Family Photos

When we went to Hawaii a couple weeks ago, Mom had scheduled two family photos to be taken at two different beaches, with two different photographers. We got the first photos done with Eng Eng. We also tried to re-take the photo that is hanging up in Eng Eng's house, but I'm not sure how well they turned out to be. At the end of the photos, Caden and I splashed each other with water from the freezing cold ocean water. There were no towels in the car, it was so cold!
These photos are unfortunately not in order, and I have no clue how to get them in order, so we'll have to deal with it like this.

Here we are walking down the beach.

That's Caden and I just with each other. 

My favorite photo. This was at the end, though. 

Mom and Dad.

Caden and I again.

 Blowing bubbles.

Just us.

With Eng Eng.

The retake of the old photo.

And just Caden and I again.

There are lots more photos, like 57, but I only posted 11. Sorry!

Blue Shave Ice has horrifying effects . . .

I have never surfed before. Why?
Because a) I used to not like going in the water, and b) I was scared of the deep end (notice the was). There are more reasons, but that's okay. Let's just get on with this post.
Well, today I surfed for the first time. We went to Waikiki (remember, we are in Hawaii), and walked until we saw a surfboard lesson place. Dad rented a surfboard, he and Caden had surfed before, and Caden and I got a lesson together. I didn't really like the instructor, but I love surfing. It is so fun! And I have good balance. Even more fun! But I had to wear a gross shirt, that was wet either with someone else's sweat or water (hopefully water). And I feel bad for Caden, because he had to wear a white shirt with pink, purple and yellow hearts. Too girl-y. Anyway, I caught some good waves. It was really fun. I wish I surf some more sooner, but I'm going back to Alaska in two day, and in Alaska you can't really surf.
Oh, well.
Today we went to Hawaii's favorite kitchens again and got shave ice. Mom asks me,
"What is your perfect combination of flavors?"
My response:
"Pina colada and lilikoi passion." Caden's perfect combination is root beer, blue raspberry, and blue bubblegum. His teeth and tongue were so blue! Like, blue blue. It was gross. Ah! I have photos.

Blue tongue. I don't blame you if you want to skip through these photos.

Teeth. Aren't they blue?

My teeth . . . they stayed normal colored. It was kind of funny, though - the lady next to use was staring at Caden with a disgusted look when he Mom took the photo of his blue mouth. And, even funnier - we showed Caden the photos - but whadya know? He didn't think it was gross. Ha. Typical Caden.
Okay, I have no more to say about today, so ending post.

Ended.

Mah Jong Block House

Today we went to Hanamouna Bay and went snorkeling. I saw a long, skinny fish that I thought was an eel. I freaked out at the sight of it (at the time I thought it was an eel! no judgement please.) and fled from the water. Then I told Mom and she said it was actually a needle nose fish. Something like that name. I don't have a photo of it, sorry, but you can google it. But I have a photo of all of us at Hanamouna Bay.

Afterwards we went to Bubbies, an ice cream shop that sells Mochi ice cream. So, since we are talking about Mochi ice cream, did you know that that is just Mochi stuffed with ice cream? Now I do. I always thought it was mochi mixed in with ice cream . . . I guess not. I didn't like the mochi wrapper, though, so if we go to Bubbies next time I will get just ice cream.

Yesterday, I forgot to post about my house I made out of mah jong blocks. The house was for my Squinkies, I brought some because that it just what I do. (Mah jong is a game where it seems like a lot of things are backwards)

This is the front view of the house. There is a gate around it.

This is what it looks like from the top. The gate door is open. If you look closely, you can see a Squinkie. It is a purple and pink dog. I named it Maggie, after my cousin  and it sounds like a good dog name. Or human. I just really like the name Maggie.

This is the back view. I wanted green walls for the inside of my house, so you are looking at the different drawings on the blocks. The two that are entirely green are the windows, because on the other side they look like windows even though in the game they are called the white dragons.

So, that is my mah jong block house.
Today is Sunday. Every sunday up the lane the family members go and play mah jong, eat and talk. Eng Eng will go to play mah jong in a bit. Well, in two hours. I will go and watch him, maybe. Okay, I am going to go to the mall, so end this post.

Ended.....

Anana Bapples

Today we went to China Town and bought lots of food. Yum! Apple bananas. Ugh. That name is so last season. Anana Bapple sounds way better. Or just bapple. But I still think anana bapple sounds best. Jeez, "anana" is confusing to spell! Then, after too long we went back to Eng-Engs house. We sorted out taxes for Eng-Eng, and then went to the beach. Wow, I have not been in saltwater in a while. Cough, cough! Okay, useful advice that everybody probably already knows: Do not swallow saltwater! I got some in my mouth while swimming -and whew!- salty. Duh.
Then we got shave ice. The shave ice was as big as my head! Dad's was double the size of his head.

Okay, why does that photo make his head look so small, same with the shave ice? Well, anyway . . . the shave ice was huge.
Okay, here is the review I wrote on the place where we got it:

Shave Ice Reveiw

Hawaii's Favorite Kitchens

Hawaii's Favorite Kitchens is a store that sells many favorite dishes from old-time favorite resturants, but not only resturants. They also sell shave ice from Shinmazu shave ice. It was delicious, but here's a tip - a small size shave ice will feed four or five people. My father ordered a large, and it was about twice the size of his head. We didn't eat all of it, although it was supereb. The haupia is a good toping too. Lilikoi is definitley our family's favorite flavor, but that shouldn't mean much because I bet there are a hundred flavors there. But it was good, even though you have to pay 50 cents to get a plastic cup instead of a flimsy paper cup. I will definitely go there again.

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Ah! Now my writing is a different font! How do I change this? Okay, there is definitely some things I will need to learn about blogspot. Um, just ignore the font please, okay? Thanks. 

Wait, my post should end now. Plus I need to get ready for bed. 

End of post. 

Hawaii

We got in Hawaii yesterday, (I wrote this on 3/19/2016) late. We had to stop in Anchorage before we got on our five hour and twenty-two minute flight to Hawaii, and we had five hours before the flight to HI (yes, I know, hi!) took off. We went to this room, with a private bathroom and all (not the board room) and stayed there for maybe half an hour. While we were sitting there, a guy with a uniform on poked his head in the door and said to my dad;
"You da parent?"
Yes, my dad is the parent. My mom was on the phone, she was not in the room at the time. Then the guy gave a thumbs up, nodded, and closed the door behind him.
Eventually my mom came back and we (wait, no. the parents decided) to go to the mall. So Caden and I groaned; why would we want to leave the airport and shop? But we went, anyway, and it was actually pretty fun because we got hot chocolate. But Anchorage is freezing! There was still snow on the ground. Mom got some clothes and then we went back to the airport, caught our flight and then landed in Hawaii five hours later. It was sunny, and did you know that when I see palm trees I think Michigan? Really, I do. Even though that makes no sense and plus I have never been to Michigan.
We got our bags and went to get a taxi. Then two limos pulled up. They were taxis! Crossing my fingers, a lady who worked for the taxi company led us to a limo-taxi. Sweet!

Why is the photo in the middle? Does it always do that? Huh. I'll figure that out later. Where was I? Oh yeah. So, we rode in the limo-taxi and I really wish all taxi companies had that budget. 

Take your time, taxi! 

Then we arrived at my great-grandfather's (Eng-Eng) house. Yahoo! Just feel that sun. We got our bags, said thank you and minutes later, we were in the house, setting up our beds. Then, we were fast asleep. 

Hello, Hawaii! 

First Post

First post on this blog. Yay. Exciting. Whatever.

Anyway, this is Laina and I plan to write about whatever I feel like, but probably mostly about traveling or our lifestyle, like my mom's blog. I think it'll be fun to compare my mom's perspective of things to mine.

Okay, I will do the next post about Hawaii because that is where I am right now. In fact, I am sitting in a bed, and yeah, writing. (What else would I be doing?!?) So, I will end this post and do the second one. Oh, and FYI this will always be Laina writing but if it someone else (which is not likely to happen) I will make it clear.

Ending this post . . .

Ended.