Hershey's Chocolate World

One of the bucket list items for our family was to visit Hershey, PA! It took us a few weeks to plan it but we got it done! Cliff wanted us to go for his birthday to celebrate. It was a day of chocolate and more chocolate. We weren't able to make it to the amusement park though (so maybe another trip, if the kids want to go).

The kids love staying in the hotels on trips for these reasons:
ELEVATORS...it is a life size toy to them!

ALL YOU CAN EAT BREAKFAST!
I think that makes Lavea'i the happiest out of all of them.

CABLE TV
This means they can watch the Disney channel!

This was the first trip ever that we have paid for 2 separate rooms. As the kids have gotten older, it is in our best interests so everyone can get a good nights rest. We stayed at a Town Place Suite located at 450 Friendship Road Harrisburg, PA 17111. It was only 10 minutes away from Hershey Chocolate World. Our day began at 9:30a.m., which was perfect timing to avoid all of the lines.

We did the whole shebang because it was a one time thing. If anyone goes to visit, I would recommend the doing it all. So, without further adieu, our day went as follows.

Create your own Candy Bar (it is a 1lb bar with mix-ins and cool wrapper with your name on it):

Just before you go into the factory to make it, you have to put on hair nets and aprons (YOU really DON'T make the bar, the machines do. you just choose what goes into you candy bar). This picture was just after Tunoa's tantrum because he didn't want to wear the apron and hair net! Because we booked this so early on in the day there was no waiting line. We, pretty much, went right in.

Lavea'i in the process of creating his own candy bar, choosing his chocolate, adding mix ins...in other words more sugar!

The entry door to watch their candy bars come to life

This was the highlight of the trip for ALL of the kids, even Tunoa who threw a fit from having to wear the apron and hairnet! We watched our candy bars travel on a conveyor belt, while everything was added to them. The final touch was an extra layer of melted chocolate to make the mix ins all part of their candy bars!

This is the part where the kids created their own wrapper. They added their own custom images with their names on the canister with the chocolate candy bar their created.

Voila! We didn't take any pictures of the actual bar...we ate it all before this post was created!

Candy Store: 

Our original plan was to purchase one of these giant Kit Kat bars and eat it, BUT we quickly found out it's just a package with a bunch of small snack size kit Kat bars. We were saddened, so we didn't buy it.

4D Mastery Movie: 

The kids loved this one as well. They watched the Hershey characters come to life and got some free chocolate at the end. Plus, the smells of the show were amazing when they misted chocolate, strawberry scents.

Chocolate Tasting:

The kids enjoyed learning about the different tastes there are in a piece of chocolate. We learned about the history of chocolate and saw and tasted the cocoa bean. We also told them that this was same stuff for our favorite koko Samoa! We learned how the experts tested/tasted chocolate...Break, Smell, Taste (don't chew). Leilani decided to change that up "Dad, it's Break, Smell, Taste then BOOM!"

Food Court:

I am not sure how we didn't end up with any pictures with everyone else but this was the only picture I could find...of this monkey!

Chocolate Factory Tour (free to all):

They take you around in the cart in a make shift factory, educating people on how the chocolate is made is large quantities. We went twice because they wanted more candy.

This was Cliff's favorite part of the factory tour, kids wanted to dive in!

Picture Time: 

Between all the traffic, this guy wanted to take a picture where the tiles are shaped like arrows. Picture him here while making a machine gun sound!

Halloween Trolley Ride: 

We realized that this was the only picture we took during this tour! It was the last thing we did at the factory before heading home. On this tour we toured the town of Hershey, saw Mr. Hershey's original home, passed by a Hershey's golf course (another visit for sure!). On the Trolley they gave more candy out, including a regular size Hershey bar. Another win for the kids, but they didn't eat their candy bars this time because they were done with the chocolate by this time! BUT, they did save them for later!

This concludes our documentation of our first official trip as a family out here in Pennsylvania. The kids loved it and keep asking if we can go again. Believe it or not, by the end of the day...ALL OF US WERE DONE WITH CHOCOLATE! I wanted to slap one more person who offered me another piece of it! We had no desire to eat any more chocolate...until the next morning!

Star of the Week!

Leilani was chosen as the star of the week, so for the entire week she looked like this for school

she was able to create a poster of her favorite things, a few family pictures and enjoy the attention at school! this girl is a social bug for sure!

Simple act of gratitude

When the opportunity arises, we're able to take our kids out individually on what they still call "Dates". I'm glad they still ask during Family Council or Family Home Evening "Dad/Mom, when is it my turn to go on a date?". I'm grateful that they still think Mom and Dad are cool people to hang out with!

The latest date I had was with Lavea'i. I took him to the driving range, then we played some miniature golf at a range just down the road from our house http://www.sunsetminigolf.com/home/

We both had a lot of fun, this kid loves just about anything that will get him out of the house. When we returned home we went straight enjoying the wonderful talks prepare on General Conference.

By Monday morning we were back in full swing of our normal schedule, by 8:15am all the kids were off to school. I walk into my office and this was the first thing I saw on my whiteboard

To Lavea'i, it was a simple message on my whiteboard but me it was the highlight of my day! First, it made me grateful for a child that is able to express his gratitude and second, it made Maile and I think that we should never stop spending individual time with each of our children. 

Although simple, it made me want to be a better Father and Priesthood holder for my children...thanks Lavea'i.

Dad

Maika's 11th

Happy Birthday to this 11 year old stud! This kid has been an amazing older brother to his younger siblings. With all the travel that I do for work, Maika always steps up to the plate as the "man of the house". He's been carrying this title before he was 8 years old and he never lets me down! He's a logical thinker and always does his best to do what is right. I look forward to spending more years with this young man! His birthday was simple, we started off with a golf round at South Park Golf Course (9 Holes)...

he hit it well that day and was able to keep the ball straight off the tee. For dinner, he kept things simple. He asked mom for a pot of Koko Rice (yes with Koko Samoa!)

To end the night, his request for desert was Chocolate Molten Lava cakes. 

Thank you Maika for keeping life simple! we love you and hope you enjoyed your 11th Birthday here in Pittsburgh! Mom and Dad love you a ton!

Yard of Fame induction 2017

Eight and a half years later, Lavea'i was inducting into our "yard of fame" group! This group of young men cut our grass every Saturday during the summer (after being told 4 or 5 times), but they get the job done.

Tula'i and Maika did a wonderful job showing exactly his route, how to operate the lawn mower and how to cut in line so he can make it look like a golf course fairway...the way Dad likes it!

"...Maika ALMOST DIED!"

as a parent those are some scary words! a week after the kids started school here in Pittsburgh, Kalena entered the house with a loud voice..."Dad, Maika ALMOST DIED!"

Full story: All students were loaded on the bus, stopped at an area where there was a shed close by. As the driver backed up to leave, the corner of the bus hit the corner of the shed. The window that shattered happened to be the one Maika sat by. Glass shattered all over Maika but thankfully no harm was done....Maika kept saying, I didn't almost die, I'm okay! Leave it to Kalena to add little drama to the story.

Renaming the original Musubi...twice!

Okay, the ones I made didn't look as good as the ones in the picture, I googled that picture. Our kids have been begging for Musubi's for the longest time. Finally I gave in a purchase everything that we needed to make the yesterday (10/9/17). I didn't get to see all the kids reaction when they walked through the door but on our way to watch Kalena's swim meet against Chartiers Valley High School, I get a call from Leilani...

Leilani: Dad, did you make these susuboos?
Me: yes....
Leilani: whyyyyyy Thank you!!

A few years ago while watching Lord of the Rings with the boys I made these and Lavea'i called them "susubis", now in 2017 it's "susuboos"

Fano Pioneers Treking East? Part 1

Happy Pioneer Day in Utah! While the State of Utah and it's wonderful people are gearing up to celebrate the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers from IL to UT, the Fano's of Lindon are going from UT to PA! Which means we're treking the wrong way! :)

I promised Maile that I would do my best to pick up blogging to help document this crazy experience. This blogging attempt will consist of our experiences as a family with our move from Utah, my new job, the kids new school, friends, association with the community, faith and how our love for our distant family members will continue to grow through our experience.

July 24th, marks the day when we officially left Utah....but not really! At least this is what it looked like.

We were going to pull out at oh, 6 a.m., BUT that never happened. We had those last minute things to get done with the house and packing that we never made it. Then, we figured 11a.m. would work. It also came and went. 3p.m. work? NO not that either. What about 7p.m.? Maybe...it just might work.

As we were taking last minute pictures with the cousins, I noticed one of the cousins was scratching her head. She had just woken up from a nap and was kind of cranky. But because she had 1. just woken up and 2. was scratching her head she looked funny with her hair all over the place. I decided to have a look at her head and noticed...no please, no don't be...YEP it was lice! We checked all of the girls heads... a total of 8 of them, not to mention us 3 moms either. Luckily, Leilani didn't have it and I wasn't so sure about Kalena because she has had issues with dandruff, but it didn't look like it was just dandruff. So back to 7p.m. and leaving, NOT QUITE going to happen!

Off to the store we went and spent $100+ on Riddix product to treat everyone!!! So, we had a de-licing party that evening instead of leaving. I am quite sure the pioneers may have had to deal with some of that as well trekking west.

Tuesday morning, oh, at 6a.m., we finally waved good-bye to our Lindon house and got on the road. We made the 12 hour drive to Lincoln...not so much in 12 hours though. We made to our hotel at around 2a.m. and slept for a good 5-6 hours. Mind you, Cliff stayed out in the truck because of the animals. We could have paid a pet fee, but decided against it because they would have just stunk up the room.