haircut...hawaiian style!

This is Kaden's 3rd haircut at Pigtails and Crewcuts.

Yes, I tried cutting his hair all by myself.  Twice.

And failed.  Twice.

So, no more.  From now on, I refuse to cut his hair...and will fork out the ridiculously expensive $20 to have someone else cut his hair.

Every time we go, we try and try to get him into the Hawaiian airplane seat...only to get thwarted right before our turn.  But NOT today!  :)

Here he is...waiting his torture haircut.

Yup...he doesn't like it. 

 He no longer fights it, though...just a resigned crying.  

And crying...

Even after the lady is done cutting...he was still crying.

...and crying...

Until we gave him a cup of animal crackers.

And he realized it was all over.

Whew!  Thank goodness the ladies here cut super fast!

I'm hoping that one of these days, we can make it through the entire ordeal appointment without a wailing child...

ala moana

Saturday.

My sister Elika's husband is out of town and so in order to get out the house, she and her kids decided to come and spend the night at our house Friday night.

Which left us with a whole Saturday to play.

And since the weather was gorgeous (still Summer, according to the calendar, despite the fact that this was the girls first week back to school!), we decided to hit the beach.  

Kaden was stuck to Mitch's hip the whole day.

Well, every day, really...but today especially.

 Once we got Kaden detached from Mitch's hip, he was fairly content to play in the sand and NOT jump head first into the water.  Much to my relief.

 This one, however, I couldn't have held back if I tried.

We brought the nets...just for fun.  

And lo and behold, Anna caught a fish!

And not some dinky one either...but a pretty good-sized 2 1/2 incher!  

We were all pretty impressed.

Though they all tried and tried...this was the lone fish caught at Ala Moana's Magic Island this day.

By us, anyway.

 Kela and Luke.

We brought along 2 of my nephews since my brother's other two boys had baseball.

Such a shame...it was such a beautiful day, too!

 Here's Anna and her cousin Aya.

Net and bucket in hand, but alas...no more fish.

 Once she gave up on her fishing, she played tug boat to her cousin Luke and Justus on the boogie boards.

I just LOVE how the water here is so shallow!!

No need to worry about the kids wandering into the deep or getting swept away.

 Kaden likes the salt water.

It was kinda gross...but he kept dipping his hot wheels car into the water and licking off the salt water.  

Boys!

Here's my nephew, Knox.
He's gonna be a big brother in 4 months!! 

 Me, relaxing in the water while the kids played. 
Not sure how many Saturdays we have left to play in the waves but we sure will try to enjoy as much as we can!!

hickam beach

Summer is winding down, but it seems the weather hasn't quite gotten the memo.

It's the first day of school for Kela and Anna...and with Mitch's parents still here on the Island, we decided to enjoy what remains of the good weather as well as Grandma & Grandpa's military benefits.
Our one final trip to Hickam Beach, on Hickam Air Force base. 

 It really was a beautiful day for the beach!
Unfortunately, this day also happened to be quite a bit windy, with the waves a tad too strong for Jojo and Kaden to play in.  So, they played in the sand and (as you'll see later, the faucet by the cabanas) while Mitch and his Dad paddled and kayaked.
I, on the other hand, jogged.

Here's Mitch kayaking out into the water after his father (farther ahead on the yellow paddle board).

 Grandma, who doesn't like the beach or sun, stayed in the shade and helped keep the little ones occupied with buckets of water.  Water she got from the spigot behind the cabana, NOT from the ocean.

Like I said, the waves were a tad choppy and it was actually pretty windy this day...so Grandpa naturally had a bit of a difficult time standing up on the paddle board.

 See?

 And...here the kids are trying to rinse the sand off of them.

 Or, maybe just playing in the water.
(while wasting it and flooding the cabana area too, might I add)

 The water on this side of the island is SO clear and beautiful!
Of course, it also helps that this is a military beach so is far cleaner than the usual public beach. 
It is rarely tainted with rubbish and debris. 

Ahh. who needs the beach when you have a spigot of water, right?
At least I didn't have to chase him in the waves and worry about drowning!  :)

it's gr-eight to be 8!

I almost can't believe Kela is old enough to get baptized!!

It sounds cliche, I know...but it truly feels like it was just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and being brand new parents for the first time!

And now, she's eight years-old and and ready to get baptized!

 Half way to the church for Kela's baptism, I realized that I forgot to pack the leis I made for her!

You can't go to a baptism without a lei, right?!

So, with my mad dash back to the house and than back to the church, I ended up being a tad late to Kela's baptismal service.  And since I was scheduled to give the opening prayer, I was really nervous that I wouldn't make it on time...but luck was on my side and I somehow managed to arrive right in the nick of time.

So, with all that hullabaloo, I missed the opportunity to snap some decent pictures of Kela before the baptism.

This was the only one I got...and it's a tad blurry, but at least I got it!

 Oh, and this one.  Which happens to be in the changing room right before she entered the font.

I'm pretty sure I was more nervous and excited than she was!

 The baptism was quick...but beautiful.

Mitch did a great job!  :)

  This is Sister Bell...her CTR teacher.  

She gave the talk, and did a wonderful job.  Kela loves her.

 Look at all those leis!

Kela was probably more excited about the presents and candy than the actual baptismal service!

Just kidding...

 Here was all the family that came out to her baptism.

The angle is a bit weird, I know...it's because there were cars parked right in front of us, and the sun was shining right above so we had to be a bit creative with the camera positioning.  

In retrospect, we probably should have rearranged ourselves to a better position.  

Or, moved to an entirely different location.

But oh well...at least you can see all of us!

We missed having Airi and her family with us on this day...she was still in the mainland with her family!

:(

Here we are with Grandpa and Grandma Seavey.

SO lucky that they were here for her baptism!

Me and Kela.
I'm so proud of her!!

Our family!!  ♥

After the baptismal service, we had a family dinner celebration at our house.

Sushi and chicken karaage.

My favorite.  I know...I probably should have made Kela's favorite food.  But in my defense, Kela also loves both sushi and chicken wings so I figure it's a win-win situation!

I mean, who doesn't like spicy tuna and california rolls, right?

In all seriousness, this was truly a great day!  And I can't begin to describe how happy I was to see Kela making the decision to get baptized and follow her Savior's example.  I know she has a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And I know that she knows that by entering the waters of baptism, she has made the choice to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

I am so proud of my girl!  

And feel so blessed to have an Eternal Family!  ♥

one last huzzah...at the zoo

School's almost back in session...and so as one last huzzah before school starts back up, we decided to hit the zoo.  I mean, we've been to the pool (too many times to count) and the beach (ditto) so we figure why not the zoo!  Plus, Mitch was working and if I don't have to worry about Kaden drowning or getting swept away by the sea, then I say it's a good day!

So, we hit the zoo with my good friend Noelle and my sister Elika.  Oh, and our respective kids, of course.

Let me just start off by saying it was a HOT day.

Little wind, and lots of sunshine.  

In retrospect, the pool or beach probably would have been a tad more refreshing, but like I said, we were all husband-less, and so staying on dry land was definitely the easier route.

 See?  Hot day, huh?

And since Kaden refused to sit still in the stroller, I had to plop him on top of the canopy while I strolled around the zoo.

 And...since I'm being honest, the reptiles and monkeys were the only animals we saw.

After the herpetarium, the kids were hungry so we headed to the playground/kiddie zoo area.

Where we ate our lunch.
Spam musubis, capri sun and grapes.  :)

Well...most of the kids ate lunch.

Kaden just ran away from me.  

Like always.

 At least when he wasn't holding his cousin's hand.

 Or, playing at the playground.

This particular circular disc-thingy was his favorite.

 So, we stayed at the playground...because the kids seemed to really enjoy it here.

 Kaden was in heaven.

He loves to slide...

 ...to climb on things...

 ...or hang on things...

 ...not to mention climb through things...

 ...and slide some more.

 He also wrestled an alligator...

 ...tried to pet a peacock...

 ...made friends with a koi fish...

 ...befriended a goat...

...and built a fort out of legos.

 Jojo played on the playground, too...

But mostly, she ran around with her favorite cousin, Justus.

These two are trouble whenever they get together!

Kela found a bar to hang from...

While Anna was pretty tame in simply wandering around with her juice.

And Knox...he LOVES slides.

I'd post more pictures of all the other animals we saw...except that we DIDN'T see any more animals!
No.  We stayed in the Keiki Zoo/Playground all day!
Oh well, at least the kids had fun and us parents didn't have to walk all around the entire zoo.
A successful day, if I do say so myself!  :)