Halloween in Hawaii

Halloween in Laie, and especially on Moana Street, is always a highlight of the year. For the whole month of October, the Polynesian Cultural Center hosts the wildly popular Haunted Lagoon. People come from all over the island and pay $25 each to wait in line for about two hours, then go on the 45-minute canoe ride. In the meantime, those of us who live in Laie get to hear the sounds of the Haunted Lagoon all month. On Halloween night, kids from all over the area descend on Moana Street. This year, we gave out candy to more than 1,000 Trick or Treaters. We bought enough candy for 780, then ran out with about an hour left. Fortunately, some friends of ours who used to live on Moana Street had a huge bag left over and came to our rescue so that we could keep handing out candy, and so that Lennie could keep playing the organ (see below). We should get the Guinness Book of World Records over here. I'll bet we get more Trick or Treaters on Moana St. than anywhere in the world.

This is our pumpkin for the year. A tree in a haunted forest.

We finally did it. Ever since we bought our digital piano with an organ setting, Lennie thought it would be cool to take the piano/organ out to the garage, where he could play scary music for the Trick or Treaters. One problem was that he didn't have very much scary music. Fortunately, Heather bought him a song book entitled, "Halloween Spooktacular", filled with "37 Gravest Hits". She also bought a shortened and edited version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, the famous Dracula song. For 2 1/2 hours, Lennie joyfully played such pieces as Bach's Toccata and Fugue, Theme from Dracula, The Fog, Funeral March by Chopin, Funeral March of a Marionette by Gounod (the Alfred Hitchcock theme song), The Mummy, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Tales from the Crypt, This is Halloween, Tubular Bells from the Exorcist, and the Twilight Zone theme music. They were all fun, but the Toccata and Fugue was definitely the signature piece.

What is this, you ask? This is Lennie and his organ behind a sheer sheet. We tried to give it a mysterious look, but the sheet probably wasn't quite sheer enough. We'll have to perfect Dracula's Lair next year.

Gandia, Spain- family reunion!!!

Surprisingly, the beach there was very nice. And we thought there could be no good beach outside of Hawaii! We had two good afternoons at the beach, the second day with just Noah. We had such fun with him!
















Noah's beloved blanket, turned into do-rag- compliments of Daddy! This is outside of the Lladro factory where we bought a rather large statue of the Christus, but we did manage to get it home safe and sound.















As Paul remarked, "Sean had more clothes on than anyone else at the beach". That's not saying too much, since many of the women were topless!











Robyn and Paul fixed a Spanish feast for us our first night there. The best food we had in Spain!















One of our many playground breaks. Actually, this was at a park where we had a picnic/barbeque with a family Paul knew from his mission. They were such a wonderful family and we all enjoyed our time that night.

Spain- Ola!!!

My personal favorite touristy thing in Barcelona was Goudi's Sacrada Familia. The Cathedral was surprisingly beautiful inside and is almost finished! It is designed to look like a forest inside. the outside has many detailed images such as the nativity, healings, etc.











We tried to enter the Madrid temple, but it was closed for cleaning, so we just saw the outside and the MTC. We even took a picture of Brian's picture when he was there! The grounds are very peaceful.





















This is part of the scaffolded exterior of the Sagrada Familia.


















Beautiful garden in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid.

The Huff's Summer Extravaganza

We definitely had a summer to remember! The bad thing is that we did so many things and went so many places, that I am already forgetting! I thought I would post a few highlights of each location so I'll start with Boston. Lennie had to attend a seminar at Harvard Business School, his Alma Mater, so we happily began our trip there (after our short layover in Denver where we got to have a nice, short visit with Heather, Doug and Caitlin). It was great to stay with his college roomie, Kerry Hopkins, and to see our first apartment, etc. It was a great way to begin our trip- going back in time to basically "where it really all began for the Huffs".

The Old Gray Mare Graduates!!

Yup, it finally happened. I finished my Master's degree on Saturday. No more waking up at 4 am to work on assignments or read articles! I now have a master's degree from the American College of Education in Chicago. Since I would rather be in Europe than Chicago the end of June, I just threw on Lennie's graduation robe and we had a quiet celebration. We were so busy that we didn't have time to properly celebrate. Vacation is coming up, so that will work just fine. I"m glad I did it, but also glad it's behind me now.

Deja Vu!

What a way to celebrate Mother's Day!! Does this remind you of anything? This is what it looked like at about 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. We spent our afternoon digging ditches, hauling sandbags and doing everything we could to keep water from our house. Fortunately, the rain lightened up in the middle of the afternoon, so hopefully we won't get flooded again.
We have some ladies staying with us this week who sing in a Sweet Adelines Barbershop Show Chorus. When they saw this scene they said, "Let's get a boat and sail on Lake Huff!" Of course, they didn't realize that scenes like this make us paranoid.

35 Years!!!

On Saturday, May 7, we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been 35 years, but Adam is 33 and Robyn is 31, so it makes sense that we would have been married for 35 years. The above picture was taken just last Sunday, May 1. Not bad, but we definitely don't look like we're 23 and 21 anymore. To add a little nostalgia, we're sharing some pictures from our wedding day, as well as three pictures from before our wedding. It's been a great 35 years. We've had our ups and downs, but we've had some great adventures, we've got five great children, three sons and daughters-in-law and five grandchildren, with more on the way. And, we're still in love.

The beautiful bride in the Flandro's backyard on Hillfield Road. It looks a little different now.

Aren't those 70's clothes and hairstyles great? Oh, for the good old days!

We love this picture of Bonnie with her bouquet.

The dashing couple.

These pictures are before our wedding. Bonnie is sitting down in the Sacred Grove by Palmyra, New York.






Lennie and Bonnie at Lennie's graduation from BYU.
















One of my favorite pictures of Bonnie: sitting on a dinosaur in a park in Washington, D.C.

Hike to Kaena Point

After weeks of working on Saturday, Bonnie and I finally had some free time on March 12 to spend an entire day away from Laie. After a few hours of shopping, we decided to hike to Kaena Point from the Leeward side. What a wonderful hike it was. We started late afternoon when it was pretty hot since the sun was in the West where we were hiking. But it got cooler as the sun got lower. As you can see, we saw beautiful waves with the sun shining through them, whales off Kaena Point, albatrosses in flight, and most fascinating of all, albatrosses going through their mating rituals. We enjoyed everything for so long that we barely got back to our car before it was dark.

Hiking with the Blisses

On President's Day, we took a few hours off from our busy schedule to go hiking to Kahaluu Falls with Nancy and Mike Bliss. Nancy's sister and her husband also came. It's great to have both beautiful beaches and beautiful mountains so close.

Bonnie's new Townie

A few months ago someone stole the bike that Catherine gave Bonnie and that Doug so lovingly restored. Bonnie really wanted a bike that she could ride to work on about once a week, so for her birthday, we bought her a new bike - a Townie - which is really sturdy and comfortable, yet has seven speeds and is just fast enough. Happy Birthday, Bonnie!

Sunset Beach Elementary Art Sale

On Friday, February 25, Bonnie's school, Sunset Beach Elementary, held an art sale. We bought the colorful picture above, which was painted by Teryl Soren, a member of our ward. Toward the end of the night, they auctioned off the most valuable of the paintings. After the auction, John Cruz, a fairly popular singer in Hawaii, performed. Oh, and he invited a friend of his, someone whose child attends Sunset Beach Elementary. The friend, shown on top, is Jack Johnson, a popular singer who grew up in Sunset Beach and still makes his home there.

Scenes from Laie

Sometimes we take Laie for granted and forget that we really live in quite a beautiful place. Here are some scenes from Laie Point and Bikini Beach. Bikini Beach (I think the official name is Clissold Beach), is the beach that is about two blocks from our house. Bonnie is sitting there with an umbrella. The other scenes are from Laie Point.

Sacred Falls

I have been wanting to hike up to Sacred Falls for several years now, but couldn't find anyone who was willing to be "illegal" with me. Dolly Wright was staying with us for a couple of weeks and also was really wanting to go, so we ventured out. It was even more beautiful than I remembered from over 10 years ago. The trail is still in great shape. These pictures don't do it justice. We will have to go back with our new camera. It truly lives up to its name. It's so lush and green, with carved out mountain alcoves, beautiful waterfall pool, and spired formations behind the falls that you can't see in these pictures. Lucky we live Hawaii!! (And lucky no boulders fell on us).