More Aloha 2010!

One more shot from Jessica's Beach:

That one will be going up on our wall. :)

You just can't beat Shark's Cove for taking little ones, particularly if the wind is blowing. It's clear, shallow, and protected.

Keiki loved the water, particularly playing with the boogie board in the water! He crawled right up onto it and then proceeded to stand on top of it. I'm sure he'd be a gifted surfer dude if given the chance!



Incidentally, Shark's Cove is also a great snorkeling spot, which suited me just fine. I could spend day after day in a mask and snorkel. Sort of creepy in some ways, but how amazing to see underwater creation!

There was a little "excitement" going on early in the week. The ocean and critters therein are to be respected:

Look at this amazing pineapple field! Isn't it beautiful?

I saw these little pineapples with a renewed fascination this time around. Betty mentioned to me how cool it is that in each plant there's the old and the hope of the renewal...

I took the pineapple pictures on the way down to Kailua. I love this little outdoor restaurant.

They have GREAT tropical smoothies!

I have a photo of my mom and I in front of this same fountain two years ago.

Here we are! How amazing to think--there was no Keiki Honu yet! I had NO idea I'd be in that same spot two years later with a precious baby son...

Kailua Beach was super-windy that day, but you can't win 'em all. We stayed just long enough to snack Keiki and then headed out. For him, beach = food + POG.

Felt a little slap-happy that day:



And I'm pretty sure it took me about....36? tries to achieve the desired effect of this photo of China Man's Hat Island:

I was totally intrigued by this Civil War-period sugar mill:

Reminds me of Scotland or something....not sure why...


From another morning walk....ahhhh... These Spider Lilies were amazing and smelled just like Lilacs:



Then on to Ka'ena Point for some 4-wheelin'. We are an adventurous sort. :) Actually this photo doesn't look real impressive, but I'm still feeling a little jostled from the foot-deep ruts.




We took Betty's Jeep out to Hidden Beach. We had the beach all to ourselves. Betty is a beach-combing extraordinaire; however, I found the mother-lode on this trip! I just happened upon a glass bottle cap from an1800-1900-period apothecary bottle. Apparently, the expensive medicines, perfumes, elixers, or poisons were kept in such bottles. The cheap ones had cork tops. Remarkably, a few glass tops remain intact. It was really amazing to hold that in my hand and think, "Who was the last person who held this?" It made for a great history lesson when I came home. The boys are CERTAIN it came from a pirate's ship. Who knows?

It took a couple of days, but Keiki and Millie made friends:

Ka'ena Point is an amazing place. You're on a relatively narrow strip of land with beach and sea on one side, and emerald mountains on the other. It's a beach-comber's paradise, and there are new discoveries to be made around every bend. Most of the beach is lined with lava rock, which creates tons of little coves and tide pools. There are critters EVERYWHERE--anemones, crabs, tropical fish. It's a super-fun place to spend a day....or several days...

On the way out I had to stop for a picture of this cool Yucca:

After the Yucca pic, we maneuvered our way past all the vehicles and equipment used to film Lost. My mom and I tried desperately to figure out HOW IN THE WORLD one could be lost on Oahu. Sigh. The magic of television (I guess anyway... I've never watched Lost.) Ok so once again I thought I could wrap things up in this post, but I'll need to let the sun set here and keep you guessing until tomorrow!

Birthday and Aloha

Seems like every time I get on here to post, I'm playing major catch-up. I guess I've just been too busy living life to post about life! This month started out with a bang as I turned the big 3-5. Here I am (with no make-up--bleh!) during my favorite part of the day--being showered with birthday gifts from my little men:

I received some pretty creative gifts....including this beautifully illustrated coloring book from Eaglet. He included all the things he knows I love about warmth, green, and outdoors.

My squirrely, can't-sit-still boy also gave me this coupon...and believe me, it is VERY valuable!! Can you decipher the precious, creative spelling?

Turned 35--check. Next on March 2010's To-Do List was to get packed up to go to (sigh...) Hawaii for the 3rd year in a row. YES, I totally know how ridiculously spoiled and incredibly blessed I am. I have appreciated the reprieve from winter and amazing memories with my dear mother SO much!! Here's my little keiki with Grandmom, shortly after take-off. He's a regular jet-setter now. This was his 2nd trip to Hawaii and his 4th take-off.

We were greeted with gorgeous leis by our wonderful friends, Walt and Betty!

There is nothing like that amazing scent of lilikoi.

Just about every morning, we went out early for a nice, long walk in the sunshine. Walt and Betty live on the North Shore of Oahu, which by FAR is the most beautiful and laid-back place on the island. It was so fun to dress Keiki up in his warm-weather duds and let his chubby, adorable bare-feet hang in the breeze...


Isn't this yard amazing? We passed by it and several others that were just as beautiful every day. I love how the Hawaiian yards are most often gated, and the people are so creative with their walls and gates and gardening.



Every day we made it out to the beach ASAP! I had been looking forward to introducing Keiki to the wonders of sand and surf. Like his mama, he is right at home.


One of the coolest things about making these repeat trips is that there were very few tourist attractions we cared to see that we hadn't seen yet. This whole trip was all about friends and the beach and hitting the best FOOD stops! I had to hit Ted's Bakery on day 1. I've been dreaming about Chocolate Haupi Cream pie for an entire year. JUST LOOK AT THIS:

It is the perfect dessert, and cannot be repeated by any other but Ted (Or whomever the baker actually is at this establishment.) Please know if you ever visit the North Shore you must hit Ted's Bakery. Other North Shore must-stop-and-eat places are Pizza Bob's (Order the Portuguese Bean Soup with salad and BREAD, and don't forget to top it off with pineapple iced tea,) Haliewa Joe's (Such fun evening atmosphere,) Cafe Haliewa (All about the breakfast,) Konos (TOTALLY about the breakfast burritos,) and last but not least, Fumi's Shrimp, which has the most A-Ma-Zing coconut shrimp I have EVER eaten in my life (and that's saying a lot.)

And then we pretty much had to cap off every day with a little shave ice:

Keiki began to recognize the colored plastic holders so well that he'd start fussing and toddling toward 'em whenever he saw someone holding one. The other great thing about making repeat trips is that we knew just what beaches needed repeat visits (or repeat upon repeat visit for that matter.)


Of course we had to take my little Keiki Honu to Turtle Beach several times throughout the week. I'm still amazed by these beautiful creatures...



And this, my friends, is my new Happy Place:


This is a beach up toward Ka'ena Beach. Not sure of the exact name, but let's just call it Jessica's Beach from now on...



Is there a rule about how long a post can be? Not sure but although I fully intended to hit it all in this one, I think I'll keep you in suspense (or have mercy, depending on how you look at it) until tomorrow.

There's a Five-Year-Old In Da Howse!

Time for a little blog catch-up... We celebrated a milestone in our Spunky Cub's life on February 9. The BIG 5-0. Hard to believe our fun-lovin' kid is five. He's learning to read, an expert K'nex creationist, and brings joy and LAUGHTER to our days. Ever the storyteller, Spunky comes up with some real tales. Yesterday he hunted a wild boar with his bare hands, and we heard ALL the details. Hmmm...sounds like a great idea for a blog post...

I usually go with some sort of theme for the boys' birthdays, chosen by the birthday boy, of course. Spunky chose to be ecclectic with camoflauge plates, police badges, gummy sour worms, and who knows (i.e. I can't remember) what else!

We took the birthday boy out to Rascals for a little bouncin' fun.


Daddy took a break from work to join in the fun...bring us some ice cream...and entertain the kids:


We had Spunky open his "big gift" at Rascals...so Daddy could be there and then the little guy could play with it all afternoon.

Celebrating pancakes! Per request, the birthday supper consisted of Mom's home-made pancakes and milkshakes (I fudged on that part and made some very wholesome smoothies!) Grandmom and Grandpa joined us for our unconventional supper; it was just grand!

Pancakes were followed up by birthday cake, of course!

Some Are Meant To Be Savored!

I finished Les Miserables a few days ago, and I've been mourning ever since. I worked on Hugo's masterpiece for over a year. Yes, I said a year. On one hand it feels sort of pathetic to admit that it took me so long; however, at this stage of life it could not have taken any less time and still been enjoyed to the proper extent. As I told Tony, I had to have my wits about me to read this one. Somehow my wits have escaped me often during this past year of pregnancy, birth, and newborn bliss!

I love how in the course of this story, the different lives weave in and out of one another. Hugo takes time to show amazing depth and details of characters over the course of time. As in life, the characters change and grow and are faced with defining moments. The themes of redemption, forgiveness, and parental sacrifice change the careful reader and are as pertinent today as when this book was written. There were parts that I admittedly slogged slowly through. These were the painstakingly-detailed descriptions of battle. Great for learning about the French Revolution; not so great for this girl who doesn't care to know such details! These only last for a chapter or two at a time, however, and important details of the storyline ARE in there...only in short doses. The greatest reward of this book, for me, was the last three chapters. I positively could not put the book down, and yet tried to read slowly as to savor every bit of it. I knew it was coming to a close and felt sadness at the prospect! I felt the pain of Jean Valjean's heart. At times I found I was literally not breathing. Upon finishing page 640, all I wanted to do was go back to page 1 and begin again. I really cannot wait to read this book again! I know I'll glean so much more from it the second (and third?) time through.

Pennies to the Rescue!

My boys' hearts have been very tender toward those who are hurting in Haiti post-earthquake. We've been talking about a way they could get involved and help all the children who are hurt, scared, and hungry...to help give hope to all those precious souls who don't yet know Jesus. Pennies to the Rescue! is the answer. Today, they decided upon the name and logistics of their project. The details are simple: we'll be scouring change dishes, under couch cushions, nooks and crannies of the van, and of course our own piggy banks for loose change. We'll be carting around the change bucket we made today, and asking others if they'd like to put their spare change to work. The boys (with help from their parents) will be counting the change and rolling it up for bank deposit. At that time, we'll write a check out for the full amount and send it out to Compassion International. Their project launched today, and we've come up with a fair amount of copper already. Eaglet, with his compassionate heart, also raided his own spending money for a five-dollar bill he'd been saving. "The little babies with no mommies need it more than I do", he explained. Well said, Son.