Hawaii Vogelzangs

So fun having friends in town to show around the island! The kids all had lots of fun swimming, writing stories, snorkeling and exploring the beach. The hiking was not everyone’s favorite 😆 so great to have the extra time reconnecting with friends!

Stayed local for spring break! Kids made a list of stuff to do and see around home. Highlights were:

• Hotel stay in Waikiki
• Atlantis Submarine – a real submarine! Went to 115ft depth and saw fish, a sunken ship and plane , stingray and shark
• Learning about historical Polynesian games and tools , getting tattoos, building our own va’a (canoe)
• Aquarium – small but some cool creatures…God is creative!!
• Eden went to spring break camp on the north shore with our youth group – lots of fun playing games, singing, Bible study and beach time. Downside was wet tents and sleeping bags with some downpours 😬
• iTrampoline – kids loved the dodgeball court
• Laser Tag! Our first time at an official place and it was so fun!
• Lots of baseball practice
• Mom & Dad tried the new sushi restaurant up the street!

New bike and some new baseball gear! Headed to Waikiki for the weekend to kick off spring break (too many friends away on vacation to have a party!). Pretended to be tourists in the city!

Back to a somewhat normal routine after lots of travel and visitors. Shelling, surfing, movie nights, plus basketball finished up for Graham and baseball started for both boys. Arts for Aikahi was a big fair/fundraiser event at school – each kid helped at their grade booth and Eden performed in the open mic show!

Headed to Fort Myers for Elle & Micah’s wedding. Bonus was a long weekend in a big house with cousins (and the rest of the family, including Grammy!).

Elle & Micah’s wedding and festivities were the highlight!

Catching up on late January/early Feb happenings…

Had our much anticipated arrival of PopPop and Bev in January. Was so fun to show them around and explore some new HI things together! Highlights:

• Polynesian Cultural Center visit with luau and Breath of Ha show
• Beach time with Poppop’s famous sand building
• Pearl Harbor and Battleship Missouri
• Trip to Maui with a whale watch
• Adult kayak trip to the Mokolua islands in Kailua
• Hike to Lanikai pillbox with just PopPop & Lish

Final stop on our trip: Kyoto. Then bullet train back to Tokyo and the 7.5 hr flight back (thank you jet stream!) left us all exhausted – dealt with jet lag for a good week…but all worth it. Highlights in Kyoto:

• A cold and rainy Kyoto walking tour but our guide David was great – showed us spots off the beaten path (no crowds!), told stories about the history that made the temples interesting, and took us to find some traditional food!Kiyomizu-dera temple – lots of history and legends about this place
• Sannenzaka – traditional shopping street
• Fushimi Inari gates
• Nintendo Museum – kids loved playing with the giant controllers and playing retro games on old consoles; was cool for mom and dad to see the history of the company and all of the different versions of consoles and games along the way (unfortunately no pictures allowed in the museum part of the building)
• Sushi train restaurant for mom and dad
• Micro-pig cafe. You heard it right…the kids were so excited. It was as you’d expect

Second city stop was Osaka. Took the bullet train and basically only had one afternoon and then did Universal Japan! It was cold, and Aaron and Graham got flu-like symptoms but we powered through. Two main highlights:

1. Tried the onsen at the hotel: a public bathhouse…the catch is you can’t have any clothes on! We all changed into the PJs the hotels provided and the kids were nervous to go at first, but ended up liking the “pools” (typically a few options of hot, warm, cool) and sauna and the girls liked the amenities – felt like a spa!
2. Universal Studios Japan!
   • Got to check out the new Super Nintendo World! Donkey Kong coaster and VR Mario Kart rides were super cool, and all of the details of things going on around the world were so fun
   • Hollywood Dream roller coaster was the highlight for the 3 older kids and mom; Flying dinosaur was Dad’s favorite, and Brooks was too short but got a Mario Bros. bomb stuffy so he was happy!
   • Harry Potter world was super cool too – we all loved the Forbidden Journey ride
   • Despicable Me and Minions was a fun area and the ride had us all laughing

After Christmas we left for Japan. 9.5 hour flight from Honolulu to Tokyo on the Japanese airline was smooth! Highlights from Tokyo:

• Free snack time at the hotel each day, including a cotton candy machine where they kids could make their own
• Visited Tokyo Disney Sea and Tomyo Disneyland! Tokyo Disney Sea was super impressive with all of the buildings, worlds, landscapes, and detail.
• Shibuya Crossing – world’s busiest pedestrian crossing
• Kids learning 100 Yen is actually not a lot of money
• Harajuku shopping streets
• Meiji Jingu temple where we accidentally hit major crowds since everyone goes on Jan 1 to pray for good fortune for the new year
• Pokemon Center store – Brooks got his book he was hoping to find
• Little coin operated toy machines and entire stores of claw machines (kids won large stuffed animals they were excited about)
• Trying new food: ramen, udon, curry, sushi, mochi, takoyaki (look it up!)
• Shinkansen ride (Bullet train) from Tokyo > Osaka; passed Mt. Fuji at 200mph!

Beginning with a Christmas Eve service and a living room sleepover, we had and got lots of presents, fun, and a surprise question for the kids from Elle! A different but fun Christmas for sure. So fun to have family in town with us!

We had Elle visit again…but this time with Darla and Tess, our cousin and aunt, after visiting Kauai for a few days. We went to the beach, worked on a puzzle, had a gingerbread house competition, and celebrated Christmas! ( more on that later). The gingerbread house competition got judged from family from both ends of the country – Darla, Grammy, and Dorene!