Thursday, May 31, 2007

Dole





Hi! Amy speaking. Today was a fun day. First thing we went out to the Dole pineapple plantation. There we road a train and went in a maze (the 2nd largest in the world, but they're expanding to become the first again). Then we had the Dole Pineapple whip, which is like a pinapple sherbet soft serve. Very yummy. A few pineapple facts: One plant only produces 2 pineapples over 2-3 years! A good pineapple planter can plant 10,000 pineapples a day (by hand) that's about half an acre. Pineapples are yummy and aid in digestion. Zach and I have not lost weight but guess who has! Tatum... she is in the 20's again! (29.8 pounds to be exact, the exact same as Jonas). She has decided she no longer eats dinner (unless it's hot dogs or otherwise unhealthy). Dave and Sunny treated us to Chucky Cheese! Very fun! A lot of money for 5 cent prizes! But the kids had great fun. Well! See you tomorrow or the next day! Zach and Amy

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Waimea Valley, Turtle Bay, Matsumoto Shave ice











Yesterday we went for a really nice drive up to the North Shore. We went to the Waimea Valley Audubon Center. It is about a 2 mile walk that shows the stereotypical Hawaiian landscape and ends with a waterfall and pool which you can swim in (we didn't though because there were spiders in the dressing room). All of the plants were labeled and it was a nice leisurely walk for us. After Waimea, Amy and I decided we needed to get some more sun so we drove to Turtle Bay Resort (that's where they filmed a lot of this season's the bachelor!). The resort has a nice public beach where Amy and I went snorkeling and sun bathed (burned) for a few hours. Tatum was happy at the beach for the first time because she got her own beach chair (finally)! Today we were going to go to Pearl Harbor, but Amy chipped her tooth on Necco's that I gave her last weekend and so instead she had to go to the dentist. They charged her a lot ($238 for about 4 minutes of work) and then laughed at her for breaking her tooth on Necco's because "those are not even good! They were not worth it!" (Asian accent). After Amy got home from the dentist, we drove to the Historic town of Haleiwa and got a famous Matsumoto shave (not shaved!) ice. Amy was really excited because they had an option of putting sweetened condensed milk over the top (she eats that stuff straight out of the can during a sugar craving). Very very good! We were glad we paid the extra 25 cents for kid proof cup holders!!! Well! See you later! Thanks for your comments! p.s. sorry about the chubby guy in the water fall. We stayed there for 10 minutes to take the pic and he wouldn't move... Pictures in order:

Something cannon tree (these fruits are about 10 pounds), a flower of some kind ( I probably should have written down these names), some kind of tree with roots, an old Hawaiian hut, this would be a good jigsaw puzzle, waterfall, a sign you probably wouldn’t see in Utah, Tyger at Turtle Bay, Fat girl in a little suit at Turtle bay, Zach eating Matsumoto’s shave ice.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day
















Hi everybody!! We are still having a wonderful time. We have a fun week planned full of adventure, excitement, and leisure. We took pictures of Sunny and Dave's place. We also took pictures of the car we are driving. It is a 1994 Pontiac Bonneville. Today we went to go to the Ko Olina lagoons but they were full by 7:00 a.m. because of Memorial Day. So instead we went to an army base up on the west coast in kind of a ghetto town. Right outside of the base are all of the homeless people camped out on the beach we told you about earlier. I (Zach) finally tried out all of my snorkeling gear, and snorkeled in not very clear water. Dave and I put our fins on and swam out with our boogie boards to some really big waves people were surfing on. We were only able to ride a few waves. The beach was filled with coral and rock, not much fun for the kids or Amy. Tatum cried the whole time, but I had a great time. Also included pics: pics of the kids before church. Talk to you soon! Don't forget to leave comments! We get really excited when people leave comments... Pictures in order: Sunny's street, Front of Sunny's house, back of Sunny's house, Sunny's neighborhood, door to our room, the car Sunny and Dave bought for us and other visitors to use, army base sign where we went, beach we were at, bums at the beach, coral with spiny sea urchant, angry Tatum, bony Tyger, ancient ruins (sand head by Amy), fat Zach and mad Tatum, lowest gas prices on Oahu, Church kids.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Submarine!













Aloha! Sorry we haven't updated in a few days, internet was down! That's ok we had pretty low key days the last couple of days. We did see Shrek the Third however. It was pretty good but I thought the second was funnier. Today we went on a submarine ride called "Atlantis." It was pretty awesome. We took a ferry out to sea and transferred to the Submarine. We went down about 120 feet and saw sea turtles, sharks, spiny sea urchins, sunken ships, a sunken plane, and lots of awesome fish. The pics aren't that great because we couldn't use a flash and it was it was pretty murky. I have included a picture of the picture they took on the boat ride and then charged me $20 for, so I figure it should get its use, but it looks kinda funny. Notice in the pics that there is no red, I guess the water filters out red first as you go down. The glass that Tyger and I are holding is the same thickness as the glass in the submarine windows. (sorry, if In knew how to caption the pictures, I would... maybe you can figure that out for me dad!) The submarine ride was really fun but I wouldn't recommend it because it is way too expensive. Luckily we got a hefty military discount or we wouldn't have done it. Other pics included: London and her newly missing front tooth, the bottom of Tatum's spongebob shoes and 2 sleeping kids on the way home, one of the many Japanese couples getting married on Diamond Head Beach, Flamingos at the Hilton. Latest update on Zach's job seeking is Chaparral High School in Vegas has not officially offered him the position of guitar teacher but will offer him the position next week after their band teacher is expected to leave. thanks for checking this out and I hope y'all keep checking it frequently!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Wednesday









We started out today at the flea market. It stretches all the way around a huge football stadium There are hundreds of shops so get your souvenir wish lists ready! I have included pictures of the Pali outlook on the way to the beach. This is a huge cliff that drops off. in the 1600s there was a great war because King Kamehameha was trying to unite the islands. One groups of warriors chased the other group up this great mountain and 400 men fell off the cliff. Then we went to a beach called the Bellows. It's another military beach but some of it is open to the public on weekends. There are little houses right on the beach that military personnel can rent for up to 2 weeks. Very awesome. There were lots of jelly fish so we had to go home earlier than we would have. Tank, Sunny, and Zach got stung. They all have these red stringy sting marks. Zach and I boogie boarded. it is awesome!!!!!!! Tyger even tried it. He did great at first but the wiped out bad.