the presence of birds in the restaurants at first, but she gradually became acclimated to them and even (I think) came to enjoy them. Max was thrilled from the start, as he really loves birds.

Awesome views all around!

Bob & Mim told us they had called for a cab to take us to church. We were shocked when a limo pulled up! They loved surprising us.

We went to the Honolulu tabernacle. It is quite a beautiful complex. It was fast and testimony meeting, and we heard testimonies borne in many different languages. Gospel doctrine is taught in, I think, 4 different languages.

I love this open courtyard in between the different classrooms.

A view from this incredible window onto the grounds.

These giant banyan trees are pretty amazing. I had my kids go and stand by the trunk to show the scale — check out that circumference!

I'm told that the mossy-looking parts that hang down from the branches, if left unchecked, start growing into the ground and forming new trunks. Wild.

The limo returned to take us back to the condo!

Bob & Mim took us to Duke's for dinner. With a live band outside, it was quite the hopping place.

Lucas was happy with his cheese pizza, and Max was thrilled about his fresh fish medley in coconut sauce. I had the same dish, and it was amazingly good.

We don't usually swim on Sundays, but we had to at least step into the surf and wade a little. There's just nothing like the beach.

12 on the 12th | September

1. Sunday finery
2. Eva playing in the water when she was supposed to be getting ready
3. Sunday bags packed
4. Sitting in the cultural hall for stake conference even though we left 25 minutes early
5. Marc and I had a glorious Sunday nap! I love morning church.
6. Reading through my notes and working on my Sunday thoughts post
7. Dinner on the stove when the power went out for no apparent reason
8. Max playing piano when the power was out
9. I chose to read instead! (My favorite bookmark ever – Jill made it.)
10. The power came back on an hour later and dinner resumed cooking.
11. Eva and Marc took Jack for a walk, then she played with her Fur-Real dog.
12. The previous YW secretary dropped off this bag of stuff for me: clipboard, binder, papers, etc. I guess this means I need to figure out what I'm supposed to do now.

Christmas Sunday

Is there any better Sunday throughout the year? (Well, I guess Easter compares. And the Primary program. But still...)

My parents arrived last night and so today was especially fun for me, as they were able to go to church with us.

Our choir Christmas program was wonderful, from the music selection to the enthusiastic director who was clearly having a lot of fun. Of course, I always love singing with my mom. (She even got Lucas to sing the closing hymn!) But the best part of all was that there were seven little Primary-age girls singing with them. They were gathered in small groups around music stands, and they knew all the songs! They even watched the director. It was like having little angels up there singing, it was the sweetest thing.

After the program, our bishop spoke for a few minutes about the humble location of our Savior's birth, and the way in which the events that transpired there made it a holy place. Similarly, he exhorted us to transform our homes into holy places because of the things which happen within them. It was very touching.

In Young Women's, we had a guest who performed a dramatic presentation of Mary, Jesus's mother. She portrayed Mary and spoke of the tender feelings she had for his son at His birth and throughout His life.

It was a beautiful day with plenty of food for thought and contemplation.

too blessed to be stressed

Today in sacrament meeting, a woman told us that she had been on a trip to Idaho recently and saw a truck with this written on the back in big, bold letters: "I am too blessed to be stressed!". She has adopted it as her new motto. It really gave me pause. It rings true to me, and has made me think about how I wouldn't want to switch trials with anyone else. That reaffirms to me that Heavenly Father doesn't give us trials that we can't handle -- or he gives us the strength to handle them -- because I often see what other people are going through and think I could never do it. Thoughts?

weekend update, Sunday leisure

Jessie has the good fortune to be home alone for the long weekend and decided to hold a scrapbook open-house for the duration. I went over on Friday night. Jessie, Hannah, Bridget and I scrapbooked and Robin and Rachelle kept us company. Although Hannah is very pregnant and having problems with spreading numbness (scary!), she got there early and made us great munchies and fabulous smoothies with her super-industrial blender. We ate, created, watched movies, and discussed the finer points of Johnny Depp's inexplicable sex appeal.

Jessie, Hannah and I stayed up until about 6:30. We slept until 9:30 and then got up and resumed our projects. It was so great to be able to leave all our stuff spread out and sleep whenever we wanted, with no thought to having to wake up early with the kids. In addition, I woke up to see Jessie's two hairless cats sleeping in-between us while Jessie petted them in her sleep. Quite a sight. (Too bad I didn't bring my camera!)

We even went on a shopping excursion to the scrapbook store, complete with jammies (well, lounge clothes, really), bedhead, and day-before makeup. They were having an excellent clearance sale, and a good time was had by all.

You want to know the best part? I'm scrapbooking again! With the exception of the mini-albums I made for Christmas gifts, I didn't make a single scrapbook page last year and was feeling really out of it. I thought it would be hard to get back to, but it really wasn't. (I'm sure it helped to be sitting next to Jessie, creative genius that she is.) I didn't have much time to prepare for the crop, just threw in some photos and supplies, AND I made some 12 x 12 layouts for the first time. (I had to apologize to Jill because she used to pester me to switch to 12 x 12 and I told her to lay off because it was never going to happen. But to be fair, I don't feel like I've switched. It's just that now I embrace all shapes and sizes.) Jill joined us and brought us frosted sugar cookies -- Julia, love your recipe! My point is, I had a blast. Sadly I had to return on Saturday night and can't make it to any more scrapping sessions this weekend.

Marc subscribes to the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Reading it is his favorite Sunday activity. Unfortunately, between church, his time-consuming calling, and his very demanding Daddy's girl, he doesn't usually get through too much of it. Here he is lying on the couch this morning having a go at it, with Eva being what we call a "kitty girl" -- meaning that she is totally interfering with his attempts to read, much like a cat will lie on the exact spot of text you are currently trying to see.

One of our darling neighbors had his mission farewell today -- yes, I know that technically we don't have farewells anymore, but he gave his pre-mission talk and the chapel was overflowing to the point of setting up chairs and a television monitor in the foyer. Anyway, it was a great talk and I was glad my boys were there to hear it.

When we got home from church, Max asked if he could make cookies for said neighbor. Of course I said yes! I just loved that he had this idea and that he executed the whole thing from finding the recipe to delivering the cookies warm out of the oven. Plus, I think he looks so cute in his church clothes and apron...

Tomorrow Marc is going to Salt Lake to help his sister with her remodeling project and Max and Lucas are going on a grandparents' date, so it will just be Eva and I at home. I'm not sure what we'll do yet, but so far, it's shaping up to be a pretty great weekend!