The first weekend in August was the graduation for the night students
from the International Institute of Massage Therapy. I have been honored
to have had the opportunity to know, grow with, and love these amazing
women who graduated. What made this graduation extra special, was that
my parents were able to come in from California. It was really awesome. I
felt like I was able to rediscover who they were as I've been doing a
lot of self work. Pretty neat indeed.
This first picture is of me showing Jasmine how to close the ends of a
haku that we were making. It was really neat to be able to do that for
the students and to teach Jasmine the art I learned from my Tutu Lady.
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| Dad, P, Patsi, and Mom |
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| P, Jasmine & Mom - our faces exploded with .... something! |
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| Sisters Jasmine & Pili |
On Sunday night, day after graduation, mom and dad came over to Jasmine's and we had a nice little dinner that Jasmine cooked. (Can't remember exactly all we ate, but it was yummy!) I brought the guitar over and I was also able to play some music for them. It was kind of embarrassing that I've forgotten how to sing and play a lot of the songs that I've written, however, they thought it was fun. Phew! LOL
Monday we ventured out to see Shawna, Ikaika, and Kaiwainohia. (Ikaika is my first cousin. Our mom's are sisters.) First, it started with a little trip to Mt. Olympus (the wellness facility where I have my massage studio). Mom and dad wanted to see Jasmine, and I was able to get them on the T-Zone (giggle machine), and then in the ionic footbath. Man alive, can we say that they both had a lot of funk come out of the pancreas, kidneys etc. Hey, it was better to get it out than to stay in their body!
We then ventured and took our time heading to Twin Falls, Idaho, where we stopped at the Shoshone Falls. It was beautiful and sacred at the same time. Due to time constraints, we didn't get to stay very long, but man - it was beautiful! I'd forgotten how sensitive and in-tune my mom was, however, when we were driving down to the overlook, she could feel the energy of the large rock formations and felt healing. It was pretty neat to witness and to share in that experience with her and my dad.
Here's a picture my mom took of me at the falls. It looks like I was upset, but I promise, I wasn't.... my face just naturally looks like that sometimes. HA HA HA HA HA
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| Mom took this picture of me at the Shoshone falls.... wish I had a picture of the falls. |
When we finally got to Shawna and Ikaika's, Shawna had rice and shoyu chicken cooking on the stove. That was so nice and the food was amazing! I can't believe the last time I was there was a little over a year ago when Kawainohia was born. I was in the hospital just a couple of hours after he was born. He's sooooo cute and so huge. It was an amazing experience to sit and chat, play with baby, and mom and I even danced hula. Loved it! I can't believe I don't dance hula anymore. Weird.... because I love it!
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| Shawna, Ikaika, and Kawainohia |
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| Kissy kissy |
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| Auntie Pili and Kawainohiahiwaokahaku a.k.a. Kawainohia. (Geez, what a mouth full! LOL!!!!!!) |
A few years ago my dad came up for a hula show that I danced in with Auntie Lee Shroeder. It was winter and we were having a hula show! It was kind of weird and funny to have people wearing tons of layers. Oh well, welcome to the mainland yeah? lol
Anyway, during that time, Aunt Priscilla, Grandpa Rock's sister, was over there in Idaho visiting for a few weeks. When she and my dad met, it was almost love at first dinner. You see, growing up, my dad came a humble farming background where food was sometimes eaten very sparingly. He and his siblings would sometimes take food off each others plate while the prayer was being said! So, when we sat down for dinner, Aunt Priscilla told my dad that they would get a long just fine as long as he stayed out of her food. My dad busted out with a hearty laugh. They became instant friends for life!
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| Dad and Aunt Priscilla |
On Tuesday, we stayed around the local area doing things such as letting mom and dad experience some of the lovely things about Idaho that's unique to our area. One of those experiences were eating Reed's Dairy Ice Cream, drinking their yummy/creamy chocolate milk, and cheese curds. I wish I had a picture of mom and dad's face upon eating the ice cream. It was classic! Their ice cream is just so creamy that you can't help but love it! Mom wanted to take our picture, so dad and I paused with our lips in the ice cream waiting for mom to snap the shot. If she took any longer, we would have had to have forgotten the whole thing.... our lips were cold and freezing from being on the ice cream!
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| P & Dad showing off our ice cream, chocolate milk, and cheese curds. |
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| Pili eating a HUGE Reed's Dairy double scoop Huckleberry Ice Cream. |
On Wednesday, I was able to take my mom and dad to Utah - we took our time of course. I took them to the Dancing Crane Imports (one of my favorite places), and then just cruised around looking at things and chilled until 10pm when the Amtrak office was open. We found out that their train was delayed for 4 hours due to flooding going on in the various states. It was a nice send off for my mom and dad. I'm really glad they had a chance to come and visit for a while. I'm hoping that many more of my family members will be able to come and visit as well. It gets only without family.
Thanks mom and dad for visiting!
Love you both!
