Our Travels

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A couple of our friends have this on their blogs and theirs are much more impressive. As you can see, we tend to stay in the corner. I'm sure my siblings have covered more ground than our family has. One day we'll go past Arizona. I added an international one as well. Unfortunately, some of the other countries are very tiny and hard to see that we have been to those places. They are little red dots in the South Pacific Ocean. We need to go to bigger countries I guess (LOL).
I guess the map is too wide, but it cuts off Japan and New Zealand, Tonga, the two Samoas, basically, all the international places we've been to.



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Phew . . . What a Day!

Today was busy, but fun! We all got ready in the morning and headed out the door to enjoy the annual Aloha Festival that they have here in AZ. This is our way of holding on to our Hawaii roots. When we first moved to Phoenix, we joined the Akana Ohana Halau and Leigh and I danced for two festivals with them. It was a lot of fun and a great experience for Leigh. Last year, we were out of town for it and this year we did not have time to do it. So we went purely to enjoy the things that they had to offer at the festival ------ FOOD! (lol) Nah, we do enjoy the polynesian entertainment, hearing the pidgin' being  spoken all around us, and next to eating the food, we love bumping into old friends and catching up. This year we bumped into the Foliaki's and my cousin Rachel Niu. While Leigh, Kara, and Randy watched the entertainment, the boys and I went to stand in line for some ono kine food. This year, I was determined to stand in the long line for the Aloha Kitchen to get some of their food, the manapua in particular. After standing in the line for 30 mins, they ran out of manapua (NOOOOOOO!). With a big sigh, I ordered three lunch plates of teri chicken, teri beef and kalua pig. The food was good!! The fact that I will be in Hawaii in a couple months makes me not so sad that I didn't get any manapua. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a white bun (different from a dinner roll), with red char siu meat (it's a chinese-type of food you find in Hawaii) inside of it. After lunch, we went and picked up some shave-ice. We always put the works on it, azuki beans, li-hing powder and sweet cream on top with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. YUM! We walked around, did some crafts, visited the booth that sells crack seed (no, it is not a seed to grow crack) another local hawaii goody we eat. We looked at the time and headed home. 

We got home with a 45 min break. We picked ourselves up again and headed towards the White Tanks. We were invited to come help celebrate Bro. Ellsworth's 60th birthday (great family friend and our dentist). The kids had fun playing with Sara's kids. We enjoyed visiting with all the family there, including my own brother Joe Niu, who flew in to town. My brother lived with the Ellsworths for 3 years of high school. When our family moved down here, they just adopted us into their tribe as well. We had BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs and all the fixings. It was windy and got colder as the sun was setting. They built a fire. I was so afraid that one of the kids was going to fall in. Luckily we managed to leave with all four children unscathed . . . the marks they did acquire there were washable. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. At the end, we sang Happy Birthday and had this great yellow cake with whip cream in the middle and strawberries. No, I was not counting my weight watcher points the whole day.  Didn't feel guilty either. We headed home around 8pm.

We were half-way home when Micah passed out. The picture just says it all.

P.S. My brother is single by the way and he goes to BYU Provo. That's him in the picture with me. 

P.P.S. Spring break day 4 & 5 were spent with Randy, fixing up things around the house that always gets put on the back burner.  I know you were all dying to know that.

Spring Break Day 2 & 3

Day 2  -  Not much happened on our 2nd day of our break. The kids did chores and then all went over to play with friends except Kara. She stayed and hung out with mom. She got inventive and decided to try out the slip-n-slide Grandma Jena had gotten them years ago (before the grass). There are some pictures of her enjoying herself. The rest of the kids all came home and joined her.


Day 3  -  Today the kids and I went to Anthem, AZ, to the Daisy Railroad Park. It is a beautiful park. We drove up there, picked up some lunch from good 'ole Subway and had a picnic there. Then the kids played on the huge playground equipment that they had. The slides were two stories high. It was kind of hot and we walked around looking at the ducks in the pond. They have a miniature train that you can ride, but wouldn't you know it, the train operates on Th, F, S and Sun, and today is WEDNESDAY. We'll have to go back on another day to try the train out. It has such great landscaping, great for taking pictures. After the park, we headed over to their Outlet Mall they had there. We did some window shopping and got some ice-cream. It was a fairly quiet drive home. The kids said they had a lot of fun. Randy came home and they told him all about it at dinner.

Spring Break - Day 1

Today is the first day of Spring Break for the kids. I don't know about everyone else, but I actually am happy when the kids aren't in school (for 1 week). It's a lot of work to get them ready and out the door. I do enjoy having them around as well. This morning we went down to the orthodontist for one last check on Leigh's retainer and the progress of Tyler's teeth. Leigh's doing good. Tyler's check-up had some issues that I'm trying to figure out how to deal with. One more thing to add to the stress plate.  Otherwise the kids are doing great. After coming home this morning, we worked on some chores, then the older kids had friends over. Leigh had McKayla over (a good friend in the ward). Together, they made some pizza for us, the dough and everything. They made a pepperoni pizza and a BBQ chicken one. Both were good but we didn't eat until 3pm. That may have been dinner as well. Tyler has a friend from school over. 

Leigh and I are supposed to be performing a hula at our ward luau on March 22nd. It is going to be combined with another ward, who has a Tongan family in their ward and will be performing as well. This should be fun. The menu is NOT Hawaiian Haystacks! It looks like some sort of real hawaiian food. We shall see. I think I saw on the flyer that there will be a roasted pig (or something to that affect). I will be glad to eat local food again when we get back to Hawaii. So will Randy, he misses the poi and poke! Anyhow, Leigh and I were trying to practice today. It will be a cute dance, we will post a video of it. 

Not much else to say. We are making some progress with our move. Randy is going to be down in Hawaii by April 21st and the rest of us, as soon as the house gets rented. Hopefully soon! We are in the process of getting it ready. SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT!!!! 

End of Basketball Season

Today was Tyler's last game for the basketball season. He had great coaches and teammates. Tyler learned so much and enjoys playing the game. Hopefully, we can keep up the skills he learned. I'm sure his daddy will help with that. After the last game, we all drove up to Anthem, AZ, where Tyler's coach lives for a post-season party. It was fun. We had it at the Anthem Rec Center (same place I did the Triathlon). The kids got to rock climb, eat pizza & cake, play arcade games and swim. They are all tired out including myself. We are ending the day with a movie, Shrek the 3rd. Here's some pictures from the days events. In case you're wondering, Micah is not being choked.

Our 1st Pinewood Derby

Last night, Tyler participated in his 1st Pinewood Derby. It was a blast. I myself had never been to one before. Before we get to that, we'll back it up a bit. Waaaay bit. When Randy was of age, he won the Pinewood Derby for his ward one year. In Hawaii, they have a state Pinewood Derby. Randy came 7th in the state. So, needless to say, we do not (I found out) mess around when it comes to Pinewood Derby (lol). Just kidding, Randy is not a character from that movie "Down & Derby", in fact, he was very patient with Tyler and worked on the car with him almost every night after work for 2 weeks. Tyler drew up the designs and Randy helped cut the wood and showed Tyler what to do. After much sanding, trips to Michael's, and a couple of paint jobs, the car was finished.

The whole family was excited for Tyler. Everyone's cars were great! It was neat to see all the different designs. Of course our favorite (other than Tyler's), was Tyler's main man Dalton Webb's with his "Wii Remote Car" that he did all by himself.



The first couple of races Tyler won, then he lost a couple and won a couple. It was very exciting to see the races even if your kid wasn't racing.

The ward had a little concession stand that Leigh and her friends manned. We had a great time. In the end, Tyler didn't place, but had fun anyway. Dalton's block car the "Wii Remote" tied for second, GO DALTON! We went home and celebrated the fun night with ice-cream (like we needed it). Can't wait for next year's. Sorry about the weird type-setting. I tried to fix it, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Enjoy the video (they are, of course, all of Tyler's winnings. Haha.)!Take note of the sound effects Randy added.

Grandma's Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

Today is my mom's birthday. Technically, it is on March 5th, but with them living in NZ, with the time difference, it is today. We all love you and miss you grandma!

Love Sasaki Family!!!!