Our second week Steve, his brothers, dad and cousins went scuba diving at Pupukea while the girls took the babies to the beach/bathtub part of Pupukea that we loved from the week before. Unfortunately for us, the kids were NOT so excited to be there that morning. My kids are used to routine and knowing what to expect. All of that goes out the window on trips. My little Ruby could not find a happy place for about two thirds of our time there. She didn't want to be in the water, she didn't want to be out of the water. If I left her be she just wandered around whining and crying so I decided I may as well do what I wanted if she wasn't going to be happy any which way. :) So we went in the water and after a LONG while she chilled out. Ross enjoyed rides on the boogies board with Grams pulling him along, and we fed the fish parts of sandwiches and orange peels. Ruby ate half of an orange peel herself. I guess it looked too delicious to let the fish have it all.
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| Getting a ride on the boogie board from Grandma! |
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| Grumpy Ruby |
The boys had fun diving with a little scare of Don's face going numb half way through. It was decided later it was because of his tight mask and all the nasal spray he took. They enjoyed looking around though and saw a pretty sweet flounder fish hiding in the sand.
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| Getting ready for some Scuba! |
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| Scuba Steve - man that guy is a hottie! |
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| Manta Ray Mike |
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| Turtle Bay Thomas |
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| Mom's trying to make babies happy! |
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| One decided to take a nap instead :) |
The next day we actually did the Punchbowl, Eggs 'N Things, Shopping and Waikiki, and then we did the Temple. I got to do Sealings there and thoroughly enjoyed the service we did. The Hawaiian temple isn't as huge as I imagined it to be, it's quaint and so beautiful inside. I loved it.
Ross got a random bug with a fever that lasted about 6 days. The fever would be worse at night (which was hard with how hot it was too) and a stuffy nose. Being sick on vacation is NOT fun. He was NOT happy and it was a tricky week. Poor thing. We finally took him to the doctor, called "The Country Doctor" if that tells you anything. ;) He had all his instruments in a tool belt. Very local, but very thorough. We got some medicine and felt better about life, especially when he started feeling better.
Saturday evening a Tropical Storm hit. The first one in decades they said. I've never felt lightning and thunder so close in my life. It was impossible to sleep that night, yet, somehow our kids stayed completely zonked out (we're really good at wearing them out on vacation). Steve teased me I could cuddle up to him if I got scared which I laughed off until a couple hit REALLY close and I grabbed him a few times! It rained maybe 1-2 inches per hour and flooded the lower level areas in Laie and Hau'ula. Church the next day only had Sacrament meeting since the rest of the building wasn't working from all the water.
Sunday we took it a little easy, but Steve took Ross and some others out to The Point for some fun pictures and toured around Laie a little bit. The beaches all looked terrible from the storm - dirty with lots of junk washed up on shore. That evening we had a little missionary fireside and got to hear from Michael and his cousins, Jared and Josh about their missions and watched a short film about the church in Laie at the Temple Visitor's center. It was really nice.
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| Pointing at the Point ;) |
The next day we had a sand castle building contest and a weenie roast. For FHE that night we did a tribute to all the Aunties and all the memories we have with them, toasting them with cups of POG (Passion fruit, Orange, and Guava juice). It was a really sweet activity.
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| Steve and I were late for the castle building contest (and had the buckets and shovels too) so they made a sphinx instead! |
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| Michael the sphinx |
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| Tarzan swinging |
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| A cheese face gone wrong! |
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| Tom swingin' |
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| Weenie roast/FHE time |
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| Ruby finding the ultimate stick! |
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| Another cousins picture! |
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| Steve toasting the Aunties! |
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| The Aunties with their beautiful leis :) |
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| Alex did pretty good taking cat naps at the beach |
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| My cutie Ross - boy I love this kid! |
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| Steve took this picture. This is typically how every night ended - bathing in a plastic tub since the condo only had a shower, trying to get at least most of the sand off them. One kid was usually crying (Ruby in this case) and the other wanting attention. I had a plumeria in my hair (it's like my snuff - I could smell those things ALL day long). |
Tuesday we went to the North Shore and rented Kayaks and a Paddle Board to take out. The water was still pretty yucky from the storm on Saturday, but it was fun to go out and canoe and paddle. Turtles were out in the river. I kept missing their heads popping up until finally I saw one on the way back! Our kids were COMPLETELY whinny and clingy that day - it was exhausting. Steve's fam was really nice and peeled them off of us for about 20-30 minutes while he and I went out kayaking. We took our sweet time and relished in the sweet peaceful silence. Our kids got pretty clingy the whole trip. They wouldn't go to anyone else unless Steve and I weren't even there. It made life a little tricky at times. I tried out paddle boarding and decided I loved it and it's a bit harder than it looks, especially with waves. Definitely a do over. The best part was it was only $15/hr to rent them. Cheap for Hawaii at least!
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| Ross wanted to paddle as you can see. |
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| Paddle boarding queen! |
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| Steve and I sneaking out for a break! Note: my life jacket is WAY too big - I'm a hunchback |
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| Winners always hold their paddles in the air for pictures. ;) |
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| Ross trying to cope with mom and dad gone for a little while. |
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| Steve - king of the rock! |
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| Kahuku Grill to finish us off - yum! |
Wednesday the girls got to go crazy and do the Swap Meet by ourselves (well Don had to tag along since he had to be the driver). Steve wasn't there to control my spending habits and when it's a swap meet and you can get things for cheap...it gets way too tempting. Although my justification is that I didn't do any other shopping that trip other than for food, so instead of doing a little bit of tourist shopping here and there, I binged and went nuts once. I got some sweet stuff though including some great Hawaiian musical instruments (a drum, bamboo flute, and a wooden frog), t-shirts, bags, necklaces, a magic skirt, decorations, and of course Hawaiian outfits for Ross and Rubes).
We met up with the boys and went on what became my favorite hike of the trip - Manoa Falls. We found out a bunch of the TV show Lost was filmed there (a show Steve completely invested himself in and then we were all disappointed in the ending of course). The whole hike felt like we were exploring Swiss Family Robinson's island. The trees were huge, it was green everywhere - just gorgeous. It wasn't too long either which was good for the kids. The falls were beautiful and fun to see too, and it was all shaded and cool. AWESOME. We grabbed a shaved ice afterwards and then headed for Lanakai Beach, but first stopping at the Pali for some classic wind pictures (that my kids HATED - wind is not their thing).
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| Start of the hike :) |
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| Gorgeous! |
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| It seemed like this would be a great place for gigantic spiders to live. |
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| We made it! |
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| The falls :) Muscle power! |
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| Muscle tree boys - so handsome! |
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| This is how Ruby fell asleep on the way back - looks incredibly uncomfortable poor thing. |
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| Getting our picture taken haha |
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| Giant trees! |
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| Shave ice again - delicious! |
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| Strong wind people - Ruby hung in there for a little while. |
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| This is as far as Ross would go haha. |
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| Wind holding us up :) |
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| Alex loved the wind! |
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| Whoosh! |
We got to Lanakai - which is like the powdered sugar beach (also where President Obama vacations apparently). It's beautiful - clear water and white sand, but we all only lasted about 20-30 minutes before the rain came and babies got grumpy. At least we hit it! :)
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| Lanakai :) |
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| Ross just wanted to curl up with dad on the beach :) |
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| Cute Ruby footprints :) |
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| Right before it rained! |
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