Craig and Barb came to visit!

Friday was an exciting day for Jeff and me...my Uncle Craig and Aunt Barbara came to visit us in Kailua! I spent the morning cleaning the house and unpacking the rest of the boxes in our bedroom (aka clothes). It was POURING rain before they came over so they got to see the rainy cloudy side of the island. It had been sunny and beautiful the entire week before, of course, lol. After enjoying the breeze on our lanai, I thought it would be a great idea to look for the secret waterfall at the Pali lookout. We went up to the top of the Pali mountain and took in the view, and the wind, but were unsuccessful in the waterfall mission. Turns out it's a mile and a half walk to get there and we were too hungry to do it. I need better directions other then "walk down the road a little bit and look for the trail." =) It was beautiful up there so it was worth it. We ended up eating at "Formaggio's," an Italian restaurant down the street from our house. (Thank you again for dinner Rent-lees!) After dinner we took Craig and Barb to Lanikai beach so they could feel the softest sand EVER. It really is like walking in flour. It was already dark by the thime we got out there so the four of us hung out for a few minutes then took off to Honolulu to drop them back off at their hotel. THEN...their hotel ended up being in the biggest shopping district in Oahu so we had to walk around for a while. And guess what.....I saw my first ABC store! They are everywhere! Even across the street from one another!

While walking down the street, I thought I better get some action shots for this blog so I took this pic of Jeff, Craig and Barb. I've drawn an arrow to point out the bench for all of you. The reason I've done this is because right after I took this picture, I walked directly into the bench.
(I had to mess with the lighting to make the bench visable)

I cried right then and there. It hurt SOOOO bad! Only one person besides who I was with stopped and said "that must of hurt!" In my head im thinking "no sh-t!" but I didn't say it because I'm too embarressed that this actually just happened in front of a hundred or so people (or more) to talk to anyone. But I saved my camera! I was still looking at the screen when I sprawled out over the bench. Here's the damage after the swelling went down...and I don't think this picture does my bruise justice. It looks much darker in person.

I had to get a picture with the newspaper mime...very creative! I gave him a gold star. I thought I had seen it all while running around LA and San Francisco but I was wrong.

One thing I've noticed here in Hawaii is that everything seems to be designed for short people. I'm not talking 5 ft people....I'm talking REALLY short people. Here is Jeff and Craig next to the pedestrian crossing button. Knee high!

We walked around for about an hour. My favorite store we visited was the Wyland Gallery. He's the one who does all of the whale and sea life paintings in bright colors. (He painted the mural on the Long Beach Convention Center and other famous buildings with whales on them). About two weeks ago, some random ran into the gallery and stole a painting worth $750,000 in broad daylight. They ended up finding it in Chinatown wrapped in newspaper. So it was cool to be able to see it hanging there when we went in. One of the employees took the four of us into a private room to see one of the paintings in different light degrees. It was ok. It wasn't as great as I thought it would be. But cool none the less of the guy to take some time with us. We ended up at Craig and Barb's hotel and said goodnight. We had such a fantastic time seeing them! They are the first members of our family to see our place and spend some time with us here. We can't wait for them to come back! Aloha!

Usually this would have been the end of the blog post but I had to add this in here. I replaced Jeff's window wiper blades a few days ago. I always try not to take the whole thing off while doing it because I never put them back on correctly....but I took them off because I couldn't quite reach them now that the truck is lifted. After dropping Craig and Barb off it was raining. I was telling Jeff that I did end up taking the wipers off and they would probably fall off on our way home. (Even though we had just used them for the past hour and they did not fall off). No joke we didn't even make it to the highway out of Honolulu and one fell off. Here's Jeff fixing one...

....then the other!

Thanks Jeff!!
=)