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!
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Graham turns 9 🎉
New sunglasses for baseball 😎 Room upgrade to the top floor! Early trip to the arcade with a friend before he went out of town Graham off to baseball practice with his new bday swag! -
It’s March!
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!
North beach on MCBH for shelling – nice to have military friends for access to some great beaches! 
Oliv and Graham helping run the student council booth 
Ice Palace for our little taste of east coast winter 
Still working through a list of hikes! Kids prefer I do it without them 🫠 
Graham’s team won their final game! He was happy to be back after several weeks out from his buckle fracture. -
Florida for the Kratz wedding
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!).
Long way to the east coast! 
Gangs all here! 
Got Grammy to the beach. Just missing Meg! 
Callie’s first Rita’s! 
Wawa slushies! Our kids requested Wawa as soon as they knew they exist in FL 😅 
Nature center finds, thanks to Grammy! Elle & Micah’s wedding and festivities were the highlight!
Kids discovered Shirley temples 😬 
Rehearsal night 
Girls were thrilled to be jr. bridesmaids! 
Unfortunately Brooks got a stomach bug and missed the ceremony, so Graham was on his own! 
The girls loved dancing with Tess and Elle! 
Darla led some great line dancing 🤠 
Thought he might make it, but…nope 
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Winter happenings
Catching up on late January/early Feb happenings…
Went to see Dogman with a group of friends…it was…about as good as you’d expect 😆 
Brooks got a playground injury – only had to get glued! 
Shave ice, post-glue 
Eden and her friend Maya made it to Districts for science fair! 
Olivia’s 5th grade class flew to Hilo, Hawaii (big island) for a one day field trip! 
Rainbow Falls with her bestie, Brooke 
Eden planned a “stuff sale” to make money on stuff we no longer needed 
Super Bowl!! Slim crowd but Aaron preferred it that way. Also Graham fractured his arm right before it started so he was more subdued than usual. 
Kids had a big competition in gym class over a few weeks – each grade had to do a certain # of jumps without stopping/messing up to get to black belt. All our kids got it 💪🏼 
275 for Eden, 250 for Olivia, 150 for Graham and 50 for Brooks Was volunteering with Eden’s class when she made black belt 🤩 -
PopPop & Bev Visit!
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
Trying all of the traditional island games 
Kalua pork roast in the I’m I 
Battleship Missouri 
Quarterly assembly – Eden got an award this time around (the other three did in Q1!) 
Olivia found lots of cats around the hotel 
Helicopter tour on Maui 
Famous Road to Hana from the air 
Balcony view at hotel, just north of Lahaina 
The kids got to help drop the microphone to hear the whales underwater! 
Actually saw a lot of whales in Maalaea Bay, Maui 
Lots of turtles resting on Ho’okipa Beach 
Yummy lunch at Paia Fish Market 
Other Hawaiian island Lanai in the background 
Bev overcame her fear 😅 
Hawaiian monk seal sleeping on the island 
Visit to the Bishop museum 
Dole whip at the Dole plantation 
Volcom house at Pipeline on the north shore 
Lanikai Pillbox hike 
Playing post-snorkel -
Japan: Kyoto
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
Bamboo forest – if you sit and watch, supposedly you can see it grow…sometimes 1.5″ per hour! 
Our first family meal in a restaurant (usually they were too small and crowded for a family of 6!) – kids loved eating on the floor! 
Sushi train restaurant – grab what you want off the conveyor belt and try it! 
drinking the streams of water from the mountain for either finding love, success in school, or a long life (you don’t know which stream is which so you have to pick one to drink from!) 
Kids were excited this hotel had an onsen too…although not as nice as the Osaka one 
mochi and ice cream snack 
the pigs! 
kids thought it was hilarious 
how we all felt after the redeye -
Japan: Osaka
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:
- 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!
- 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
Kids liked the onsen experience! 
Hogwarts! 
Olivia got her butter beer! 
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Japan: Tokyo
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!
Tokyo Disney Sea 
Indiana Jones Temple 
Tower of terror! Olivia and Brooks didn’t want to ride 
Mermaid Lagoon 
Arabian Coast – Agrabah marketplace with Jasmine’s palace 
Journey to the Center of the earth was our favorite ride of the day 
“under the sea” in mermaid lagoon 
Ariel’s playground – super cool area with so much detail! 
Ariel’s grotto 
Venice in the Mediterranean harbor 
Big Thunder Mountain was our favorite ride of the day 
Beauty & the Beast ride in teacups 
Claw machine wins 
Ramen – cracked the egg wrong thinking it was hard boiled 🫠 
Crepes! 
Shibuya Crossing 
100 yen toy machines 
Oliv always wanted mochi! 
Meiji Jingu crowds on New Years Day 
Morning coffee at the 24hr convenient store by the hotel 
Navigating the trains was…exciting 😬 
About to board the Shinkansen! 
The 2.5hr trip was too short for the kids – they loved the seats and space! -
Christmas! 🎄🎁😄
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!
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Cousins are here…again!
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!
Candy Cane Lane 
Rustic Christmas 
Wonka’s Christmas Candy Factory 
Monk Seal Resort 
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Cousins are here!
Elle and Jill came for a few days before their trip to Kauai. Enjoyed showing them around the island and we tried to get in the Christmas spirit with a (very) scaled back version of our annual cousin Christmas cookie party🎄
Pipeline! Missed the Vans Pipe Masters competition by a day but still saw some great surfing 
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Candy Cane Lane
Girls’ enjoyed the 5th & 6th grade dance! Olivia helped plan it at student council with a theme of Candy Cane Lane 🎄
Hawaii Vogelzangs 