The Squires Family: Hawaii

We arrived in Hawaii with friends greeting us with warm hugs and beautiful fresh leis!

Leslie McCaddon and her kids

(Maddy, Kyler, and Lucas)

Chris will be working with her husband at Tripler in OB-GYN, and they have been so kind and helpful!

We get to stay in a beautiful hotel, right across the street from Waikiki beach and we have a beautiful view of the ocean from our hotel room! We also get a nice complimentary breakfast every morning and snacks and drinks each evening. The kids have had a blast meeting people from all over the world down at the hotel pool! We have met people from the "mainland" (aka the states they call us here) like California, Indiana, Texas, Virginia, etc... we have also met a lot of neat people from Australia who are here to soak up the sun because it is winter time there! There are also a lot of families PCSing (moving to Hawaii on military orders) and they are really nice people as well and fun for the kids to play with.

View from the balcony just outside our door

The view from our hotel room

Miss Kate being silly!

We have been so busy getting everything in order like picking are car up from the port and getting it licenced here it was quite the process! You have to have a safety inspection, then you take that to the DMV which had 50 People in line and 3 workers! One time I was glad my kids were being crazy and making a lot of noise because the nice lady took me to the front and helped me get my tags after only 30 minutes vs an hour and a half! Then from there you go back to the safety inspection place and they give you your safety stickers and put on your plates, then you have to go to the base and get your stickers so you can go on base, crazy, but it is finally done! If you have been to Hawaii you know the traffic is horrible so this isn't a quick process!

Then in order to get TLA (our hotel and food money) you have to look at 10 houses in 10 days, so we have been doing that as well. We had no luck at any of the bases which I was crushed over, so we are having to find housing off base and I think it is going to be a blessing in disguise. We are really liking the town of Mililani it is up the H2 like you are heading to Dole pineapple factory, Matsumoto's and the North Shore. It is a nice town and they have the top rated Hawaiian schools. I am still thinking about homeschooling too, but not sure what we will decide to do. There are perks to both and Hawaii has a huge home school population and the state gives you money to help with the curriculum and field trips.

Besides all the paperwork and things we have had to get done we have been having fun at the pool! The kids especially love it when dad can come too!

Kasen, Kate and Dad

Carter

Dad and Kate

At the pool you can order these gorilla drinks and inside is a plastic cup you can have refilled with sodas for your whole stay! Kasen orders a "Jori Rogers" he calls it or a Shirley Temple everyday!

Kasen

Katelynn

Carter

This is up the H2 and the view of the North Shore

Eating at Matsumoto's our favorite shaved ice!

Kasen, Carter and Katelynn

The OB-GYN Residents hosted a party for the incoming Interns which was a lot of fun! They had a bounce house for the kids and yummy food and drinks! They have brats filled with pineapple, it was actually delicious!

Lucas, Carter, Kasen, and Kyler

The new OB-GYN Interns

Dr. Hill, Jonothon, Brent, Claudia, Jason, Chris, and Dr. Olsen

Chris, I and Kate

They welcomed the new ones with leis!

Katelynn and Maddy

In Downtown Honolulu there are delicious restaurants and amazing shopping! Also there is the marketplace that sell the touristy stuff and Kasen has loved his Hawaiian clothes so much all the buttons are lost so he wanted some new ones! He got blue with surf boards on it that he loves! Here is the beautiful Koi pond the kids were so fascinated with at the entrance.

Kasen

Katelynn and Kasen

These are views in Koneohe up the H3

Kasen at Haliwea Joes Restaurant

Kasen, Kate, Me and Carter down in the gazebo

Chris and I

Carter and Katelynn

(the view from our table)

Kasen

Our family

Another day we went with the McCaddons to the NEX (Navy Exchange Mall) which is super nice like a mall and had lunch then we went up to the North Shore and stopped for shaved ice at Matsumoto's and they showed us where the turtles are at North Shore! It was amazing! We got to see about 4 or 5 of them just swimming in the ocean and you could even snorkel right there too!

Kasen, Lucas, Carter, Kyler, Katelynn, and Maddy

See it right there!

And another one!

They have people patrolling the cove and if they come on shore they put nets down so none of the turtles get hurt, you also are not allowed to touch them at all you will actually get fined and you are supposed to stay 6 ft away.

Carter and Kasen

Me and the kids

Chris and the kids

Another beautiful Hawaii sunset

Carter

Daddy and Katelynn

Katelynn, Chris and Kasen

The Fireworks show

Also this past week we had a welcoming party at the Cornels home who is in charge of Tripler for all the incoming Interns. It was a nice home on post at Red Hill and he was lind enough to put a movie on for all the kids to watch!

Katelynn with some new girl friends Hannah in the yellow and Kate in the pink

(they are the same age and same name!!!)

Kasen with his shells they greeted us with!

We have gone to a really nice ward here that one of the Elders in our ward in Mesa's father is the Bishop of here the Makiki Ward! What a small world! They are so kind and it is at the Tabernacle which is a beautiful building here in downtown Honolulu! The sisters really wear Mumu's and"slippers" or flip flops to church! I love all the different cultures here and people from all over it is amazing!

We went with the McCaddons to breakfast at the Hale Koa to celebrate Father's Day and it was delicious!