An Email Posting: So, How's Hawaii?

Instead of sending out a "so we made it to Hawaii" email to everyone, I thought I'd just do a post with the same jist. So, how's Hawaii?

So, Hawaii is pretty much the same as I left it. The same things that I didn't like about it are still here, the same things I LOVE about it are still here!
OUR APARTMENT
Although smaller than I anticipated (of course, anything is going to be smaller after living in Grandma's house that has spare room enough for 4 families), but it's pretty cool. Jeremy did a great job on the floor. The story behind that was the tiled floor started coming up soon after Jeremy moved in and he redid a lot of the tile- working really hard to finish it before we got here. I'm no contractor, but I can't tell a difference! There's lots of cupboard and closet space for our meager 3 suitcases of stuff. We were lucky that the apartment ended up being mostly furnished. Lucy loves the trampoline in her room- well, that's what she calls it. You might say it is more of a Mattress Land (we brought 2 beds not knowing the place would be furnished as much as it was and haven't gotten rid of extra mattresses yet).
THE KID'S ADJUSTMENT
The kids were really quiet when they saw Jeremy at the airport. Lucy had a big smile on her face but was still quite shy and must of thought it was strange. She definetly got excited to be with daddy again as an elated "Daddy, (giggle, giggle)...Daddy" was the only thing she said the first 10 minutes of the car ride. Willie didn't seem phased that anything was different and tended to treat him more like a stranger the first few days. The kids had a rough first couple of nights, up at 3am and not wanting to sleep. I didn't think the time change would affect them very much. They're pretty much back to normal though.
JEREMY'S ADJUSTMENT
He was a little shocked about the kids not wanting him or recognizing him- he knew it would probably happen, but didn't know he'd feel as bad as he did because of it. I think it was hard for him the first week getting used to having the kids around again and doing all the daddy-type chores for mom again ;)
MY ADJUSTMENT
It's definetly back to student life, I can feel that for sure. None of the furniture matches, you hate to invite friends over to a cramped apartment, you're always looking for cheap or free things. Also, it's kind of weird being in a place where I was single before and meeting old friends who I haven't seen since before I got married. It's kind of a weird transition. I'm really excited about the Traveling Preschool that comes to the park nearby once a week. There are a lot of young couples with young kids in our ward too, so that will be really fun. I love being back in a hub of culture and activity of a bigger city. There's always so much going on and things to do.

Friday night our ward had an Ohana Night with a potluck and some of the YW entertained with some Samoan dancing even though they were micronesian (there are quite a few micronesian people in our ward). They also had invited a Samoan girl who was Miss Teen Samoan, or whatever something I forget, to come dance and she was supposedly one of the best young dancers from Samoa. They were fun to watch, it's always fun to see all the elaborate costumes. I told Lucy, look at the pretty girls. And now everytime she sees a young woman, she says, "Look, a pretty girl!"
Saturday, we went to the Okinawan Festival, a japanese kind of festival at Kapiolani Park near Waikiki. It was huge, bigger than I remembered from when I went years ago. We couldn't stay for the whole day, kids don't last, but it was fun to visit the culture for a few hours. Lucy loved the children's games. They were real old school- like the HP picnic used to be. Her favorite was the classic Fish Pond- she did it at least 4 times. They did a really cute job with their games- the fish pond was actually a good sized little blown-up pool filled with water. They had screwed little hooks in the tops of floaty toys and given the kids a "double hook" little fishing pole to catch the different sea animals. Lucy loved pushing the toys around with the fishing pole. We still don't have a camera yet, or I would post a picture and not spend so much time describing it. She also loved the Disney Princess bouncy Castle. It was a fun day!