Hawaii Part 4: The Wedding, Etc.

Continuing the saga, on Friday morning, we had the girls time where we all went and got pedicures and some got manicures. Here's one shot:

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. We had dinner at the beach house that Sam's family was renting. (Sam = Groom). Sam's brother is a chef and he made the dinner that night. It was AMAZING. For appetizers, we had a thing that was shrimp, cream cheese, and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon (I think that was everything in it) then fried. YUM. He also made coconut shrimp. SUPER YUM. Dinner was some super tasty ribs, chicken, salad and veggies. Then dessert was bread pudding with ice cream. I ate way too much, but man, it was GOOD.

Here are some shots of the ocean from the balcony of their beach house. The little dot in the water is a surfer on his way out to catch some waves.

Uncle Greg was missing his little boy Noah, who couldn't come. So he had some quality time with Josie. While she was still cautious of most of the other men in the family, she loved Uncle Greg.Me and my sisters on the balcony. L-R: Kelley, Andrea (bride), Kimberly, and Me.

WEDDING DAY!!

On Saturday morning we went to the swap meet again to get stuff for the wedding guests who were staying up on the North Shore and didn't have any time to go get souvenirs for themselves. We seriously had a list... By the time we got home from that, we didn't have enough time to go to the beach. I was sad about that, since we only got to go twice the whole trip, but that's ok. We headed up North Shore around 4-ish and hung out until sunset around 6, when the wedding began. It was a really nice ceremony and the setting we beautiful. Congratulations Andrea and Sam!!

Our family picture: All of the wedding guests got a lei--the women got purple orchid and the men had kukui nut with shells.

Kimberly waiting to get started.

Josie hanging out with Uncle Greg again. He won her over for good by giving her his lei.

My brother David and his wife Tori.

Finally! Here we go! Shawna, Andrea's best friend and maid of honor, walking out with my nephew Nathan and niece, Naylia.

Andrea and Dad

Getting into positions for the ceremony.

Beautiful bride!

Engaged couple...

Married couple!

A look at the ocean after the ceremony.

We tried to get a good picture of all the grandchildren who were there. Not so easy with 2 babies, a 2 year old and a 10 year old boy. This is the best of the 20 we took. Not bad!

Josie's cute little piggies.

Andrea with all her sisters and sisters-in-law. L-R: Liz (Sam's Sister), Tori (David's wife), Kelley, Andrea, Kimberly, Trisha (Dan's wife) and me.

Sisters with Sam.

Josie hanging out with Dad.

First dance.

The wedding was great and we moved on to dinner after we took some pictures. We had Kalua pig, teryaki chicken, rice, sushi, and some other stuff. There was also fresh fruit around. It was a beautiful wedding and a great after-party.

On Sunday, we went to church in Kailua to see some old friends and then drove right up to North Shore for a farewell brunch. More good food and too much eating. The rest of Sunday was spent hanging out and playing games with family and eventually packing.

Our flight home left at 7am Monday morning. Josie did such an amazing job on the airplanes! We had one lay over each way and luckily had a window on each flight. Josie really enjoyed the windows. We did meet a weird lady in LA who kept making comments to us about how we didn't have enough kids to enter Utah and that since Josie was 9 months old it was time for us to have another... And there was a minor blow-out just before landing in LA that left Josie without pants. But, other than that, the trip home was pretty uneventful. We made it home safe and sound. Its really nice to be in our own house again and in our own bed, but we sure miss Hawaii...