Hawaii-Friday, Day Seven

Today Kate and I have been in Hawaii for an entire week! It's hard to believe it-time has gone by so fast.


This morning was a quiet one, we stayed around the house doing things to prepare for Arheidur and George's homecoming. We did several loads of laundry, and did the sheets so that they'd be fresh and clean from all of the jumping that had been done from them. :-)


Ellert and Emlba helped me make cupcakes for their parents, and then helped make some chocolate frosting to ice them with. Kate had the great idea of spelling out "Welcome Home" with them, and then I found some skittles and arranged them into flower shapes on top of the extras. Kate and I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, and then we all went out to the beach to play before lunch, and then came inside to eat and clean up the house. While Kate played on the trampoline with the children I swept and vacuumed, and when the children got tired of the trampoline, Kate and Embla played chutes and ladders while Ellert helped me swiff the floor clean. Then we all played some more board games, and then they watched PBS while we finished up the work. We left early to pick up their parents because we wanted to stop by the hospital where Kate's uncle Michael was born. We found it-a large pink hospital on top of a big green hill-but weren't allowed to go in because of the ID check. Kate got some good pictures though, and then we headed to the airport to pick up Arnheidur.

By the time we got there, Ellert was asleep and we knew we should wake him up if he had any chance of going to bed that evening, since it was already 5:00. Kate took him out of the car to the bathroom, and Embla and I circled around the airport a couple of times singing Icelandic songs and then she fell asleep. When I pulled to the baggage claim the second time around, there they were, Kate, Arnheidur, and Ellert, all waving happily at me. We were very glad to find her without any difficulties like the ones they had experienced when picking Kate and me up! :-)

Arnheidur had a great time, and seemed pleased with all our efforts on the home front. Embla and Ellert were good, and very happy to see their Mama! She wanted to take us some places while we waited on George to arrive and so she took us to some shops and Kate and I looked around for a while. We found a prom dress and, seeing as we had time, we each tried on one. The mermaid style one I picked out turned out to be a disaster, being very full in the stomach area and very tight elsewhere, so I didn't leave the dressing room with that one. However, Kate's rust and gold colored gown looked beautiful!! I tried it on as well, and we both took pictures of each other. Then we went into a wedding store-a place designed to help you plan your wedding, and I browsed their cake section. They had some model cakes covered in fondant sitting out, and they were cute! Most of the chefs advertising there charged a base rate of $3.50 a slice, which makes my own price of $2.50 sound reasonable.

Then we met up with Arnheidur and the children, and all went to eat a Buca's, an big, eclectic Italian restaurant that reminded me of Joe's Italian back in Boone, only much larger! We got an outside table and were able to talk over the events that happened at home as well as about Arnheidur's trip over dinner. We had bruschetta, Pizza Margherita (though not as good as yours, Grandaddy!), and a HUGE spinach tomato salad with roasted walnuts and special balsamic dressing. It was great! After dinner Kate and I went up and down the busy escalators with Embla and Ellert who think that escalators are the coolest thing ever, while their Mother paid for the meal.

We went to pick up Cousin George who had literally just stepped off the plane when we got him, and then we had a rather quiet drive back home. They loved seeing the cupcakes (saved for tomorrow when Embla can present it to them!) and were happy to see the clean house. Kate and I are planning a big fancy breakfast tomorrow and then.....Hanauma Bay!!

Góða nótt, hver og einn!