This and That

This past Saturday Dave and I attended our first luau here in Hawaii. It was a "Welcome back to Paradise" luau for his unit. Normally when a unit comes back from an overseas tour (as Dave's new unit just did) they have some kind of welcome back celebration for the whole battallion...sometimes even the whole brigade. This was just a battallion level event, but his Company had a formal ball a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure if I like the formal balls better or the casual setting better. Usually, the formal ones seem more structured and intimate. I guess because you are forced to sit in a certain place with certain people and you are served your meal by a waitstaff and there's dancing and everyone is in their uniforms and fancy dresses. You have a Keynote speaker usually. It's as formal as one can get with a bunch of drunk soldiers I guess.

Now the luau was something different. It was more relaxed obviously and my feet weren't killing me because I had to wear heels all night. It was entertaining as there was a hula show. They still had pictures as you can see here.

And of course there was still the mandatory drinking and acting stupid by most of the soldiers. Dave and I usually get a good laugh out of watching people getting silly drunk...as long as we know they have a ride home who ISN'T drinking.

The food at the luau left a little something to be desired though. But maybe that was just the venue...like I said, this was our first luau so who knows. It was served buffet style and I learned that poi is not very tasty at all! I know that you're not supposed to just eat it by itself so I even tried dipping my pulled pork in it, but it just made the pork taste nasty! I learned that purple sweet potatoes aren't bad, but would probably taste better warm rather than cold. I tried chicken long rice for the first time...it was ok, but kind of bland. I have also come to realize that the Hawaiians eat white rice with everything! Must be the Asian influence here in the islands.

Dessert was good though...I love haupia and haupia cake:)

Ok, enough rambling about the luau, here's a picture of Kierian on Memorial Day at the Schofield Barracks cemetary. His troop helped put the flags on the graves and then they performed the flag ceremony that morning. This is the only picture Dave got of him and his troop. (the girls and I stayed home). I know that he enjoys doing scout stuff, I just hope it continues and drives him to get that Eagle!

Middle School Showcase

Last night, Kylee and Kierian's school held a Student Showcase. Kierian had built a CO2 car and I think they will be racing them before the end of the school year. And personally, I think his red, white and blue car was the coolest car there! But then I might be a bit biased;) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of it:( But I will take one when he races it.

Kylee's drama class put on a play that was really cute. It was about peer pressure and she played a cute "pink lady" pig:) You can watch her in the clip below. She is the one directly to the right of the main character (in case you couldn't tell;)

Other than this little song and dance, she was in one other scene. I tried to take pictures, but she was moving around a lot so they didn't turn out very well.

They were supposed to be at a party...notice the beer bottle and cigarette in her hands...eww! Dave was concerned that she acted a little TOO well during this scene...LOL

I think Kylee is going to be our performer. Maybe a cheerleader, dance team, drama, choir or maybe even just a softball star. She likes being involved and in the midst of it all.

All in all it was a fun night.