Holly’s Blog

Lots of at home time and new ‘firsts’ to record.  Here are some more photos for those of you who have been asking.

On a quick trip to Washington (too quick for my mainland-sick soul!)… we visited family and my dear childhood friend Jennifer and her family.  Then back in Hawaii we hosted visitors and had fun whether packing boxes or sightseeing around the island.

In February and March, some of my family visited from Ohio.  Ginger and Tyler came for two weeks and overlapped one week with my parents who stayed for two weeks also.  We did the sights, beach, pool, Dole Plantation, playland at the mall, and just playing in our yard.  The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time… not wanting the visits to end.  I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Christmas morning was full of laughter, generous presents and constant motion from Annika.  We were thankful to all be together this year.   I’ll let the photo captions tell the story for the day…

It was wonderful to have everyone together for a Linquist Family Christmas Eve meal.  Annika all dressed up in her Santa skirt.

Oh, that reminds me of a funny story about “Santa”.  Early in December, Daniel, Annika and I were driving though Kaneohe.  All of the sudden we heard her exclaim from the back seat, “Noah!”.  I wasn’t sure what she was taking about since her Noah’s Ark set was at home, not in the car.  But then we looked out the window and saw a white bearded “Santa” face.  She saw it and thought it was Noah… the only white bearded guy she knows!  We laughed and laughed.

And one more Santa story while we are on the subject.  Just last week, I was out with Annika and she said, “Santa” seemingly out of the blue.  But as I looked around I spotted what she had.  A jolly old man with a full head of white hair on his head and a full, long white beard on his chin.  Again I laughed.  Then as he was walking away, past us again, she says, “Bye, bye Santa.”  Kids say the funniest things!

Grandma (Sharon) and I made Christmas cookies with Annika.  We had a blast, but as seen in the photos, not as much fun as Annika.  Please bear with me being a “mom” here.  I know this is way to many photos of her… but I had a photographer (Thank you, Jessica)… and you don’t want to know how many were on the unedited list.

The first few need an explanation.  We got Annika’s new “Christmas present” apron on and stood her on a chair.  She helped me roll out the first batch.  I turned by back for a moment, and when I glanced back she was face down in the dough… coming up with a nose and forehead full of flour.  She was smelling the dough.  We laughed so hard and left the flour on her face… it was too cute!

I also have to say that she lost a bit of interest in cutting out and decorating once she tasted a cookie.  Yummy, yummy, yummy!

With all Daniel’s family in town for Christmas… in Hawaii, the land of sun and sand…  we had to have a beach day!  After loading up the tent, chairs, towels and sand toys, we headed north to Waimea Bay.  It was pretty big surf that day, so no one went swimming.  But that didn’t stop everyone from enjoying the sand, sun and gorgeous blue water.

Then on the way back we stopped at the famous North Shore Shrimp Shacks… so yummy.  The best shrimp I’ve ever had.  Delicious.  We all dug in and got messy… did I mention how yummy it was?!?

So many fun times had with family in town!  Here’s a collection of miscellaneous photos from those adventures.  (Shave Ice may look like a snow cone… but it’s soooo much better.  Come visit us and give it a try for yourself!)

So, I had no idea that so many movies had been filmed just up the road from our house here in Hawaii.  Kualoa Ranch is an amazing location with steep mountains and valleys that sweep into the ocean.  But they are not just a filming location.  They are a working ranch with cattle and horses.  And they provide cultural education as well as land preservation to a huge track of beautiful Hawaii for all to enjoy.

http://www.kualoa.com/

When Jonathan and Jessica (Daniel’s brother and sister in law) were in town for Christmas, we took a tour of the movie sites.  And much to their enjoyment, LOST sites.  They are big fans of that show and loved seeing where much of it has been filmed.  We learned that 60% of the show has been filmed on ranch property!  Wow… makes me want to watch it just to see the locations!

A funny story we heard on the tour… the footprints for Godzilla were originally 8 feet deep.  And after filming was over, the ranch hands had to drive out and check the footprints every morning to see if any cows had fallen in.  As this became a reoccurring problem, the decided to fill them in as you seem them now… to save the cows much harm!

To see all the shows and movies filmed there:

http://www.kualoa.com/moviesites.htm

Jonathan and Jessica arrived a week earlier than the other brothers.  Daniel was still working, so the rest of us took advantage of the nice December weather.  We took walks on the beach and had picnics along the way.  December can be a rainy month in Hawaii, especially on the windward (east) side of Oahu.  But we were blessed with dry skies the entire time everyone was in town.