On Sunday morning I awoke early to pack up...we were down at Kapiolani Park at 8:15 to watch Mom finish Tinman (she, incidentally, ate too much at Willows and had a difficult time of it, but I remain impressed that she can even finish such a race much less get on the boards...).
We got on the plane at 1:15. Boarding was early, the plane was delayed slightly to load more baggage, and Toddlerness threw a fit of near monumental proportions before we even began to taxi...but also passed out before we even began to taxi. After a fairly short nap she was back to being a pretty decent little human being. Bribed her with M&Ms to keep her quiet and seated during descent.
Got to the house around midnight, my dad spent the night and we left for the airport at 6:15am. Came home, slept some more, had a lazy day, reintroduced ourselves to Pine Lake Park:
The kids wondered why the water was so much colder than the last time we were there. It wasn't. They just got spoiled :).
Meanwhile, there was a full-on vegetable rebellion on our hands. First Niki's garden, then THE WORLD!!! The tomatos are growing heartily right on out of their beds...the currant tomato plant must have felt particularly imperialistic, as it now occupies a vast space some 10 feet-ish in diameter and shows no signs of letting up in the quest to claim more ground. We also felt a strange need to pick like 5 of these, even though I'm not quite sure yet what to do with them:
On Saturday morning we headed out to Waikiki fairly early to hang out on the beach while Mom did a short workout. Kids really enjoyed a monkeypod tree. Went back to the parents' house, met FIL - he brought some great dim sum and manapua to share.
Spent the afternoon on the beach.
And the evening at Willows, which is where my sister wants to have her wedding reception. The food was great and so was the restaurant, which had some really wonderful features. The kids really dug one water feature in particular - located smack-dab in the middle of the pathway to one of the banquet halls, it shot choreographed bursts of water straight up from the pavement. Toddlerness (who was quite a handful) got to be an expert at running through them without getting wet. Alas, but our reservations were for 7:30, which is after sunset in Hawaii, and the restaurant was quite thankfully not interested in attempting to recreate daylight. No really good pictures, but eh, here's one to share anyway:
On Friday my mom was off again and we headed around to the north shore. We found an abandoned beach. Formerly known as Pounders, it had some other name I don't remember anymore on the signs...it's in Laie. For a while, my tutu (grandma) lived on the next beach over, and when we came to visit sometimes we'd follow the shore around the bend that you see in the first picture to get to Pounders. And then try to time our departure so that we could get back to Tutu's beach before the tide came in and cut us off.
Tony found out why this place was nicknamed Pounders:
While Becca practiced her diving skills going UNDER the waves, and never did get pounded:
She even got brave enough to use the boogie board (she did catch some waves!):
And Nomi got used to being pushed and pulled by the waves:
Then we stopped at Giovanni's shrimp truck (OMG that was wonderful shrimp!):
And left our names:
Before heading to Sunset Beach:
The sand was great entertainment, which is a good thing since the drop-off at that beach is vicious. My mom took me swimming and I just about freaked out. Mom and Dad both made fun of me after we came in for sticking so close to Mom, but DAMN that was some freaky rock-fissure-murky-water shit we were swimming over. The weather turned slightly sour as we were swimming and the water got seriously spooky. Here sharky, sharky...do I look enough like a tasty sea mammal for you yet? What's that - oh fuck, a rock... Next time I swim with my mom there will be lane lines involved.
We renewed our membership at the Honolulu Zoo yesterday for $35. We only go to the Honolulu Zoo once a year, but *they are reciprocal with Woodland Park and Point Defiance,* and buying memberships at those zoos (which are not reciprocal with one another) would have cost us $169 even with the internet deals. This is becoming a tradition. It might, however, become traditional to get the membership and LEAVE. That zoo is goddamned HOT. And -great- it was the day we forgot to bring water. Go figure. The kids were miserable, my dad and I were miserable, the animals were miserable...yeah. Toddlerness had a little bit too much "animal encounter" at the kiddie zoo. This goat head-butted her: And she stuck her fingers in with the chickens and got bit: And the cow had better be about to calf, because she was at least as surly as any 10th-month woman: Her Royal Toddlerness is not about to be enthusiastic about farm life after this.
We did manage to have a little bit of interestingness and fun. Particularly in our first 15 minutes or so, when the elephants and monkeys were still enough to distract us from our misery.
The last time we were at the zoo, poor Rusty the orangutan was in a very old-style cell so small that he could stretch out his arms and touch both sides. Not entirely the fault of the zoo - they'd aquired him from a "collector" who wasn't exactly taking great care of him and had tried and failed a few times to get him transferred to a better equiped facility - he'd still spent years at that point in that cramped pen. This time we got there to find this wonderful change:
By the time we were most of the way through the zoo the kidlets and the adult,um,lets were miserable. A break in the shade:
Gah, still too friggin hot.
We took refuge in the movie theater in the afternoon. I took the big two to see Harry Potter (not as scary as Goblet of Fire, it just barely made the let-kids-see-it screening Fran did a few days ago). Enjoyed both the movie and visiting a familiar teenaged haunt.
We spent all day at the beach today! Well, almost all day. We arrived at 9:30ish, and when the kids showed no signs of letting up at noon, Tutu went to get lunch. We finally packed up around 3.
Girliness gets buried:
Boyness finds STICKS (of course!):
Is there a Toddlerness napping in there?
Girliness has this boogie boarding thing down!
We even had time to invent a WAVE DANCE!
And here's how we spent most of our day:
Toddlerness LOVED going out past where the waves were breaking and just bobbing up and down with me. I imagine she will feel the swell and dip of the sea in her sleep tonight. I am hideously burnt...maybe experimenting with a new sunscreen was not a good idea?...but Toddlerness remains unscathed despite all the time in the sun. She must have gotten more Hawaiian genes than her blonde hair and blue eyes let on.
We had a sunny day yesterday! We went hiking to the lighthouse at Makapuu.
Actually, the hike never goes TO the lighthouse, which would be too dangerous for the kidlets - and the photos are clear that it is dangerous enough already - but instead winds a slightly wider and more secure path to some point above the lighthouse. The day was clear and beautiful, and we could see two of the neighbor islands (most days you can kinda see one...) - the camera didn't do a great job on this one but you can see it:
The big kids enjoyed feeling like they ruled the world (so high up!):
Keeping hydrated:
Toddlerness went back and forth from this:
To this:
After baking in the sun all morning (the hike took from 9-noon) we high-tailed it to the nearest beach, which also happens to be one of our *favorite* beaches (really!). The tide was high but the kids are much better at working with some wave action this year. They checked out all the marine life in the tide pools, and walked the rocks. Toddlerness did take a tumble, but it was on the relatively safe rocks right up on shore, and after a few minutes sitting on Papa's beach chair and eating raisins, she was back in the action.
Some snorkelling action:
Toddlerness "lost" her swimsuit:
And made a new friend!
They started out with 1-2-3-JUMP and by the time Toddlerness' new friend had to leave, they were up to 26-27-28-JUMP!
Girliness became the tide pool tour guide:
And Toddlerness spent some time rehoming the 'opihi. This is particularly fitting, as "young children clinging to a loved one are often lovingly called: ‘opihi."
Another stop for shave ice at the end of the day:
The kids somehow escaped further sunburn, despite things like forgetting to bring the sunscreen and so not re-applying, shedding the swimsuit, etc. Toddlerness got quite as much sun as I did and was using the same sunscreen I was...and she's not burned. But me? I *am.* My EYELIDS are sunburnt. WTF? Eyelids and the center of my back (not my shoulders). I swear it was the same sunscreen applied at the same time, and all I can figure is 1) I didn't put it on my eyelids, durh, and 2) toddlerness plus backpack on my back rubbed it off that center spot on my back. Come to think of it, look at this photo:
The burn is right where the straps meet the backpack. Methinks there is greater use of t-shirts in my future.
The kids are having a BLAST with all this swimming stuff. They would probably have spent all day at the tidepools yesterday if we let them. We might need to spend some time in the shade today
