Marchants everywhere!

We have been excited for some Marchants (29 of them, actually) to make their planned trip to Oahu.  We were even more excited when we found out they were renting a house in the small town where we live.  We were thrilled when we discovered they would be just 2 doors down along the beach!  Doug's aunt, uncle, cousins (with spouses and their children) came to visit for a little over a week. 

When they were pulling into town, Doug had the idea to make them some leis and I jumped at the chance.  With help from a few people (letting me pick their blossoms, giving me some thread and needles, and a few pointers), we were on a mission to create leis for all the women in the family.  Doug and I met that goal and they were still en route, so we opted to make one for all the adults.  It is such a fun Hawaiian tradition.

We welcomed them Friday evening because we used our cell phones as a baby monitor. It was a celebration even though everyone looked exhausted.  It was after 1 am their time!

We spent Saturday morning swimming and snorkeling at the beach just behind our house. After getting stung by a Portuguese Man-of-war, we took our kids in for lunch and a nap. Doug thought he would try to get a clog out of our sink and it ended up swallowing the rest of our Saturday. We ended up with a leak but the clog was out and our sink now drains!  I told Doug several times, "You're my knight in shining armor' as he crawled under the house trying to get to a pipe to find the mysterious clog.  Amazing.

Monday, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and saw the night show with the Marchant clan. The show started at 7:30 pm and bedtime was a 7:00 pm. We thought it would be awful but the kids were in heaven!  Sydney kept shrieking with excitement. We told them this entertainment was called a 'show' and they were saying "show, show" for a while that night.  After every dance they would both look at us and say, "AGAIN!"  Too cute.

We headed snorkeling on Tuesday at Turtle Beach. After hearing some exciting turtle discoveries from Adam and Meggin, we hopped in the water only to search for nearly 20 minutes without spotting one. I decided I would float more than swim and see if I was scaring them away. It worked because I swam around a rock and came face to face with a turtle!  I was instantly afraid and started to swim away only.  I came up for air and to tell Doug that "I found one" but when I looked underwater again, he was gone.  After a short minute of looking, we found him and he started to follow me.  It was amazing. If the rocks and coral weren't so close to me, I would have hung around longer.  Funny how I searched and searched, but once I found a turtle I was afraid and wanted to swim away.  He was just SO close!

Everyone had a great time snorkeling for a few hours.

Except Sydney.

At one point, there were a few turtles washing up on shore and eating a little moss on the rocks.  There were about 1 dozen turtles right by the shore. We knew because we could see them 'inside' a wave'. I tried to get a photo of them 'in' the wave, but it didn't work.

We hopped in the car and headed to Waimea Bay for some jumping into the ocean. We fed Ethan and Sydney on the way and I had to laugh at their full bellies in their new swim clothes we bought last week.

They have some distinct belly buttons due to their hernias they had when they were born.  I understand that most all premature babies have hernias.

I took one look at this rock and opted to keep my feet planted in the sand. It was really fun to watch everyone jump though.

Great form Doug!

Meggin took the title of the 'only woman to jump' and we all cheered her on. Amazing.

We brought the kids back for a late nap and Doug jumped at the chance to go for a hike with his cousins. They had a great time on a hike nearly in our backyard (well, front yard).