Christmas

Merry Christmas to my siblings aka the Lurkers:)

Christmas was nice here. We spent Christmas Eve just hanging out with the family, baking for the next day. Then Christmas day Rick and I got up at 5am to put the turkey in the oven and went back to sleep on the couch until 9:30am....don't hate just wait until your kids are old enough to sleep in!

We opened gifts and chilled until some friends came over. Then we ate and watched movies all day. It was a good relaxing day filled with love and friends...I just missed my family:(

Yesterday was our real adventure.....the entire island had no power for about 9 hours...about 7pm last night all the power went out when four transformers were hit by lightening...which caused an overload on the rest of the equipment. Talk about dark.....when there is no electricity on the island....wow it was realllllyyyyy dark. The kids played Phase Ten by lantern light and Rick and I went to bed. We got power around 3am...there are parts of the island who still don't have power!

How was everyones Christmas?

Love

Jill

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Good Morning

Amester.....what instrument does he play? Does that mean your a groupie? Not much going on here either today is my office Christmas party:)

I talked to dad yesterday he sounded sad...I hate living so far away....don't suppose I could talk you all into coming to live here? I did look at a beautiful house in NH that is twice the size of mine for half the price of mine online the other day....with 5 acres...sigh

Amy sent me the pictures of the sub visit, Rick just has to check them for security issues and I can post them. I plan on working on it next week:)

Off to work...love you all

Jill

I thought we were suppose to sign our names at the end of a blog we write(JILL). Nothing new here except Ben had a show tonight. He's in a band with his best friend and another guy. It's really far away and there's suppose to be bad weather. He said it went well. But nothing else is new. AMY

I know you were here.....

I see that all of you have visited the page but have not written anything today...what's up with that? Not much going on here...flash flood warnings and flooding everywhere. It has been pouring for days.

Britt is at a bball tournament after taking her ACT's this morning. The other three are playing outside in the rain and Rick and I are getting ready to go to the church and check for leaks.

Love you all and miss you much:)

Jill

Birdaflickle!!!

Birdaflickle is a word made up by the chiefs at Ricks last command....is a form of cussing I guess you could say.

Anyway that is how I feel today.....it has been pouring out all day today. We have flash flood warnings and winds of 45 mph...it took me 2 hours to get to work.....

Anyway love you all....

Well Amy....

Rick deleted them all off the hard drive by accident...but thankfully they are all stored on photobucket...I will you email you the log in ...I have to transfer them

pictures?

jill, can you please hurry up and send everyone the disk with the pictures. i'm going through hawaii withdraws and i need pictures please. AMY(happy rick?)

I need...

A better picture of cole, tony and nino together:) Also please sign the blogs rick stresses out when he doesn't know who wrote it:)

aww

very nice and festive

Don't freak out

I'm playing with the blog:)

i think the picture looks awesome. the blog was good too. amys place is huge, very nice

Nice job bro....

I think you did an awesome job on the picture and the blog. I can't wait to get a copy of the picture so I can print it and frame it...I really like it:)

i think you did a good job with the luau ronald. one thing you forgot to mention was you misplaced sunglasses that some how ended up in your pocket!!!

The Hawaii Family Photo

Here it is, Sorry it didn't come out as clear as I hoped, but I will get copies out to everyone.

Luau 3

Alrightly then, I'll take on the task of attempting to follow the big sis's stellar blogging talents . . .

Pretty much a Griswold-free evening (almost) . . .

Paradise Cove and the Krieger's meet . . . the night started off with only one problem . . . missing Rick, so he missed the photo when you walk in. But it happened to be a really funny moment, when some how Big Jim missed the two "native hawaiian's" that accompany you during the photo, one of which is a rather attractive femal that more than likely was at least making mild contact with Big Jim during the photo itself. When they moved away from our little group Big Jim gasped in wonder and dissapointment (from the fact that he was that close to such a beauty and wasn't able to enjoy it).

Well it was a new experience for the parents and they both took full advantage, and I was especially suprised and happy to see Jim taking part in the local flavored beverages (watered down as they may be, they are still tasty).

We then moved on to the games . . . the spearing chucking was really funny . . . all the big brawny men lamely attempted to hit the mark (Ben was close), but it was Amy only who looked and connected as if she had a clue. Tried a few other games with equally lame results.

One of the best pictures of my sisters (in my humble opinion) I have ever seen took place during the fishing ceremony, which is one of my favorite parts of the event . . . I enjoy anything that invovles tradition, heritage, or history . . . and of course it is perfectly timed to be framed by another perfect Hawaiian sunset. Watched the Pig out of the hole ceremony . . . cool but not the highlighted of the show . . . . . . Then Griswold luck stikes.

"Hey look how beautiful the sunset is out there . . . Let's go take some pictures . . . Mom and Dad why don't you guys go first . . . oh poopy I don't have my flash so you have to hold while the camera collects light . . . alright Rich and Jill you next . . . Amy and Ben your up . . . ok Mine and Jen's turn . . . Ok honey we have to stay really still . . . OUCH . . . OUCh . . . you ok . . . yeah fine . . . that really hurts . . . just take the picture" Well it happens that some how we awoke a decent size red ant hill . . . they awoke during everyone else's photo and then decided that JJ's foot looked appetizing. She must of had 20-30 all over her foot and ankle and crawling all over her shoes . . . seriously what are the odds. But alast she is a trooper and we moved on . . .

Dinner came and I believe every one enjoyed their food . . . Ben wins and has official slot in the Paradise Cove clean plate club . . . our waiter was great . . . with the number of people and therefore drink tickets, we were over extended and he brought a plethora of drinks for the show.

During which Crazy Jim and Ellen were annouced for celebrating their 40 years of marriage!!! YEAH JIM AND ELLEN!

I do beleive that the Paradise Cove Dancers are the best on the Oahu. I have seen a few live and a bunch via travel shows, and they are good! Part of the show includes audience participation and Jim and Cole got up and did the Hola, during which it appeared they enjoyed themselves as much as we did watching them.

We collected ourselves and moved toward the exit, where Jim spied a couple of native Hawaiian's, of the female gender, posing with guests that where leaving. He some what patiently waited for his turn and then litterally dove at his opporuntiy to get a photo, which he did with one of the largest smiles in human history.

Those ended another great night with Krieger Family (Adults, in age at least)!

I love my new apartment...

Hello everyone! I just wanted everyone to know how much I love my new home. Especially because it's more like a home and we have different rooms. We finished packing late Sat. night. Got up early Sun morning to a cloudy sky. Well of course being a Griswold...as soon as Ben got back to the apartment from Uhaul, it started to sleet outside. Cole, does that sound familiar? When I first moved into that hole, in April, Cole and Tony helped me and it was snowing and sleeting. In April? Really?
A couple of Ben's friends helped us thankfully. I stayed inside most of the day cleaning so I didn't have to deal with the elements outside..hee hee. I didn't plan that one at all, really I didn't. It took me a lot longer than I though it would, so did the moving. Ben and I didn't realize how much stuff I actually had. And that's with moving boxes all week long.
Once everything was in the new place, I got to the bedroom right away to make sleeping space. There were clothes all over the bed, and dresser drawers all over. I moved really quickly, put clothes in the closet, and most of the drawers back where they belong. One casualty, one of the drawers wood split off. Not a big loss, it's not the best made furniture but I've had it about 8 yrs. Nothing a little wood glue won't fix(hopefully).
Monday I did the kitchen. Talk about a big kitchen. I had almost everything put in place and looked around. Then I decided to move all the food and dishes around. Then I was happy. It was Ben's friends birthday so I made a huge thing of baked ziti-Yes Jill, I can make other food but this was the easiest thing to make with the amount of energy I had. And besides, everyone thought it was really good. Anyways, I love the kitchen, gas stove, dish washer, tons and tons of cabinets, good sunlight, hardwood floors. Now I can make Cole some pumpkin pie.
So, once we have everything in place, I want people to visit. You will actually have your own room. You won't have to stay in the living room. Oh yeah, we're gonna have a library too.
Love and miss everyone one of you!!
amy

Hey all you turkeys.....

You guys could blog about the luau.....I have only been there 100 times, it might be nice to hear about it from a fresh prespective.....I'm just saying!

Luau

I'm too tired to do a decent post about the luau tonight....anyone else want to take a shot? Also...I want pictures of everyones Thanksgiving on here:)

Luau 2

Luau

Mauanawilli Falls

Well this was an adventure:)

It began with a nice leisurely drive to the windward side of the island. For this trip we managed to break it down to just two auto mobiles...to start:)

We got there and everyone loaded out of the cars, changed into their hiking shoes and off we went....It began with a slight incline on a paved road, which led us to the actual path. Once we got there of course there was a sign that warned us of the deadly disease we may contract if we swam in the water.....

Now this was suppose to be a moderate hiking trail....maybe for that triathlon guy lance whatever....but it was more than any of us expected....by a couple of miles. The other thing about Hawaii waterfalls.....that in order for the water to flow and be pretty it means that there had to be some moderate rain fall recently. Along with rain comes mud on a hiking trail:)

The thing that I loved most about this hike was that we all worked together to get it accomplished...everyone helped everyone else out...like it should be in a family. When it came to crossing the streams....you saw the Krieger family at its finest. We all worked together sometimes without even talking about how we were going to do it and got everyone across. We would approach a stream and then without instruction fall into position, start across, hand the kids across to the next person, and then worked together until everyone was across. It was the best part of the whole thing!

By the time we got to the bottom it was apparent that we would not be attending the luau that night as originally scheduled. We all had sore muscles and were looking forward to relaxing!

So off we headed to buy the tickets for the next night and get snorkel gear. We were suppose to meet Rick outside the main gate so that he could help Jill get everyone on base. He got hung up at work, so we piled everyone but Jenn and the girls in the truck....thinking it would take only about 20 minutes. Well true Griswold form it took almost an hour....to get the correct snorkel gear, stand in line and find out that Haunama Bay was closed the next day!

As we purchased the luau tickets Rick showed up....so we all went to rescue Jenn. Well by this time Cass and Kendell had both had meltdowns and Jenn had dug into the secret stash of m&m's to bring order back:) There was also some talk of someone peeing in a cup.

But wait the adventure was not over...after juggling cars and ideas....Jill, Jenn, Ron, Ben, and Amy climbed into Rick's car and headed to Costco while everyone else took the other two cars and went back to the cabin. Even to this moment I still wonder why we took the smallest car to Costco....to buy enough food to feed 17 people...what were we thinking? I have pictures of that adventure on my phone...which I will post later...I'm too sleepy to get up and find the cord that attached my phone to the computer:)

Mauanawilli Falls

Happy Thanksgiving

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November Birthdays Ron Ben and Cole

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!!!!

Brrrr Its Cold:)

Ok so I know I am going to get reamed for this one....but it's freezing here! I am sitting in my living room with all the windows closed and the a/c off and I am still chilly! It got down to 69 degrees last night....bbbbbbrrrrr

I know it is taking me a while to update the vacation stuff, but I like to do it when I can take my time:) Ron can you email me a copy of the Benehana group shot so I can use it on here:)

So what is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? We are going to church in the morning, then to Mike and Carolyn's....where it is always cold because they keep their a/c at sub degree temperatures! Friday, I will probably stay in my jammies all day...opps no I won't Britt's team made it one more round in the state finals so I will be at Aloha stadium cheering the team on...because she has been cleared to cheer as of Friday:)

Peace and hair grease my friends.......

hey everyone,
no snow but extremely cold. the griswalds strike again. sunday we went to a gaints game. we were running late but tony got us there in 2 hours, that gave us two hours to tailgate. we get to the stadium and we see signs for non-permit parking. of course we don't have a permit, so we follow the signs and keep following the signs. we goe about a mile away from the stadium. we find the parking. they tell us that we have to take a shuttle to the stadium. ok. oh but wait there is NO TAILGATING. thats right a football stadium with no tailgating. so we drive around trying to find somewhere that would let us atleast grill the sausage, chicken, hamburgers, and hotdogs we brought. of no one would. so we pull into a gym parking lot and decide to just atleast cook the hamburgers and hotdogs. we get the grill out, it was a mimi portable one, it was so windy the grill wouldn't stay lit. so we put the grill in the trunk, open all the doors. opening the doors didn't help with smoke or the smell. they ate the hamburgers medium well and the hotdogs were slightly hot. 45 minutes later we were done with our tailgating. but on a good note the giants won and it gave us really funny story.
love yall
cole

Never mind about the picture, I just saw it.

Hello everyone!! no snow here. way too warm for that. Not much new here. Ben and I are definatly moving at the end of the month. We're really excited to get out of this place. I've grown to hate it. Hey Jill, what happened to the picture of me and Ben on the side? amy

Ko'Olina

Day Three Ko'Olina Beach

Ok.....I finally figured out a way to get the pictures of one event onthe blog in an easier to view and load manner using photobucket. So what I will do is make a slide show on photobucket, post it here, then write about it:)

Day three started with Amy, Dad, and Ron heading off to Jill's house to catch the Bill's game, while Rick went to church...the rest of us attempted to sleep in:) The plan was to go take a tour of Rick's boat, but that didn't work because Rick got held up at church. The ladies were going to go to the beach anyway, so we just changed the plans and we all headed to the beach.

Ko'Olina is the perfect beach for younger kids because of the man made reefs that slow the waves down. The younger kids enjoyed the water and playing in the sand, while us big kids enjoyed the water and relaxing on the shore.

The day was beautiful....until the dark clouds started coming over the mountains. Dad, Ron, Amy, Ben, and Becca had headed back to the cottage for the Red Sox game and Mellie and Rick had joined us. Once we saw the cloud coming we hastily packed up and we were in the cars before the first raindrop hit!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the cabin enjoying each others company!

i finally figured out how to get on here...... cole

Sisterly Love

You know Jenn I think they may have reached a turning point in their relationship. While I am not naive enough to believe that they will be buddy buddy everyday, I have found them giggling behind closed doors more often lately. Which of course makes me cry *sigh*

That's cool that we hiked the celebrity hike and didn't even know it:)

I wish for your snow..........:)

I'M YOURS

Okay, so I was watching the video, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, and thought it looked exactly like the hike we did in HI, so I did some research and many people mention that the waterfall everybody is jumping off of is the Maunawili Falls. The same waterfall Ron jumped off !! Isn't that cool? Jen

SNOW'S HERE!!!

Jill,
I read your blog and remember the day when I went with my parents to drop my sister off at college, and this overwhelming sad feeling came over me, and I started to cry. I was confused b/c all my sister and I did was argue and fight about everything! I admit there are still times she drives me crazy and I can't be around her, but mostly we are great friends.

There were snow flakes when I dropped the kids off at daycare this morning!!! The snow is coming, it is inevitable and I need to accept it.

Jen

All cozy like :)

Here is a picture of the little darlings all comfy cozy in the back of Rick's car....that was a fun week of car sharing and carpooling. We have the truck back and it only cost us a total of $59.06 :)

Kendall and Cass look cute in the picture.....its a balmy 73 degrees here tonight. We went to dinner in Mililani (in the mountains on the way to the North Shore) and it was cold and rainy....lol

Go over and read my blog about the big revelation in our house yesterday:) I will do day three tomorrow night if I have time. I have to work tomorrow:(

I love you guys and miss you lots:)

Dole Plantation

Halloween was great . . . Kids cute as ever and they called it quits after about 10 houses . . . Although I do not remember getting small bags from every house and/or 3 or 4 pieces of candy at every house. 10 houses and they easily each had over 50 pieces of candy . . . oh well better selection to "share"!

Congrats BRIT! As far as Buffalo sports -Sabres sat 3-1 loss and then 20-10 Bills loss on Sunday . . . . seriously will I see them beat a New England Franchise again?!?!?!?

Hey low of 29 tonight . . . I miss HI!

Love ya all,

Ron

Boo Football

Congrats to Britt's team woohoo. I can't say that I'm nearly as happy with the Bills, but then again who is? It's Buffalo and I unfortunatly expect them to go down hill because that's what they do. Amy

FOOTBALL

Just wanted to let everyone know that Britt's football team crushed their rivals in the playoffs yesterday 28-14....now they go on to state champs:)

On another note we had to have our truck towed to the dealer today, Monday night the battery blew up and was spewing battery acid everywhere....nice huh!!! Griswolds:)

Oh Ames......whatever!

Correction on day 2

Just a small correction...Ben and I kind of were in our own group and we won. Although the world record is about 8 minutes, we finished in 33 minutes. And then we had to wait five hours for the rest of you slow pokes to finish :}

Day 2

Day two started with overcast skies and rain:( This was the day that we planned to drive around the island. So after a yummy breakfast cooked by the master breakfast maker Ron and the mess cleaned up by the clean up crew Cole, Jenn, Amy, and Jill we jumped in the cars.....but we were not on our way:)

EVERYTIME we got in the car we had to go to the shoppette for: gas, drinks, sunscreen, ice, film, medication, smokes(stinky), floaties....you name it we bought it there. I think since my family left the sales have gone down dramatically and they are feeling the crunch:)

Additionally, each time we got in the vehicles my children had to jockey for positions in the cars with the rest of the family.....not sure if they were trying to bond with their cousins or get away from their parents....so I was blessed on to have no children in my car....Josh was with Ron, Jenn, and the girls and Zach and Becca were with Toni, Cole, and Nino......:)

Our first stop was Dole Plantation........to the Pineapple Maze. We ended up in two groups....Toni, Cole, Nino, Amy, Ben, Becca, and Zach were the winning team....followed by Dad, Mom, Josh, Kendall, Cass, Jenn, Ron, Rick, and Jill. The second team got lost alot...what I'm just saying:)

When we finished the maze we all climbed aboard the Pineapple Express.....we rode into old town Wahiawa and learned the history of the Pineapple industry.....

Once we completed our ride we headed over to the snack bar to load up on Dole Whips (pineapple ice cream/sherbet) and fresh pineapple.....Ron took the whole Dole Whip eating experience to a whole new level! He may still have the brain freeze headache:)

While everyone was shopping, we kept the kids busy with what was on hand....construction cones and chairs...

Finally, we convinced some nice tourists to help us block the side walk as we took a group shot in front of the entrance.

Then we all climbed into our vehicles and began the rest of our journey as the Griswold caravan.

We moved on to McDonald's where Toni and Nino got some food. The rest of us saved our appetites for the Shrimp Truck.

Now we were ready to cruise the North Shore....that was flat...no waves...really NO WAVES. Three days before that there were 10-15 feet waves...Griswold luck:)

Now back to the Shrimp Truck...it really is a truck parked on the side of the road that serves shrimp. I know everyone was sceptical.....but in the end they were satisfied by the local kind meal. Of course this stop was not without its Griswold moments....like the moment that the skies opened up and poured down on us...while we were sitting on picnic tables by the truck. Or the driving back and forth across the road to try to find a clean bathroom.

On the road again, we made a stop at the beach for some photo shots and to allow everyone to put some sand between their toes....

While the weather was stinky we were able to create memories that will last always....love you guys:)

We had a great trip and miss everybody already! The 30 degree weather was very hard to come back to.
Kendall has stopped using the words "baby butt head", except to say "Don't say baby butt head", which she has been saying often enough, so in turn she is still using he word. I guess I should be happy she is not calling anybody "baby butt head" anymore! Jen

hello family!!!! i never blogged before so i just wanted to try it. this is amy

Day 1

Day one arrived with a sky full of sunshine and hearts full of anticipation! Ron, Amy, and Ben headed off for a game of golf, my kids of to school, Rick to work, and the rest of us to gather supplies. Several trips to the commissary and grocery store, had us ready to eat and start our journey.

It just so happened the first night was Joshua's last football game of the season. So we loaded up all three cars, made four stops to pick up people, food, and a whole host of other items. Kendall discovered she doesn't do well in Friday night traffic and blessed herself and Britt with the contents of her stomach. We finally arrived at the game with Rick pulling in behind us. He jumped into the truck and changed his clothes as everyone else headed into the game.

It was a great game.....it was tied 0-0 and in OIA sports they don't do tie breakers for jv.
Everyone got to see Josh play and meet Fran and Napoleon. At the end of the game the team did their hauka....this is basically a warrior chant/cry that the UH Warriors do at their games. It was amazing to see all of them unified and chanting together, unfortunately pictures really don't do them justice.

After the game we headed to L&L Drive in for some real local style ono grinds (good food) Everyone was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was....yummmmyyyyy!

It came and went just like that.....

An idea was born out of sadness. You see 6 years ago our mother had a life threatening fall, which caused us all to rush home to Buffalo, NY. While we were there we decided that we would plan ahead for our parents upcoming 40th wedding anniversary. We all set up direct deposits into an account in preparation.

We originally planned to have a large wedding reception type of party. However, once my brother came to visit Hawaii we came up with another plan. What if we made the anniversary party a trip to Hawaii for the whole family. So the planning began ....

Shirts were created (thanks Ron for the design), Ron hunted for good deals on plane tickets, I researched the best deals on cottages and tours, and Ben even took a semester off of school for the trip with what we hope will be his future in laws (hint hint).

Here is Kendall asleep before the flight even began!!

Nino and Cole chilling at the airport with Doc Seuss.....Mom do they have green eggs and ham in Hawaii? Not sure about green eggs and ham, but we have plenty of spam and rice!

Here is Ben.....Ben scored some major points with the fam on this trip: 1. He likes kids 2. He skipped a whole semester of college to make this trip with Amy to celebrate my parents anniversary 3 He likes kids 4. He HATES flying but still made the commitment to being here. 5 He likes kids:)

The Griswolds wait for their luggage....and believe it or not ALL of it made the trip here...on time:)

Jen and Kendall get ready to make a run for it:)

Welcome to Hawaii Lorenzo Family:)

Cassidy shows some Aloha Spirit!

Come back and visit....we have 14 days of adventures to share. To my family.....you have only been gone 24 hours and I missss you soooooo much:)