Aloha!

Aloha!

Well, I have survived my first Derrick Family Reunion. It was a unique experience; there were 16 adults and 16 kids. Yup. And the kids are all under 10 (I think).

'Vacation' is probably the wrong term to describe that week.

What a blast though! I had never been to Hawaii, or spent that much time near the ocean. The house (we're on the deck in the picture) was so much fun, just a few feet down to the beach. Sadly, we did make some friends on the beach we probably could have lived without...squishies. Remember that part in Finding Nemo when Dori thinks the jellyfish are cute? Well, it turns out that the ones we found in Hawaii were. They were sweet, innocent little purple bubbles on the beach--until the kids started finding them IN the ocean. The two oldest nephews were troopers, getting stung three times between them. The big winner was Derrick, complete with a line of welts that spiraled around most of his leg. What was truly amazing was that the kids were totally determined to go to the beach anyway. Stung twice? So what! Where's my boogie board? I suppose that it's more than coincidence that the two-time stinger boy's dad is a doctor, huh?

Speaking of those crazy boys, their next antic was almost as crazy. As we calmly walked along Waikiki towards the marketplace we passed several enormous trees with huge "Come play on me!" signs on them. Well, that's what it seemed like. I never saw the signs, but the boys sure did. All I saw were copious vines hanging from the branches that looked like they came out of Tarzan. Huh. Either way, our party was distracted. The uncles especially enjoyed this game, resulting in the 'good example' Uncle B.

Come to find out, my brother-in-law Ryan can actually climb the tree and then swing out of it. Don't try that at home!

B and I really had a great time on the trip. It was so much fun to see everyone! Yes, I came home exhausted and eventually developed a cold in August, but at least my body had the common sense to wait until I could hide in my own bed.

It was hard to come back to work and school, but we are glad to be home. I like opening our mailbox and finding it to be 100% gecko free, which I most certainly could not do in Hawaii. But they were very kind geckos, and spared the postcard that I sent to my parents and arrived safely and without chew marks.

Besides, there aren't as many 'bas' (really big bugs that mean we must go inside, in 2-year-old-twin terms) in Utah.