Aloha!

There is so much to write about and so little time. I'll start with Hawaii and maybe find some time to record our week in Southern California later.

We left Los Angeles on Friday the 16th at 1 o'clock. My mother accompanied us to both help out with the kids and hopefully experience a smidgen of vacation. Unfortunately, she got super sick Friday morning and had to navigate shuttles, rental cars, security lines, and getting lost, while also fighting off nausea and then light-headedness. Maybe she'll be embarrassed by all the details, but I think they're battle scars. The woman threw up while boarding the plane and still kept going. (We were pretty sure it was food poisoning so no one was at risk:) All the rest of us have remained completely fine.) Oh, and our plane got delayed by one hour. We just sat on the tarmac till 2 o'clock while they fixed some piece of equipment that they claimed was important but not critical.

That flight felt really long. Mom looked like death warmed over and Sara didn't nap. We had laughed off our Hawaii flight after enduring ten hours from England, but I sure wasn't laughing when we had two hours to go and Sara did not want to do anything but walk up and down the aisles of the plane. I don't expect to be boarding a plane for another three years. We've done it so often that Caleb knows to take off his shoes when he sees a security line.

Jeff's boss met us at the airport (bless him! It was unexpected) and gave us all leis to wear. We piled into his car and he drove us over to the rental car. We were so close at this point but that last half hour to Ko Olina was killer. I went in Joe's car and Sara remained with Jeff -- she screamed for Mommy the whole drive.

My first view of Hawaii was in the dark. They also had a storm coming in which disappointed Leah. It wasn't warm enough to her, and she didn't think it had "sweet air." When we arrived at the Coconut Plantation house, the sky was very dark, it was windy, and all the lights were on in the house with the doors thrown open. It had a very romantic, "escape from the world" kind of air, and I instantly loved it.

We rushed Mom into the house where she could finally lie down and take a bath. Maybe all the agony was worth it to experience that total bliss at the end...? I'll have to ask.

We love this house. It's a one-month rental in the poshest part of the Ko Olina resort. The owners have thought of everything, like proper hair dryers in all the bathrooms, telephone number printed on the phones, all the utensils and kid-friendly tableware you could need, TVs in every room, and tiled floor and ceiling fans throughout the house. I'll be ruined for real life after this. I want to move into that master bedroom with the attached bathroom. It is the best bathroom I have ever had the privilege of using!

Sara crashed right when we arrived Friday night but woke up bright and early at 8 a.m. Utah time (5 a.m. in Hawaii). We got up with her and set to work emailing rental agencies about their available homes. We got one quick reply and made an appointment to see a townhome in another part of the resort at 11 a.m. Then we took Sara for a walk along the beach. We're about a ten minute walk away. It's almost too bad we spent a week in San Diego before heading to Hawaii since our first exposure to real sunshine was the most dramatic. I thought the beach was very nice but nothing I hadn't seen already:) It's a lovely walk and the beaches are calm and protected. It's perfect for children.

We saw the townhome (totally overpriced and too small, but still a possibility) and then we went to the bank to open a checking account. We are learning that so far, Hawaiian shopping plazas are nice and modern looking but have horrible access. It's a lot like being in England again -- where did all the nice-sized parking spots go?

After the bank, we headed up to see the Mililani area and see if we might run into a Honda dealership. We'd been told that Tony Honda was just up the H2 and we had told our internet correspondent from Tony that we planned on dropping in Saturday.

So we found Honda, decided to stop in and see the Odyssey, and met Tracey, our lovely Australian car saleswoman. She let us drive the van up to Mililani and we got to admire the Odyssey. It's the car we've gravitated towards, all our friends seem to like it, the price was reasonable, and we liked the response we'd had from Tony Honda via the Internet.

SEVEN HOURS LATER, we walked out of there with two cars. Let me sum up our buying experience.

1. This is a great car! It drives well. I need two sliding doors and the plus-one jump seat. I like this gray one.

2. We like the car. Let's talk about what it might cost.

3. It costs X. Jeff: I don't want to buy a car today. (He really meant it.)

4. Tracey: What can I do to earn your business?

5. Jeff hems and haws for nearly an hour while Tracey politely keeps us glued to our seats.

6. Roy shows up, Tracey's boss. We tell him we wanted to look at used cars as well and we just don't feel comfortable buying a car right away. We tell him we could be convinced to buy the new car for X - 5,000. (Totally unreasonable.)

7. Roy has Tracey take us out in a 2005 Odyssey with leather seats and 50,000 miles. We love it!

8. Tracey reports that the used car doesn't have a title yet and they can't sell it. We tell her we really like that car and we'll wait.

9. We enter a long period of negotiation where they offer us a lower model of the new car and we decline, and then Jeff suggests that he needs a used car for his commute. Maybe they could give us two cars for the price of one?

10. We test drive a few beaters.

11. They offer the new car and a beater for X + $500.

12. We decline. We want to think about it. The beater has funny brakes and we really like that used car. (They're beating themselves up over that one! We really meant that we would take a used car!)

13. At hour 5, we tell the manager that we'll go home and think about it unless we can have both cars for X - $2000.

14. They agree. We are shocked. We have successfully haggled for a car.

15. Two hours remain while we work out warranties and payment. It is completely exhausting. We have been at Tony Honda from 2 till 9.

We'll have to try this haggling method for settling rent when we decide on a place. We think we will stay in Ko Olina and I have found over 10 properties for rent that would be big enough for our family. 10 homes is a huge deal for the resort since people are usually clamoring to get into one. We have arrived in a real buyer's market. The desperation at Tony Honda to make a sale has made a real impression.

We went to church today and met the ward we would belong to if we remain in Ko Olina. It's an older ward with a Primary of only 15 or so children. Caleb attended his first Sunday in Primary, somewhat modified since he has been ward hopping since December 10. He went to Nursery the first hour and then went to the combined Sharing Time second hour. However, while in transition from the nursery room to the Primary, he escaped out a side door and was only discovered five minutes later in the farthest reaches of the parking lot, just steps from the main road. I just about had a heart attack. No one's fault at all -- simply very scary.

The ward was not as friendly as I expected (and all the kids wore shoes!) but I think they warm up after you make the initial effort. The white members were the most welcoming just because we have more in common and they all live in Ko Olina. The native members are a friendly bunch but it will take longer, I think, to build up a rapport, just because we don't share as much of a culture with them. The ward is largely Samoan, Japanese, Filipino, and native Hawaiian. I'm amazed at how many people speak English fluently, yet have a strong accent and were probably born in Hawaii.

So that sums it up. We've met the ward, we're seeing houses all day tomorrow, we have our cars sorted out, and we are beginning to really get a feel for our corner of the island. It's considered "the sticks" of Oahu but we still have tons of mainland shopping choices, like Jamba Juice, Panda Express, all the fast food restaurants, Chili's, Home Depot, Office Max, Old Navy, and the first Hawaiian Target store is opening in next-door Kapolei in March. Life is good.

Mahalo for reading!