bike ride, water spout, hula, movie, all in one day

When family visits, it gives us an excuse to try out all the touristy things.  This day was jam packed.  We went up to Kapaa and rented bikes and rode up the coast.  For $5 a bike, this is one of the cheapest adventures we have found.  

I am sure we are breaking all kinds of rules here, but looks, he was totally happy sitting next to his cousin Ashley.   

The family stopping for a break.  

 The view on this bike ride was amazing.  If I ever decided to live on the east side, it would be because of this path.  The ocean views went on forever and we even saw some whales breaching.

Sweet little Maximus only fussed for a minute, and that was because he was trying to fall asleep.  

We had to rent the bikes from a couple of different places because the cheap place didn't have enough for us.  So, we dropped off a few of the bikes at one place and I waited with a few of the kids for Karl to come get us.  After what felt like forever, but was probably only about 15 minutes, I called him.  The were all watching this ocean tornado thing called a water spout.    Pretty cool.  Thanks for the photo, Brenda.

Eva's halao (hula school) has a rule that parents can't watch unless there are visitors from out of town.  We all wanted to sit in on Eva's class.  Traffic was horrible and Eva only made it for the last bit of class but we still got to see her dance a little.  It was so cute.

And after hula class, we grabbed some fast food and raced to the Waimea movie theater to see Rango.  It's a little one show theater about 20 minutes away.  And I know I use the word cute a lot, but it is, well, cute.  It doesn't really matter what the movie is (unless it is scary), my family just loves the whole movie experience.  I can do without it, but they are crazy about it.

remembering the Kilauea Lighthouse

The goat farm was not far from the lighthouse, so that was the next stop.  It is a bird refuge and very beautiful.  Though I didn't really notice it while we were there, apparently it was very windy.

 One of the few family photos that we have.  Samuel isn't even looking but I thought our hair was awesome.

 This one was better.  But we are covering up the lighthouse.  It was under construction anyway.  If Karl would have held Maximus up a little higher he would have wings.

 Cute cousins.

We went to the Kilauea Fish Market for lunch, ordered a bunch of stuff, waited forever and then ate some of my favorite food on the island.  I already talked about the wrap, but seriously, it was so good.  Every I hear someone talk about that town, in my head I secretly start thinking about the wrap.  Okay, and to keep us occupied and a little giddy while we were waiting for our food was Pearce Brosnan and his wife, also there to enjoy the wrap.  We didn't actually say anything to them, we were just dorks and kept taking secret pictures of him.  This one looks like someone is grabbing his head and Samuel looks like he is pulling that face that Michelle Kwan pulled for most of her olympic photos.  

 And here is the crew.  Thanks for the photo, Brenda.  Samuel has the awesome wrap.  It's the size of his head and he ate almost all of it.  I wanted to take it from him but I hate taking semi-nutritious food from that skinny kid.

stalking you, stalking me, you're a fan

I wanted to fix one of the settings on the blog and so I started clicking around.  Stumbled across one of the things that lets you know how many times a page has been viewed and what not.  "Wow," I thought, "A lot of people are interested in my family snowboarding."  Like, over 1400 people.  After clicking around I figured out that most of the people that have viewed my blog are SERIOUS David Archuleta fans and were linking from his fan sites.  All gushing over the photo of him and Eva.  Someone even went as far as to make the photo of little Eva and David Archuleta her screen saver because the photo makes her happy.  That's okay with me, photos of Eva make me happy, too.  And I can't help but figure that David Archuleta fans have got to be the most harmless people out there, if anything, just a bit motherly (looks like my photo caused some scolding to him via twitter for not wearing a helmet.  Sorry David).  

So, there you have it.  My blog is a hit (among David Archuleta fans).

Here's a little experiment.  

Let's see if this awesome photo of Karl and Pierce Brosnan gets any attention:

I mean, he and Karl look they are practically BFFs eating lunch together, right?  That with my awesome iphone caption skills, I am pretty sure any true Pierce Brosnan fan would want this as a screen saver.  But I'm kind of thinking his fans probably aren't as sweet as David's.  

And since I'm on the subject of being a fan.  I am a fan of that huge Ahi Wrap from the Kilauea Fish Market that Samuel is holding.  It was so good.  I didn't get a good photo of it (gasp! I am really letting my inner self go) but any photo wouldn't even do this wrap justice.  Even if I wasn't on an island where food is mostly kind of, meh, this wrap would still be delicious.  Just ask Samuel, he ate practically  the whole thing.  Eva is eating the burrito, it was about half as good.

So, I'm thinking this photo of the Ahi wrap might generate the most action.  It was that good.

Looks like I will never fix my blog.  Too easily distracted.  

*Oh, and this is also a little lesson on not putting stuff on line that I don't want spread around, right?

beach camping beginners

 And let me start off this post with a photo of Maximus because, well, that is just what I do.

Picked up this hiking backpack at a garage sale (they have awesome garage sales here) and though we are not hikers it makes the perfect spot to set a non sitting up yet, non sleepy baby on the beach.  

When I hear the word camping I think of 1) mosquito bites 2) cold at night 3) dirty everything 4) good times.  Well, it just so happens that numbers 1-3 are from my days of MOUNTAIN camping.  That is all I have done, really.  But on the beach it was different.  Loved it.  Yes, there was the massive amounts of preparing and packing (and it seems like one more kid means we need 6 times more stuff).  Yes, I did stress out because my idea of getting ready (planning for days ahead) and the husband's idea of getting ready (throwing stuff in the car 10 minutes after we were supposed to leave).  Those things weren't any different.  And neither were the good times that we had.

Kids happily playing in the sand, beautiful ocean scenery, and a rainbow.  

A sunset so pretty, I had to post two shots of it.

Splashing and boogie boarding until it's time to grill some dinner (why does food taste so good when you're camping?), roasting marshmallows, figuring out how to get the baby to sleep in a tent, sitting around the campfire and getting to know your friends a little better, playing some games, the kids running around until they are exhausted and crawl in the tent and fall asleep (without us telling them to go to bed!)... serious happy times.  

So let me tell you how the five of us ended up in this two man tent.  Remember how I said that the husband and I prepare differently?  One of those ways, I won't say which, is totally lame and stressful and ends up forgetting important things like tents.  So then a cute young couple was so sweet and slept under a tarp so we could use their tent.  The tent forgetter, I won't say who it is, wanted to sleep under the stars anyway.  One of us fell asleep as the tent forgetter was telling his findings on Google Sky (or something like that).  And it worked out that tent forgetter is the heaviest sleeper ever because he didn't even noticed when it rained on him.

So, here's the thing.  We lived minutes away from the mouth of two awesome canyons for FIVE years and camped up there once.  ONCE.  Lame.  

Let's hope we don't be that lame with beach camping.  Ha, and then maybe we'll have a chance to use our tent.  

i'm a whale watcher

I can't believe this is where I live.  


Karl and the kids have spotted whales several times since we moved into this house.  I haven't seen any.  Too impatient to wait for them to come up, I guess.

We were scheduled to go on a whale watching ride for my birthday.  But sickness and then later, a much bigger deal, the tsunami warnings kept us home. 

The following Monday the conditions were perfect and we went.  My friend, Ani, was so sweet and offered to watch little (well, ok, big) Maximus.  In fact, she made the whole day possible.  Like, I said, sweet, right?

 Though this photo may not show the excitement, my kids had a blast.  They look a little sleepy here because we had to get up at six to get there and the ride was six hours.  I love this candid shot of my family.  And it shows my jacket that my sister sent me for my birthday.  I love it.  I didn't have a light jacket so I had been sporting this grey cardigan sweater to the beach.


 All of these photos were taken by the on board camera guy/crew man/entertainment, Erik.  Imagine having Ray Romano on board.  It was like that, except he took photos, served snacks, kept us safe, AND knew all about the ocean.  The captain, Chris, who very much looked like Easy Rider, made finding whales and dolphins seems so simple. 

We rode on a Zodiac raft, the kind that the coast guard uses.  Almost immediately we were surrounded by dolphins.  The captain knew just how to play up every dream that anyone might have about being surrounded by these beautiful creatures and put on some Sarah McLachlan.

The Napali Coast was beautiful.  And the history was so interesting.  

 These birds are called Boobies.  And the happy old guy in the back corner of the boat was so thrilled to tell Samuel, "Now you can say you've seen some Boobies!"  as his wife threw him dirty looks.

  

 It seems that there were many mommy and baby whales that day.  Funny, it made me miss Maximus.  

 If there is one word I would use to describe these whales it would be majestic.  

  If, by chance, you come to Kauai, I totally recommend Napali Riders.  It is something that my family will remember forever.  

Here are some of the snapshots that we took:

 Samuel, while making all of us nervous, was very comfortable on the boat.

 And Eva is one very lucky girl, if for any reason, just because she got to do the back float in the middle of the ocean with her daddy.

This ended up being a beautiful day and a beautiful adventure, tucked into my file of beautiful memories...

so long, survival mode

Maybe it's a conversation starter.  Maybe it's because they genuinely want to know.  Maybe it's because we have an eight year old, a six year old, and a 4 month old.  But the first thing they ask is why we are in Kauai.  

Our answer is always a version of the same thing.  We sold our house, didn't know where to go next, thought Hawaii sounded like fun...

To some it makes perfect sense.  To some it doesn't make sense at all.

To be honest, some days it makes perfect sense to me.  And some days it doesn't make sense at all.

The days it makes sense go like this:

The view of the sunrise from the back porch, or lanai as they call it here, is breathtaking.  

Karl gets done with work (he starts and finishes earlier here since we are in a different time zone than most of his clients), we load up the car with boogie boards, swimsuits and towels, and a few snacks, and we pick the kids up from school at two.  They hop in and do their homework while we drive to the beach.  There we have a few hours of beach time.  The kids play in the sand, splash, boogie board, dig, run, all the things that kids love to do.  Baby and I sit on the blanket, sit on the chair, eat, nap, all the things that mommies and babies like to do.  Karl switches between activities.  When the sun goes down, we pack up, grab some dinner and head home.  Those are the days that I know that it makes so much sense that we moved here.

The days that it doesn't make sense go like this:

I wake up on the futon (not the couch kind, the real kind on the floor, because that is what we have chosen to sleep on until we figure out a more permanent living situation.  Moving mattresses is the biggest pain ever) and I get to choose from one of the few outfits that I am already sick of.  I spend the morning vacuuming ants and every crumb that could possible attract ants (one mass e-mail to everyone I know on the island about what I should do about unwanted creatures, one trip from Expert Exterminators and $175 later those are taken care of).  On top of that, I jump at anything that moves, there are a lot more creatures here in Kauai and I am afraid of most of them.  Then Maximus does something adorable and I start to feel sad that my family at home is missing it (sometimes taking a video and sending it helps).  Then I start missing my family.  Then I start wishing I could go to lunch with my friends that I miss.  Then the counselor from the school calls to let me know that Samuel got sent to the office again and while they ask me if I have gotten a local phone number yet.  I kind of didn't want to and they scold me and I feel like I am Samuel, in trouble by the school.  Then I start feeling like our minimalist ways are more like camping and I start resenting it and I start missing my stuff that we left behind.  Then I feel bad for resenting and missing.  And you know how when you get back from a family vacation, you are somehow exhausted?  

And, well, you get the picture.  Cry me a river (in paradise), I know.

The good thing is that things are starting to settle down.  I am getting more organized and silly necessities like registering our car, getting local drivers licenses, getting dishes, kitchen knives, and things like that have been taken care of.  

And that is why I say, "So long, survival mode!"

Maybe that's wishful thinking.  Maybe our chaotic, spontaneous ways will always keep me in survival mode.  But tonight, I am going to pretend like I planned all this out.  

We have had more family time than ever, the people here are seriously so so so nice, sunshine is so good for me, and Eva is adorable in her hula class.  Those are not words of someone in survival mode, now, are they?   And look, this is a real blog post, not from my phone.  Though easier and faster, a real post looks so much better and SOOO not survival mode...

free summer fun

Sometimes I watch these kids have a blast, when not a penny has been spent and it makes me wonder why I ever spend money so they can have fun.  Scrolling through my pictures I found a few...

Here are the cousins doing the Hokey Pokey.  They were laughing so hard, Eva couldn't even stand.  (I did pick up the matching dresses last fall on the clearance rack, but that had nothing to do with how much fun they were having).

Free movies in the park.  They could be showing an instructional video on how to clean your bathroom.  My kids wouldn't care.  It is the idea of sitting outside at night watching something on that giant screen.

Forts.  Chairs, blankets, pillows... yes it makes a mess but it doesn't cost a penny and they have a blast.  

Boxes.  They love them.  This looks as dangerous as it looks.  I don't remember how many times they hurt themselves before the figured out that standing in the box together was dangerous.  But they were laughing so hard in between the crying.  

What are some free things that your family finds fun?

easter improv

We did Easter with no sugar this year.  That's right.  Me, no sugar.  (Someday I might blog about why).

It worked.  It totally worked.  The kids did not complain.  

Chick egg holding a fruit leather.  

Not only did we improvise on the (apparently overrated) candy tradition, we ended up improvising on the rolling-the-eggs-down-Old-Main-Hill tradition.

This wasn't planned.

We went all way up to Logan, had a lovely lunch at Karl's mom's, got in the car to go up to Old Main and... no eggs.  We left them in the garage at home.  90 minutes away.

So sad.  Karl's mom did not go on a trip just so she could do this with us.

The kids were so sad.

I was so sad.

Never fear.  Karl took us to a near by hill.  Never mind that it is right behind some apartment building.  Never mind that I expected the police to come tell us that we weren't allowed to throw eggs down the hill.

The kids, especially Eva, had a blast.

The hill was rocky.  Some of the eggs didn't make it too far.

The hill did have a lovely view.

Eva making bunny ears on her (soon to be smashed) egg.

Getting the kids to stand together is always a feat.  

And so is getting a real smile. 

I just need to come to terms with the fact that things will always come up.  My team does not plan well.  Sigh.  My kids will either grow up anxious or be really good at rolling with the punches.

Easter 2010: recorded.