Tuesday, July 7, 2009

HAWAII- TURTLE BAY & THE POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER-Dec. 2-3, 2008

Jay, Nate, & I drove about an hour from Laie, to our condo in Honolulu... and called it a night after having a great day at the beach & PCC for the Luau & night show. Here we are walking to the elevator passed the beautiful poinsettias.
Bath time fun...got to get the sand out of all the nooks & crannies & the hair. Kali is enjoying a candy cane while getting clean. They both really love the water. It's a good thing since they live in Hawaii. I'm sure it helps that Aaron & Shanae introduced them to the ocean almost from the day they were born.
After the beach, we headed to get some shrimp & rice here at the famous Giovanni's shrimp shack... great stuff!  Shanae & Krew are posing by the fence where we signed our autograph.
Nate, Krew, & Shanae visiting & checking messages on her cell phone. Krew is being a rabbit eating a big carrot for his snack.
Grandpa Wood burying Kali in the sand. She's holding a tiny little pink umbrella in her hand.
Earlier in the day, we had fun playing in the ocean at Turtle Bay, which is the resort where Coriann is staying with the BYU women's basketall team. In this pic. is- Shanae holding Kali, Nate, & Jay pushing Krew around in the little yellow intertube. A video is below.
The Christmas lights & star with the lighted sign, 'Mele Kalikimaka' wishing everyone a 'Merry Christmas'.
In the night show, everyone seems to like the Tahitian dancers & fire dancers the best. Below are some video clips. I failed to get one of the main fire guy doing his amazing ticks. 
Family pose with Nate, Jay holding Krew, Shanae holding Kali, Coriann & Janece.
In the background is BYU women's basketball head coach, Jeff Judkins & his wife, Mary Kay, assistant coach , Alli, &               . In the foreground is the team video man, Little Dan & assistant coach, Stacy.

     Coriann, Kali, & Jazmine with her new skirt, having a great time.


Kali trying to twirl the colorful balls. In a video clip below, Nate does a pretty good job of it.
    Nate showing Krew & Shanae the colorful lighted balls.
While we were waiting for the big night show, Uncle Benny & Kali sang together. There is a little video clip of it below.
     Some of the other dancers who preformed at the Luau.
Kali, Nate, Hawaiian lady, Uncle Benny, Shanae, Krew, Janece, Jay, & a Hawaiian guy.
Of course Krew had to have his debut on stage too & join in the limelight.
Kali was asked to join with the Hawaiian children & to dance with them.
Uncle Benny got Jay & I up on stage to dance with other couples who were celebrating special occasions.
Uncle Benny was amazing with the Ukulele. He could play between his legs, behind his back & every which way. He also has an amazing voice & can imitate many singers such as Tiny Tim, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles?, etc.
               Shanae & Krew ready for some more fun.

Here we are stuffing our tummies- Nate, Kali, Jay, Janece, & Shanae.


                       Kali is sure enjoying her food!

Here's our yummy plate of Hawaiian food. There's chicken, long rice, pork, taro & taro roll, fresh pineapple, different types of fish, vege mix, poi, & fruit juices like POG (passion fruit, orange, & guava).


Here's Kali trying to do the shaka (sp?) like Uncle Benny.

Uncle Benny loves playing with Krew & Kali. He comes to their preschool & has them sing with him & helps with other things.

             The adults also joined in hula dancing, etc.


Some of the Hawaiian children dancing for us as part of the program.


The famous Uncle Benny, the MC of the program. He is a fun, talented, humorous, genuine person, who made us feel very special & important. Everyone just loves him! He even gave Shanae an autographed Ukulele as a gift to her.





Wed. Dec. 3rd, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center & had a great time with Uncle Benny at the Ali'i Luau. He treated us like VIP & we sat right up front. This is the barbecued pig that was just taken out of the pit. Of course it was very delicious.






After Jay, Nate, & I arrived in Honolulu, Tues. Dec. 2nd, we went to our Fairway Villa condo. This is the Christmas tree that was set up in the foyer area.
Top: Jay, Janece, Nate, Shanae, Kali, & Krew playing at Turtle Bay, on the north shore of Oahu.  Bottom: Hawaiian children preforming the stick dance at the Ali'i Luau at the PCC.

Top: The Hawaiian adults preforming a dance. Bottom: Uncle Benny impersonating Elvis.
Top: Uncle Benny jamming on his ukulele at Ali'i Luau. Bottom: Nate twirling the balls at PCC.
 
  Top: Uncle Benny & Kali singing at PCC.   Bottom: The Tahitian dancers at PCC.
 Top: Hawaiian men fire dancers at PCC.  Bottom: Coriann, Kali, Alexis, Jazmine, Shawnee, & Shanae at PCC.

3 comments:

janica said...

good job mom you got about 7 more months to go;)

Shanae said...

Good post mom, such fun memories :)

Anonymous said...

Hi,
My name is Jane and I'm with Dwellable.
I was looking for blog posts about Fairway Villa in Waikiki to share on our site and I came across your post...If you're open to it, drop me a line at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.
Hope to hear from you :)
Jane