25 Weeks Down, 15 To Go...

Because some of you are just dying to see what He-May looks like, hope this satiates your appetite:

Here's a funny story too, Ashlyn came up to Heather's belly, rubbed it, and in her little voice said, "Belly. Full." I think she picked it up from us when we rub her tummy to see if she ate enough or not. Silly chica. She's definitely at that stage where she mimics and repeats everything we say and do. Everything except for using the toilet that is, and apparently sleeping.

She has two levels of bedding to choose from, and this is where she chose to plant here little head:

Just so you know, she did climb into bed later that night. She sleeps on the trundle.... when she's not begging to sleep next to Heather.

PCA World Tour: Destiny Fulfilled

WARNING:

This is a lengthy post...about dudes

Background Story. Ever since us friends got together and started doing road trips, Hawaii was always the big trip we were going to go on. It almost came to fruition during the winter semester of 2004 at BYU. We had gathered together for our PCA (Playahz Club Alliance) meeting and talked about how, and when we could go, and how much we would pay. It was decided we would pay no more than $500 each for air fare and hotel. I was assigned to find the tickets and accomodations, and one day while searching on Expedia I found airfare and 6 nights of accomodations at a pretty nice hotel for under $400. I hesitated to buy it, because it was all going on my credit card, so I made sure this was what we wanted to do. And that's where I blew it. When I checked again 10mins later, Expedia said there was a mistake and the price was actually $799. (Which still sounds like a great deal these days huh!!?) Suffice it to say, we went to San Diego instead, and a trip to Hawaii dissipated like a fart in the wind.....

UNTIL JULY 10th, 2008 WHEN ADAM (El Presidente) RICH and RUSSELL (Hollywood) WOODWARD CAME TO VISIT

Day 1 - Thursday, July 10th
The dudes land at about 2:30pm local time and they're ready to rock. We take them home, give them some pupus (appetizers) and head for a walk to the beach. After a bit of walking, we hit up dinner at Shokudo, a Japanese Bar & Grill. We eat, sushi, eel and noodles. Then we get some stuff for banana splits at the grocery store, and go home. The time difference soon gets the best of the fellas, and they crash early.

Day 2 - Friday, July 11th

One word sums up this day. Surfing. We head to Waikiki where our friends the Keo's help all of us catch some waves. Well, everyone except Heather and Ashlyn. So sad. Adam and Russ did pretty good for their first day, and I didn't even complain too much about having to paddle.

After two hours in the water, they exit burnt (even after blocking up) and hungry.

We eat at Duke's restaurant, and then head home. The guys crash, again. And that pretty much sums up the day. They woke up to eat dinner, and then fell asleep for the rest of the night after a bit of TV. Nice. I think Ashlyn stayed up longer than all of us this night.

Day 3 - Saturday, July 12th

We began the day like any good PCA trip begins -- MarioKart. Heather wins the first few races putting us to shame, but soon, I take over and school everybody the rest of the way. Adam did win the last race of Bowser's castle though. I was still overall champ. After a pancake breakfast we head to the Pali lookout, and then to Lanikai beach.

The next 5 hours we people watch, play football, and take lots of pictures. The water is ridiculously warm, almost to the point of being non-refreshing, but still nice. Russ gets burnt again too. Also, when we were done, to our surprise we got a parking ticket for parking in the wrong direction on this dinky two way residential road. Sheesh. Dinner is in the slow cooker when we get back, we watch some TV, eat some more banana split, and whatta ya know, the fellas visit dream land again before 11pm.

Day 4 - Sunday, July 13th

It is the Sabbath, so we plan to hit up Pearl Harbor before going to church at 11am. Heather decides to hang back with Ashlyn. One problem though, when we get there it's a two hour wait, and we forgot to bring water and sunscreen. So we picked some up, did the tour, missed most of church, but did read a story about the submarine USS Tang. Oh yeah!

Then guess what happened... yup, a five hour nap for the dudes. Silly guys. But, in their defense, we were go-go-go on this trip, plus they were a little burnt and kinda sick. We'll let it slide. We did walk Waikiki beach that night, and then ate more banana split, and called it a night.

Day 5- Monday, July 14th

Today was our north shore tour. But before we head out, we get some spam musubi for the fellas. They love spam. We also pick up some malasadas. Then it's off to Shark's cove for some snorkeling.

After snorkeling we hit up Waimea bay where kids were doing crazy jumps off the big rock. We never participated. We didn't stay long because we had to go to the next beach, Laniakea, so we can check out some turtles.

But we couldn't stay there long either, since we needed to get to Matsumoto's for shave ice before they close at 6pm. We barely made it. After, we witness a gorgeous sunset, and then the picture posing gears begin to turn. Oh dear. We finally head back to town, pick up some thai food and it's bed time before you know it.

That one's for the ladies who read our blog....

Day 6 - Tuesday, July 15th

Today was my last full day with the dudes, I have to go back to work soon. We head back up the east side of the island and make our first stop at the Macadamia Nut outlet. We sample all the flavors, including wasabi... yikes, that one was interesting. Then we go to Kualoa ranch. We do the ocean voyage, see some more turtles, and take a ride on a jungle expedition and see some beautiful sights. We were close to Laie so we also hit up temple beach, and visit the Hawaii LDS Temple too. That's where Ashlyn decides to pose. Mexican food for dinner, and an early bed time for all.

Day 7 - Wednesday, July 16th

Jason & Heather head back to work, the dudes spend the entire day up at the Polynesian Cultural Center. All they could talk about was the food and the Tahitian hip shakers. Nice. Oh yeah, and Adam bought a 4 foot tiki statue. Russ bought a smaller one. Great souveys!

Day 8 - Thursday, July 17th

In the morning we go catch the waves one last time at Waikiki. The surfing wasn't as good without the Keo's telling us where to go, but we still had a blast. I had to go to work in the afternoon but they spent the rest of the afternoon in Waikiki. We met for one last dinner together, sushi at a sushi bar. It was pretty fun and very tasty. Then we had to say goodbye, Ashlyn was very sad again, but still talks about her Uncles Adam and Russell to this day.

Good times were had, it was just unfortunate that the rest of the PCA couldn't be there. Lots of eating, lots of sleeping, but we played hard and the weather was gorgeous (even with the few clouds in the sky). Next up, a couple Japanese girls who will stay with us for a week while they learn english at the University of Hawaii next week. But don't worry folks, we're getting coin for this next set of visitors!

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Not gonna lie, kind of got tired of posting and uploading pictures, but if YOU are crazy enough, and need more PCA to fulfill your life, HERE are 25% of the pictures we took, meaning there's still 250 pictures to look at, unfortunately they're not in chronological order either.

What a Poser!

Ashlyn keeps doing super cute things, but at the same time I get a little worried about the future. When we went to the Hawaii Temple with our latest set of visitors, Adam and Russell, we saw a new side of her. At the top of the Temple there's a little terrace, and upon scanning the grounds, she immediately ran to this little light pole, got my attention by saying, in a loud Ashlyn voice, "Jason! Cheese!" and then just started posing like crazy. Don't ask me why she sometimes calls me Jason. The same is not true when she calls for Heather.

Anyways, Here's a few of the results:

This bottom picture reminds me of Clarence and Michelle, they have the exact same pose in a shot in Edmonton. Funny stuff. I promise, none of these pics were staged. She's just a ham. We'll have a complete day-by-day report of the Dude's visit later, I just need to sort through about 1000 pictures that we took, and find ones that are family appropriate. Half of them are shirtless in sweet poses. Good times.

Raising Them Right...

For any of you who know me, you'll know that I don't really like to eat breakfast food. Not a big fan of cereal, pancakes or french toast, though I eat them on an occasional basis. I'd much rather eat leftover dinner from the night before. It's never too early to start eating good food you know!
Well, this morning I knew I must be doing something right with Ashlyn. How? At 7:45am, Ashlyn told us she's hungry, so we asked her what she wanted to eat. Promptly she responded, "Tofu?", "Rice?" I love my baby.
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Note: Unfortunately we didn't have tofu, but she got her rice and she ate some orange chicken. She was a happy baby. (I guess she's not really a baby anymore, but she's still our baby!)

One of the Perks of Paradise...

You always have visitors!! We love it, and for the third month in a row we had friends or family come see us! This time was the Nick & Pam Austin family. We became real good friends with them in Grand Junction. Nick and I worked together in the sports department at KJCT News 8. During their stay, we did all the normal tourist things. Forget them? Well, you can go back to Heather's post of when her mom came... that was pretty thorough.

A couple funny stories from the Austin's stay though:

For my birthday eve, we went out to eat at Don Ho's Island Grill.

A little background first. Nick and Pam are some of the most generous people we know. They always want to pay for you, and they're always very giving.

Well, Heather and I agree we have to get them back. So when we get to the restaurant I say I need to go to the bathroom. Of course I don't, and I sneak over to the waitress and secretly slip her my credit card and tell her to charge everything to me. She agrees.

Chalk one up for the Tang's!

We then enjoy a wonderful dinner with the Austin's.

However, when the bill comes, the waitress gives it to Nick. I'm a little surprised, but I figure Nick will be more surprised when he sees my card is already in there. I ask him to give me the bill, and of course he says no. I tell him fine, my card is in there anyways. But then, when he opens up the black book, HIS card is sitting there, and he pulls mine out of his wallet!! I'm floored. I guess Nick spotted me giving the waitress my card while I was fake going to the bathroom. After, he tells me he went up to the waitress and demanded she give him my card (and that's a literal demand too). She obviously obliged.

I asked the waitress what she was thinking, and she said he had a better story than mine.

Austin's 1. Tang's 0. The next day was my birthday. If you can't tell we went to IHOP, one of my favorite places to eat breakfast. Before leaving for the restaurant, I tell Nick and Pam we were only going if we pay. They agree. Man, am I naive. After a lovely breakfast, it was time to cash out. When the bill comes, of course Pam snatches it away and gives the waitress her card.

This infuriates me (in a competitive sense).

So I grab it back and hand my card to the waitress and tell her to put it on mine. Then Pam drops her line. "But it's his birthday today!"

And that's when I choose the wrong.

I immediately stand up and say, "that doesn't matter, you paid yesterday!"

Well, our waitress is the one pictured on the left. She looks at me and says, "it's your birthday, and I'm pretty sure that I'm bigger and can take you down."

Ouch. Bye-Bye pride. What could I say or do, she was right.

Austin's 2. Tang's 0.

Well, the one piece of good news is that we did pay for dinner that night, but I had to strategically sit at the head of the table where the waitress stood, while Nick and Pam were in the back. Oh yeah.

We had a great time with them and can't wait to get them back when we see them next.

Oh, but, the kicker of the story is after they had left, they text us and tell us they hid money in the bathroom to pay for gas. Sheesh.

Austin's win. 3-1 the final.

Our next adventure begins tomorrow when our next set of visitors arrive. Adam Rich and Russell Woodward. My boys from the good ol' BYU days.

We hope everyone comes visits us, you're all welcome in our home!

(And you DON'T need to buy us dinner!!!)

How'd Your Poop Sandwich Taste?

No, I really didn't eat a poop sandwich, but a friend at BYU always said that when people had bad breath. I don't have that problem either, but after a 28 year run, my streak of cavity free teeth is over. In my first dental appointment in three years there was a small cavity that needed filling, and I had to drop my pride and get it fixed. Now I officially join Dr. Clarence Tang in the Tang Family Cavity Club, it's a membership I prefer not to have, but what do you do. Hope the rest of you Tang's stay strong... and for you Horpsool's...if you're anything like Heather, pretty sure most of you joined that club a long time ago.

Happy Independence Day!