Aloha week ONE.

Aloha and Mahalo. So begins the journaling of the #vanhawaii adventures.  We sold our house in Arizona, I will have to back post the details. Actually, I'm trying to block it out completely from my memory. It was a hard few months.

We live in Kaaawa, Hawaii. It's on the "windward" side of the island, south of Lai'e. It's a beautiful place with mountains and beach, so green and beautiful.

I digress...let's go back to "getting here..."

We flew from Boise, supposed to have left Saturday, January 4th.  But in typical Allegiant Airlines fashion, our flight was delayed, delayed and cancelled! So we hung out a bit longer with Webb & Laury! It was fun.

We met some people from Rexburg on our plane. Turns out they were in our old Burton ward and we have mutual acquaintances. They have 4 kids and they are living here in Oahu for two month. Crazy small world. We keep running into them here, pretty sure that means we should be friends.  I will work on that.

Finally, we made it to Honolulu.  Jeannie and Danny greeted us with "leis" and a ride to our new home. We were like fish out of water for a few days but I'd say we acclimated quite quickly.  The house is lovely, I am really enjoying it.  It is close to the highway, that's my only complaint. But it's also very conveniently located near the school and the beach and Danny & Jeannie's house.  So that's really fun. Can't believe the beauty of this place.

The kids started school at Kaaawa Elementary on January 7th.  They have done SO well, it's awesome. We walk to school on the beach and we are just really enjoying the proximity to our home. The classes are small, one class per grade. They do a flag raising each morning with the pledge and songs. I am in love with that.  Payton has Mrs. Ana--she's the RS Pres in our church. Sydney has Ms. Joy and Avery has Mrs. White--also in our church.  Sawyer is in her class too, so that's fun. Their classroom looks out on the ocean, pretty amazing. Dragons become Ocean Warriors...that's our story.

We have adventured and played and visited many different beaches.  It's nice to have Danny and Jeannie to show us the ropes.  Greg and Joan are here too, so it's fun. We have been taking turns cooking dinner and I like it!!! And Jeannie leads us in morning work outs, which I need. Also I need to stop eating all the good food here. ha.

Headed in to "town" to Costco and Sam's and Walmart. That's not something I want to do very often! Honolulu is a busy place, not my favorite :)  The house is furnished and pretty adequately stocked but we did need a few things.

With kids at school and Tess at aquarium with Joan, Mike and I drove up North to see the big waves and had a little lunch at Ted's bakery. Exploring is sure fun.

Thursday, we went to the farmer's market in Kailua, it was yummy. Beautiful town there, too.

Saturday we went to the open market at Aloha Stadium. It was like the swap meet so Greg loved it, ha. We got a kendama (necessity here) for Payt and coconut peanut butter. That's a treat for sure!

That night we did date night in Haleiwa. Wow, that's a cute little town. Yummy Mexican dinner and walked around art studio and surf shop. Such fun.

Church is great.  People were kind and the lessons were good. Kids did great at Primary. They have all done really well, so that's a relief.

So that was week ONE.  Pictures paint a beautiful picture, loving life!

Aloha and Mahalo.

Finally here.

Back Yard jungle. In a diaper, no less.

Mike and Tess.

happy.

First day of school. 

Ocean Warriors. Yes, they are.

Aves loving the slip n slide ;)

Our beach.

Mac nut & chocolate dipped apple banana. Yes, please.

loving the lemonade in Kailua.

Haleiwa.