Home again, home again, rig-a-jig-jig

It was a great trip, but it feels good to be back in our own home and on our beautiful island. We miss our families a lot, but we had a warm welcome from our pets, Haui and Choco.

To the kids' delight, when we arrived home, we found that Santa had left one big present here at our house. I guess he knew we couldn't have taken this one home with us on the airplane. It is a huge hit!

We need some lessons on the rules of the road. Veda loves to drive full speed while looking up at the sky. Hello! Poor Eve sits innocently in the passenger side holding on for dear life.

It even has a real radio that plays the Disney station. Too cute!

Veda snuggling with her animals. She missed them a lot. Choco had really grown while we were gone!

On to our next stop...

The next leg of our tour took us to Las Vegas to see my side of the family. Travis had to get back to work and flew back to Kauai from Pheonix. Here are some of the highlights.


This is the cutest little stinker I have ever seen. Her name is Pepper. Santa brought her to my nephews, Cal and Liam. She is adorable, but lots of trouble. For some reason, she really loved to chew on Eve.




We had a rip-roaring wild family New Year's Eve party complete with lil smokies (compliments of Veda and Emma) and Martinelli's.




We had such a great time and really squeezed as much fun and family time in as we could. Thanks everyone! We miss you!!!

A Parker Christmas - Part 2

Christmas morning



Emily's favorite present


Veda was so thrilled with her present from Chase that she gave him a big hug and layed a wet one on his cheek. Too cute. He gave her a Barbie that he bought with his own money.

This is what the girls picked out for Travis. A skunk golf club sock. I hope he didn't take it the wrong way.

Torrey gave me this awesome apron. I look so cute cooking now!

We got Howard this shirt. It says "Trucks are sissy" :)

Me and Kaylee with our matching Niihau shell leis from Travis

A Parker Christmas - Part 1

Time to catch up! We got back from our holiday sojourn on Monday. Upon returning, we had internet troubles and I wasn't able to blog. Up here in the hills of rural Hawaii we often don't have a good connection. It's a lesson in patience!

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning!

We went to Pheonix first where we stayed with Travis' brother and sister-in-law and their cute family. They have a great house with lots of room and fun things to do.The kids had a great time.

Eve and cutie cousin Kali



Veda with Aunt Torrey



Parker cousins watching "The Grinch" on Christmas Eve

The Parker grandkids on Christmas Eve opening up Grandma and Grandpa's gift.

Our traditional Christmas Eve fondue dinner - it was better than ever this year!

Christmasy stuff

We went to the mall to see "Santa" one Sunday after church, since the girls were all dressed in their Christmas dresses already. I recognized "Santa" immediately - he is the owner of the house we rented for our first two months here. He really made a GREAT Santa though and I thought there was a good chance Veda wouldn't even recognize him. It has been probably 4 months since we have seen him and we didn't spend much time around him anyway.

So Veda and Eve both hop up on Santa's lap and he talks the talk with them, etc. We take a picture, they get the candy cane. We are walking away and Veda stops and pulls me down to her level. She says "Mom was that Santa, or was that Harold?"

Busted! Not only does she recognize him, but she remembers his name! I couldn't help laughing and just said "Ya, that was Harold! I didn't know he was one of Santa's special helpers, did you?" She seemed to accept that explanation and has since requested several times "Let's go to the mall and see "Santa Harold".

Ahh, life on a small island.



I have always wanted a fake Christmas tree with the lights already on - you know da kine. Travis is of the real tree school - although I am always the one putting on the lights, figures! This year, when I saw these Hawaiian Norfolk Pines, Travis won immediately. We don't have a great collection of ornaments and it's not that fancy, but I LOVE the tree. It is about 9 feet.



This was Veda's genius idea. We had just watched Rudolph and she taped this little red pom pom on herself.



We are busy getting ready for our big trip back to the mainland for the holidays. What do you have for dinner when Dad's at work and you've already cleaned out the fridge? What else, but a can of olives?!

Ya, we really did. I threw on a piece of ham and a cracker, but they didn't want it.

Everyday Miracles

We didn't go to church today. All 4 of us have runny noses, coughs, and aches and pains. I didn't think we'd be very good company at church. So we stayed home expecting to miss out on the day's spiritual offerings.

A friend of Veda's found several Monarch Caterpillars on a tree near his house. He gave Veda two and we have been watching them vigilantly as they ate through several green leaves and changed into cocoons. This morning the cocoons were black and I knew they would be coming out butterflies soon. By noon we had two beautiful Monarch butterflies.

I have known since preschool about the life cycles of a butterfly, but had no idea it would be so exciting to watch it all unfold in front of our eyes. Veda said "Mom, how did it do that?" I said "Aren't Heavenly Father's creatures amazing?" She said "I think we should say a prayer!" I thought that was such a sweet response and so we all folded our arms and Veda prayed. She started out with her typical prayer thanking Him for her blessings, family, and our beautiful world. Then she said "Heavenly Father, how did you turn that caterpillar into a butterfly? That was WEIRD!!! Amen."

Lessons of the day:

there are miracles happening all around us everyday. We don't always see them as such, but they are miracles none the less.

There are many opportunities, inside and outside of church, to find spiritual experiences.

Butterflies pee. Who knew?


P.S. I have some really great photos to go along with this post, but I'm having some technical difficulties. I will add them in soon.

I've been bad blogger!

There is a combination of reasons why I haven't blogged for a while. Among them, Christmas cards, decorating, Christmas tree decorating, Gymnastics classes, Christmas projects....Oh, and we have been pretty boring lately. Christmas is going to take a lot of extra effort this year as we will be traveling across the Pacific with Christmas packed in our bags.

Travis had a beautiful 6 days in a row off. We had a lot of fun just being together. The weather was wicked though. We are having major rain storms and wind everyday. He is beginning his training for an Ironman on the big island next year and had to go buy a treadmill to run on because his running trails are all washed out. We had a playdate at the park this morning and it was rainy and windy. The plus side of this weather is that we get to wear jeans and jackets! It actually feels a little winteryish.

Veda stopped sucking her thumb (during the daytime) and she got her kitty. He really is a cutie! We weren't sure how Haui would take to little Choco. He was completely fascinated at first. We weren't sure if he was protecting it or trying to eat it. He would follow him around and not let him out of his sight. I conclude that he does love the kitty, so much that he has to use great self control to not take a little nibble or two.

Choco is only 5 weeks old and really misses his Mommy. He snuggles with Haui in his bed and Haui tolerates it pretty well. Choco pushes Haui over the edge when he tries to nurse on him though. Haui gives a mean growl.




Choco is named for his color - chocolate. I have never seen a solid brown cat! Has anyone else? He has bright blue eyes too. Very pretty.