This blog starts with a disclaimer: I apologize up front for blogging about the Ohki reunion. I do realize that spending a couple of weeks in Hawaii is riotous living. I also realize that I'm not worthy of having such great inlaws - I have done nothing to deserve them.

First things first - I will now fess up to partaking in an activity which is on the Campbell's "unacceptable" list. That activity is: going to the tanning salon. A couple of weeks before the reunion, I decided to plunk down $100 for 10 or so trips to the fake bake booth. I made this decision for a couple of reasons. First, every time I go to Hawaii or Costa Rica or something, I always get a really bad, painful sunburn on a patch of skin where I forgot to put sunscreen. The other reason, which I do admit, is that compared to Mari, our children, and all of my inlaws, I look shockingly white. It's not just that I'm a white guy - it's that I'm one of the whitest guys ever, and nearly all of my inlaws, their kids (and even my kids) have nice tans. I just wanted to take the albino factor down a few notches. It turned out that a couple of weeks is enough time to get a "base" but not much else. I went to the store and stood in the booth for a few minutes at a time, felt like a rotisserie chicken, and ended up a few shades darker by the time we left but was certainly not tan (if any of my inlaws are reading this, they will find it hard to believe that I fake-baked) . I never got a "burn" from the tanning booths, and although I did feel a little itchiness, it was never painful at all. The real benefit came in Hawaii when we spent a long period of time outdoors at the beach or at golf. There were a couple of times I would have gotten a terrible burn from neglecting to re-apply sunscreen, but because I had gotten a base beforehand, it wasn't a problem at all. I don't know if it was worth $100, but I think it turned out to be good thing. I have no interest in tanning on a regular basis, though, and am convinced it would probably lead to skin cancer. For any nieces or nephews reading, I would also like to say that so much as setting foot in a tanning booth is guaranteed to give you lethal skin diseases.

Coming back from the reunion was difficult on many levels. Here is an actual conversation I had with my stomach on Monday morning:

STOMACH: Yo! It's 9AM. Where's the sour cream pancakes with coconut syrup?

ME: Dude - reunion is over.

(later that same day)

STOMACH: Yo! It's 2PM. Were's the grilled ahi with garlic butter sauce?

ME: Don't start!

We had lots of good food on the reunion, but more importantly, plenty of leisure time with which to devour it. The first half of the reunion was spent at a house with a swimming pool. Most days consisted of 2 pool sessions divided by lunch. We then put on a kids dinner, sent them to bed, and did an adults dinner. I am willing to admit that I gained 8 pounds in 2 weeks. I will now try to work it off.

I went to the reunion resigned to the fact that there may not be any good surf while we were there. It turned out that the waves were mostly small and not rideable. There was one day, however, when my brothers in law took me to Ala Moana, and I had a blast. I have a little video from then that I will try to post.

One of the best parts of the reunion, for me, was seeing our kids get to know their Ohki cousins better. For the most part, the kids got along amazingly well, which is mostly a testament to how great the Ohki cousins are. Kai and his cousin Max did have their share of disagreements over toy ownership, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for 2 year olds. It was fun to see Kai and Max play together, nonetheless.

We did spend some time on the flowrider, a machine that spits out water at an extremely high rate so that you can kind of surf on it. Jerome came with us on the last night we went, and learned how to ride it on a boogie board. I had a great time, but also incurred numerous injuries, most of little consequence. That's all for now, although I reserve the right to blog more about the reunion later.