iphone pics

I just downloaded the pictures from my phone. There are some noteworthy events to share, and I never pass up an opportunity to embarrass family members.

This is Pierce Brosnan shopping in Borders. (Pictured from the rear, not a bad view though.) He wandered into the children's section while my friend and I were there with our kids. She got brave as he was leaving and said "Bye Pierce". He looked at us and said "Bye ladies" in a voice so deliciously sexy that it almost made our clothes fall right off. I was hoping he would have taken the opportunity to say to us "The name's Bond, James Bond" but I'll settle for "Bye ladies".
Travis and I saw him the next day at Costco too! He is a resident of the island.

We had way too much fun with this wig we found at my brother Taylor's house.





Hat shopping - I really should have gotten one of these. The nights have been chilly here in the tropics.


The Milne cousins at the movie theater. We saw "Enchanted" - super cute film.


I took the kids to the Shangai Circus while Travis was working some long hours. The talent was incredible but the budget was low. We sat in the first row and had a great time being awed and amazed. The acrobats were just as good as the ones in Cirque Du Soliel shows, but they didn't have the fancy music, costumes, makeup, and props. We were pretty excited to get such a show on our little island though.

This was similar to the "strong men" in the Cirque show Mystere. They were really good, but they weren't painted gold OR on a rotating surface.

These girls were spinning little plates on top of sticks. Amazing enough right? No, they then started doing acrobatics while keeping the plates all spinning!



This girl was balancing tiers of tiny glasses full of water on her nose.


Veda, Eve, and our little buddy Pheonix at a Peace Rally celebration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was fun. They had African drumming, speakers, and a table where the kids could make a peace flag,

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.