Aloha & Mahalo Part 2

Day 3
We got up early to catch a boat tour on a catamaran going up the Nepali Coast. It's on the west side of the island where no one lives. The cliffs were amazing and it was so cool to see the sea life. Plus, another bonus, neither of us got seasick. Some did and they got to hang out at the back of the boat with a bucket. Not the way I'd like to spend 5 hours and $300.

It wasn't long after we got going that we ran into a huge pod of dolphins. There were at least 50 of them and they just hung out by our boat for a while. Our captain said they like to be pushed by the boat, it gives them momentum.

If you look close enough you can see one on the right side of the picture.

 

We caught the tail end of whale season so we got to see a bunch of whales. Even from the shore, if we looked long enough we'd always see whale spouts or tails off in the distance, but it was cool to get a closer look at them. We even got to see one breach. Whale sightings never got old. I loved it every time I got to see even just a spout in the distance.

 





The Nepali Cliffs were beautiful. Apparently they've filmed many movies on the Nepali Coast. Jurassic Park, at least one of the Indiana Jones', and more I can't think of right now.

The catamaran tour was probably one of my highlights on Kauai. We got to see many whales, dolphins, a sea turtle, many fish as we went snorkeling off the boat, and a flying fish. So cool!

 

Day 4

 

We left Kauai and headed back to Oahu. Before we left Kauai, I experienced a little bit of trauma. We were just about finished packing up, Chad put the covers back on the bed and there it was, a humongous spider crawling across our bed. I'm talking the size of a tarantula. Eek! Even now, writing about it makes my stomach queasy. I hate spiders and the thought that we had been sleeping with one for four nights makes me sick. I admit, even while on the other island and in a different hotel, I feared there may be some eight legged guest lurking in our room. We didn't kill it, we didn't tell anyone about it. We just left. I still feel bad about that. But it had disappeared somewhere and there's no way I was staying in that room a second longer with that thing in there. I grabbed my luggage and stuff and finished packing in the hall.

 

Now, on to happier memories...We picked up our friends Lori & Justin at their hotel in Honolulu and made our first stop at the restaurant Dukes on Waikiki Beach. It came highly recommended and we were told we must eat the Hula Pie. And that we did. Happily.

 

We then walked along the very crowded and unappealing Waikiki Beach. Holy Cow, you've gotta like crowds to hang out on that beach. I was happy we weren't staying in downtown Honolulu and we headed up to our resort at Turtle Bay on the North Shore. We loved staying in Turtle Bay. It was far away from the city, and quiet, and it reminded me a lot of Kauai with it's greenery.

This chapel was on the resort. I loved the view from inside.

 

BUT, before we even got to the resort we made two pit stops. We had to stop at the Dole plantation and check out the infamous pineapple ice cream we'd heard so much about (Apparently the all you can eat buffet lunch and gigantic Hula Pie we just ate an hour before didn't quite fill us up). It was definitely yummy. And lest I forget, I won a free box of chocolate macadamia nuts for picking the right key for the box (If you'd like me to expand I will, but not on this blog. Just know, it was very exciting for me. I love to win free things).

 This is the only picture I have of the Dole Plantation. These coy fish were crazy. They climbed over each other with their little mouths open wide, waiting for us to drop anything into them. Honestly, they freaked me out a little.

Then, on our way to the hotel we made another stop at Sunset Beach and watched the big waves. You can see Chad off to the left sitting on the sidewalk. No doubt, Chad could have just sat there for many more hours.

 

We finished our day off by wandering around the resort and on the reef by the resort, and of course hitting the pool and hot tub.

 

Must. Stop. Blogging. Now. Part 3 to come...



Aloha & Mahalo

This was my first trip to Hawaii and our first real tropical vacation together. It was so much fun! And of course beautiful. I definitely missed my boys and thought about them and worried about them, but we knew they were in good hands with grandma Judy. Aka "Papa" - That is what Gavin calls her and that's what I'll call her the rest of this post. When we left, Ethan was down and out with the flu, the one I had passed on to him, and Gavin is only two and I worried that he wouldn't know what was going on when mom and dad didn't come back for over a week. But kids are resilient, and they got over it. And we had fun - alone! I admit that when we saw families with small children it made me miss ours, but at the same time it made me glad they didn't come with us. It seemed like too much work for a vacation. Does that make me a bad parent? It'll be fun to take them in a few years when Gavin is a little older.

The morning we got back I went in to get Gavin. I slowly opened the door and peaked in on him, he was standing up in his crib, smiling, and anticipating Papa. When he saw me instead of Papa he looked shocked and fell to his knees in a crawling position and froze. I slowly approached his crib on my knees and told him I was back. He didn't want to look at me. He stared either down at the mattress or at the wall. After about a minute I was finally able to coax him into looking at me and letting me hold him and we went and hung out with daddy in bed. It didn't take him long to warm back up to us.

We traveled from Boise to San Jose on a small plane, the type where the propellers are out in the open air (something you don't see too much these days on newer planes) and we actually went outside to board the plane. It didn't help my nervousness of flying on an older plane as we watched various people go in and out of the cockpit. We never found out what was going on exactly, but we made it to San Jose...late, but luckily made our connecting flight without getting the chance to pee. I hate peeing on planes. We landed in Honolulu, lugged our luggage out of the airport, down a ways to another building, found out we were in the wrong place, then headed further away into another building where we caught our next flight to Kauai. We waited for a while in the small interisland airport. We realized we should have brought snacks cause we were too cheap to buy a $3 cookie. Eventually we did anyway and quickly realized that everything is overpriced, there's no getting around it.

After getting over the exhaustion of traveling all day and the shock of the almost $500 car rental for 4 days, we ended up here, at the Kauai Beach Resort. We had a beautiful view. We ate our breakfast every morning out on the lanai, watching the waves and the surfers and the paddle boarders. It was lovely.

Our days were filled with exploring and the evenings were spent in the hot tubs. It was the perfect combo. We were so tired, most nights we were asleep by 10:30.

By the time we arrived at our hotel it was late afternoon and it gets dark by 7pm so we just had time to eat an early dinner and check out the beach.

The first night we got our map out and decided we'd explore Kauai's east coast the next morning.

DAY 1
We found our way to "Baby Beach," called that because people bring their babies there because the water is so flat. We were just about the only ones there and we just relaxed on the sand. The water seemed so warm the night before near our resort, but I cringed when my toes touched the water at this beach so I didn't go in.

We continued further up the coast and found this cool lighthouse. We stopped at another beach and hung out for a while. It was cold and windy so again, we didn't get in the water. We saw some snorkelers out in the water and found out at that at that beach you can usually find sea turtles within 5 minutes of being in the water. We hoped to be able to come back sometime when we had snorkel gear. Unfortunately we didn't have time to return to that beach and I never got to see sea turtles while snorkeling for the rest of our time in Hawaii. Oh well, maybe next time.

 We then headed up to Hanalei Bay. It's a cool little town with shops. It's where I experienced my first shave ice (note: it's not shaved ice with a d, but shave ice). The waves there were by far the best we saw our whole trip because they weren't huge and they weren't tiny. They were perfect for boogie boarding, body surfing, and surfing. I was sure the water would be warmer on some other part of the island, but quickly learned it was the same everywhere and after a minute of being in it, it'd be bareable. I didn't learn that until the next day, so I didn't go in the water here either. Chad braved the water and went body surfing for a while, but I sat on the beach and braved the rain instead. It was still enjoyable. I'm glad I brought a sweatshirt (the only sweatshirt I had on the trip, I might add).

DAY 2
We headed south. On our way south we made sure to find Costco and buy some snorkeling gear. We didn't want to miss out on any more underwater sea life.

 We loved this tunnel of trees

 This is Poipu Beach. This was probably one of my favorite spots in Kauai. If you look behind me you'll see the sand bar that separates the water. We did some fun snorkeling on both sides.

 I loved the chickens and roosters everywhere on Kauai. On the side of the road. At our resort. And yes, they even hung out at the beach.

Salt Pond Beach. This was another cool spot for snorkeling.

To be continued... (I think I've blabbed enough for one day)

Now Back to Gavin

Gavin turned 2 in February. Yay!

 He got to celebrate his birthday with his cousin Graye who turned 18. This is him opening his fire engine. He found this at the store and tried walking out to the parking lot with it and freaked when we tried to take it away. So we decided this would be his birthday gift. He made it easy for us.

Two is definitely a fun age (And a busy one too!) I love hearing his communication skills emerge. He loves to say prayers. Points out any car, truck, or plane he sees. He LOVES things with wheels. He makes the sounds of just about any animal. Just ask him what they say and he'll tell you! He even makes the sound of Tito and throughout the day howls so Tito will howl along with him. He sings to the Mumford and Sons song "I Will Wait." (Gotta get that on video). He loves shoes of all kinds. And he loves figuring out clasps - the belts to his stroller, high chair, carseat, etc. He is fully entertained by just figuring out how they go together. He also LOVES to be chased. Whether it's time to put shoes on or get dressed or take a bath or eat, it always comes after I've chased him down. Who needs to workout? He loves to give hugs, and if we're laying down he'll come up and lay his head on us. So sweet. His latest obsession: Ethan. It's really cute to watch that brotherly connection between them. One of my favorite things is at bedtime, as much as he doesn't want to go to bed and may fight it, as soon as we lay him in our arms and rock him and sing him a song, it's like a bedtime switch goes off and he immediately becomes very still and quiet and just listens. And believe me, him being still and quiet is a rare treat. He's lively and fun and talkative. Now, if we could just get him to expand his food repertoire we'd be happy. :)

We love you Gavers! Happy Birthday sweet baby!

Playing peek a boo in his stroller. Look at that smile!

Neighborhood Mama Bear

I've gotta try be more current with my posts instead of always playing the catch up game. I'll post about February (it's a must, since it's Gavin's birthday month) a little later...

Yesterday I came home from dropping Ethan off at school. I left my garage door open since I was planning on leaving within a 1/2 hour. Pretty much as soon as I got inside the house, Tito starts barking from the laundry room (which adjoins the garage) so I peak out the door to see what he's barking at. A guy had pulled up and stopped at the end of my driveway in between my house and my neighbors. I watched to see what he was doing. I just assumed he was a friend of my neighbors, but he starts walking up my driveway. 'Uh oh, what does this guy want.' He stopped right before entering my garage, and stands there with a hand in his sweatshirt pocket. Maybe I've watched too many Datelines but I wouldn't have been surprised if he had a weapon hiding in there. He told me he just dropped off his kids at school and needed gas money to get to work. Uh huh, sure. I tell him sorry, no. And as he turned to walk over to my neighbors I immediately closed my garage door. I got a bad feeling about him and knew he was up to no good. I especially didn't believe a word he said since we live in a different neighborhood from the school and why would he waste gas by working his way through my neighborhood all the way to my house and letting his car run as he's looking for "gas" money.

I peaked out my front window to see what he was up to. I see him get into his car and drive two houses down to my other neighbor's house in my cul de sac. I watched him walk up to her house, which also has the garage door wide open. I tried to quietly go out my front door to get his license plate number but he immediately saw me. I wave at him, to show him that I was on to him. And then I wave him away and yelled across the cul de sac, "See ya!" He yells back, "What, I can't ask for money?" "No!" I yell back. "Well, I need gas money!" "Then why are you wasting your gas? I'm getting your license plate number right now!" "I'm late for work!" He responds. "Then go to work! Get out of my neighborhood!" By that time he gets back in his car and drives off. But of course I couldn't get close enough to get his license plate number.

Wow, where did that come from?? Seriously, that confrontation really isn't like me. It's like something came over me and all of a sudden I felt empowered and thought I was the mama bear of the neighborhood. Later, as I was thinking about it, I thought, "Wow, I was pretty rude." And I second guessed myself and thought maybe he really did need money for gas. But then I have to remind myself that none of his words or behavior made any sense. And I know I need to go with my gut feeling about him. So, I think I'm justified in being rude. Right? This happened a couple hours before an old couple drove passed me going the wrong way on the road. I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

That experience reminded me the importance of being more careful. You never know who's out there and what their intentions are.

January

 January is Ethan's birthday month. He is officially double digits. I can't believe I've got a 10 year old! I must be old.

On his actual birthday he invited a buddy to come with us to Sub Zero. They freeze the cream right there in front of you with dry ice. It's pretty cool. And it was surprisingly really creamy. Gavin was elated! He was screeching with excitement.

We finally got on the ball and threw Ethan a party with 5 of his favorite buddies a couple weeks after his birthday. It was a pretty small group, but I was sure glad there weren't more of them. A bunch of 9 and 10 year old boys together can get pretty crazy.
Happy Birthday Ethan! We love you!!

January was a pretty big month for Gavin too.

You see that little blue rubbery thing in his mouth? Yeah, the one that hangs out like a cigar? The thing we thought he couldn't live or sleep without? Well, in January he officially became binky-free. It actually was the easiest thing we've done. He lost his binky, we didn't have anymore (although Chad did secretly buy one in case we couldn't handle life without it), and he went to bed without it. He asked for it that night, but he fell asleep perfectly well without it. Who would have thunk it? It was amazing! 

December

 This picture warms the cockles of my heart. Having our kids 8 years apart, I never thought they'd EVER get to wear matching clothes. Look at them, they're in matching jammies! Love. It.

We stayed home this year for Christmas. We did our traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities - Dinner, nativity, and sing along (a must when my mom is around) with my parents and siblings and their families. And leftovers and games on Christmas day.

We did a little humanitarian work this Christmas season. We made a blanket for a little girl in Ethan's class who has cancer. Watching Chad and Ethan tie a quilt for the first time in their lives made me happy. Making this quilt made Christmas so much more meaningful this year for me.

This was Gavin's big gift. He loved this car so much that for a week he did nothing but play in it. It was awesome! It's so rewarding when you buy your kids something you think they'll like, and they actually use it for more than one day. 

 

 This was Ethan's big gift, an electric scooter. It hasn't been utilized as much as we'd hoped, but I don't totally blame Ethan since our street has been covered with snow or ice most every day since Christmas.

This is our day after Christmas ice skating excursion with our family and friends. This was the first time Ethan had ever been ice skating, and sadly, it may be the last. He didn't like it all that much.

And let us not forget the double fishy Ethan found in the Goldfish bag. May they R.I.P.

Remember November, December, January, & February?

I remember, but my blog doesn't. Thank you Judy for being my one faithful blog reader and reminding me that I hadn't posted in way too long.

NOVEMBER Thanksgiving Mysteries
Mystery #1. We drove back to California to visit Chad's family. It was the first time we've actually traveled for Thanksgiving in I don't know how long. The first mystery began when we came to a dead stop in the middle of the Sierras at 11 o'clock at night. We sat, and we sat, oh yeah...and we sat. We turned off the car, let Gavin out of his carseat so he could play, and listened to the pouring rain and Ethan complain about being stopped for so long. We were so excited to finally get moving after an hour of being at a dead stop. We drove about a mile when we came to another stop. Surely, we'd get moving soon. Nope. We sat in the car for another two hours. I repeat, TWO hours. There's nothing like being three hours from your destination in the middle of the night at a dead stop having to go pee so badly that you are dreaming of wearing Gavin's diaper and just letting loose. I didn't, but I was definitely close. We figured there was an accident up there somewhere but even as we got moving again at 2am, we never saw the reason why we were stopped for a total of THREE hours. At least give us the satisfaction of seeing what made three lanes of traffic come to a dead stop, in the pouring rain, in the middle of the night. What can I say, we like to rubber neck.

Mystery #2. We realized we lost our car keys on Thanksgiving day. We turned the house apart over and over, we even called a locksmith out on Thanksgiving day to open the trunk to see if we had left them in there as we unloaded the trunk. No sign of them. They were gone. The next day as we were on the verge of calling a tow truck to tow the car to the dealership to have them make a new key for us, Chad's sister calls us from work saying she found them in her work bag. Mystery solved! How they got in her work bag is still a huge mystery.

Other than that, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. One of my highlights of the trip was when me, Chad, the kids, and Judy took a little trek over to my hometown where we drove by all my old stomping grounds, all the while reminiscing about the good ol' days (sorry to bore you guys!). One of my favorite stops was at Thrify's ice cream where we devoured my favorite childhood ice cream flavor, Double Chocolate Malted Crunch. There's nothing more nostalgic than that. Too bad it's not 25 cents like the good old days. Later, we met up with Chad's sister and her two kids in San Francisco where we visited Ocean Beach and Ghiradelli Square. Our usual San Fran spots. Oh yeah, and we ate at Boudins (famous for their sourdough).

December's post and pictures coming soon (as soon as I can get them off Chad's phone).