Hawaii: The Continuing Story

The Polynesian Cultural Center aka the PCC



A Huge snail shell

A word of advice: never go to the PCC the day after a tsunami warning. You will be extremely tired and so will the performers. It is not really a good combination.

Aotearoa: the land of the long white cloud- so named because who ever the guy was that discovered the island thought that a huge cloud was in front of him in the horizon, but behold it was really New Zealand covered in a blanket of snow.

This is Sarah's favorite village.

Home of the poi ball. My kids fell in love with them and wanted to buy some. They cost $9.99 and when I looked more closely, I saw that they were made with trash sacks. Being the creative girl that I am and the penny pincher that Kai is, we were not about to pay ten bucks for poi balls made out of trash sacks. So we went home and made our own. They work just fine.

Kai wants Ryan to marry this Kiwi girl picture below. She was really nice and good to our kids.

This was also home to the tattoo. The more tattoos a warrior had on his face, the higher ranking he was. You should see some of the old pictures inside the gathering room of the old chiefs. It must have hurt to get so many tattoos on you fave with hammer and chisel.

My favorite village is the Samoan Village. It wasn't as good as usual, I think due to the heat and fatigue of all of us.

Kiera, of course got hurt. She is always trying to shuffle her feet and run at the same time. Every single pair of her pants has a hole in the left knee. This time however, she hurt her right knee and a nice medic came and gave her a very large amount of neosporin and a band aid.

Sarah knew the tree climber and asked him to take a picture with the kiddos. They thought he was pretty cool.

This is a replica of an old school building.

Preparation for our canoe ride.

Chris had to be at class but it was so nice to have Sarah with us. She is so helpful with the kiddos. I loved having an extra pair of hands. Plus, Cambria was mad at me and really needed her aunt. Like I said, we were all tired and Cambria is emotional to begin with.

This canoe was a gift to King George in England, but he gave it back (after some incident- maybe war?) because he believed it was bad luck. So here she sits in the walls of the PCC.

This is one of two existing Fijian Temples left in the world. I think they were used for sacrifices.

This is the Naleahoku . . . I think that is the name . . . anyway, Kai and I were present for her maiden voyage. The Hawaiian studies majors built her and then sailed from Hukilau Beach. It was quite amazing to watch them get her into the water.

Easter Islands . . . I so want to go there.

Fire Hydrant from first Iosepa Colony.

Attempt at family picture . . . I think I have lost weight since this picture:)

Bubba wanted a picture of himself while we were riding the PCC tram the took us to the temple.

The Beautiful Laie, Hawaii Temple. The first temple built outside of the continental United States.

I thought these little huts were so cute! They weren't inside the visitor's center when we were attending school at BYUH. If I remember correctly their were four different little surf shacks complete with surfboards out front and little TV's in the window's playing messages about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They have these in the St. George Temple visitor's center too, except they are just regular cute little houses.

Raia was the biggest hit in Hawaii. Where ever we went people would lavish their attention on her. Maybe babies aren't all that common in Hawaii, then again, maybe white babies aren't that common in Hawaii.

This tourist form Seattle/China was no exception to the rule. The tram tour we took dropped us off at the Laie, temple and inside the visitor's center or fellow tour companions could resist the urge no longer to talk to her, hold her and take pictures with her. They were astonished when they heard she was my 4th child.

In news unrelated to the PCC:

I spent just under two years working at Kapunahala Elementary School in Kaneohe. It was a blue ribbon school and I taught Grades 3-5 Special Ed FSC. I taught students who had autism, praeder wili syndrome, mental retardation and downs syndrome. Unbeknownst to me the class had never been able to keep a teacher for more than half a year. They all quit because the students were so challenging. It was a good thing I was too dumb to know any better because what started out as an tremendous challenge turned into the most wonderful experience.

I really had wanted to work at Sunset Beach Elementary. It was closer to my home, directly across from the beach and I knew several of the teachers already. My interview went well, but I had to wait for a certain date before principals could hire. I interviewed at Kapunahala and the principal fell in love with me for some reason. She kept asking me what she could do to convince me to teach at her school. She took me around to meet every teacher and made them all give me a hug. She even gave me a hug and begged. I tried to stall because I really wanted Sunset. I waited a week then finally gave in and accepted the job. I felt like it would be great to work under a principal who wanted me on her staff so badly. Special ed can be tricky and a supportive administrator can really make a difference.

Sunset Elementary called the very next day and offered me a position. Big sigh. The principal who convinced me to accept at Kapunahala left three months into the school year to accept a position under the superintendent. Big sigh. My friend who worked at Sunset Elem said that her principal said she was never going to wait for the hire date to hire a new applicant again.

Oh, well. It all worked out. Kapunahala became my home and the fodder for many stories to come.