Day 2, Ala Moana and Uncle M

After the NYE celebrations, the kids slept in.

Not.

BittyPrincess was up and complaining about the birds at 7am. "Why are there so many biiiiirds...mama how can you sleep with the biiiiiiirds...." Um, I could sleep with the birds. Just not with you whining in my ear.

Oh well.

A slow breakfast and off we went to Ala Moana beach park.





And an obligatory picture of sloppy-bellied me, complete with boychild in my shadow:


Back to my parents' house after the beach, to spend the afternoon lazily visiting with my brother M and his girlfriend.

New Years in Hawaii

Yes, we are outrageously lucky to get to be in Hawaii in the middle of the PNW "winter." And yes, I am going to rub it in.

Flying with all somewhat older kids was different and awesome, even though the flight was longer than it could have been (something about wind, blah blah blah, 10 minute pilot explanation that made no sense...took an extra hour of flight time). We arrived around 1pm Hawaii time. The kids wasted NO time when we got to my parents' house, heading for the pool as fast as they could. Once that was played out for a few minutes, we ran out to Kailua for some beach time; the waves were perfect for the kids, just big enough for them to feel the force and bodysurf a little, without needing to worry about handling them at all. Unfortunately it was raining as we got there so the camera didn't come with us.

We got back and did some NYE snacks and fireworks:




This was not by any means the end of the firework celebration, but it got too smoky to take photos after that. We were very much not the only family doing fireworks in the (tightly packed) neighborhood.

BittyPrincess didn't quite make it to midnight:





But everyone else did! We sat on my parents' back patio and watched Honolulu erupt. It was awesome. I'm not even going to bother trying to explain the craziness that is New Years in Hawaii to people who have never been there. But it is a spectacle.

We all stumbled to bed shortly after midnight. Thanks to a (new since I've lived here) law, it was relatively quiet shortly after the celebratory midnight eruption. WAY NICE.

Winter in the PNW

I know that some people like winter in the PNW. These people, IMO, are crazy. Sane people don't like it being dark 16 hours a day. I don't want it to be 4pm as evening falls. I like the sun.

Nevertheless, particularly in years like this one when the sun makes occasional guest appearances, winter in the PNW can be beautiful.