2003 - Brown's Hawai'i Adventure

Tuesday - November 4, 2003 – Our Adventure Begins

We all woke up before the sun did, and we got ready for our trip with lots of excitement. Mommy and Daddy drove us to the airport and Grammi and Grampi drove with the luggage. Mommy and Daddy got passes from Alaska Airlines so they could go through security to wait at the gate with us. We were very excited so it was hard wait. We had donuts and watched the planes. Finally, it was time to get on the plane. We hugged and kissed Mommy and Daddy goodbye, and boarded our plane.

We all sat in the same row so we could see and talk to each other. Bailey chose to sit by the window, but Bryanna didn’t want to. We kept asking if we were flying yet, and we were still at the gate. At last, the plane started backing up. Our trip was starting! We taxied out so we could see the Nugget and the Hilton. When we turned around, Grammi gave us a piece of gum, and told us to chew hard, and that it would be OK if we made a little bit of smacking noises, but she didn’t tell us why. We went really fast and we saw Daddy’s work out Bailey’s window.

Bryanna held on tightly to Grammi’s hand and Bailey held on tightly to Grampi’s hand. Bryanna closed her eyes and suddenly, they popped open and she said, “Grammi, we’re flying!”

She wanted to look out the window, but Grammi said we couldn’t change places until the seat belt sign went off. Bailey and Grampi could see Lake Tahoe out Bailey’s window, and we could see it for a minute when the plane tipped a little bit. After the light went off, we moved over to sit behind Grampi and Bailey; and Bryanna got a window, so she could see better. The flight attendant served drinks, and both of us got apple juice. We colored a little bit, but mostly just talked.

It wasn’t very long before we could see the ocean, and then the flight attendant said to prepare for landing in Los Angeles. Grammi passed out more gum, and just then, Bryanna said her ears hurt really badly. Bailey’s ears only hurt a little bit. Grammi said to chew hard, and to yawn and swallow. That helped a little bit, but her ears didn’t really feel good until after we had been on the ground for about half an hour. We were a little scared when the landing gear made a big thump, but we watched out the window, and cheered when we landed. It took a long time to get to the gate, but once we did, we got off the plane quickly.

We walked outside to go from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4. We got our boarding passes for our flight to Hawai’i, and then we had 5 hours to go. We walked to the International Terminal, and found a nice restaurant where we could park our luggage cart next to our table. We ordered two pizzas, a salad, and soda. The food was good, and we ate a lot. Then we walked to Hagen Daze for an ice cream. After that, we walked back to Terminal 4 and found our gate. We wanted to go on the moving sidewalk that Grampi had told us about, but we didn’t find one. At the gate, we got four chairs, and then we colored. Bailey got tired, so she curled up on her chair, with one of Grammi’s pillows, covered with Grampi’s sweatshirt, and took a long nap. Bryanna wanted to sleep, too, but she couldn’t fit on the chair, because she is such a big girl, so Grammi made a bed for her on her backpack, and, wearing Grammi’s sweatshirt, she took a nap on Grammi’s other pillow. Grampi and Grammi read their books, until Grammi got really tired, so she lay on the floor with Bryanna and took a little nap, too.

Finally, it was time to get on the American Airlines flight, and this time, it was all so familiar that Bryanna and Bailey knew just what to do. Bryanna was able to fasten her own seat belt, but Bailey needed help from Grampi, who sat with her. Our section of the plane only had six rows, so it was almost like being in first class. It was already almost dark outside, and we were surprised about that. We got gum just before we took off, and we were on our way. The takeoff was fun, and we could see really well.

We colored a lot, and Bailey was a little unhappy that Grammi forgot to bring reading books. We had a book about Jellyfish, so she read that several times. We got beef stew for dinner, with rice, salad, a roll and a brownie. Bryanna had 7-Up and Bailey had milk. After dinner, we saw the movie, “Legally Blonde, 2”, which wasn’t very good, but had a cute dog in it. Some of us fell asleep for a little while, and then, we were landing again, after getting more gum. By now, Grammi had explained that the gum was supposed to help our ears get used to the pressure change so they wouldn’t hurt so much, but Bryanna had a sore ear again when we landed. It stopped pretty soon, though.

We went down the escalator, and Gee and Joe were waiting for us with beautiful purple leis for all of us. We were a little shy at first, but soon, we were talking to Gee as if we had known her forever. Grampi and Joe waited for the luggage for a very long time. When they got it, we headed out to the van, and then we were on the way home. Joe and Gee stayed at our house for dinner, and we got to know them a lot. 

At 10:45 PM, Gee and Joe went home and we walked over to the beach with our flashlights. On the way, in the park, something startled us. It was a huge frog. We all touched it, and Bryanna tried to pick him up, but she was a little afraid to do it. Then he hopped over to some bushes, and we continued down to the water. We were a little nervous about the waves, but soon, we were holding our dresses up, running and screaming in the waves. We walked all the way to the rocks at Kamaole Point, and then we walked back. We played with Polly Pockets for a little while because we were too wound up to go to bed. Grampi and Grammi unpacked a little bit, and cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen, so we’d be able to use them. Grammi kicked one of the suitcases and hurt her little toe. At 1:00, we were all ready for bed. Grammi read one story, and we fell asleep right away.

Wednesday – November 5, 2003 – We Love the Beach

Grammi thought we would sleep late, but we fooled her. At 6:15 AM, we were laying in bed talking and giggling, so we all got up. We got sun screened, and into one of our new bathing suits. It was hard to decide which one to wear, so we tried all of them on first. Finally, we decided, and we walked over to Kamaole III Beach.

We played for two hours, and loved it. The waves were really small, and we were laying on our tummies, waiting for the waves to get to us, then we would jump up and scream. Grampi said it’s OK to scream at the beach, but not at the pool. We took a shower outside with our bathing suits on, and went back home.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, thanks to Joe buying us some groceries. We played with horses and Barbies while Grammi and Grampi did more work. After that, we went to the pool for a little while. Then back to the beach, which meant more showers. We had sand everywhere. When we got home that time, we took real showers, and left a big pile of sand in the bathtub. We had lunch on the lanai, and a nap. Grampi went to Safeway, because we had found we needed a few things we hadn’t told Joe to get. After nap, we went to the beach to watch the sunset, and Joe and Gee joined us. We like them a lot, and treat them like a second Grammi and Grampi. The grownups watched the sunset, and we played for an hour.

Oh, no, more showers! Bryanna said that she doesn’t really care for the beach because it is too sandy.

We had ham, cheese, salad, apples, and bananas for dinner, and read stories for an hour before bed. Grammi and Grampi went to bed at the same time as us.

Thursday - November 6, 2003

We got up early, & had bacon, eggs, and bananas for breakfast. Then we walked to the van to go to town. Bailey stopped when we got there, and said, “You brought this van to Hawai’i?” It was funny. Grammi told us it had come here on a big boat, so we would have a safe place to ride.

We drove to Ma’alaea to see where Grammi and Grampi work and meet their friends, and we drove through the harbor to see the boats. Grammi asked if we knew what the ocean was called, and Bailey yelled out, “Lake Tahoe!” Then we went to Kahului to do a few errands. We went to Burger King for lunch and got chicken nuggets, a hamburger, French fries, and vibrating ghosties. Then we walked over to Sports Authority to exchange our beach sandals, because we found out that it is too hard to put on water shoes with sandy feet. We didn’t go to the beach because of Grampi’s back, and Grammi’s sore toe. She thinks her nail is going to come off. EEW!

By the time we got home, we wanted to go to the pool, so we did that for a long time. It was so late after we were done swimming that we didn’t have to take a rest.

We had steak, macaroni and cheese, salad and grapes for dinner. After dinner, we played for a long time with horses and Barbies, but we were grumpy. We had a little bit of a pity party after Grammi had to tell us not to do something. We lay on the floor next to the bed and Bryanna cried and said she wanted her daddy. Bailey lay next to her and looked puzzled. Grammi and Grampi pretended that they didn’t know that Bry was crying, because they thought that if they sympathized, she would feel sorry for herself even longer. Grammi just asked if we wanted to go out to the lanai for dessert and stories. We had grapes and pears, and both of us were fine. Grammi decided that we shouldn’t skip our rest any more. We were asleep in 3 minutes after we went to bed.

Friday – November 7, 2003

Up early again and had breakfast right away. It was cereal, bananas, hot cocoa, and bagels. We played in the backyard and fed the birds.

Grammi took us to the pool, while Grampi put the new lights up. We met Spencer, 4 and Dillon 1 ½, from Truckee. They were very nice little boys. Grampi joined us at the pool when he was done with the lights. Bryanna put her face under the water for a long time. Grampi and Grammi were surprised. Bailey was in the little pool, and she was getting in from the side, backwards, when suddenly, she fell back all the way under the water! Grammi and Grampi were very scared, and they jumped up and almost jumped into the water to get her, but she popped up, wiped her eyes, and smiled, so, they sat down and clapped, saying that she was very courageous. We went into the big pool for a long time, but Grampi’s back was hurting from putting up the lights, so he just watched.

Grammi went back to the house, made lunch, and brought it to the pool, along with some books. She read to us while we ate lunch. We had cheese, crackers, tuna, grapes, and nuts. We left the pool for a nap at 1:00. After nap, we had dinner, and then went for a walk. We played with toys, and colored for a long time and went to bed at 8:00. Grammi read to us for an hour. We asked if we could have ice water next to the bed, so Grammi said we could give it a try.

Saturday – November 8 – Dinner With Gee and Joe

We only drank a little bit of our ice water during the night, but Bailey was able to get her own, so she didn’t need to ask for any, which meant that Grammi and Grampi were able to sleep all night. They decided that we could each have a glass of water every night to have next to the bed. Breakfast was cereal, yogurt, grapes and bagel. We spent quite a lot of time at the pool in the morning, and Grampi sat with us for part of it, after he installed the new fan over the stove. His back was feeling a little better, but he still can’t play in the pool, or walk to the beach.

After nap, we put our new dresses on and went over to Gee and Joe’s condo for dinner – Taco Bell! They got us a taco supreme, and a hard taco. We also had grapes and salad. Then we put “Shrek” on, and they opened their Wall Bed for us, but we really didn’t watch the movie. We helped the grownups play Chicken Livers, and it was really lots of fun. Gee let us take turns rolling the dice for her, and Bryanna was getting lots of ones and fives for points. Gee won the game with our help. Dessert was pears and a candy bar and then Gee brought out some cheesecake. Bryanna tried Gee’s, and liked it, so Gee went in and got her a piece of her own. She ate most of it. Now we know that Bryanna likes cheesecake. We went home at 9:30, and went right to bed and right to sleep.

Sunday – November 9

Grammi and Grampi wanted to take us somewhere fun, but Grammi couldn’t put her shoes on, even sandals, because of her sore toe. She cut off the end of the nail, and hopes that will make it feel better. We had a relaxing morning. We went to the pool, and Bryanna is getting so close to being able to swim. She is just a little afraid to put her face in the water as she jumps off the step into Grammi’s arms. Bailey is close, too, with no fear when she jumps, but she won’t put her face in the water for as long a time as Bryanna does. We’ve been working on swimming every day, because we want to be able to surprise Mommy and Daddy when they get here.

After lunch and a nap, Bill and Judy, came over. We went to the pool at 4:20 PM and stayed there until 6:15. We liked them and let Judy spin us just like Grammi does. Also, Bryanna jumped off the steps to Judy lots of times. A few minutes before we left the pool, Gee and Joe came down. We cheered, and went to Gee as soon we saw her. We introduced them to Bill and Judy, and swam for a few minutes, but it was getting cold. We went with Gee and Grammi over to the family hot tub to put our feet in. We really wanted to get in, but Grammi told us that it isn’t safe for small children like Bailey to be in hot tubs. After a few minutes, Joe and Judy joined us, and we splashed them by kicking our feet hard. We were laughing at Joe when he acted as if his feelings were hurt. Just before we left, Gee let is get all the way in for less than one minute, and then we put on our robes and shoes to walk back.

Judy and Bill left, and Joe and Gee came over to barbeque chicken. We also had salad, macaroni and cheese, grapes, and broccoli. They sat and visited for a little while after dinner, and Gee sang songs with us. They Bai read her a story. They left soon after that because they had to get their apartment cleaned and do some packing so they can leave tomorrow. We said that they would miss them a lot! That made Gee and Joe feel wonderful. We read stories for a little while before bed.

Monday – November 10, 2003 – Aloha To Good Friends

This was another relaxing day. We played and had breakfast of cereal, bagels, and cantaloupe. Then we went to the office to meet Barbara, the lady who made the cute dresses for us. We drove to the recycling center, Ma’alaea to the Whale Foundation Store, and Longs for milk, tomatoes, and a mop. We were disappointed that they didn’t have any popsicles. We’ll have to go to Safeway soon, because we have been wanting some. Grampi bought us two lemonade ones last time he went there, and they were very tasty.

When we got home, we had tuna sandwiches, cheese, and olives for lunch. Then we went over to the beach because Grammi was able to get her sandal on over her toe. Grampi stayed home to work on some computer stuff. We made a river and a huge pool, which we filled with water for the dolphins. We stayed for almost two hours, and then went home for a shower and a nap.

We had Waldorf/Chicken salad for dinner, with cheese and olives. Then we went to the pool for an hour after dark. It was chilly, but we have been wanting to swim at night. After we came back, we played for a little while, and then watched Fear Factor. Joe and Gee came over at 8:00 and we tried on our new sarong sets for them.

We took some pictures, and then said, “Goodbye” and Grampi took them to the airport. Gee was really sad. We gave them hugs and kisses when we walked them out to the van. Grammi read stories to us, and then we went to bed at 9:20. Grampi got home at 9:45 and went in to kiss us. He leaned over Bailey to kiss Bryanna, and he thought Bailey was asleep, so he started to leave. Suddenly Bailey said, “Aren’t you going to give me a kiss.” When he told Grammi that, she said that he is supposed to kiss us goodnight, even when we are asleep.

Tuesday – November 11, 2003 – Beach and Bubbles

We slept in this morning. We didn’t hear a sound until almost 7:30, so we got to wake up slowly. We had applesauce with cinnamon, bread, and bananas, but we got to spread the peanut butter on the bread ourselves. We decided to try it on the bananas, and we liked it. Peanut butter got on our fingers and cheeks, but we had fun doing it all by ourselves.

After breakfast, we called Mommy and Daddy which made us a little bit homesick. 

After that, we played while Grammi wrote a letter to Ann, and then we went to the beach across the street. Grampi’s back is feeling a lot better. We took all the sand toys, and dolphins, umbrella, chairs, and the beach bag, so we were really loaded down. Grammi and Grampi are going to look for a wagon to use for beach trips.

We stayed at the beach for two hours, and we went far out in the water with Grampi. They showed us the lava rock and Bryanna wanted to know if it was still hot and is Haleakala going to erupt on us, so we walked over to touch it, and they explained that the hot lava stopped flowing hundreds of years ago, so we don’t need to be worried about the volcano. While Grampi cleaned up all the toys, we took a walk to Kamaole Point. We collected some lava rocks to take back for the lanai.

When we got back, we took showers, and put our favorite dresses on – Bailey the gecko one, and Bryanna the flowery one. We had a lot of fun blowing bubbles.

Then we had lunch of ham, cheese, and pears. We used the bubble blower, and that was lots of fun. We “napped” from 1:00 to 4:00, but we read and made spit wads for the first hour of that. After we got in trouble for that, we went to sleep. Snack was cheese, crackers and apples, and then we went for a long walk.

After nap, we took a walk down Keonakai Road and talked about the flowers. Both of us are good at saying and remembering the names. We both love the “Paradise Bird.” When we got home, we barbequed hot dogs, and Grammi fixed cheese, salad, and green beans to go with them.

After dinner, we sat on Grammi and Grampi’s bed looking at the Maui No Ka Oi book for over an hour and talked about Hawai’i. Bedtime was about 8:30, but Bailey was too restless to sleep, so she kept bothering Bryanna, who was really trying to sleep. Grammi sat with Bailey for a few minutes, and rubbed her back, and soon she was ready to fall asleep. About 1:30, Bailey woke up crying and asking for Mommy. Grammi calmed her down and she went back to sleep, but after about an hour, she started crying again, and said she heard a noise. Grammi took her for a little walk to see that nothing was making a scary noise, and Grampi held her for a few minutes. Then she went back to bed, and Bryanna held her hand so she wouldn’t be scared any more.

End Of Week One – Grammi’s Thoughts

Well, we made it through the week. The most important problem is Bailey’s feet drifting onto Bryanna at night, making her too hot, but Bailey doesn't want a pillow between them. She needs to know that her sister is right next to her without any interference. Today, at nap, they discovered that it is fun to make spit wads out of the inserts from the Highlights magazines. But, really, they have been great, and there is a lot of impromptu sharing going on. Like, Bailey said yesterday, “Bryanna, you can color on my dolphin and make it pretty for me.” Well, Bryanna asked her on Friday if she could color it, and Bailey didn’t want her to and Bryanna didn’t even bug her about it. Another thing was that Bailey fell (with no assistance) and Bryanna grabbed her arm and helped her up, asking if she was all right. When Bryanna bumped her head on the pool, Bailey hugged her and patted her head. Sometimes they giggle almost non-stop, but they are not being obnoxious about it. They both want the pink cup, so we alternate days. They have been eating everything in sight, and they are usually remembering to use their good manners. Their swimming lessons are really coming along, and we expect to have a couple of fish really soon.

Wednesday – November 12, 2003 – We Find a Wagon and Visit the Rainforest

Wake up time was 7:15 this morning. Grammi laid in bed with us for a few minutes, so Grampi could sleep a little bit more, but the giggling woke him up, and he came down the hallway and into the room, pretending to be a monster. We hid under the sheet and quietly screamed and giggled.

Breakfast was bacon and eggs, with cantaloupe. After that, we played with horses and Polly Pockets, while Grammi and Grampi cleaned and did some laundry. They we went to town to look for a wagon.  We were very patient, but we had to go to five different stores to look for it. One of them was Costco, and they had samples of cheeseburgers, soymilk and pumpkin muffins. Bryanna didn’t care for the milk, but Bailey drank most of hers before she decided that she didn’t really care for it either.

Finally, it was time to have some fun. We had said we would go upcountry to find horses, but it was already almost 2:00, and Grammi asked if we would like to go to the rainforest instead. We enthusiastically said, “Yes!” so we drove up to the Iao Valley. It was cool and very cloudy, but it didn’t rain. We went to the Memorial Park and walked for about a half hour,

and we went through a little scary trail with bamboo and other plants making a tunnel. We saw Koi fish and lots of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese buildings. We were going to go inside one of the buildings, but the sign said, “Broken Floor.” Bryanna looked up above the steps, and saw a nest and asked Grammi what it was. Grammi looked up and said that it was a wasp nest, and there were hundreds of wasps flying around, so we got out of there FAST! Bryanna had to go potty, so we left and went to McDonalds in Wailuku. As long as we were there, we got a hamburger and French Fries. Then we got an ice cream and a cookie to share. We got home at 4:30, and went to the pool for a fun time of swimming and jumping on Grammi and Grampi.

We weren’t hungry for any dinner so we had snacks of walnuts, cashews, tuna sandwich, chicken/Waldorf salad and olives. Then we had cantaloupe and graham crackers dipped in milk.

Bedtime was 7:15, but we got to read for a while. Grammi came in to ask if we wanted to read for a few more minutes, because we had been reading so nicely for a half hour. Bailey said yes, and Bryanna said no because she was tired. Grammi said for her to close her eyes and rest while Bailey read for a few more minutes. Bailey said, “Yeah, Bryanna, you close your eyes, and I’ll read you a story while you go night-night.” Bryanna looked at Grammi with a smile that said, “Isn’t she just precious?” It was a wonderful moment. About five minutes later, Grampi and Grammi heard yelling, and went toward the bedroom. Bryanna was lying on her tummy saying, “I just want to go to sleep, and I can’t with you talking!” She kicked her feet a few times, and Grammi went in. Bailey was crying, and Grammi asked her what was wrong. She said Bryanna was being mean and she just wanted to read to her. Grammi said that Bryanna wasn’t being mean, but was tired and couldn’t go to sleep with Bailey reading. Bailey asked for a tissue, and then we hugged and kissed each other, except that Bailey covered her mouth with her hand so Bryanna couldn’t kiss her, so Bryanna kissed her forehead. We went right to sleep after that.

Thursday – November 13, 2003

We were up at 7 ish. Breakfast was peaches, English muffin with peanut butter, and hot - hot cocoa. Grammi had to go to get a blood test, so she took Bryanna with her. Bailey got to stay with Grampi and go for a ride in the new wagon, to get a coffee and a newspaper. Bryanna and Grammi went to Safeway to buy a few things, and they finally found some popsicles. Bryanna brought Bailey a sticker from the laboratory.

After a snack of chocolate chip bagels, peach yogurt, and cottage cheese, we all went to the pool. We practiced our swimming for almost an hour. Bailey got too cold, so Grampi took her back home. She had some string cheese and apple slices. Bryanna swam for a little longer. When she got hungry, she had string cheese and apples in a lounge chair. Bryanna went back in the water for a few minutes, and then she and Grammi went back to be with Bailey and Grampi. We were hungry again so we had some trail mix, more apple slices, and cold hot cocoa. We watched Disney cartoons and a story about the new haunted house movie with Grampi, and then went to bed for a long rest.

After rest, we got dressed to go to Kahului for dinner at Ruby’s. We wanted to wear our pretty, purple dresses that Barbara made for us, along with the hats. We had a very good dinner of Cobb Salad and Fried Chicken Finger Salad, chocolate milk, and chocolate milk shake. We received compliments on our behavior and how adorable we looked. It was too late after we finished dinner to go to see the hula and fire dancers, so Grammi and Grampi promised that we would go on Saturday night. Bedtime was just a few minutes after we got home.

Friday – November 14, 2003 – A Letter From Daddy and Mommy

Grampi’s back was feeling even worse this morning, so we are going to try an experiment. Tonight, he will sleep in the bedroom with Bailey, and Grammi will sleep in the airbed with Bryanna. Grampi said they would just let us sleep in the airbed together, but we move so much, and it is easy for the airbed to slither around, so they don’t want us to do that, unless the experiment works and Grampi’s back feels better after sleeping in his own bed. Then they will figure something out.

We got Grammi and Grampi up by climbing into bed with them. Grammi was pretty grumpy, and didn’t want to wake up. After a few minutes, she decided to get up, and make some breakfast. We had apples, oranges, cereal with milk, and hot cocoa. Bailey didn’t care too much for the oranges. We spent the morning playing horses, Polly Pockets, Play Doh and coloring.

We received a letter from Daddy and Mommy, and Grampi printed it so we would each have a copy to hold, and she is going to read it to us when we go to bed tonight. We were very happy to get a letter. Here it is:

Subj:

Hello Girls

Date:11/14/2003 8:42:42 AM Hawaiian Standard Time

From:rommie.brown@NVRENO.ang.af.mil

To:Mauiboss@aol.com

Sent from the Internet (Details)

Dear Bryanna and Bailey,

I wanted to let you know that you're in our thoughts everyday. We miss your smiling faces in the morning, your hungry faces in the afternoon, and your tired faces at night. We've been sleeping in on the weekends and we haven't even cooked pancakes since you've been gone. I think I'll make some tomorrow and eat them all to myself. I can send you some pancakes in the mail but they might not taste very good by the time you get them, what do you think, yes or no?

I'm going on a trip for work this Monday so I won't be able to talk to you for 5 days. I will be going to Puerto Rico, maybe Grammy and Grannpy can show you on a map. It looks a lot like Hawaii. I will send you a post card. You will need to call Mom because she'll be home all alone. I love and miss you as big as the world. Have fun and make a big sand castle for me. We will see you soon and watch out for the hot lava!

Hugs and Kisses

Daddy and Mommy

Lunch was tuna on crackers for Bryanna and chicken noodle soup for Bailey. We both had cheese, carrots and milk, too. Grammi read chapter 2 of “The Friendly Snowflake.” After lunch, we worked on workbooks and stickers. We had a hard time at rest today, because we are excited about our play date with Briana at 4:30 at the pool. We rested in the living room and Bailey finally fell asleep at 2:30 so Bryanna got to go into the bedroom to watch “James and the Giant Peach”.

The play date with Briana was a success. She and her mommy, Yvonne, came to the pool about a half hour after we did. Bill and Judy were there, too, so we had Judy and Grammi to swim with while we were waiting. After we played, we went to sit on a chair for a snack, and that’s when we gave Briana her matching beach robe. Yvonne was thrilled with it. The three of us girls looked like triplets. After swimming, Briana and Yvonne came back to our place to play with Polly Pockets for an hour.

Briana tattled on us a couple of times, but it was because we were just being our usual give and take selves, and she isn’t used to hearing sisters squabble. We were good about sharing with her, though, and Grammi wasn’t surprised.

Dinner was ham, salami, cheddar cheese, apples, and applesauce. We were very happy when Grammi read the letter from Daddy. We found Puerto Rico on the computer. Then we found some other places, like Qatar, Alaska, and Hawai’i. Grammi read the third chapter of our book, and we went to bed at 8:00 to watch “A Bug’s Life.” When Grammi and Grampi went to bed, they brought Bryanna into the living room to sleep in the airbed. At 2:15 AM, she woke up to go potty, and when she came back, she told Grammi that she wanted to go back to her bed now. Grammi said that Grampi was asleep in her spot, and she went back to sleep.

Saturday – November 15, 2003 – A Different Beach

We got up late this morning, almost 8:00. Breakfast was peanut butter sandwiches and pears with hot cocoa. Then we went to Keawekapu Beach. We got there at 9:30. We had a great time, and we loved playing on our big rafts. We went way past the waves. Grampi even took each of us separately out into the deep water. Grampi and Grammi buried our legs in the sand and took pictures of us being beautiful mermaids.

We snacked on, mixed nuts, apples, Club crackers, homemade tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and POG. We got home at 1:00, which wasn’t a moment too soon, because Bailey had to go potty very badly, and she just couldn’t go in the water or standing in the shower at the beach. We had a shower and some coke and then went down for a rest.

Nap was over at 5:05, later than usual, but we had a busy morning. We had fried ham, scrambled eggs, rice, apples, pears and grapes for dinner. We each had thirds on eggs and rice, so we made a plan to have that again. After dinner, we played for a while, and then got into our sarong outfits for our trip to Wailea for the luau entertainment. We took the wagon because we thought it would be better for going back to the car when we were tired. The luau we went to was at the Renaissance Hotel, and we found out that it wasn’t the right one. The stage was too far away for us to get a good look. The fire dancer did not impress us very much, although, while it was happening, we were oohing and aahing. Next time, we will go to the other one, where the stage is right by the path, and we will be able to get a closer look. We went to Laperts for an ice cream and got home at 9:30. We went to bed and were asleep in less than three minutes.

Sunday – November 16, 2003 – Fun With Friends

Grammi woke up at 5:00. She did some work on the computer with the Hawai’ian music station playing on the TV. Bryanna slept until 7:00 and Grampi and Bailey got up at 7:25. We went to church across the street and met some of Grampi and Grammi’s friends. We knew it would be boring, so we took some snacks and coloring books. We also had two chocolate covered granola bars and a box of juice each. Grammi and Grampi got lots of compliments on us, and how well behaved we were. While they talked to some friends, we went to the edge of the sand, watched the waves and got a piece of coral and a shell.

We walked back, bought a newspaper, and visited Barbara. When we left her office, Bryanna walked out the door, and then ran back in to give Barbara her piece of coral. Barbara was very touched. We went home and Grampi read the paper and then worked on bills. Grammi went with us to play at the pool for an hour. Some girls that we had talked to a couple of days ago were there with their mom. We found out that their names were Gracie, age 8, and Sophie, age 3. They played in the little pool with us for a few minutes. Then we made a play date for this afternoon after rest to go to Kamaole Point to look for turtles and other sea animals. When we got back to the condo, we put on long pants and long sleeved shirts. That lasted for about 20 minutes, and then the clothes started to come off.

We had corn dogs for lunch that Ann, from 6-101 had brought over because they are leaving tonight. Along with that, we had cheddar cheese, and apples. Grampi took Bailey to Safeway for milk and napkins. Bryanna helped Grammi clean the lanai with the hose.

We had an hour to play before rest and then we went to bed with House Of Mouse. Bryanna got up after an hour to go on the lanai with some Play Doh. She also had some strawberry yogurt. Bailey got up just 10 minutes before Lisa, Sophie and Gracie got here. She gulped down some cherry yogurt.

The trip to the point was fun. We found lots of coral. We worked for a long time on building a house next to the rocks. When we walked back, the sun was setting. It was beautiful.

We had homemade pizza for dinner, with tortellini and salad. We liked the pizza and Bailey especially liked the tortellini. Grammi was glad she fixed so much. Bailey and Grampi finished all of it.

We read and watched TV for a long time after dinner. Bedtime was at 9:10. We read for a long time before Grammi turned out the light.

Monday – November 17, 2003 – Not One Of the Funnest Days

Today’s activities were not a great success. Mystery shopping! The day started out with breakfast at McDonalds. We had bacon, egg, and cheese bagel, and bacon, egg, and cheese mcsomething. We didn’t like the cheese or the egg, or the breads. Thank goodness, we also got hashed browns. We each ate a whole one and a little bit of a third one.

After breakfast, we were on our way to Lahaina. The trip was fun. We played with our Brother Bear mooses, sang, and colored. We were hoping to see some whales, but had no luck.  We went to two Coffee companies to mystery shop them, and one furniture store. It was lots of fun to run around the huge Banyon tree. We really wanted to climb on it, but that isn't allowed.

Then we went to Leilani’s for lunch. We liked eating outside because we could watch the boats and Para sailors. We had fun with the birds landing on our chairs looking for food. Grammi and we got the Cobb Salad. Grampi shared the French fries from his fish and chips. On the drive home, we stopped at the vista point to search for whales with the binoculars. From there to Kihei, we shared our McDonald’s cookies that Grammi had bought for a surprise in the morning.

We stopped at Long’s to pick up our photos. Then Grammi had to go to the Urgent Care to see a doctor about pinkeye. She wanted to get medicine fast so we wouldn’t get it. We ate apples until after we got home, and then we each had a Popsicle before “rest.” It was already 3:30, so rest time was watching “James and the Giant Peach” in bed. We both watched the whole movie while Grammi worked on the computer, and Grampi drove to Wailea to do the Montblanc shop.

At the end of rest time, Ann brought over tons of food. Our refrigerator and pantry are so full, that we can’t find anything. Grammi is going to make a box of food to take to Briana and Yvonne.

Dinner was pizza cheese with sauce, rice, cottage cheese and pears. Bryanna was so tired, she didn’t want to get up from lying on the airbed watching TV, for dinner. But after dinner, she had gotten her second wind, and we played with Polly Pockets on the airbed until bedtime at 8:15. When Grammi and Grampi went to bed, they brought us out to sleep on the airbed. They left the refrigerator light on and Hawai’ian music playing on the TV, so we wouldn’t wake up and be scared.

Tuesday – November 18, 2003

Grammi got up at 4:00 to work on our journal. She didn’t think it would bother us. She was right, it didn’t. When she came out to the living room, she found us sleeping soundly, but Bailey wasn’t sleeping on her pillow. She was sprawled across the bed sidewise. Poor Bryanna was all scrunched up in the top of the bed.

We drew pictures to send to Mommy and Daddy. Bailey’s was on black paper, so it didn’t work on the computer, but Bryanna’s did.

This is Bryanna standing next to hot lava with lava rocks falling all around her.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, with hot cocoa. We played around the house for most of the morning. We walked over to the office to see Barbara. We were wearing the Hawai'ian outfits she made for us.

On the way back, Grammi took us to the big garden where we saw baby bananas and we found a gecko on a fern.

We said goodbye to Grampi when he left for the Whale Store, and then we went to the pool for one hour. We played with Play Doh, and horses. Rest was short because we lay down at 3:00 and the phone woke us up at 4:20, but we had really had enough rest anyway. Grampi went to the hot tub for a little while when he got home from work. We watched cartoons while he was gone. Then we got our flashlights and bug bottles so we could go out in the yard to hunt for bugs. We didn’t find any by the lava rock wall where we thought we would, so we caught some ants by the Plumeria tree.

Dinner was bacon, eggs, rice, and pears. Grammi had steak out, but Grampi didn’t feel like going to the BBQ, so we saved it for tomorrow. We played for a long time after dinner with Polly Pockets and horses. When we went to bed, we fell asleep right away. Grammi and Grampi took us to the airbed at 10:00 and that woke us up. We were a little scared ‘cause we heard whoo noises but Grammi told us that it was the wind. Then we were worried about the ice dropping noise in the freezer, that might happen while we were out there all alone, and Grammi said that it is just a little thumping noise, and we’d be fine.

Wednesday – November 18, 2003 – Brother Bear and Darkness

We got up at 6:00, and watched The Wiggles. When we played with horses, we started arguing about who had which horse last time, so Grammi took all of them away. We stared at her for long time but she ignored us, and so we started to play with Polly Pockets. We were mad. After an hour, Grammi gave the horses back.

After breakfast of cereal and pears, we decided that it was way too windy to go to the Ocean Center. We were all disappointed. We decided to go to the movies to see “Brother Bear”. First, we went to Kahului to do some grown-up stuff. We had lunch at Ruby’s. We got to the theater just in time to see the previews. The movie was very good, and we laughed a lot. Grammi and Grampi laughed at lots of stuff that we didn’t think was funny.

On the way home, we saw a lot of trees that had fallen down. Right in front of Kamaole Point, there was a power line down with men working in a big crow’s nest. When we went in the gate, we found out that our power was out. We talked about going out for dinner, but we wanted tuna and peanut butter, so Grammi fixed us some dinner by flashlight. There was enough light on the lanai for us to eat at first, but then Grampi put on the lantern. After dinner, we went for a walk with our flashlights. The phone rang and it was Mommy calling. We both talked to her and told her about the movie. Just then, the lights came on, so we went back inside, and Grammi put “Beauty and the Beast II” on in the bedroom for us because we didn’t like the sound of the wind in the living room. When the movie was over, it was time for bed.

Thursday – November 20, 2003 – Hiking At Hookipa

When we got up, it was very windy again. We ate our yogurt, oranges, and bread with peanut butter at the little table in the living room. Then we took showers in the rock bottom shower. After that, we played with Polly Pockets and horses, while Grammi and Grampi did some work.

At last, we were on our way to town. We were looking for bar stools and Grammi said we needed some new Play Doh and art supplies. We spent a lot of time at Walmart. We found the Play Doh and a Doh Doh Volcano. Then we went to the children’s department to get each of us a long sleeved shirt and long sleeved pants because Grammi decided that we couldn’t keep wearing the same ones all the time. We didn’t find the bar stools or the coloring boards, so we went to two art supply stores, but didn’t find them there either.

We had lunch at Taco Bell, and saw Mark, from the pool, and his daughter Chelsea. She was too shy to smile at us but we smiled at her and said, “Hi.” We had their usual, and Bryanna even got an extra taco.

We went hiking on the north shore at a famous windsurfing beach called Hooikipa. It has a lovely rock overlook.

We hiked down to the bottom to climb on the rocks, and we saw gorgeous 25-foot waves. We had a great time climbing around. It was simply awesome.

When we got home, Grammi fixed eggs, burritos, rice, and apples for dinner. We loved the burritos. We played with the new Play Doh set for a while, but Bailey got in trouble for putting Play Doh in her mouth, so she drew for a while with the new pens. Then we gave the fire dancers another try. We walked for over one mile but the luau was already over, so we didn’t get to see them! Urrrr!!! Next time, we’ll park closer now that we know exactly where they are.

On the way home, we were pretty grumpy. Grammi fixed hot cocoa and grapes for dessert. Then she found a huge stain on the good palm tree comforter from the new gel pens. We decided that we have to be more careful with them.

Bedtime was at 8:50 and the girls went right to sleep. We had a long, busy day.

Friday, November 21, 2003 – We Go To the Ocean Center, Finally

We were up at 6:30 and played for a little while before breakfast. We had planned to go to the beach for a couple of hours, but it was still terribly windy, and it wouldn’t have been much fun to play with the sand blowing in our eyes. We went to the Ocean Center instead! Yeahhh!

We had a lot of fun seeing the rays, fish, sharks, turtles and whales. The thing we all liked the best was the octopus, especially when he changed colors.

We went to Peggy Sue’s for lunch and had hamburgers, French fries, and sundaes for dessert. After we got home, Grampi had to go to Ace to get a part for the toilet that was leaking, and we went to the pool to play for a half hour. Then we went to bed because we were going to Bubba Gumps for dinner tonight and we’d be out late.

We sang all the way to Lahaina. Bailey’s latest is “little ducky sitting on a tree said, I don’t care, I don’t care.” She doesn’t know the rest, so she sings that part very loud, repeatedly. Bubba Gumps was fun, although we didn’t care for the dressing on our salad. We got a chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert, which was a hit. The drive home was very quiet. Bailey slept, and Bryanna listened to us talk, and the music. Occasionally she asked questions, or made comments. We got home at 10:00 and went right to bed.

Saturday – November 22, 2003

We all slept late this morning, until after 7:30. We had a lazy morning, except that Grammi did some cleaning. After that, we went to play at the pool for a little while, but the water was too cold for Grammi and Grampi. Grampi left for work, and we went over to the beach with our nets to pick up trash. After we walked from one end of the beach to the other, we played in the sand and water for a half hour. The red flags were up, because the waves were pretty high, but we just jumped off a sand shelf into the water and dug in the sand. When we went back, we went up the elevator in one of the buildings, so we could see the top floor. Then we walked down the stairs. We took showers and went to bed for a much needed rest.

After Grampi got home from work, we decided to go to Bada Bing for dinner. Bailey had a cheese pizza and Bryanna had a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich, but she didn’t like it very much. We had fun anyway, and we got to wear our long sleeved shirts and pants, so Bailey was very happy. Grammi put on some Hawai'ian music and we danced for a long time.  She thought we would get too hot, but that didn't happen.

We went to Foodland for ice cream. We went home for ice cream and baked apples, which were not a hit. We got plain ice cream because we didn’t care for the apples. We finished the snowflake book, read lots of stories and played horses before bed.

Sunday – November 23, 2003

We got up at 6:30 and got ready for church quickly so we wouldn't be late. We each had two granola bars while we listened to the sermon and played with the horses we got to bring.

After church, we went to the beach with the wagon loaded with all our stuff. It was much easier for Grammi and Grampi. We had a great time digging. We all went into the water just before we left, and the waves were big. Bryanna was splashed in the face with a wave but she didn’t even get scared. Bailey was a little scared, so, even though she had fun on the float, Grammi took her back to the beach a little early. We walked down to the other end to look for the purple animal that we found the other time we were there, but we couldn’t find him. Lunch was egg salad, pizza, apples, crackers and cheese.

We had a short nap and then we went to the pool but it was too cold, so we only played for a few minutes. When we got back, Grammi and Grampi fixed dinner. It was meat cubes, rice, salad, and green beans with bacon and almonds. We’re going to surprise Mommy and Daddy by serving green beans when they come here, and Bryanna will ask for some and then eat them.

After dinner, we walked to the park to watch the sunset and we got to play on the swings for a long time. We picked up trash in our nets for a little while, too.

We visited with Margaret and Chris from next door for a little while after our walk. Then we had graham crackers, trail mix, and milk for dessert while we drew pictures for Mommy and Daddy. We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving specials before bed.

Monday – November 24, 2003

We had to go to town today, so we had a fast breakfast of bacon and eggs. In town, we went to Walmart and exchanged the airbed for two futons, because it was leaking so badly. We also bought a DVD player and some movies. We went to Sunglass Hut to do a mystery shop, and had Orange Julius while we were waiting for a half hour to go by so Grammi could return the sunglasses she had to buy. Bailey had orange and Bryanna had strawberry, which we both agreed was the tastiest.

We left Kaahumanu Center to go to the library and it was closed! We were mad. We went to The Ale House for lunch and shared a Chinese Chicken Salad. Bryanna loved the garlicy chicken and Bailey liked it a lot, but Grammi thought it was too strong. Then we went to Lowe’s to buy a mirror for the bathroom and when we came out it was raining hard. At last, we saw some rain. We got to Puunene and the rain stopped. Darn, no rain for Kihei. The Kihei Library was closed, too, so we were disappointed again. We went home and Grammi decided it was warm enough to go to the pool for a while. Bryanna swam, under water all by her self lots of times in the Kikei pool! She still doesn’t believe that she is swimming, though.

Dinner was BBQ hot dogs, rice and cheese. We watched “Finding Nemo” on our new DVD player. After the movie, Mommy and Daddy called. We were so happy to talk to them for a long time. When we were done, we watched the Family Fear Factor and then looked at our latest photos before bed. There were some very good ones of our adventures.

Tuesday – November 25, 2003 – The Library, At Last

We slept very well on our new futon beds. We played with Grampi for a little while before Grammi got up. After breakfast of cereal and yogurt, Grammi took us to Safeway to buy the food we need for Thanksgiving dinner. Margaret and Chris are going to join us, even though their Thanksgiving was in October. We hurried so we would have enough time to go to the library. When we got there, we were very disappointed to find out that it doesn’t open until 12:00. We decided that we would go after Grampi gets home from work.

Lunch was bananas off our own trees, bagels with strawberry cream cheese and grapes. After Grampi left for work, we did puzzles for a long time and then we went to the pool to swim for an hour. We wanted to take our rest on our new beds in the bedroom, so we moved them. We went to sleep right away.

We only slept for a little while, and woke up in very good moods, so we went to the pool for a while after nap. We worked hard at our swimming, and did very well. Dinner was meatloaf, garlicy noodles, bell peppers, and rice, for Bryanna, because she didn’t care for the noodles. After dinner, we went to the library, finally! We picked out our own dresses.

We found out that it was pajama story night, so we decided to stay for that. We talked about the pajama part, and we decided that we were glad we were wearing dresses. Bryanna said that if we had gone in what we sleep in, we’d only be in panties, ‘cause we don’t wear jammies. We picked out 27 books to take home. While we were in the library, it rained hard.

When we got home, we picked out eight library books to take to bed so we could read for a while. Just as we were finishing our evening snack of Triscuits and cheese, the power went out. Grampi turned the new lantern on, and Grammi got out flashlights. We knew there were lots of people at the pool and we heard several of them yelling, so Grampi quickly went there to help them leave, so nobody would get hurt. We also took a flashlight over to Chris and Margaret. We got our shoes on, and took a walk to see if the lights were out all over, or only in our area. It was only here. We could see lights just north and south of us when we stood on the beach. We walked back over the grass, and we saw hundreds of frogs, in and out of the water. Some of them were even playing leap frog. They liked the grass being so wet from the rain.

Because Grammi and Grampi couldn’t watch TV or read, we all went to bed at the same time. It was very hot, so we didn’t even cover up with sheets. We laid on our futons, and Grammi and Grampi lay on top of the bed. We had the windows and blinds open so we could get some air. We talked, and sang the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly. We were almost asleep, when, suddenly the power went on. The bedroom light went on at its brightest. Grampi jumped up to turn it off, because, we didn’t want anyone walking by to see us lying on the bed in our nightclothes. Grammi and Grampi got up for a while to read, and we went right to sleep.

Wednesday – November 26, 2003 - Storm

We got up to a nice cool morning. We played and Grammi and Grampi read the paper for a little while. Daddy and Mommy are going to have an anniversary next week, so we signed the card we got for them.

Then we drove to Kahului for breakfast at Ruby’s. It was pouring all the way there, but at Puunene, it cleared up and was bright and beautiful the rest of the time we were there. After breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and cinnamon roll French toast, we went to Sears so Grampi could buy a watch, because his old one broke this morning.

We got home just after noon, and Grammi took us to the pool to eat lunch, practice swimming and play. Lunch was crackers, cheese, and grapes. Grampi worked on the bathroom wall and came to the pool to take some photos of Bryanna swimming under water and Bailey playing in the little pool.

We played for a long time, but Grammi ruined it by saying it was rest time. We lay down at 2:15. Grampi was finished with the bathroom for the day, so he went to relax at the pool for a while. We were too wired to sleep, so Grammi got us up at 3:30 and took us back to the pool for an hour and a half.

It was “Clean out the refrigerator” night. Dinner was egg salad, green salad, cheese, and pepperoni for Bailey, banana and bell pepper for Bryanna, and yogurt. For dessert, we had ice cream with magic shell. We watched “Dinosaur” during and after dinner. We were really tired, so we went to bed at 7:20 and went right to sleep.

Thursday – November 27, 2003 – Thanksgiving Day and a Play Date With Briana

Grammi and Grampi are most thankful that Mommy and Daddy let Bryanna and Bailey visit them for such a long time. They told us that it is something that will fill their memories forever.

We had breakfast right away after we got up this morning, because we had a date to go to the beach with Briana and Yvonne. We had a wonderful time. We took the wagon full of toys, and other beach stuff. We climbed the rocks. Grammi said we reminded her of our mommy. She liked to climb things, too. We jumped the waves with Grammi and Yvonne, but Bailey didn’t really like it, so she went back to play with the toys. All of us wanted to be mermaids, so Grammi and Yvonne buried us in the sand. The last thing we did was blow bubbles. We left at 10:30, took showers, and went to the pool to play and practice our swimming.

It was a busy morning, so Grammi thought we would fall asleep fast, but we tricked her, and stayed awake for a long time. Usually, she would have let us get up after resting for an hour, but she wanted us to sleep, because we were having company for Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle Tony and Uncle Scott called while we were resting and talked to Grammi for a long time.

Margaret and Chris came over at 4:15, just after Bryanna got up. Grampi got home at 4:30, and then Bailey got up. Dinner was very fun, but we didn’t like the food very much. We showed our good manners, and we tried everything Grammi gave us, and we were proud that Margaret and Chris said how good we were. After dinner, we played while the grown-ups talked on the lanai. M & C even commented more than once, how good we play together, and how well mannered we are. That made Grammi and Grampi very happy. When Grammi served dessert, Bryanna had ice cream and apple pie and she tried the strawberry pie, but didn’t care for it. Bailey just wanted ice cream. Margaret & Chris went home a little after 8:00 and we went to bed. We went right to sleep.

Friday – November 28, 2003 – We’ve Got Furniture!

We had yogurt, bagels, and fruit cocktail for breakfast. Bailey also had a peanut butter sandwich. The bug man was coming to spray the outside of the buildings, so Grammi and we spent the morning at the pool. We took library books and horses. Grampi worked on the bathroom.

We had turkey, yogurt, dinner rolls, and grapes for lunch. Nap was not peaceful. Grampi got home at 1:30 and went into the bedroom just in time to hear Bryanna telling Bailey to eat the strawberry. She was breaking pieces of Styrofoam off the seal float that was under the bed and giving them to Bailey to eat! He got mad, but went to tell Grammi about it. She took Bailey out of the room to rest in the living room, without saying anything to Bryanna. After 15 minutes, Grammi want to talk to Bryanna about what had happened, and Bryanna started blaming Bailey. Grammi got really mad about that, and told Bryanna that she had done something very hurtful, and that she was very disappointed in her.  Then she left and Bryanna went to sleep.

We got up to find the house quite a mess. Grampi got the call from the store that our furniture was in, and asking if they wanted it delivered today. They were very excited. The truck was coming in a half hour, and they weren’t ready. They took the lanai furniture over to Margaret and Chris’s, and they came over to help get everything ready. Margaret helped Grampi move the books, and then she vacuumed. Chris helped Grammi finish moving the furniture out, and Grampi unhooked all the TV and stereo stuff. We had been asleep, and Bryanna woke up just as the first chair was coming through the door. Bailey woke up a few minutes later. After all the furniture was in place, Bryanna was a big help with the videos and books.

She also cleaned the lanai table, and then put the library books on the shelf. Things were much neater, because there are places to put things instead of having them in boxes on the floor.

Chris and Margaret came over for a little while after everything was looking good, and they visited for a little while. We colored and were very good about letting the grown-ups talk. We had dinner a little late, around 6:30, and then we went for a walk to look at the Christmas lights on the BBQ areas. We also found that some people have them on their lanais. We are going to try to figure out a way to hang some here. We also need to look for a Christmas tree. We went to bed at 8:30, and went to sleep very fast.

Saturday – November 29, 2003 – Another Storm

We went to IHOP for breakfast to do a mystery shop. Bryanna and Grammi had bacon and French toast. Bailey had the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity and Grampi had pigs in a blanket. Breakfast was good, but neither of us drank our milk, even though we had coffee in them. Just before we left, Grampi asked us why we hadn’t been drinking it, and we both said it tasted yucky. Grammi and Grampi both tasted the milks, and found out that it was very sour. It WAS yucky.

We went over to Kahului Beach Road to watch the high storm waves. They sprayed us a few times, even though we were far away from them. We went to Borders Books for a little while to look at kids books, and Grammi went to the Sunglass Hut to do a secret shop. Then we went home, and Grampi went to work. We took a walk to see Barbara. Bryanna wanted to stay with her and help her work, and Bailey was finally willing to give her a good-bye hug, which Barbara has been waiting for. Lunch was cheese, crackers and pears. Nap was a challenge again. Today, Grammi is going to have Bryanna rest in the living room with books, because she just doesn’t need to sleep anymore at nap.

When Grampi got home, we went to the kid's pool for an hour because it was still warm. Dinner was hot turkey sandwiches, bacon, bell peppers, and peanut butter sandwiches. We read stories and then watched the “Brother Bear Song” DVD. Bedtime was 8:50 and we both went to sleep quickly.

Sunday – November 30, 2003 – New Friends & Where Mommy & Daddy Got Married

We missed church this morning because we slept a little late. We played Play Doh for a long time sitting on the lawn chair and using the little tables. That way there was no way for any Play Doh to get on the new chairs. Breakfast was Rice Krispies, lots of cantaloupe, and yogurt. We played with Polly Pockets and horses while Grampi painted the bathroom again.

We went to the pool after Grampi was finished painting. We found out that Dave and Marilyn, and their children, Nicholas and Taylor had just arrived. They are a little older than we are, but Taylor smiled at us as if she wanted to be friends. We got to take our new swim rings to the pool for the first time, and both of us loved using them. We could swim all over the pool with them. We swam for a long time.

Lunch was taquitos with melted cheese, apples, yogurt and grapes. We rested separately today, and it was wonderful. Bailey read for a few minutes and went to sleep, and Bryanna read until Grammi told her she could get up to play quietly. After nap, we drove to The Cove, where Daddy and Mommy got married. Some people call it Hidden Beach, because it is hidden behind a rock wall.

When we were finished climbing on the rocks and playing in the water, we went to La Perrouse Bay to walk on the un-hot lava. We found a lot of tide pools with sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and anemones. We brought back some rocks, coral, and Bailey brought home a snail for a pet. He got to live out on the lanai with the rocks and coral.

Dinner was BBQ steak, salad, peach yogurt, and pasta with parmesan cheese. We read and colored for a while, but “Sleeping Beauty” was on TV, so we curled up on the couch to watch it. After a few minutes, we said we were tired, so we went into the bedroom to watch the movie on Grammi and Grampi’s bed. We went to sleep right away after the movie was over.

Monday – December 1, 2003 – Another Storm

We got up excited because we were going on a cruise. We went to the pool after breakfast on pumpkin muffins, bacon and egg. We swam for a long time.

But, it was raining almost the whole time we were there. Grampi called to find out if the trip had been cancelled, and they said they didn’t know, yet. We were hoping the rain would stop, but when we left for Ma’alaea, it rained harder than ever. We got to the whale store and found out that they had cancelled the trip. We will try again on Wednesday.

We went into Waipahu to the Tropical Plantation for lunch. We had to hurry to the restaurant, because it was still raining. We had a nice lunch of Cobb Salad, and Grampi had a tuna sandwich with fries, which he shared. We enjoyed watching the ducks outside the window. After lunch, we were going to visit the monkeys, but it was pouring and there was no place we could watch them that was out of the rain. We ran for the car and were soaked by the time we got there. There was a lot of flooding on the way to Wailuku. We got to Walmart in the downpour, so Grampi let us out next to the door so we wouldn’t get soaked again. We bought the things we needed, which included new sheets for our futons, because we were using king sized ones that were much too big.

On the way home, we saw lots of flooded out streets, and it kept raining most of the way. We stopped at the video store to get “King Kong” so we could watch a scary movie. Grampi put Christmas lights up on the lanai. They looked pretty. For dinner, we had taquitos, cheese, pears, and yogurt. Dessert was ice cream with chocolate sauce.

During the night, Grammi woke up to a loud boom. It was a thunderstorm with pouring rain. It lasted for over two hours, and Grammi was surprised that nobody else woke up to the noise.

Tuesday – December 2, 2003 – Christmas Shopping

When we woke up, it was still raining, but it didn’t last very long. There was a beautiful full rainbow over the ocean that we could see from our lanai.

Breakfast was muffins, yogurt, hot cocoa, and cantaloupe. We wanted to go to the pool again, but Grammi didn’t think it was warm enough. We made a fort on the lanai and then played horses.

Lunch was squeeze cheese and crackers, salami, apples, and cheese chunks. We took Grampi to work because we were going pick him up afterwards, go out to dinner and then go back to the Whale Store for the shopping special at 6:00. We sang Christmas songs on the way home. “King Kong” was a hit. We both started out playing horse and keeping half an eye on the movie, but when men started sneaking up on the natives, we became interested. By the time the natives kidnapped Ann, we were sitting on Grammi’s lap watching intently. Bailey especially liked the part with the dinosaurs, and when that was over, she asked Grammi to rewind so she could watch it again. She went down for a rest when it was over, and Bryanna and Grammi watched “Horse Whisperer”. We had to tape the last two hours to watch later.

We picked Grampi up and ate dinner at the Blue Marlin. We really liked our chicken dinosaurs. We ate outside but just enough under the roof that we were out of the rain. We were surprised that the dinner came with dessert, sundaes. We were stuffed. The shopping trip at the Whale Foundation Store was fun and Grammi got a few surprises for Christmas. There were snacks and a few sweets. We were not so stuffed that we weren’t able to eat some chocolate muffins. On the way home, we spotted a few Christmas lights.

When we got home, we brought our packages inside, and then went for a walk to see out lights from the other side of the pool. We walked back through the pool area, and stopped to talk to Marc. Grammi said we could take our shoes off so we could step into the pool. We started kicking to see how far we could get the splashes to go. In a few minutes, we were on the third step and soon, we were all the way in the water. Grammi had us take our shorts off so we could move better. All of a sudden, Bailey stepped off the bottom step, and, since she couldn’t stand there, she was floating under the water, with only her eyes showing. She didn’t move her arms, so she didn’t come up, so Grammi ran into the water to pull her up. She was fine because she was holding her breath but she was a little scared. She wanted to get back in to play some more, but Grammi’s clothes were all soggy and she was cold, so we went home.

We read the ending of the Menehune story that we had started earlier in the car, and went to bed. Bryanna put her books down after reading only one story, so Bailey read to her for a little while. Then she called Grammi to say she was finished reading. Grammi turned out the light. A few minutes later, Bailey called for Grammi. She said that she heard a clicking sound. Grammi explained that it was the wind blowing the blinds. Once she knew what the sound was, she was able to go right to sleep.

Wednesday – December 3, 2003 – Flu Shots and a Whale Cruise

The sky looked a lot better than it did on Monday, so we were pretty sure that the boat would be going out. We had a lot to do before that. Grampi had a secret shop at Montblanc; we needed to get out flu shots, and we wanted to go Christmas tree shopping. The flu shots were an unpleasant surprise for us, even though we had talked about it. Bryanna started crying as soon as we got out of the van, but stopped while we were waiting and reading stories. When we got called into the doctor’s room, everything was fine, and when Grampi and Grammi got the shots first and second, we were both interested in what was happening. But then, it was our turn. The big sister had to go first, and she was very scared. Both of us cried, and we held the leg of our shorts up and away from our legs for the next couple of hours.

We went to Safeway shopping center to pick out our Christmas tree. We found a nice one. Then we went to Long’s. We got to pick out the decorations we wanted to put on the tree. We zoomed home to unload it and put it in water, because it was getting very close to boat time. We also took the time to take some pain pills. We got to Ma’alaea in plenty of time to check in.

We walked over to the boat and got to go on first. We sat upstairs, so we had a wonderful view. About 15 minutes after we left the harbor, the first pod was spotted. We were very excited. We oohed and aahed every time we saw a blow or a tail flip. Bailey kept saying, “Flip your tail, whale!” Everyone thought we were just the best behaved children they had ever seen. Before we headed back to the harbor, we spotted a rainbow, just beginning to form. Soon, it became a full rainbow – really brilliant. When we were almost back, Grammi asked Casey, the captain, if we would be able to see turtles. He said, “Sure, we can find turtles,” and he turned the boat to the right for a few minutes, and all of a sudden, we were in the middle of a group of turtles. There were mommies, daddies, babies, and big sisters. They were sticking their heads up and watching us the whole time we were there. The trip was a huge success so we will plan another one soon.

On the way home, we stopped for pizza at Pizza Hut because everyone was starving, even though Bry and Bai had eaten two apples and several graham crackers on the boat.

After dinner, we decorated the Christmas tree. We used the decorations that we picked out ourselves.

While we were doing that, some new people named Bob and Annette came over to meet us. They drank wine and talked to Grammi and Grampi while we finished the tree. Then we had ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. We read books for a little while and went to bed at our regular bedtime.

Thursday – December 04, 2003

Grammi’s arm was sore when she got up so she got some pills ready for us because she thought we would have sore legs. But we both felt fine, although we didn’t want our Band-Aids to be taken off. Grammi fixed bacon, berry yogurt and bagels, but we weren’t very hungry.

We got ready to go to the pool right after breakfast, but we couldn’t find the swim rings. We all went to the pool and Grampi found one of them in the ice room. He also found the library book that has been lost for a week. Grammi decided she shouldn’t take library books to the pool anymore. We played for a long time with the one ring, and the noodles, which we took to the pool for the first time.  We had a good time.

Grampi left for work a little early because he had to stop at the bank and take the recycling stuff to the center. We played horse, and watched “Horse Whisperer” before Bailey went down for her rest.

While Bailey was resting, Grammi and Bryanna played with the Hawai’ian paper dolls.

Grampi went to Kahului to pick up the new shower door, and some Keto Shake. He didn’t get home until 6:00 and we were all ready to go to Cheeseburger In Paradise for dinner. We had a good time. We ate lots of Cobb Salad and fries. After dinner, we went to the Whaler store to buy new swim rings. When we got home, we had ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. We played horse for a little while before bed.

Friday – December 5, 2003 – Trip To Ulua

We had breakfast right away so we could get ready for the beach. Before we left, we got to clean the table and the window with Windex. We went to Ulua. The beach was pretty empty when we got there and stayed that way for almost an hour. There was a huge hole in the sand, so we sat next to it, so we could play in it. We dug for a long time. We went in the water with our new rings. Bailey was a little afraid to go past the waves, so Grampi carried her, but as soon as she saw Bryanna swimming, she wanted to get down. We played for a long time. Once, we were kind of close to where the waves were breaking, and all of a sudden, Grammi saw a big wave coming, so she grabbed Bryanna so she wouldn’t be knocked down, and Grampi tried to grab Bailey, but the wave got to her first, and she was carried to shore. She was OK, but said she wanted to get out. Grampi started to take her to our spot, and she changed her mind and came back in the water. We had a lot of fun. We spent a little over two hours there.

We had pizza and grapes for lunch. Grammi and Grampi had to go to town to run some errands, and we weren’t too happy about that. Also, it was very close to rest time so Grammi decided to ask Margaret if she would come over to stay with us. She was home and had nothing she had to do, so she did. Bailey had her rest in Grammi and Grampi’s bed, watching the Disney channel cartoons. Bryanna lay on the mat in the living room watching the same thing. Margaret said that Bailey only slept for about 20 minutes, because there was a lot of noise out front. There was cleaning and planting going on. She let Bryanna get up to play after one hour, and Bailey got up after two hours.

Grammi and Grampi got home at 4:30 and were surprised to find nobody home. They put away some surprises, and just as they were getting ready to go to Margaret’s house, they heard us laughing. We were just coming back from a walk. Margaret said we had been wonderful. Bailey persuaded her to give us ice cream and soda for snack. Both of us had told her where to find the chocolate sauce and sprinkles. She took us for a walk to get rid of some of our sugar high. We went through the pool area and asked if we could put our feet in the water, and Margaret was smart enough to say, “No.” Grammi and Grampi were happy that we had been so good and had fun with Margaret. Grammi took us to the pool, and Margaret went too. She swam with us for a long time, and Bailey started to call her Grandma. That was funny.

While dinner was cooking, we walked over to see Bob and Annette’s place and they gave us their leftover food. For dinner, Grammi and Grampi had picked up kid meals so we had chicken nuggets, corn, macaroni & cheese and brownie for dinner. We also had leftover French fries. We watched TV while Grammi and Grampi ate their dinner. Then we all snuggled for a few minutes before bed. We went to sleep right away.

Saturday – December 6. 2003 – Guests For Dinner

Bryanna got up at 6:20, and surprised Grammi, while she was working on the computer. They watched Franklin on TV, cuddled up on the couch. Then Bailey and Grampi got up. We hadn’t been eating very much breakfast lately, so Grammi asked us what we wanted. All we had was strawberry yogurt and grapes. After breakfast, we cleaned the house a little bit. Then we went to Safeway to buy things for dinner. The Stefans were coming over.

We finished cleaning up the toy area, and then went to the pool for one and one-half hours. Grampi went to work early so he could go to the bank and Long’s on the way. Both of us did a great job on our swimming. After we worked so hard, we played in the pool for the rest of the time, with and without our rings.

We had lunch sitting on the couch using the coffee table. We ate string cheese, crackers and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, and bacon. After we ate all that, we had some potato chips. Bailey read for a little while before she fell asleep, and Bryanna rested on the couch with the Disney channel. Grammi rested on the recliner after putting together most of the food for dinner.

Dave, Marilyn, Taylor (8) and Nicholas (11) came over at 5:00. We had cocktails that they brought, including special smoothies for the kids. We walked over to Peace Park to watch sunset. We all ran around and played. When we went back, we all helped to put the dinner together. We had chef’s salad with two kinds of cheese, turkey, ham, sprouts, blue cheese, and croutons. There was also French bread and homemade applesauce. We all ate until we were almost bursting. After cleaning up some of the dishes, we had ice cream and pop corn. After dessert, the grown-ups visited on the lanai, and Nick read books to us while the grown-ups sat on the lanai and talked.

They left at about 9:00 and we went right to bed.

Sunday – December 7, 2003 - Keawakapu

We had planned a trip up to Kula and Haleakala but we decided to go to Keawakapu instead. We ate eggs and ham, and then we called the Stefans to see if they wanted to go with us. They did, so we all piled into our cars with tons of stuff and drove over there at 8:30. We were lucky enough to get two parking spaces close to the stairs.

We had a wonderful time. We played in the sand, and walked over to the rocks to look for creatures. We found lots of sea urchins, and Dave even found one that was alive. He picked it up so we could all touch it. When we went into the water, Grammi and Grampi took us past the waves in our rings and their float. When we were ready to get out of the water for the last time, they helped us catch a couple of waves and we both rode them in. Bryanna liked it so much, that Grampi took her back out for a try on the little boogie board, but she didn’t like that. We left just before noon.

Grammi made peanut butter sammies and we went to the pool until 1:30. We had a really fun time. We all rested until about 4:30, and Bryanna fell asleep on the couch, and didn’t wake up until almost 5:30. We had ham, salad, cheese, and applesauce for dinner. We went for a walk to Keonakai Villages to look at Christmas lights. After that, we walked over to the park to look for frogs. We found a lot of them, and had fun trying to catch them. We went down to the beach to walk back on the sand. The moon was full, and it was a lovely walk. We watched the last hour and a half of “Wizard of Oz” before bed. We went to bed at 9:30.

Monday – December 8, 2003

We had a leisurely morning. Breakfast was yogurt, bagel, pumpkin muffin, and apples. We spent the rest of the morning at the pool. Taylor and Nick were there for a while, but mostly, we played alone. We took Christmas workbooks with us, and we sat under an umbrella with them for a little while. Grampi had to wait for Drew, who was supposed to install the door in the shower, but when he went to the office, to take some mail to the mailbox, he met Drew just driving in, and Drew asked him if he could do the door tomorrow.

For lunch, Grammi took peanut butter sammies, cheese and crackers, and a fruit and cereal bar, along with Crystal Light to drink. After eating, we swam for another hour. When we got home, we played with horses while Grammi fixed a snack. We had cheese and crackers, egg salad, and donuts. We watched “Land Before Time III” in bed for an hour, then Bryanna got up, and Bailey had to go night-night. Bryanna played with paper dolls. After another half hour, Bailey came out and asked if she could get up, so we Grampi said she could. We drove to town to go to Ben Franklin to buy things to make bracelets. We discussed school. We both told Grammi and Grampi that we don’t like staying in school all day, because we don’t like taking naps there. Bailey has become very expressive. She rarely forgets what she wants to say. We got Orange and Strawberry Julius’s at the mall.

When we got home, we played with Play Doh while Grammi and Grampi made dinner. We had French bread pizza, olives and Jello. After dinner, we played dominoes with our old set, and Grammi promised that the next time we play, we’ll use our new set of double 12s. When we went to bed, Bryanna asked Grammi to tell the story of The Three Bears, so she did. We went right to sleep after that.

Tuesday - December 9, 2003 – We Need More Books

Grammi made pancakes for breakfast, with eggs and ham. Then we spent most of the day at the pool. Bryanna swam without her ring in the big pool! Hurrah!! Once she realized she could do it, she just wouldn’t stop. We went home for lunch, and then back to the pool for our rest. Bailey fell asleep, and after Grammi rested and read for an hour, she and Bryanna went in the pool to play. Bailey got up about a half hour later. Nick and Taylor were at the pool by then, and the kids all came back to our place to search for geckos, have popsicles and popcorn, and play with Play Doh. Grammi enjoyed having them here, because she got to play games on the computer for a little while.

When Grampi got home from work, we had pizza, pasta and ham for dinner. Then we went to the library and checked out 29 books. We read three of them there. On the way home, we drove through some neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. We read one long story when we got home, and then we went to bed with four books. Bailey called Grammi once to ask to have her sheet fixed. Bryanna only read one book before she was ready to go to sleep.

Wednesday – December 10, 2003 – Letters To Home

We had cereal and pancakes for breakfast. Then we sat on the lanai to string beads for bracelets and anklets. We made one for each of us and one for Mommy. We’ll make some more another day. After we were done, all of us went to the pool. We worked on our swimming a little bit, but mostly we played. We had apples, pears, cheese, crackers, peanuts, cashews, a donut, and a peppermint patty for lunch! What a crazy lunch. After swimming for a little while longer, we went home to watch “Lassies Great Adventure.” It was very good.

After our rest with the movie, we wrote letters to Mommy and Daddy and to our friends. They were all the same, except Mommy and Daddy’s letter had a couple of special things in it.

December 10, 2003

Dear Mommy and Daddy and Sadie, too,,

We’re having so much fun at Hawai’i. It’s hot here and we go to the beach almost every day. We splash and play. We’ve got floaties and all that stuff. We miss you a lot. Sometimes we think about you. We have some friends here. There are Briana, Taylor and Nicholas so we aren’t too lonely.

We went to the Ocean Center. We saw sharks, stingrays, and we know what whales sound like on a radio because we heard it there.

We went on a boat to see whales. We saw whale tales that splashed and we saw babies and mommies.  We saw a blow that was really neat. We also saw some baby turtles and other turtles. We took pictures that we will send to our friends. The boat was called Ocean Spirit.

We got a Christmas tree up and we’re all ready for you to get here. We’ll go to the library with you and read some stories. We have a surprise for you because one of us has learned to eat something new but we can’t tell you until you come on your first night. We’re going to take you on a snorkel cruise, too.

We’re going to go on a snorkel cruise next Monday. We hope you miss us a lot.

Love,

Bryanna and Bailey

For dinner we had spaghetti, salad, and bread. We went for a walk and then read lots of library books in bed. Grampi got into bed with us for a little while and we talked before we turned out the lights.

Thursday – December 11, 2003

We had yogurt, cereal, pancakes, apples, and bagels for breakfast. Then Grammi and Grampi cleaned house. We played horse while they worked. Grampi had to leave early for work, to take the shower door back, so we walked over to the beach with the wagon to carry all our stuff. The Stefans were there, and they asked us to join them. The kids played in the deep hole in the sand that Taylor and Nick had dug. When we got tired of the beach, we came back to the pool. Taylor came with us. Bryanna swam underwater halfway across the shallow end of the big pool, over and over. Grammi was very happy about that.

We went home for lunch of cheese, crackers, salami, ham, and carrots. We were all very tired. Bryanna went into the bedroom to rest with Bailey for 20 minutes. Grammi went in to tell Bryanna to get up quietly and bring her pillow. Then she and Grammi watched “The Lost World”. It had bunches of dinosaurs.

When Grampi got home, we took showers and went to Marco’s Deli for dinner. They had hundreds of geckos there, even some inside the restaurant! We started out sitting on the lanai, but we were too cold, so we moved to a table inside. We had a Blue Cheese Salad for dinner, but it came with onions, so Grammi had to pick them out. We went home from dinner at 7:30, almost bedtime, so we read books in bed with Grammi, and Grampi came in again to be with us for a little while. We went right to sleep.

Friday - December 12, 2003 – Trip To a Really Cool Pool

We had bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. Then we went to the Grand Wailea pool to swim and play. We loved the river. Grammi and Grampi took us up to the top pool, but we didn’t want to go down any of the slides, even though Grammi did go on two of them. We had a wonderful time.

We went home to have showers so we could go to the Whale store to say good-bye to Jessica, who is leaving to take a job at the Grand Wailea. We were going to stay for the potluck lunch, but we were there too early, and didn’t want to wait, so we went into town to have lunch at The Ale House. We had chicken fingers and fries. Then we went to see the huge cruise ship. We decided that we want to go on a cruise some day. Grammi and Grampi said that when we’re a little bigger, they’d like to take us on one. We went to K-Mart and Walmart to look for beach chairs, because one of our chairs broke last time we went to the beach. We stopped on the way home to buy cookie dough, so we can have fresh cookies.

Dinner was BBQ hamburgers, green beans, and salad. After Grammi and Grampi were finished eating, Grammi read us two stories while we finished ours. After that, we went into the kitchen to make the cookies. We each got to cut some of the dough to put it on the baking pan. Grammi let us have half a cookie raw. We had the cookies with milk and ice cream, and went to bed a few minutes after 8:00.

Saturday - December 13, 2003 _ She Finally Did It!

Today was kind of a lazy day. Grammi got up really early, because she heard a mosquito in the bedroom, and, since she couldn’t turn the light on to find it, she couldn’t go back to sleep. She fell asleep on the recliner, and woke up at 6:30 to the sound of us and Grampi laughing. She went in to the bedroom, and got into bed with us for a little while. After we got up, we played horse, while Grammi and Grampi read the paper and had coffee. Breakfast was Rice Krispies and waffles.

While we played Polly Pockets in the bedroom, Grammi and Grampi cleaned the windows and screens.

Then, Grampi left for work, and we went to the pool. Bryanna was able to swim all the way across the pool under the water. Bailey was swimming under the water for about three feet. We had a little snack of fruit and peanuts and swam for a little while more, but we got tired from all that sun and water. We came home for lunch of bologna with melted cheese, cheese and crackers, croutons, apples, and oranges.

After lunch, it was time for a rest. Bailey fell asleep after reading two books, and Bryanna colored and then watched a program about tarantulas with Grammi. Then we went out on the lanai to play Chutes and Ladders, and Dominoes. When Bailey got up, she helped us with the game. When Grampi got home, we went to the pool to swim, but he had a fever, chills, and a headache, so he went to bed. We saw Taylor and Nick at the pool, and had to say good-bye because they had to go home. Bryanna and Bailey gave Taylor big hugs. When we had dinner, of soup, ham, and macaroni and cheese, he got up to eat with us, and he felt a little better. We had popcorn for dessert.

Sunday - December 14, 2003

We got up at 7:15, and found Grampi in the recliner, because he had taken aspirin and they kept him awake. He had chills some of the time all day. We had Rice Krispies, apples, oranges, and toast with peanut butter and cinnamon. Just as we were finishing our breakfast, there was a surprise phone call from Mommy and Daddy. We each talked for a long time, and told them all about what we’re doing. Bryanna almost told the surprise about being able to swim, but she remembered just in time. Instead, she said that she could do something that they will find out when they get here.

We played with horses and Polly Pockets for a little while as Grammi was getting ready to go to the pool. Grampi went with us, but he didn’t want to go in the water. He just wanted to watch for a little while. We only stayed at the pool for an hour. When we got back, we had lunch of bologna and cheese sandwiches and potato chips. After lunch, Grammi and Bryanna went to the market. Bailey was sad that she couldn’t go, but Grammi wanted her to stay with Grampi to help him, because he was feeling sick. We came home with some surprises, like Butterfinger Ice Cream. Bailey had fallen asleep on the couch but she woke up a few minutes after Bryanna and Grammi got home. We colored and played for a while. Then we asked to go to the pool. Grammi said, “Maybe.”

At 3:30 Grammi said we could go, but we only stayed for a little while because it was too cool with the breeze. We came home and played for a little while, but we had to be quiet so Grampi’s headache wouldn’t be too bad. We had pizza and apples for dinner, and the special ice cream for dessert. They told us that we were going to have to cancel the snorkel trip, but that when Grampi is feeling better, we would plan it again. We went to bed to read stories. When we got into our beds, Grammi told Bryanna that her dog was in the living room. She went to get it, and came back holding Grampi’s hand. She had told him that Bailey needed a kiss, and she held his hand to help him since he was sick.  That was very sweet of her.

Monday - December 15, 2003 – Everyone Keep Away From Grampi!!

Grampi felt worse, so we planned to take him to the doctor as soon as the office opened. We ate breakfast and left for the doctor at 9:30. We dropped Grampi off and headed to the library, only to find it closed. We drove back to the doctor’s office and were there until 11:30 waiting for Grampi. We read books and colored. Grampi has strep and is very contagious. We came home to put him to bed.

After lunch and went to the pool for a half hour. We came home for a rest. After Bailey slept, we got dressed and went to Long’s to buy a box of Christmas cards. We had quite a frustrating trip, because, Grampi wanted apple juice and Long’s didn’t have any so we had to go to Safeway too. Also, we went to the library again, and it was still closed. After all that, we went to Taco Bell to get dinner, and found that they don’t take credit cards, but we didn’t have any money. Grammi called Grampi to find out if there was any money hidden in the van, and there wasn’t, so we started for home. We were only one block from Taco Bell, when the phone rang. Grampi said to go to Long’s to buy something, and get $20.00 cash back. We went there and bought two bags of M & Ms, and found out that they don’t give cash back on a credit card. So we just drove home. Grammi asked us what they would like to have for dinner, and we said eggs, bacon, bread, apples, and bananas. Grammi was almost done cooking the bacon and had started cooking the eggs when the power went out, AGAIN!! They got out the flashlights, and they gave us bacon, salami, pepperoni, fruit, and cheese. Just as we were finished, the power came back on. We had ice cream for dessert, with 10 M & Ms each.

Tuesday - December 16, 2003 – Haleakala and Horsies (YEAH!)

We got up at 7:15. Grampi felt lots better. Yeah!! We had eggs (from last night) bacon, and Rice Krispies. Grammi fixed some snacks to take with us, and we headed up to Haleakala. We have wanted to go to the top of the volcano.

Bryanna was a little apprehensive about the twisty road. We looked for horses all the way up. We were very cold at the top, but we had fun looking at the Nene and the Silver Sword plants.

We tried to pet the Nene, but they were scared of us. It was clear most of the way up, but once we reached the visitors center, clouds started to roll in, and they just filled up the sky below us. We thought it was breathtaking to look down into the crater and see all the cinder cones and the clouds rolling in. We had a very good time. On the way down, we found horses! They were in a huge pasture. We stopped and tried to coax them over to the fence, but they just ignored us at first. We neighed and one horse, way far on the other side of the pasture looked up and trotted over to us.

That made two of the other ones come over, too.  We fed them the carrots out of our hands. Grampi took lots of pictures.

When we got back to Kihei, we dropped the film off at Long’s and picked up dinner at Taco Bell. We took it home, and found that they hadn’t put Grampi’s food in so he had to drive back to get it. We ate while it was warm and Grammi read stories. After Grampi got back, and he and Grammi had finished their dinner, we walked over to the park for sunset. We played ball and Frisbee, and then took our nets to pick up trash.

When we got home, we watched the Dinosaur Planet video and had ice cream. We fell asleep right away.

Wednesday - December 17, 2003

We woke up to a strange sound this morning – pouring rain. It rained until dawn, and then was cool and windy all day. We had apple pancakes and regular pancakes for breakfast. After we played for a while, we went to the library. Finally, it was open! We spent almost an hour there, picking out perfect books. We wanted to get some good ones for Barbara and Ginger to read to us tomorrow night when Grammi and Grampi go to the Whale Foundation Christmas party.

We then went to Safeway, the 99 Cent Store, Home Maid Bakery for Malassadas, and Long’s. When we got home, Grammi started to fix lunch. When she went to look for us, she found us on our beds taking our rest. She asked if we wanted some pizza, and we both jumped up and ran into the dining room to sit at the counter. Grammi baked a few cookies while we were eating, so we got to have some for dessert. We also opened our mail from Kurt and Susie, and Nick and Chris. We got cute Christmas cards with $10.00 for each of us. We sat at the counter right away to draw thank-you pictures for them, and Grampi took a picture of us to send on the computer.

When we lay down for our rest, with Bryanna in the living room watching Clifford, Grammi and Grampi went out on the lanai to eat their lunch. After about 25 minutes, Bailey came to the door to ask if she could get up. Grammi said that as long as we played together without any problems, she could stay up, but if we fussed, that would mean we were tired and grumpy, and we would both have to go to bed for more rest. We played well for almost two hours.

We got ready go to dinner at Ruby’s. We got to wear long pants and sweaters because it was too cool for dresses. We took our umbrellas just in case it rained in Kahului. We went to Walmart to return some extra beads, and K-mart to buy some DVD’s, one for us, and one for Molly, Jennifer’s daughter. It took a long time, and we were very good. We had a nice time at Ruby’s but we didn’t eat very much. Tammy, our server, brought us ice cream cones anyway. We looked at Christmas lights on the way home. We saw a few nice ones. When we got to the Mokelele Highway, we said we were going to go night-night. Grammi turned to talk to us about two minutes later, and we were both sound asleep. We got home at 10:15. We went right to bed and right back to sleep.

Thursday - December 18, 2003 – Grammi and Grampi Go To a Party

We stayed home in the morning, because the bug sprayers were going to come to do the inside. We had cereal and fruit for breakfast. Grammi made lunch to put away in the refrigerator for later. Then we went to the pool to meet Briana and Yvonne. We swam for a little while before going over to the keiki pool. They never showed up so we played with horses and sea creatures. The water was a little too cold to go in so we decided to go home for lunch. Grammi read seven library books while we ate.

The bug men got here after lunch, just when it was time for rest. When they left, Grammi and Grampi carried us into the bedroom, because we weren’t supposed to walk on the floors for an hour. Bailey forgot and ran down the hallway. Grammi got really angry, because she got poison on her feet, and that was dangerous. After her feet had been washed, she lay down in her bed with library books, and Grampi carried Bryanna back to the living room for her rest. She colored, read, and watched TV until Bailey got up.

Barbara and Ginger got here at 5:15. Grammi and Grampi were just about ready to leave for the party.  Grammi had a big Chef’s salad ready for everyone. We liked Ginger right away. We were playing horses when Grammi and Grampi left. When they got home at 10:15, Bryanna was asleep and Bailey was still reading in bed. Barbara reported that they had one really naughty time, when they were mad at her for telling them that they needed to eat a little more of their dinner. They were very good the rest of the night.

Friday, December 19, 2003 – The Girls Pay a Penance

We didn’t get up until after 8:00. We played for a little while. Grampi had to go to the car dealer to get the window repaired. Grammi made pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. While we were eating, Grammi started to put the cookie batter together. When we were finished with breakfast, we helped. After the batter was all mixed, we put the cookies on the cookie sheets. While we worked, we talked about last night. We told Grammi what happened, and Bryanna said she didn’t like the green lettuce but Barbara said she needed to eat some of her salad anyway. We agreed that what we did was mean and rude. We decided that we should do something for Barbara and Ginger to let them know that we were sorry. Bailey said we could give her a kiss and a hug, and Bryanna said she thought flowers would be good. Grammi agreed, and we decided that we should use part of our Christmas money from Susie and Kurt.

Grampi stopped at the Doctors office while he was out, and found out that he has the flu and pinkeye, so he got three more prescriptions – that makes five things he has to take four times a day. He mostly slept for the rest of the day. We went swimming for a little while after lunch. When we got back from the pool, we got dressed and went to Foodland to buy some flowers for Barbara. We picked out a Chrysanthemum plant for which we paid two dollars each. We stopped at the office to give that and the cookies to her, but she and Yvonne had left early today. We had our rest time but no nap today. We delivered Margaret and Chris’s cookies and tried to deliver Karen and Carl’s, but they weren’t home. We took a little walk around the gardens looking for bugs and bananas. Bailey fell down the stairs at building 9 and got a little cut on her knee.

Grampi went to bed at 5:00 so we played on the computer. We went to an ecard sight and played with all the interactive Christmas cards. We sent a few that we liked to Aunt Anais, Mommy and Daddy, and some friends. Dinner was chef’s salad, apples, grapes, and carrots while Grammi read lots of library books. We liked the book by James Herriot, because it has true stories about animals. Of course, we read one of the horse stories first. We played with Polly Pockets for a little while before going to bed at 8:30.

Saturday - December 20, 2003

Grammi got up before the sun this morning because the kids above us were coughing and crying, but everyone else slept until 8:30. What lazyheads! Breakfast was rice crispies and toast. Grammi made watermelon Jello while we ate. Grampi still felt icky, so he spent all day laying around and resting. We played with Polly Pockets and horses most of the day, and we and Grammi read a lot. We delivered the cookies to Karen and Carl, and took the newspaper over to Chris and Margaret. After rest, we went on another banana and gecko hunt and Bryanna found a gecko in front of building four. Bailey caught it in her net, and, as Bryanna was reaching in to get it, it ran over her arm and got away.  We both screamed in surprise. We went to the top of buildings one and five, and we checked out the trash rooms. It was a fun walk.

When we got back, Grammi read Christmas stories while the pizza cooked, and then she read again while we ate dinner. After cleaning up, we had showers and hair washes, over and over, to try to get some of the pool ick off our hair. We played some more after our showers and went to bed with books at 7:45.

Sunday - December 21, 2003

Only two more days until Mommy and Daddy get here. We have been acting wild. We got up at 7:00 and got ready for church. We walked out the front door with bags of books, markers, and a box of cookies to share with the group, and Grammi slipped and fell on her back and head. Grampi and we helped her to get up and go back into the house, where she decided that she was OK, so we walked over to church. After it was over, we visited with Joe and Karen and a few other people. Then we went home to drop off the bags and pickup the cookies and flowers for Barbara. We walked to the office to give them to her. She was very happy when we apologized for being mean on Thursday night. While we were there, we bought the newspapers.

Grammi fixed ham, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. We played while Grammi vacuumed. The catcher horse was able to play after being in time out for two days for arguing with us. We spent a lazy morning just playing. When it was time for lunch, Grammi made peanut butter sandwiches, oranges, and Jello. She read lots of stories while we ate. Then we watched “Land Before Time III” with Grammi while Grampi took a nap. After the movie was over, we went to the pool to sit in the sun and play dominoes. Bailey won the first game and Bryanna won the second one.

We had steak, salad, French fries, bell pepper and olives for dinner. Grampi brought the table and chairs inside because it was too chilly to sit on the lanai. Everyone enjoyed dinner. Dessert was ice cream and cookies with milk. We watched Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph while lying in Grammi and Grampi’s bed.

Monday, December 22, 2003 – Just Hanging Out

Grampi was feeling lots better this morning. We had rice crispies and bagels for breakfast, while Grammi baked more Christmas cookies. She was almost finished with all the cookie presents. We went out for a couple of errands after the cookie dough was done. While we were at Safeway, we decided to go to Hilo Hatties where we found adorable head leis in Christmas colors for Bryanna and Bailey.

When we got home, Grampi made lunch; sammies of melted cheese between bologna slices, crackers, and bell peppers. Grammi took us to swim for a little while, but she didn’t have to get in the pool because we are so good at taking care of ourselves in the water now. We only stayed a little while, though, because the wind made it too cool. We loved the sammies and even had seconds. Bailey went in to take a rest with the catcher horse and 4 library books, and Bryanna watched a little TV and then played while Grammi and Grampi had lunch on the lanai. Grampi walked over to ask Marc to stop by after work so we could give him the present for him and Chelsea. Marc was on his way over to get a ball out of one of the palm trees behind our building, and Grampi stayed to watch. Bryanna noticed what was going on, so she went over to watch, and several other people did, too.

While Bailey was still sleeping, Bryanna called Mommy and Daddy. They talked for a long time, and Bryanna made a cute joke. She said, “Guess who’s coming here tomorrow?”….. “YOU!!” When Bailey got up, Grammi took her out to the lanai so she could call home, too.  She said, “What?” and “I don’t know” throughout the call, but she listened intently. Finally she said, “I love you, goodbye” and thrust the phone at Grammi.

We played until it was time to get ready to go to Kahului. The girls wore their head leis. We went to Walmart to get Mommy and Daddy a bed. We also picked out a special Christmas present for the garden. We drove over to Ka’aumanu Center to see Santa Claus, but neither of us wanted to go talk to him so we petted the pretend reindeer.

Then we did a take-out mystery shop at Ruby’s and drove over to Taco Bell to get dinner for Grampi and us. It took over an hour to drive home, because the traffic was terrible. We had a nice dinner with grapes for dessert. We watched two TV specials and then Grammi read stories in bed. We had a little bit of a hard time going to sleep because we were excited about Mommy and Daddy coming. Only one more day!

Tuesday - December 23, 2003 – Mommy and Daddy Day

TODAY IS THE DAY! We got up about 7:30 and wanted to know when we were going to leave for the airport. At 8:00, Grammi told us that Mommy and Daddy had just taken off from Reno on the way to Los Angeles. We had rice crispies and fruit cocktail for breakfast. Bryanna had thirds on the cereal. Grammi finished baking the cookies for Grampi to take to work. Then we walked over to the beach to see the high waves that had been predicted on the weather report, but they weren’t high at all. So, we came back to the pool, and Grampi left for work. We are swimming better every day. Bailey is almost as good at swimming across the pool underwater as Bryanna is, but she will only do that in the keiki pool. We stayed at the pool for over an hour, with a snack of apples, gold fish, and crystal light.

When we came home, we watched “Sinbad” and had bologna and cheese sammies with cucumbers and more gold fish. Grammi dropped a full jar of Miracle Whip on the kitchen floor and it broke so she had to clean it up, but she was going to clean the house anyway, so it would be nice for Mommy and Daddy. We moved the toys and desk, so there would be room for their bed.

About ¾ of the way through the movie, Bailey was tired, so she went to bed with books. Bryanna and Grammi watched a program about water parks. When Bailey got up, we went out to the lanai and read lots of Christmas stories, and then we got on the computer to sing along with some Christmas carols. Grampi got home at 4:15 and the girls colored pictures that we printed from the sing along pages.

We went to Denny’s for dinner on the way to the airport. We were very excited, but we ate very well. Bry had French toast, egg and bacon and Bailey had pancakes, eggs and bacon. We went to Safeway for leis. We got to Kahului with lots of extra time, so we went to McDonalds for Sundaes.

When we got to the airport, we found a good parking place, right near where Mommy and Daddy would be coming out, and we went in, trying to figure out where to go to be able to see them when they came out of the arrival area. All of a sudden, there they were, picking us up and hugging us.

We were thrilled to have Mommy and Daddy with us. We had to wait for a little while for the suitcase, and finally, we were on the way home. We visited and played for a little bit, and went to bed at about 10:30.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 – Christmas Eve

We got up about 7:00 and planned our day. First, we had breakfast of fried ham and eggs with pumpkin muffins. Then we went to Kamaole III Beach for about 2 hours. Daddy and Mommy got a little sunburned, but we had a good time. We went to the pool next, and we surprised Mommy and Daddy with how well we could swim. We stayed for a long time, and then came back for lunch.

We had a rest with “Fox and the Hound”, and Grammi and Mommy went to Safeway to buy some things for the next few days, including Christmas dinner. When they got home, we fixed hamburgers for dinner. After dinner, we went for a nature walk, and when it got dark, we hunted for frogs. We had a nice time, and went to bed with lots of books. It was Christmas Eve, and we wanted to be asleep when Santa Claus got here.

Thursday - December 25, 2003 – Santa Claus Found Us!

Christmas Day, and everyone slept late! What lazy heads. We got great things from Santa, and Mommy and Daddy, and Grammi and Grampi.

Daddy cooked pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. We had a nice morning.

Grampi went to work, because that way one of the people with little kids could have the day off to be home with her family.  We went to Lahaina to shop. We went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch, and walked all around town shopping. The last thing we did before we left town was go to the Banyon tree. We had a nice drive back to Ma’alaea to pick Grampi up from work. We stopped at McGregor Point to look for whales, and we found some, but they were far away.

We got Grampi and went home to swim for a while. Then we did our sand art. We did a beautiful job on our pictures. Mommy and Daddy helped us to make them.

We had roast, rice, green beans, and bread for Christmas dinner. After the dishes had been washed, we walked over to the park and beach to swing and look for crabs, frogs, and geckoes.

We all went to bed at 8:30, because we had a long, busy day.

Friday - December 26, 2003 – A Day At the Beach

After breakfast of cereal, cottage cheese, and trail mix, we spent the whole morning at Kamaole III. Daddy and Mommy went snorkeling and Daddy did some boogie boarding. The red flags were flying, so we were very careful about going out too far, but we did get to go past the waves. We came back about 12:00 and went to swim in the pool for about an hour. Lunch was informal, with all of us doing our own thing. Daddy fixed us bologna and cheese sandwiches and oranges. Then we lay down with Mommy for a rest.

Grammi and Grampi went to town to buy a new bed because they have not been comfortable in their bed for a long time. When they got back, Mommy and Daddy made a delicious dinner out of the roast from last night. They chopped up the meat and mixed it with the gravy to make hot roast beef sandwiches on French bread. After dinner, we all played Chicken Livers. Gee and Joe will be happy that Daddy looked up the rules for the game on the Internet so now we know that there are lots more ways to score. We went to bed at 8:20 and all the grown-ups played Chicken Livers for a little while longer before going to bed.

Saturday - December 27, 2003

Grammi and Grampi got up early and went for a walk. From the park, they watched a small pod of dolphins play. They were sorry that we weren’t there to watch. They planned that they would take us along for the morning walk soon.

Grammi made French toast, bacon and eggs for breakfast. They she and Grampi went to town to do a mystery shop. We went with Mommy and Daddy to the pool to play. After the shop, Grammi took Grampi to work and came home to watch “The Land Before Time V” with us while Mommy and Daddy went to lunch and shopping. After that movie, we watched “James and the Giant Peach.” When Mommy and Daddy got home, they brought Grampi with them from work. We went to Bada Bing for dinner. Everyone had a good meal. After dinner, we walked over to the open-air market so Mommy could shop, but we got a little bored, so we went to the car to read for a little while. Just as we were starting to read, we heard a noise outside the car. A scary growl kind of noise. We were a little scared, at first, but it turned out to be Daddy being a monster.

When we got home, Mommy, Grammi, Bryanna and Bailey worked the new Ice Age puzzle. After that, we all played Splash, the new card game. We had fun doing that. Then it was time for bed. Grammi and Grampi took a walk while we got ready to go to sleep.

Sunday – December 28, 2003

We were going to go to church this morning, but Grammi had a bad headache all night, and the rest of us just slept late. We took a walk before breakfast with Mommy and Daddy. Daddy made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. YUM!! Then we spent the rest of the morning playing and watching TV. We also wrote thank-you notes for Aunt Joline and Uncle Bill, who had sent us feather boas, drawing boards and books.

Mommy and Daddy went to town for some more shopping. While they were gone we took a walk to Kamaole Point and looked for treasures, but we didn’t find anything good. It rained a little bit so we got to take our umbrellas. When we came home, we watched “Ice Age.” Mommy and Daddy came home and Grammi fixed our dinner of ham, cheese, vegetables, and applesauce. Then Daddy and Mommy made dinner for the grown-ups – leftover roast gravy, pasta, and vegetables. After dinner, we worked the new glow-in-the-dark puzzle. It was easy for us, and we liked looking at all the sea creatures when they glowed. While the grown-ups ate, we watched the “Brother Bear Songs” video, and then we had ice cream. We went to bed at 8:30.

Monday - December 29, 2003 – Upcountry To Find Horses

Grampi had the day off so we made plans to take a drive. We had a simple breakfast of cereal and English muffins. Then we drove to Walmart to return the big futon that we bought for Mommy and Daddy. They have been very uncomfortable on it. We bought an airbed just like the one we took back a few weeks ago. Next, we stopped at the Grocery Outlet to buy some carrots, and then we went to Hookipa to see the surfers and do a little rock climbing.

After that, we went up towards Haiku and Makawao to find horses to feed. We had to take Mommy and Daddy to meet the horses. We found two very friendly ones who were very happy to eat every carrot. Daddy was crouched down taking pictures, and one of the horses leaned over the fence and nibbled his hair. That startled Daddy, and made the rest of us laugh.

The horses were so tame that they let us pet them, too.

We drove a little more, looking for a place to have lunch and we decided to go to the Tropical Plantation. We visited the monkey before going in to the restaurant. After we ordered, we walked around the lake with Grammi. We found a bush on the other side that had butterflies hovering around it, and it was covered with caterpillars and even one cocoon. We also saw lots of catfish in the lake. When we got back, lunch arrived. It was cloudy the whole time we were gone, but it didn’t rain until we were at lunch. It poured for a little while when we were sitting in the restaurant, but by the time we left, it had stopped, so we were able to show Mommy, Daddy, and Grampi the caterpillar bush.

We went home only to go back out for a walk with Mommy and Daddy. Grammi and Grampi stayed home to rest. We had a nice walk, and then came back for a swim. We had a silly dinner of bologna and cheese sandwiches, Jello, apple, cheese and crackers, and salad. Mommy and Daddy had BBQ steak and pasta later. We slept in our own futons in Grammi and Grampi’s bedroom. We had enjoyed sleeping with Mommy and Daddy, but it was a little tight in the dining room for our beds now.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 – Company For Dinner

Grammi and Grampi woke us up at 7:30 to go on a dolphin hunt. We walked to the park across the street, but didn’t see any dolphins or whales. We did get to swing for a very long time. On the way back, we stopped off to visit Barbara, and she told us that she doesn’t want us to go home, because she will miss us.

We got home a little after 8:30, and Mommy and Daddy were up. They made us bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and hash brown potatoes. It was super yummy. We played after breakfast, and Mommy cleaned up all our toys. Then Grammi and Mommy walked to the pool with us. Mommy stayed for a couple of minutes, but then she had to leave to take Grampi to work. We swam until 12:00, and then came back home for lunch of chocolate chip waffles, strawberry yogurt, cottage cheese, and Jello. Then we lay down for a rest. We sang for a few minutes, and then Bailey fell asleep. Grammi and Bryanna got up to finish their rest in the living room. Grammi baked the rest of the cookies, because Judy and Bill were coming over for dinner.

We were happy to see that the special presents we made Grammi and Grampi for Christmas were out. That meant they liked them. 

When our company got here, we were playing computer games, so we stopped and went to the pool. We swam with Judy swam for a few minutes, but it was really too cold to enjoy it very much, so we went to the little pool so Bailey could play, and Bryanna sat wrapped in a towel. After ten minutes, we went home for a hot shower. Grampi, Mommy and Daddy got home and went to the pool while we worked on dinner. We made salad, and cooked the pizza that Bill and Judy brought. Dinner was delicious. We decided that we like the pizza from Safeway. When we were done eating, we visited a while and then Grammi and Grampi went over to their house to play dice for a couple of hours. We played with Mommy and Daddy, and then went to bed.

Wednesday - December 31, 2003 – New Year’s Eve

The weather was a little gloomy when we got up. Grammi and Grampi were gone, so Mommy and Daddy made breakfast for us. While we were eating, Grammi and Grampi got home with warm Malassadas. They were yummy. We played after breakfast, but mostly had a quiet day. We walked to Quiznos for lunch and ate it at the park, but the flies were terrible. After we got home from lunch, we took our rest.

Mommy and Daddy went out for a little while, and after our rest, we played dominoes. Mommy and Daddy barbequed hamburgers. In the evening, we watched “Finding Nemo.” We had seen it before, but it was still fun to watch it. When it was over, we started to go to bed. Grammi and Grampi took a walk. They called us to let us know that there were lots of fireworks in the park, so we walked down there, but we were a little scared of all the cracking and sparks.

We were sound

asleep at midnight, so we didn’t hear the sounds of all the people yelling, “Happy new year.”

Thursday - January 01, 2004 – A New Year

We got up late today and found that it was raining. Grammi was the last one up. We watched the Tournament Of Roses Parade for a little while, and then went to Marcos Grill for breakfast. We had chocolate chip pancakes, French toast, eggs, potatoes, and toast, and we shared. It rained all through breakfast, so, even though we had planned to go to the park, we couldn’t.  We took Grampi to work early instead, and went to the Maui Ocean Center. We had a nice time, but it was disappointing not to be able to see the turtles from the top, or to go to the touch pool. We left at a little after 12:00 and came home. We got to take our umbrellas out to play in the yard. It's so funny that the rain here is warm, so we can get wet and not mind. 

After lunch of tuna, pizza, macaroni and cheese, bell peppers, apples and pears, we had a rest. Daddy and Mommy went for a drive. Just a little while after they left, it started pouring and got really windy. Grammi and Bryanna got up at 3:45, and watched the rain.

We were supposed to go to Karen’s to paint with her this afternoon, but she got very sick, so we weren’t able to go. We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner, and we ate it all.

Grammi and Grampi took us for a walk and we went frog hunting, but it started to rain, so we came home early. We read stories and played, and then we watched the bonus features of “Finding Nemo” until bedtime. There were some fun things on it.

Friday - January 02, 2004 - Mommy Turns 30!!

We had Rice Krispies, peanut butter toast, and pumpkin muffins. It rained most of the night, and morning, so the grass was still extra soggy. We hung around the house most of the day, but Mommy and Daddy took a walk after lunch. Margaret and Chris borrowed the van to go to the store. We went to the pool with Grammi to swim for just a little while. It started to rain again, and the wind started to be somewhat strong, so we came home for a shower and a rest.

When Mommy and Daddy got home, we sat around and waited until the Chris and Margaret came back so we could go to dinner.

We had a delicious dinner at Cheesburgers In Paradise. Potstickers, hamburgers, and Chinese Chicken Salad. Then we came home and watched TV for a while before having cake and ice cream and giving Mommy her presents. After that, we played for a long time before going to bed.

Saturday - January 03, 2004 – Joe and Gee Come Back

We heard the rain pounding all night and when we got up, it was still pouring. We had pancakes and spam for breakfast and played at home because there was nowhere to go in the rain. We thought about going to a movie, but it would have been too crowded.

Mommy and Daddy went to Alexander’s to get fish and chips for lunch. It was yummy. We were supposed to pick up Gee and Joe at 11:30, but Gee called to tell us that they wouldn’t be here until about 4:30 because there was a problem with their airplane. We had planned on going with Grampi and Grammi to pick them up at the airport, but all the roads were flooded, so it was safer for us to stay home. Grammi and Grampi wished they could stay home, too, but they were looking forward to seeing their good friends, so they didn’t really mind going.

Karen offered to let all the Browns stay at their place so they would have more room for the rest of their stay. They thought that was a good idea but we wanted to stay at Grammi and Grampi's instead. Grammi and Grampi left for the airport two hours before the plane was due to land because there had been so much rain, and they thought the roads would be flooded so it might take a long time to get there. The only road that was bad was near Kealia Pond and that was just a couple of hundred feet of road that was covered with water, so it only took thirty minutes to get to Kahului. They stopped at Borders Books for coffee and read their books until just before the plane was due to land. At the airport, they went to the escalator and found Gee and Joe right away. They stopped at Costco to buy some food on the way home.

Gee and Joe came over for BBQ steak, rice, salad, and garlic bread. We had a very nice time. We had to tell them all about what we’ve been doing. They went home a little after 9:00 and Mommy and Daddy went to Karen and Carl’s place. After we were settled in our beds in the dining room, Grampi came out of the bedroom and told us to follow him to see something, and to be very quiet. He had discovered a gecko on the bedroom wall. He held each of us up to try to touch him, but he was too high up. We named him Sunny Purple.

Sunday - January 04, 2004 – The Rain Has Finally Stopped

At last, we woke up to a dry morning. The sun wasn’t out, but at least it wasn’t raining. We had chocolate chip waffles, pears, Jello, blueberries, and apple for breakfast. Mommy and Daddy came over just about the time we were finishing.

We went to the beach and Joe and Gee met us there.

It was very rough. Mommy and Daddy took the boogie boards out, and after a while, Bryanna went out with them, but Bailey didn’t want to. She and Grammi played in the waves for a bit, but a wave hit Bailey in the face, and she wanted to get out. She sat on Grammi’s lap for a long time, even after Mommy came back. Grammi loved that.

We packed up after two hours and went to swim in the pool, while Mommy made double-decker bologna sandwiches. The grown-ups had tuna and egg salad. Then we had a rest while Mommy and Daddy went to the pool to work on their tans.

Daddy and Mommy made lemon chicken and we had that with leftover steak, rice, garlic mashed potatoes, and peppers. For dessert we had ice cream. Then we watched an animal planet show with sea horses, bugs, and strange animals. We went to bed early because we were going on a snorkel trip in the morning.

Monday - January 05, 2004 – The "Norkel" Cruise

We got up a long time before the sun did. Joe couldn’t go because he was sick. We left for Ma’alaea at 5:45, and got on the boat at about 6:30. It was cold!! The boat was beautiful with seats inside and outside. We chose to sit on the starboard bow in stadium seats, so we could see all around us. We spotted a couple of whales on the way to Molikini.

The boat stopped at Molikini for a little over one hour, and Mommy and Daddy went snorkeling, but none of the others went in the water. It was very rough. We went down the steps to feel the water and we were scared by how much it splashed up. We played with Gee and Molly and had a good time anyway. On the way back to the harbor, because we couldn’t go to a second snorkel spot due to murky water on the shore, we had an extended whale watch, which we had been hoping for. We saw more than twenty whales, breeching, and playing. There were lots of fin slaps. It was awesome. When we got back to the harbor, we drove straight home and went to the pool to swim. It was very fun. Joe and Gee came to the pool to see how well we were able to swim. They were very impressed. Bryanna pretended to be a whale doing a fin slap, and Gee knew right away, what she was.

After swimming, we took a rest with a movie, and Grammi took a nap. When Grammi woke up, Mommy and Daddy had brought home pizza for dinner. Yum! Mommy and Daddy did some packing, and Grammi and Grampi played with us. We worked on the workbooks that Grammi had bought here, taken all the way to Sparks and brought back again, and then forgotten. Silly them! We had ice cream and peaches for dessert and went to sleep right away on our beds in the dining room while Grammi and Grampi watched TV for a while.

Tuesday - January 06, 2004

Today was the last full day of our visit. We woke up at 7:00 but weren’t ready to get up until 7:30. We were just walking out the door to go over to the beach to see the huge waves that we could hear from our lanai, when Mommy and Daddy walked up, so they went with us. Bryanna and Grammi went down to the beach first so they missed the breeching whales that the others watched from top edge of the park. The waves were not as big as they had sounded at first, but then a few big ones came in.

We went back to have breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. They Mommy went through the toys again, and separated the ones to take home from the ones that Grammi and Grampi will keep here for the next time we visit. Bryanna and Grammi took Grampi to work and played Nani Nani and the Frog Song loud on the way home.

We went to the Grand Wailea pool, and Wailea Beach for over three hours. We had an awesome time. We decided that we were ready to dive into the pool and swim all over without needing anybody to swim to.

When swimming with our heads above the water, Bailey has a slow, steady stroke, and Bryanna has more of a doggie paddle stroke. When swimming under water, we just streak along like dolphins. It is wonderful for the grown-ups to watch.

Gee and Joe joined us for two hours. They sat on the edge of the pool, and encouraged us. Actually, they were there to see the first dives, so they were very excited. Joe and Rommie went down to the beach with boogie boards to ride the humongous waves. They were worn out. We went down to watch, and Bryanna and Grammi went into the water to jump the waves, but didn’t go very far out, because they were way too big.

We came home, and Mommy and Daddy left to pick Grampi up at work. We had a snack of apples and pancakes, and then we lay down on our beds to listen to stories. Grammi lay between us and we all rested for over an hour. Finally, Grammi got up and turned on the TV so we could watch Clifford, and we both fell asleep until 6:30, when the others got home.

Mommy and Daddy walked to KKO for dinner, and we had a Taco Bell double-decker, and pizza for our dinner. Bryanna had a great idea. She wanted to go lay on the lawn to watch for falling stars, so we took a sheet and blankets and walked to Building 7. We laid there for over a half hour, watching the sky and talking. Both of us saw one falling star, and we think we saw a bat. We had taken flashlights with us, so we did a little frog hunting, and Bryanna picked up lots of frogs. Bryanna had gotten very good at catching them. She caught one and turned him over on his back right away, so he wouldn’t struggle. We were petting his tummy and checking out his toes, when all of a sudden, he peed all over Bry’s flashlight, arm and shirt. Eeewww!!! She didn’t even mind. She just wiped her arm off with her shirt, and put him gently down on the grass so he could hop away. We walked a little further and found more frogs before we went home and got ready for bed, which included washing Bryanna’s arm. Then we had ice cream and chocolate candy. We cuddled for a little while. Then Mommy and Daddy got home and cuddled with us before bed. We had a great day.

Wednesday - January 07, 2004 – The Last Day

We slept late this morning. We had a simple breakfast of leftover pancakes, blueberries, and pineapple.

We decided to go to the Grand Wailea again, so Grampi could enjoy watching us swimming and diving. They took the camcorder and the other cameras so they could get some movies and pictures of us.

We were lucky that they used the cameras right away, because a security person told us that we couldn’t be there without armbands. At least we had some fun and Grampi loved seeing the diving demonstration.

We came back home to swim in our pool, and we did a little bit of diving. We went to the office to say good-bye to Barbara and Yvonne. Barbara wasn’t there because she was sick and we were sorry that we couldn’t see her one more time. We gave Yvonne hugs and kisses, and said to tell Briana that we would miss her.

We had bologna and melted cheese sandwiches for lunch, and Grammi read some of our journal to us. We enjoyed talking about some of the things we had done. We had to have a nap because we were going to be up very late. The airplane wasn’t going to take off until 10:20.

After our naps, Gee and Joe came over to see us and say good-bye. They visited with us for a while. We took showers and Grammi washed our hair one last time. When we were all ready to go, we went to say bye to Chris and Margaret. Then we went to check in at the airport. That only took five minutes and we were off to Ruby’s for dinner. We enjoyed our last hour together and all too soon, Grammi and Grampi were dropping us off and giving us lots of kisses and hugs. We went to the waiting area and Grammi and Grampi drove home, missing us.

Grammi’s Last Words About Bryanna and Bailey’s Visit

We think that having the girls was an incredible gift from Mommy and Daddy. They left last night. We had such a great time. We’re so glad they were able to stay so long. We know it was too long. We think we'll try for one month. We did so much. Hiked, climbed trees, learned to identify several plants, including Plumeria, Keawe, and Bird of Paradise. We watched storm waves of 25 feet from the shore where they looked so big, dug in the sand, found sea cucumbers, anemones, and urchins that we could pickup and feel. They mastered saying the Hawai'ian names like Puunene, Haleakala, Kahului, Keawakapu and Ho'okipa. They sang along with songs in Hawai'ian; We even got them a CD of the songs that they liked best so they can keep singing. We went to lots of restaurants with them in their adorable dresses. We took them on a whale watch trip and saw a few whales and a snorkel trip where we saw more than twenty whales giving fin slaps and tail slaps.

We had over a week of rain in December so we walked with their new umbrellas to catch frogs. Their last night here, Kathy and Rommie went out to dinner, and we went to lay on a sheet on the lawn to watch the stars (Bry's suggestion was to watch for falling stars like we did during the meteor shower in November.) We lay there for a half hour talking and giggling. Then we went for a last frog hunt. Bryanna has learned to pick the frog up and turn it over on its back right away so it won't struggle. The girls were both petting the tummy of her latest conquest when it peed all over her. She didn't even mind.

We'll Be Back!

The best thing was the last two days. The girls learned to swim while they were here. They used inflatable swim rings at first, but, by the time Kathy and Rommie got here, they would just slide out of the rings and swim. Well, two days ago, at the Grand Wailea, Bryanna wanted to jump in off the side without her ring and we said she could try. She not only jumped in and swam ten feet to me, but Bailey wanted to do it, too. They would swim to one of us, and then turn around and swim back to the side. Both of them swim underwater, come up for air, and go down again. They are just like little dolphins. After several jumps, they started putting their hands together and diving in! What a complete thrill!

We only shed a couple of tears when we dropped them at the airport but it was hard to let them go. They were so happy to be going home with Mommy and Daddy. We'll try to get back into our routine as fast as we can. Bill will go to work today, but I'll stay home to clean and organize.

It is too quite around here, and I think I have forgotten how to sit without having two adorable girls nearby.