Losing & Riding It

Zana lost her first baby tooth yesterday. The T.Fairy obviously couldn't find the tooth under her pillow early this morning but left a dollar anyway. Boy was I suprised when Zana came strolling in with her tooth this morning which T.Fairy either didn't see or dropped back under her pillow somehow. Close one.

At my insistence, we went to the "50th State Fair" last weekend with the kids. It's been years since either Ram or I had been to a fair and this was the first time we took the kids (actually we took Zana to a farm fair when she was an infant but that really doesn't count.). Anyway, I wanted our kids to have that as a fun childhood memory so we sucked it up and splurged on the ride tickets and just had a fun time.
Outside of a spinning dragon Inside of a spinning dragon Little kids spinning out of control. Big Kid having a roll.
We watched some pig races, flying Russian acrobats, pet some goats, saw a Disney TV star from a show I'd never heard of but Zana knew her instantly, ate funnel cake & cotton candy and rode a bunch of rides. I never realized just how expensive carnival rides can be and now I understand why my parents bribed us each with the choice of either 1-ride or a 1/2 gal of ice cream all to ourselves after the fair. Naturally they made the ice cream option too irresistible to pass up. Therefore, one of my happy childhood memories is after strolling through the exhibit tents at the fair sitting around the dining room table with my siblings each with a large silver spoon digging into our own favorite flavor of frozen decadence in front of us. I think mine was usually Rainbow Sherbert for some reason. I am way too indulgent and that probably wouldn't fly with my overly-gratified kids today. Maybe I could bribe Zana with Spam Musubi or crepes or Mochi ice cream balls or Lunchables or something I usually say NO to in the grocery store. But the point was that we actually had a blast riding the rides together which is novel since we don't have amusement parks here that we can get our thrills on otherwise. We really are overdue for a Disneyland trip of some sort. Maybe next year...

Kona No Ka Oi

Our weekend in Kona was splendid. On Friday June 5th, we caught a very early flight and after landing drove straight to the Kona LDS Temple where Zeth was sealed to our family for time & all eternity. Our dear LDSFS adoption specialist, Sally Lee, flew over just to share part in our special day with us. Our dear friends the Andersons had planned to be there too but a flight delay caused them to miss the sealing. They arrived in time to celebrate with us at lunch and then go swim at our hotel afterwards. Oh well. It was a simple & beautiful ceremony and we’re all so relieved to finally be able to call Zeth our own eternally. This little guy just fits in our family so well. Another match made in heaven. Of course I naturally have my heart overloaded with gratitude for our amazing birth mothers once again and wish for their continued happiness & success.

I made a huge oversight on our hotel reservations and didn’t realize it until we arrived. After doing all sorts of internet fare searching, calling direct and breaking down our reservation package to get the best rates, I thought I had booked us at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It didn’t occur to me that there may be more than one resort in Waikoloa and only discovered this upon driving up in front of the Marriott Waikoloa Resort and finally looking at our printed itinerary and realized that we were not in Kansas, Toto. Travelocity wouldn’t do anything to help fix my error. I was devastated. I had in my mind this oversized ostentatious water park property where we planned to see dolphins, ride boats & trains to get around and get lost in the maze of towers and pools. Instead it was a very simple, elegant, practical property that was completely different than the anticipated scene. The receptionist checking me in was very understanding and accommodating. She upgraded our room to a 5th floor full ocean view, waived the $20 resort fee, threw in free drinks at the pool bar, gave us early check in and a hospitality suite to use after checking out. The view from our balcony was stunning.
As a lifelong swimmer, pools are very important to me and after the initial shock; I have to say I was pleasantly surprised how much better the Marriott pools were especially for our young kids in terms of size, depth, temperature and accessibility. We had a blast in the sandy pool where Zeth was quite comfortable and could practically swim by himself with his buoyant Hercules body suit on. Zana cruised around happily with her water wings on and had a blast on the waterslide. She reassured me several times during our stay that we could see dolphins some other time. Ram had yucky stomach flu most of the weekend so he kept it real low-key and close to the facilities. I took the kids out kayaking in beautiful Anaeho’omalu Bay and got that out of our systems for a while. We spent pretty much the entire weekend at our hotel and never did venture up to see the dolphins or Hawaiian petroglyphs or any of the other places we had planned to go. It was just divinely relaxing family time at the resort. We were all very happy with one of my best mistakes ever. We’ll be booking the Waikoloa Marriott intentionally next time.