NINE

Makai has been getting super into video gaming, so we decided to celebrate at an arcade called Play and Spin for his birthday. He invited school friends to the arcade and then later we had family and friends over to our house. I chose my Rainbow Road tshirt as a surprise for him because we had just recently gotten in an argument about it while playing Mario Kart. I was beating him and then he chose Rainbow Road, which I did not agree to and he knows I do not like.

Friends Party at Play and SpinPortillo’s Chocolate Cake!

Makai, Jack, Everett

Brian and Makai

Jack, Otis

Hendrix, Brian

Arthur, Everett

Jack, Makai
Arthur

Jack, Makai, Hendrix, Everett, Otis

Otis

Everett, Brian, Otis, Arthur, Hendrix, Jack, Makai

Family Party at HomeRory, Everett, Makai, Arden, Konrad, Dallas, John

John, Rory, Everett, Arden, Arthur, Makai, Mari

Rory, John, Everett, Makai, Arden, Mari, Arthur


Makai, John


Konrad


Arden, Everett, Makai

Katerina

Gifts Sneaky Par hat from Marty

On Makai’s actual birthday, he had a birthday donut

For dinner his pick was CRAB LEGS!

Facetime with Grandma and Grandpa

Interviewing Grandma C

For school Makai had to interview someone who was born in another country and then do a presentation for school. Makai interviewed Grandma C, who was born in Korea.

The Interview:

The Write Up:

The presentation:

This project made me think of when I had to interview my Grandpa N when I was young. Somewhere I still have a cassette tape of him telling me about the war and the depression.

Family Barbecue


Liz with her sister Shannon and mom Toni


Uncle Dee and Jordan


Liz with Uncle Dee and Cousin Casey


Time to eat!


Jose and Caroline


Uncle Dee, Casey, Aunty Kathy


Uncle Mel and Aunty Wendie. Aunty Wendie’s quote of the day: “I never ate poi with chopsticks before!”


Xavier, Janet, Aunty Helen, George, Larry, Eleanor


Eleanor, Uncle Bob, Steve, Kathy, Xavier, Janet


Uncle Mel, Aunty Wendie, Uncle Dee, Jordan, Aunty Kathy, Jose, Caroline

The night of Liz and Jordan’s wedding we had a family barbecue. Well, family and some very close family friends. A lot of the food was from Joe’s on the Green, where we had our wedding last year. Uncle Dee also picked up a lot of local favorites like lau lau, poke, poi, kalua pig and Chinese noodles.


Casey


Dallas


Uncle Mel

Actually, a few people picked up poke. I think we had about 8 or 9 different ones to taste test! All of the food was so good. The lau lau that Uncle Dee brought from Da Imu Hut was getting rave reviews. Even the vegetarians ate it! For dessert we had cupcakes from Cakes by Kristin in Kapa’a.


Jackson and Savannah swimming in the pool.


A little frog that Jackson and Savannah found.


Liz and her family: Steve, Toni, Shannon, Kathy, Charlie, Savannah and Jackson

We had some drinks and visited. It was all very relaxed. At one point Savannah and Jackson, Liz’s niece and nephew, went back to where they were staying to get their bathing suits and take a dip.


Looking through old family photos.


Just a sample of what we found: This is Caroline, Jordan, and Dallas!

We also spent a lot of time looking at old family photos that Aunty Kathy brought from Dallas’s grandma’s house. I have only seen maybe two photos of Dallas as a child so it was so fun to look through books and books of his childhood. And very good to spend time with the family looking through grandma and grandpa’s adventures. Dallas never realized how much they loved to travel together. It was nice to see them so young and happy and having some great adventures. I think it helped the family a lot.

Grandma Crowell’s Memorial

Sadly, Dallas’s grandma passed away late in August, so even though our original purpose for travel to Hawaii was for Jordan and Liz’s wedding, the trip served a dual purpose of also getting the family together for a memorial as well. Dallas’s family is from Waimea and has a history at the Waimea United Church of Christ there. The ceremony was very small and personal and very touching.

No one could remember the last time that Dallas’s dad, George, and his brothers, Bob, Mel and Dee, were all together in one place. Even though it was a solemn morning, it was nice to have the family together. Dallas and Caroline took Jose and I around to see the graves of their relatives. I recognized William Olin Crowell, Dallas’s great grandfather, from some stories Dallas told me and from an article that was written up in the Kauai Garden Isle newspaper a few years back.

The graves and memorials in this cemetery go way back and represent a who’s who in Kauai’s history. Many of the markers are in Japanese and I got the impression that there were many Japanese church-goers here in the past, if not the present. The church itself also has a long history spanning all the way back to the first missionaries on the island.

We miss you, grandma. Rest in peace.

Update: Here’s the obituary from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Aug. 8, 2012
Doris F. Crowell, 92, of Waimea, Kauai, a retired public school teacher, died. She was born in Honolulu. She is survived by sons George K., Robert I., Mel and Dee; brother Richard Fukuda; sister Mary Chang; and eight grandchildren. Private services. Online condolences: doriscrowell.com.

Back From Hawaii

So, we’re back from Hawaii. In the 11 days that we were gone, Chicago went from that awesome end of summer/beginning of fall low seventies and sunny weather that I love to full on fall. The trees are pretty, but I have a feeling it’s going to be freezing any second. I’m not sure where to start with all of the things we did on vacation, so I guess I’ll just start at the beginning.

I felt like this trip was kind of a bonus this year. In the beginning of the year we knew we were not going to be able to go and attend Jordan and Liz’s wedding, but then our situation changed and off we went. It kind of just sneaked up on us… knowing we couldn’t go, and then thinking that October was so far off.. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. We hadn’t been back since February 2011, for our wedding, so it seemed like it was almost 2 years gone by.

Dallas and I looked up our miles a few months ago on American and saw we had enough to fly to Hawaii first class for free. SWEET! But we didn’t book it when we saw it. And when we went back to book, we couldn’t get economy, let alone first class! And the tickets were kind of expensive. And we had to book on United.

I didn’t buy the iPhone 5 before we left because they would only ship to my billing address and the estimated delivery was right when we’d be gone. Dallas and I did both upgrade to iOS 6, though, which meant we could put our boarding passes in a new application called Passbook and then just scan our phones in the airport. Since we were checking luggage, they printed out paper tickets for us and then we just used those, because we are elderly.

We booked a direct flight from Chicago to Honolulu. Not on purpose. It’s just how the scheduling and pricing worked out. I’d never flown directly there before. Usually I’ve always had a layover in California or Texas. I was afraid Dallas wouldn’t make it because of an old injury he has that makes it hard for him to sit for a long period of time, but he seemed alright. We downloaded a few movies on our iPad and Kindle Fire and tried to be patient. It was almost a 9 hour flight, though. Definitely the longest flight I’d been on. In Honolulu we still had to do a short inter-island flight to Kauai. I was super anxious at that point to just get to our final destination, but at least we were almost there.

This trip was mostly a family trip. We were going for a family event, Jordan and Liz’s wedding, and also for Dallas’s grandma’s memorial. We stayed in a house with Dallas’s parents and his sister and her boyfriend. By pure coincidence, Paul and Kate were ending their vacation as we were starting ours, so we made plans to meet up with them. Also, my friend Stephanie from New York was going to be honeymooning with her new husband Scott at the same time. I wasn’t sure what days exactly or which islands so I emailled her ahead of time but didn’t hear back. Funny thing was that as we were sitting at Stinger Ray’s, a bar at the airport in Honolulu, waiting for our flight to Kauai, I looked up and Steph and Scott were sitting two tables away from us!!! Steph had never met Dallas and I’d never met Scott so it was great. We got to catch up and Dallas gave them some tips on things to do in Maui, which was where they were headed. They’d been on Oahu for a few days already and were headed to Kauai after that. We ended up not meeting up on Kauai, but it was great to spend our layover with them.

When we landed on Kauai, we got our rental car and made it to the house we were staying in. We quick dropped our bags off, went to the house Jordan and Liz were staying in to say some quick hellos to the family and then headed to dinner with Paul and Kate. We were exhausted but weren’t sure if we’d get to see them any other day, so we manned up. More on that soon 🙂

As a side note, this was my sixth trip to Hawaii!

2004 – The trip where Dallas and I met.
2005 – Visiting for Chris & Tandy’s wedding.
2006 – Skipped this year. Not sure why!
2007 – Visiting with John, Susan, Allison, Caroline and Jordan.
2008 – Skipped because we bought our condo.
2009 – Visiting for Dallas’s 15-year Kamehameha Schools class reunion.
2010 – Skipped to save for our wedding.
2011 – Our wedding on Kauai!
2012 – Visted for Jordan and Liz’s wedding.