A Happy Day!

Julia and the kids are here for a few weeks, which luckily coincided with Luke's graduation.  I love the sheer joy on his face as he is holding one of his nephews and nieces.  Times like this make us miss the family that couldn't be here: we missed Hillary and family, Samantha, and Lester so much!

Also pictured is Luke and his good buddy Andrew.  They have been friends since infancy and I know Andrew's name is mentioned throughout the years of this blog.

graduation leis

Graduation Morning

It's 3 am and I can't sleep.  Luke graduates today.  It's pretty exciting!  But the question of how many leis and what kind to give him is haunting me - how ridiculous is that!

 The main souvenir I asked Reggie to bring me from Hawaii was kukui nut necklaces (pictured in a previous post).  They sell so many beautiful ones, of such variety and such a great price, at the swap meet in Honolulu.  Reggie brought home several, and then at my request asked his sister in law, who was still there, to get me more.  We then decided to try to make a money lei for Luke out of one of them.  Reggie watched a video and learned how to fold the money in an intricate way and we tied a few bills to the necklace.  It looks great!  We also made him a candy lei, and a gold dollar coin lei in the same fashion.  Reggie also got a ribbon lei in the school colors and Luke's cousin made him a few more.  Finally, we couldn't pass up a beautiful, small orchid one that they sell at Costco.  So that sounded like plenty, each with their own meaning.

So last night we got out the girls scrapbooks and looked up each graduation photo.  The girls had about the same number, of various kinds.

Julia was our first, and I asked my former volleyball coach and friend if she would help me make some leis for her.  She generously made several ribbon leis and told me to have Julia where them with pride - to remember her polynesian pride. (The picture below is with another friend and Julia's youth leader at the time, Amy Benning).

Hillary, Mariah and Samantha each had cousins they graduated with, and so aunties and uncles and Grandma Hanaike were there with leis they had made for the girls.

As we looked at the photos I was flattered with the fact that Mariah pointed out how pretty the carnation leis looked - I had made each of them a carnation lei.  I wasn't planning on making one for Luke - I'm not sure how much he cares, and fresh flower leis obviously don't last too long.  But the pictures do, and I found out last night that that means more than I thought it did.

On a personal note, it is interesting at times to be of a different ethnicity as your spouse: it means you are then the only one in the family without that blood.  So for me, my husband and kids are polynesian and I am not.  (And of course Reggie experiences that visa versa with mine and the kids' caucasian blood).  But then you are adopted into your spouse's culture.  No one will ever look at me and mistake me for polynesian, but people are confused when they hear my last name (store clerk: "oh that's a pretty name".  me: "yes, my husband is Hawaiian".)  So throughout the years I've learned a few things about my adopted culture, like how to make carnation flower leis.  The first one I made was with my sister-in-law for us to give to Reggie at the airport when he came home from his mission.  Another one of my volleyball coaches from my teenage years made Reggie and I the most beautiful carnation leis for our wedding.

So, with all that tradition behind us, it is 3 am and I am wondering if it is worth it after all for me to rush to the flower market at 8 am and get some carnations and make Luke one more lei.  I guess the pictures we take this afternoon will tell if I did or not.

ps - before the actual post

It's almost 5 am and I've been up since three.  I've been pouring my thoughts out onto the blog.  This post is a "ps" to a different one that I am going to post later, after I add pictures.  So anyway:

ps - thoughts of graduation leis are not the only thing keeping me up.  Thoughts of all my kid's childhoods are racing through my mind.  Thoughts of Luke's future are haunting me.  It's been such a race-to-the-finish, so to speak, with last minute things coming up at school and seminary and facing college application deadlines: "are you sure you turned that in?  What about this and that?".  I'm afraid it has taken a short-term toll on our relationship.  But I think, starting on this graduation day, we can relax more and face the joy of it all.

 Our boy.  About 19 years ago I would fall asleep each night dreaming about a child standing on the edge of heaven saying "don't forget about me".  Reggie and I then went to the temple to pray about our family size and both came out with the feeling that yeah, there was one more meant for our family.  I thought a lot about that this weekend as Reggie and I took a picture with Luke in front of that Temple.

It's been quite a ride!  Sometimes I think he belongs to his sisters as much as he belongs to Reggie and I.  They are not complete without each other.

  And now, the same words that I kept saying to Reggie hours after Luke was born are going through my mind again - "I'm so glad we did this!  He is such a good idea!".

Memorial DayWeekend, Monday

spent time with my Mom
made bbq for dinner
watched a documentary about people who saved refugees during WW11
made a lot of candy leis
decorated for summer! (I love kukui nut necklaces!)

memorial day weekend, Sunday

Reggie and I hung out at the Oakland Temple while the youth took a tour, reserved just for them.  It was crowded and wonderful.  We even saw 2 of our nieces.

memorial day weekend, Saturday

Divide and conquer grocery shopping
Ward picnic with Avonlea (and her parents)
Listening to my summer playlist
Hot date - Reggie and I home alone practicing making different kinds of graduation leis

Life is great!

( A 6th grader at the picnic made Avonlea a flower crown)

blue

On one of my walks I took a picture of a very pretty, small blue flower.  Coincidentally, in honor of mother's day I was reading a book called "forget me not".  It is beautifully illustrated with pretty, small blue flowers.  Then it clicked.  I just wish I could remember on which trail I had seen the flowers; I would love to go back and see if there are more and more and more.  May always makes me think of "blossoms of blue" from an old children's song and I'm glad I at least have one good picture of forget-me-nots.

from the book:  "There is something inspiring and sublime about the little forget-me-not flower.  I hope it will be a symbol of the little things that make your lives joyful and sweet."

when it's all said and done

So the trip is over and I am happy to have been able to record some of it in a few posts below.  In the next few months there will be a lot of details to attend to to see if Luke really will go to school in Hawaii or if he needs to go with a plan B.  Either way, his future will be an adventure.  And either way, I am so glad he and Reggie took this trip together.  I think Luke will carry it with him forever, wherever life takes him.

and of course, some time at the beach

This is the beautiful Hanamau Bay.  Reggie & Luke got up at 5 am to drive about an hour to get there.  Just from the pictures and videos Reggie sent I could see how beautiful and peaceful it is.  Luke got to go snorkeling, as it is famous for green sea turtles and many species of beautiful fish.

Pearl Harbor and Laie

Luke's Grandpa Hanaike was a musician in Hawaii.  None of us in-laws or grandchildren met him before he passed away.  But, he left behind an album of his music which we cherish.  One of my favorite numbers he does is the Hukilau song, which references "old Laie Bay".  I'm so glad Luke and Reggie went there to check out BYU Hawaii and most importantly, the beautiful temple. 

(More interesting info. below)

Lāʻie is one of the best known communities of the LDS Church and the site of the Laie Hawaii Temple, the church's fifth oldest operating temple in the world.  Brigham Young University–Hawaii is located in Lāʻie. The Polynesian Cultural Center, the state's largest living museum, draws millions of visitors annually.^[9][10]

Though small, Lāʻie has had a significant impact on Hawaiian culture, despite many of its residents' tracing their lineages from various Pacific Island countries such as Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and New Zealand. Fundraisers and feasts on the beach in the late 1940s inspired "The Hukilau Song",^[11] written, composed and originally recorded by Jack Owens, The Cruising Crooner, and made famous by Alfred Apaka.

ATVing at Kualoa Ranch

Where a lot of movies were filmed, like Jurassic Park & Jurrasic world.  They went with Reggie's brother and family.