The Brothers Come to Town

We were so excited and blessed to have three of Jonah's four brothers come to visit for a week in February. First, his youngest brother Eli and his wife Julie and brand new baby Zara (only 5-6 weeks) came for a few days before the crowd. They live in Washington D.C. Needless to say, we were beside ourselves with delight. 

We went on many walks and a few mild adventures...

And Jonah and Eli made some delicious fresh POG juice (pineapple-orange-guava).

Julie and Eli are the most natural new parents I've ever encountered. It helps that they have such a wonderful baby, but even perfect babies can frazzle new parents, and they didn't seem to have one single moment of unfrazzling. Wow! 

After a few days, Jonah's next younger brother Tal showed up with his wife. They live in Manhattan. They left their one year old daughter with Jonah's parents in Utah on their way here, so they were enjoying their first time away without baby. We met up with some mutual friends who were also on island, and we all went on a forest walk on Sunday afternoon. 

I'm pretending that Leo is a cute little baby like Zara, but he's the furthest (furriest) thing from. But, he thinks he's a baby, so there you are. 

Then, Noah and Kristi showed up, straight from San Diego! They were just here in November, so they only stayed one night before all three brothers and wives went to their five day work conference over in Lahaina. We took the liberty of coming over on Friday night and camping out in their plush hotel rooms for one night. We put the kids in Tal's room and Jonah and I slept on the floor in Noah and Kristi's. We loved using the pool and acting like we were tourists for a day. 

Jonah's cousins Ben (San Jose) and Sam (North Carolina) also work for the same company, so we were so lucky to get to hang out with them and their wives too! We all went out to dinner on Friday night. It was quite a tall group of guys!

Then, late that night, Jonah got all the brothers and cousin Ben to do a night dive at 1am. It was quite funny because it took them about two hours to finally head out, even though they all already rented scuba gear and everything. But, they finally made it out and had a great time, besides the fact there there were only two flashlights for five of them.... 

Elsie's favorite part of the whole hotel-crash was when she got to go to the buffet. I think buffets are my kids' favorite things the in the whole world. (I must admit, I love them too... it's my Vegas upbringing I guess). Elsie found the vat of freshly made whipped cream and slathered it on everything, even her bacon. It was a morning she will never forget. 

We were also fortunate that Eli and Julie decided to bless baby Zara while there were here. Eli chose to perform the blessing up on this great road in Keokea. We call it the Oprah Road because it cuts through Oprah Winfrey's ranch and goes right past her homes. 

Can you tell how thick the grass is? Such a beautiful spot. 

And a beautiful baby, so lucky to have all these great uncles.

We were incredibly sad when everybody left. Truly. It was a perfectly wonderful week and a half. We wish we all lived closed... but I think they need to move here if we want to make that happen.