Mitchell's Baptism

Mitchell Donald Clayton Mathieson.......

I wanted to mention that on Monday morning, before we left Hawaii, we were able to baptize Mitchell on temple beach. In our church we baptize at age 8 and since this was Mitchell's birthday we were hoping to be able to do it. Knowing we had to be at the airport early that afternoon and having to still drive down to Honolulu, we weren't sure we could........but we were so grateful we made the time. The Wilsons joined us and we had a little service beforehand. The girls sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" which they have sang at every siblings baptism so pretty special to hear it at our last little one!

This sacred, special experience was the perfect ending of our holiday. It was touching to have our whole family gathered together........I hope Mitchell will always treasure this memory, and remember the love that surrounded him!

Sunday in Hawaii

On Sunday in Hawaii we attended 7th Ward in Laie for church. I'm sure grateful that my two little ones are brave, they go right to into Primary and even though they don't know anyone they still go in and have fun. Mitchell was a little worried about finding me, but when I looked in on him, there were 3 little boys already visiting him! Rebecca and Vanessa were thrilled at the leis they received because they were visitors.
After church we went and had family pictures taken in front of the temple.
The Wilsons....Colin, Carole, Jaime (Luke, Jaime's fiance), Scott, Brady, Kristina and Mitchell and Helen, Carole's parents
The Mathiesons and Wilsons
Danielle and Tim Pederson

More family pictures.........

Below are the kids singing me a Mother's Day song, they found the words they wanted on the computer! Pretty special moment, I don't get them all together very often anymore.

We celebrated Mitchell's birthday that night since he was turning 8 the next day. We had the Wilsons over for cake and the birthday bumps..........our little boy is now 8!!!!

Polynesian Cultural Center

So it was off to the Polynesian Cultural Center.....have to admit I was a little sceptical to begin with, I had heard lots about it but it seemed a little stagy (sorry but that's what I first thought.....) and it was sooooo crowded. Because of our package (thanks to Carole again!!) we were given a tour guide, which definitely helped this first time. Our guide's name was Serey, he was a Cambodian student studying information systems at BYU on scholarship. He didn't seem very experienced but he was bright, funny, very helpful, friendly and kept us going where we needed to go.......
There are 7 Islands that they include, Samoa, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Hawaii, Marquesas, Tahiti and Tonga. They have dances, songs, shows, rituals and all kinds of activities that they share at these different Island representations. We weren't able to get to them all but we did see a few that were pretty fun! Serey also gave us some coconut bread and some mountain apples and had a bag of ponchos for us.




The luau was stupendous........they fed about 600 people in about an hour......this huge room with tables all set, they had 4 buffets set up at the top and entertainment at the bottom. We enjoyed the food, Don especially loved the fish and I did too.....they had poi, raw fish and marinated beef. They had tarot buns which were purple, luckily they also had a kid's menu with dinosaur chicken, potato wedges, jello, hot dogs, etc. Everyone was sure stuffed.........I teased Carole, figured this was probably the first time Luke was full all week (he admitted he probably finished off a whole fish himself), she should have just dropped him off at buffets at least once a day!

My two darling men!

The Tropical Canoe Tour......great job dancing on a little surface!
It was the craziest day for weather, it started raining and then stopped, we then sweltered while watching the tropical canoe tour and shivered in the IMAX watching the Coral Reef show, then out in the rain again walking around. Definitely a day of contrasts........


Melodie and Vanessa posing with the Tongan drummer!

The girls with tattoos! At least they didn't put them on their face, like some!
There were so many fun shows...... we loved the Samoan fellow, he kept us laughing so much, a supreme performer, showed us how to start fire with a stick, husked a coconut, opened it with a small rock and then milked it and all with great wit and humour. He had a fellow climb a tree.....and then asked if we wanted him to jump to another tree! I couldn't believe it.......these palm trees were waaaay apart, so while the leader kept chanting, Are you ready over and over, the guy in the tree finally called back "Are YOU crazy!!!"...which had us all laughing, he came down quick!






Below was the first tent we went to, New Zealand.....total art of throwing sticks!!

The fire dancing competition was stupendous and worth every penny!! I was ready to go home, tired and tired of huge crowds, we had to wait for about 15 min. to get in and it was soooooo crowded.........I would have gladly headed home..........but oh thank goodness I didn't. The show was so colourful, funny, bright and completely entertaining and that was before the fire dance competition. The three fire dancers were amazing and so skilled, just loved it. We certainly had the BEST seats in the house thanks to Carole........ in the middle fourth row back so we were right up close! The other fun part of the day was because of our tickets we could get these ice cream bowls throughout the performances.

This was Vanessa and Melodie's "attempt" at doing a New Zealand war dance, called "the Haika". It's supposed to make their enemies fear them... however I don't think Melodie and Vanessa are quite at that stage yet.. lol...

So a WONDERFUL, STUPENDOUS FUN day........never to be forgotten. Sooooo Happy to have all our kids with us!!!

SURFING!!!

So it was SURFING day yesterday and everybody was pretty excited! We went with a gal called "Sunset Suzy"....honestly that was what she went by. Of course Carole found her, got us a smoking deal too, because we had more than 6 people we were able to get it for $55 per person which included board and 2 hours of instruction. (Most of the lessons here are about $100 for that) Carole and I waited and took all the pictures......unfortunately our little cameras really couldn't do it justice without a zoom lens. They were so far out that most of the pictures of them actually surfing are little dots, will have to wait til I can zoom and crop them but I'm including a few!

The crew getting ready, had to learn what to do on the board.........I think surfing is one of those things that is harder than it looks to at least get started! Here is the first bunch starting out........This is Don actually up!!!! He did get up quite a few times, he said it was pretty tiring though..........This one's for Ryan.........Don wiping out.........there were some great wipe outs, too bad I couldn't film them. I think Rebecca had the best one!
The second crew heading out......Danielle, Melodie, Vanessa and Rebecca..........with Suzy.

Here's Melodie up on her board........we know it's her because she was wearing yellow and blue....lol
Here's Vanessa in white..........
Here the tiny dot is Rebecca! We were sure amazed with her and Kristina.......they both managed to get up and stay up for quite awhile, we figure its because they're so tiny they don't have very far to fall......lol

My girls............

Here's Scott and Brady Wilson.........they're usually moving so much I can't get very many pictures, but they very politely posed for me.......
The surfing gang!!
The sweetest picture!

Tim and Danielle both went and were able to get up.....actually saw Tim up lots and I think he had a great time, I'm sure he'll be surfing again. Just too bad, I didn't get any of them up.....by the time I would get the camera up and figure out where they were, they would be down again.

Melodie and I on our way to go snorkeling. Thank goodness for Vanessa who did both of our hair in French braids........first time she's done mine and it sure helped to keep it out of our faces.

SNORKELING was probably one of the funnest things for me on this trip!! We actually went to Sharks Cove on Tuesday which is when I first tried it. I'm not a strong swimmer and so I don't really like deep water, something about not being able to touch the bottom (I can swim from one edge to another and I can tread water if I have to, just don't like having to). So I'm looking out longingly at everyone snorkeling wishing I had the nerve to go..... then I see Kathy hanging on to her Boogie board and just going and going and going! That made up my mind....if Kathy can do this for hours I am going to at least try it!

Sharks Cove has amazing sealife but its also very treacherous, lots of rocks and very slippery ones. It's pretty tough just getting out into the water and you have to be so careful walking around, we actually invested in water shoes and they made all the difference.......

So I put on my goggles and snorkeling tube (had to figure that one out), grabbed a flutter board (I know pretty dorking looking but it made me feel better) and headed in.........and oh what an indescribable feeling, just being under water you automatically breathe different and you totally feel like you're in a different world. There was so much to see, we saw turtles, crabs and all kinds of fish. Don saw a couple of squid.......

So we loved it on Tuesday and that's why we came back, it was Don, Kathy, Tim, Melodie and I. Too bad it was a little cloudy and a bit chilly......other than that, we had a great time. Will have to wait til we can develop our underwater camera for those pictures. I did take a couple of pictures of the actual cove..... So snorkeling.......will even jump into cold water for a chance to do this!! and my family knows I hate cold water.......

Sunset beach............Happy 22nd Anniversary Colin and Carole!