Use the comments section on this entry to leave your answer

Click the comments link below or the title of this entry and leave your answer. If you know what this is and you get it right, I will send you your very own Maui Gold Pineapple just in time for christmas. If you know where this came from (store and/or city) I will send you something else as a surprise with your pineapple. THE MYERS' AND THE THOMSONS ARE EXCLUDED FROM ANSWERING. (cheaters, thought you were gonna get a free pineapple? well guess again and no telling anyone else and splitting the reward for that matter)

Oh where to begin...again

Funny thing, for the past two months I've had this nagging feeling that I had forgotten something, or someone. It dawned on me that the someone I had forgotten was, well, YOU. Actually, I didn't forget, but due to a complete lack of motivation, coupled with a lot going on, I just haven't posted anything. I will try to make up for it in this entry.
There is A LOT to cover. Here are the highlights. In early October we were visited by the Stokers. Colby, (Lyman Stoker's oldest son) his wife Lexie and their daughter Anna, stayed with us for a week. We did take quite a few pictures but only a select few are going to make it into this entry's slide shows. Since the Stokers had planned this trip months in advance April was fortunate to have taken a good deal of time off to play host(es). We probably did more during that week than any other week we've lived here. We went to the beach, pearl harbor, the dole plantation, Wiamea Valley, The PCC, and even had a night to take them crabbing. There should be a few pictures of that in the slide. We thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent here. Since Colby is an exceptional tight wad, they probably wont be back for some time. The next big occurrence was the Thomsons came with some friends from Morgan, The Eldridges, Ty and Marina. I knew Ty and Marina from back in the day when we, Jarrod and I, went paintballing in Mt Green near the cemetery. The property we used to play on belongs to the Eldridges. Funny story about getting kicked off the grounds...ask me some other time.
Aaron and Melissa came on Halloween and stayed for a week. Due to the time that April had off earlier in the month we weren't able to play guides for the Thomsons. They came and went and we played rockband at night and even got to do a little rooster hunting, another story for another day...maybe never.
****TANGENT ALERT******
For those of you who know what I am talking about:
THE ROOSTER IS GONE. Halla'freakin'looya. Ask Lindsey, she'll tell you.
*****Back at the batcave*******
I convinced April to let me dress the kids up this Halloween and we went as a skeleton family. Aaron and Colby brought pieces of my costume over from UT and I donned it and scared the dickens out of the neighborhood. Apart from that, I turned our front porch into a literal mini-haunted house, complete with hanging bones in the walkway, skeletons coming out of the ground, strobe lights and fake fire cauldrons. It was GLORIOUS. Check the last slide show. It was most fun!! The best part of the Thomson's visit was a great chance to go scuba diving at Hanauma Bay. There are plenty of pictures from 30 ft down on the slide show. Sorry they're really blue, the water was just a bit murky. But it was a great dive. All six adults went that day while the kids were with a sitter. We saw all sorts of great stuff, and April almost died, well so she says, she got caught on the reef, not in the coral but on some rocks and had a bit of a panic until she got washed up on top of them, there is a picture or two of that. She's completely bruised now and has at least one lady in the relief society thinking that I beat her from head to toe, which isn't a bad idea sometimes, just not where the marks will show up.
All visits aside, we are doing fine. We are still working on selling our house in Ogden, the paperwork is well, in the works, and we've signed another year lease on our house here. April has been chosen to do some educator thing at work and she teaches relief society once a month. Funny, it takes her three weeks to prepare for the one week she's doing the lesson, then she gets up, does a fantastic job and then stresses over the next time she's due for a lesson. Amusing isn't the word I'd use to describe watching someone fret over having to leave their comfort zone. More like fascinating. As I am sure she'll say when she watches me do um....stuff....uh, like...um stuff that I um.....ahh.....well..don't do all that often....ok perhaps not.
I'd like to take a quick few minutes to reflect my personal feelings about how this Hawaiian adventure has turned out for me personally. I do like it here, in the year and a half we've been here, I have learned more than just electronics skills and parenting tactics. I've learned survival skills, adaptation techniques and marital solutions that I don't believe I would have anywhere else. I have made great new friends and have been able to cultivate a part of my testimony that you take for granted in the 'bubble'. My kids wake up every morning to the beautiful Koo'lau mountain range and the exotics flora therein. I have become almost dependant on the humidity to keep my skin soft and my lips from being chapped. I particularly enjoy the rain, and we get no shortage of that where we live. All in all, I am contented still. But just that, contented. In spite of the personal growth and accomplishment. I still miss thanksgiving with the family. Don't get me wrong, Don and Bob throw a thanksgiving dinner almost as good as the Foley's, but its the entire family that is missed. The same will be said for them if and when the day arrives that we take our leave from this volcanic rock. I miss the Sunday dinners. Chalupa night, babysitting for the Arnells, Motorcycling with Aaron, getting yelled at for motorcycling with Aaron, taking April on the fourwheeler to avoid getting yelled at for motorcycling with Aaron. I miss 2 dollar milk, 5 dollar flat rate shipping, cheap steak buffets with Jay, and a myriad of other experiences.
You certainly don't know what you have till its gone, so the trick is to realize what you have here that you will miss. Free beaches, coconut and pineapple stands on the side of the road, sharks cove, shrimp shacks, angel's shaved ice, majestic views, aloha spirit, the Derykes, the next scuba trip and most of all the real joy and happiness that we get from being reunited with visitors long loved and never forgotten.

Road to **** pavement

You know I had every intention of continuing the story of what happened to Abbi and me on our trip back home, suffice it to say that the trip back was equally difficult. We should have gotten on a plane that the lady said was full and it wasn't. We ended up in LA for another several hours, finally had to fly to an outer island and pay $60 to fly to Oahu. Yaddy yah yah, The final impression I want to leave you with regarding that trip, besides the mourning for a passed on love one, is the sensation of feeling truly alien, at home. After another VERY long day in and out of airports, April picked us up and we headed home. Once here, it took me almost a week to feel like I was back at home. It was an odd sensation. It had nothing to do with the people or reception, more perhaps, to do with a lack of belonging. I am glad I had the opportunity to go back to UT, the dry air killed my throat and lungs and the lack of flora was appalling to me. What made me laugh is that I was there in the pinnacle of springtime, when the desert blossoms, even still, it was all so, BROWN. We are so spoiled to be in one of the greenest places on our island. Aside from the de-acclimatization, I felt a lack of real 'home' whilst visiting Utah. Again, this had nothing to do with company or their greetings, just, geographics? The impact of this feeling was directly contrasted by my previous opinions of Utah. I had always said that I loved Utah for its diversity and recreational possibilities. Commonly heard was that, 'I'd never want to live anywhere else,'. Now having been abroad, as it were, for over a year's time I wish to recant those statements from before. I speak for my family when I say that we really like it here in Hawaii and we plan to stay for at least a few more years, but I am not yet 'settled'. We've lightly discussed the possiblity of moving somewhere else in a few years. Perhaps in time I will find the peace that Don talks about or the belonging that we all seek, but time is a fickle friend. It gives you untold opportunity but ultimately kills us all, that kids, is your paradox for the day.

Hannah is starting Kindergarten in a week or so and I, unlike many I have spoken to regarding the exodus of the first child to school, am totally stoked for her. She is excited to go and I am forced into some good exercise, I will take her to school via mtn bike and child trailer, when its not raining that is. The trip is about a mile and a half and takes about 10 minutes on the bike. That's a good 20 minutes 2x a day for me. So I will be fit, cut and trim in no time, right? Now all i have to do is give up crack and my life will be in order!
I don't have any good pictures to post for you, yet. I took the camera to our ward camping trip two weeks ago but there was little or nothing 'picture worthy'. These people don't know what camping is. They take tents and shelters, generators, full bbq grills, air mattresses, its like the entire house in one package. I am dying for a real backpacking trip. Slim pickin's on this island for that though. Jordan Masaki, Ted Locey (both YM and Scouts) and I went crab hunting one night tho, Here's a couple of pics about that.



Most of the crabs we caught were MUCH bigger than this. Let me set the scene for you. At midnight or later, you make your way to the beach and armed with a 5 gallon bucket and flashlights you walk the beaches looking for baseball sized holes in the sand with recent excavations. You then get on your hands and knees and start carefully following the hole as is spirals downward about a foot and a half. You scoop away the sand till you feel the crab shell or till he comes out to chase you away. Its quite intimidating when they come running at you brandishing those big white claws. They have a nasty pinch that can cut through skin and draw blood if you aren't quick enough. The crab will then make a break for a nearby hole or the open sea. You have to grab a handful of wet sand and, for lack of better description, bean him with it. Not too hard to kill it, but just to stun it for a second. The crab will then think its hidden and you can wipe away the sand and grab the sides of its shell where it can't get to you. I'll take you when you guys get here. The sand crabs are a delectable treat. You can boil the crabs and eat them if you want, there's not much meat on the small ones. The wicked looking spider crabs that crawl on the rocks aren't supposed to be eaten, I don't know why, that is just what I was told.
Enjoy.