lariyasui   Lari's Travels

2020 Holiday Greetings from Lari

Who knew? That we would be stuck at home for months? We are living in unprecedented times and will never go back to the old “normal”. Hopefully, the “new normal” will be much better. I love how Mother Earth has been rejuvenated since we all stayed home… we need to keep caring for Her with less abuse. Traffic has been so easy. We have many blessings during this pandemic.

Who knew? That I would cancel 4 trips: to Australia with Madi in March during spring break, to Myanmar to visit friends in April, to Fukuoka with 3 girlfriends in May and to Switzerland with 3 Pohakea teacher friends in June. Side benefit: saving money!

Who knew? That I would find a new romance in this pandemic? Cliff Kimura and I met on Match in September and are in a happy and loving relationship. We both enjoy travel, wine, jazz, photography and more. In fact, he is an avid photographer with a big camera and belongs to 3 photo clubs. We go on photo expeditions to Kewalos, Sandy Beach, Diamond Head, Pipeline and more for surfing & sunset photos. He gets some nice sunset photos from my lanai. Because we are not traveling, we are spending most of our days and nights together, meeting each other’s families/friends and watching Netflix and Prime Video. His son Jordan has a daughter Easton and his daughter Dayna is married to Cayce.

Who knew? That my new boyfriend would cook for me? And because Cliff retired from United Airlines, that he would share his flying privileges with me? We can’t wait to travel together! We walk to Kaimana beach from his home in Kapahulu, so we get our exercise and enjoy the ocean getting some vitamin sea.
I invited 7 grandkids to sleep over for 5 days for Grandma Lari’s Spring camp during spring break in March. The “Bigs” are 3 high school girls, the 3 “Littles” are girls in elementary school and 1 boy in middle school. We had many fun activities: daily play in my condo pool, playing in Makiki District park across the street, board games & movie nights in the evenings. I taught them to sew their own pillowcases on my sewing machine. They wrote in their journals each evening.

In July, I had them over again for Grandma Lari’s Summer Camp for 5 days in July. More fun activities and this time, they each sewed their own masks. They loved it so much, they requested a Winter Camp in December. End of July, Kazu & Claudine invited me to a camping trip at Malaekahana for the weekend. The 7 kids spent all day in the ocean, we ate delicious food cooked by Kazu and Claudine, crab hunts at night and slept in tents.

I miss my daughter Yvette’s family in New York/New Jersey. They are fine and doing well there. Noakai is a Junior in NY and Marlowe is a 1st grader.


Both Cliff’s family and my family are safe and healthy. We are thankful for our many blessings. Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season filled with love!
Love and aloha,

Lari

Slide show has many photos including many friends, families, visitors and activities during the past year.

In 1992, our Kimura family had a reunion in Mt Hood for Christmas. The cousins remembered how much they enjoyed being together there and wanted their children to have that bonding experience, so we planned a family reunion for Christmas in Colorado. I found a huge house called Homestead House in Dillon-Keystone area that sleeps all 24 of us (13 adults & 11 kids) with 8 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. We planned this trip well in advance. We set up a Christmas Eve sleigh ride, set menus for shopping and cooking, prepared for skiing, planned for events before and after the Christmas week, and more. Then unexpectedly, Kara’s mom died the day after Thanksgiving, so Ryan’s whole family had to cancel their plans to attend. Now instead of 24, our group was down to 19 people. We had to carry on without them. 

Claudine and Yvette’s families and Lari stayed in Boulder before and after Homestead House. Kazu’s family and Bruce came just for the Christmas week at Homestead. Those of us who were in Boulder went to the Denver Zoo lights and the Planetarium show at CU campus. On Monday, Dec. 23, everyone drove up to Homestead after some of us did grocery shopping at Costco and Trader Joes. We settled in and bought pizza for dinner.

The house had foosball, pool table and all kinds of games, a fireplace and a kitchen with 2 dishwashers, 2 sinks, an island, and tons of dishes, pots and pans. They had parking for 6 cars and a hot tub outside as well as sleds for the kids to play in the snow.

Phil just got a hip replacement, and he couldn’t ski so he worked on his puzzle.

On Tuesday, Christmas Eve, the skiers went to Keystone while us non-skiers did more shopping. Since our Christmas Eve sleigh ride included dinner, we didn’t have to cook. All 19 of us rode in a sleigh pulled by 2 mules. During dinner they provided entertainment for our listening pleasure. We sang Christmas carols on our sleigh ride back. It was a fun experience for all.

Kazu and his girls along with Brian, Coen and Desmonne waiting for the sleigh ride

7 kids at sleigh ride dinner

On Wednesday, the skiers drove to Vail while the rest of us prepared Christmas dinner. We had shrimp scampi, prime rib and all kinds of sides. After dinner, the 8 kids were divided into 2 teams for a Gingerbread House competition. Both houses were fabulous, so the judges declared a tie.

Prime Rib for dinner!

Claudine always cleaned up!

On Thursday, the skiers were tired, so we decided to go to Keystone Lake for ice skating. The kids had a blast! For dinner on Thursday, we had Mexican with all the fixings for make your own tacos. 

Skating cousins: Azlyn, Chloe, Aulia, Ailah & Marlowe

Skating cousins, Kazu, Claudine & Yvette

Friday was the last day for skiing… we prepared curry stew for dinner. Kazu’s cousins (on his Dad’s side) who live in Denver joined us with their kids. The 13 kids got to play games like scavenger hunt, card games and fun minute-to-win-it games. 

While the kids were running around the house playing scavenger hunt, these adults played their own game.

Saturday, we cleaned up, and left the house to go tubing on Copper Mountain. We had a blast! Some of them made a train of 10 tubes sliding down the hill. Then off to the airport for Kazu and to Boulder for the rest of us.

Our last day at Homestead house.

8 kids

Whole group before leaving Homestead House… only Phil & Bruce are missing.

3-person train at Copper Mountain tubing

Back in Boulder, 3 families did some activities: Yoshiki, Aronesty & Bennett families tried going to the Wild Animal Sanctuary, but it was closed due to high winds. So for plan B we went to Urban Air Adventure, where the kids from 3 to 15 could enjoy indoor rock climbing, zip lining, trampoline, and much more. That evening we went to a Denver Nuggets NBA game at Pepsi Center. The next day, we did a tour of University of Colorado Campus, Yvette’s alma mater. It was very impressive. On New Year’s eve, we had dinner at Christine’s house and on New Year’s Day, the Aronesty’s and Yoshiki’s went home. Lari stayed a few more days and visited friends in Fort Collins and Denver.

Rocky the Denver Nuggets mascot