Beaches and whales

This weekend was BUSY.  Will woke up with a slight fever, so no basketball game, and Justin had to go to work.  I was able to get a last minute babysitter Friday night that came to stay with the boys while I was off doing World Thinking Day with the Girl Scouts.
Sunday Justin had to work again.  I took the kids to church, Will was better, and then we came home and walked Miles and had lunch.  Justin made it home before 2 and he and Eric both got naps.  Then we decided to head to the beach.
Something about sitting on a beach, the sun warming you, listening to the waves, hearing the kids happy noises, and relaxing is a fantastic way to end a weekend begin another week.  It's something Justin and I have both come to just love.

We went to Three Tables beach at the North Shore.  There were some pretty big waves crashing on the "tables" but it kept the waves from being overly rough on the shore.  Will had fun boogie boarding on the big waves.

He won't have much luck snorkeling like that but he did claim that he had fun snorkeling!

Showing me his special finds!  I kept them.

Sunset

He was surfing.

Will was playing football with his dad.

My sweet girl sitting beside me.

Eric had to play some football too!

The wave knocked him down.

My great boys!  I love them so much!

So this was not just another beach evening.  We saw lots of whales (again)!  It seems like every time we've been to a beach lately we have seen whales.  Mostly you can just see them blow.  Last week we saw them slapping a fin.  This week we saw them breaching (big back flops) and making huge splashes!  There were lots of them out there.  Justin read in the news that there were 15-20 where we were!  Then as we were showering and getting ready to leave we watched a baby breach over and over while the mom slapped her tail right near the baby.  Oh and it was about 100 yds from us!  Absolutely amazing!!  I couldn't believe it and what a cool thing to see.  I loved it!

It's been a little busy

Life is just busy and some weeks just end up being busier than others. Some of our week looked like this.  Yesterday included a field trip for Caroline, picking up girl scout cookies, taking the boys to the dentist, sorting cookies, swim and basketball practice. Today's list isn't quite as busy but still full. Just going to the post office, px, making 2 pyramids, a Girl Scout meeting, and picking up the house. Tomorrow includes World Thinking Day with the scouts while Will has a basketball game at the same time.  We are also going to a cookout for dinner and I still haven't made something to take.  Suggestions?

Will and Miles this morning.  Will is still in his PJ's.  Miles is still his best buddy.

Eric sitting with one of the pyramids that I made.  Our troop has Egypt for  World Thinking Day.  My plan is to use the pyramids as display holders for our facts that will be taped to tooth picks and stuck in there.  

Life is busy and satisfyingly full!  I love it!

A little break in the rain

Sunday we didn't make it to church since all 3 kids have coughing colds.  Didn't want to share the germs!  But we did make it out to the NEX (Navy exchange) to get the boys some rain coats (they didn't have one) and go next door to the commissary to get 10 tubs of butter.  It's the only place that sells the vegan butter Will can have.  Later we also got out to walk the dog between rain showers.  We took the neighbor kids with us.

Eric is getting to be quite fast on his balance bike.  To the point that I really need to run to be able to keep up with him!

The biking crew.  The boys rode a mile around the track since we were the only ones out there it wasn't a big deal they were on the track.  

We also built a lot on Will's Lego battleship.  We had been missing a lot of parts (not surprising) but found an entire bag of parts when I was cleaning out the kids toy boxes.

The rockets all really shoot!

The past 2 days we have had some bits of sun shining and not as much rain.

Another beach dinner

Saturday after Will's basketball game and after Eric's nap we loaded up the car with the beach stuff and a picnic dinner and drove to a beach.  It was raining at our house but we hoped it wouldn't be raining on the beach.  We drove past Ko' Olina all the way to the end of the road at Ke'aena Point (the side we haven't been to before).  We found a beach that looked promising for boogie boarding and stopped and unpacked the car.

The "dry" side of the island was nice and green.

The mountains right next to the water are incredible.

Paradise

Bonus was we got to watch several whales move and play across our beach view!  They were slapping the water with their fins and got to see lots of tail views!!  It was amazing!

Will had fun in the waves.

Eric just pulled the board behind him and walked back and forth.

It was pretty cloudy but not windy and no rain.

This was the most we saw of the sun.

When the sun was setting it made the water so blue looking.  Beautiful!

We stayed until it was dark.  Nothing better than a little relaxing on a beach with the ones I love most!!

Rainy season

So for the past month or so it has been really cloudy and rainy around here.  Things just don't dry out very well and mold is growing like crazy.  The insulated lunch boxes in the the pantry started to grow mold and the bathroom door when the kids bath towels hang was moldy.  The cloth furniture feels damp to the touch and I haven't tried mopping since I'm sure it would take forever to get it to dry!  I have set up some small fans to help circulate the air and it seems to be helping.  The all day everyday rain is getting old but I am glad that it isn't snow and cold!!

The back patio doesn't get lots of sun right now and with the rain it was getting slippery.  So one Friday morning I spent 2.5 hours pressure washing it.  How do I spend that much time with Justin at work and 2 kids at home?  Have a friend come over!  It's amazing how adding more more kid to the mix makes everything new and better.  My friend had to go get her prenatal blood glucose test done so I watched her 4 year old.  It worked out perfectly.  You can see the difference and how bad it was.

SO much better!!

The clouds hanging on the mountains on the other side of the island.  I was hoping to see the water falls that will happen when it's raining but there weren't any this day.

We had 2 or 3 days this week where it didn't rain.  Yippie!  But the rain is back and even though the sun shined for a few minutes this morning it was still misty raining.  Everything is so green and beautiful though.  I still LOVE Hawaii!  Just feeling bad for all the visitors that are here from cold places and all they are getting is rain and more rain.

Sweet baby

Sunday afternoon we went over to one of Justin's co-workers for dinner (and to meet the new baby).  Mary is the person that met us at the airport when we first got to HI.  SHe also has another little girl that is 6 months younger than Eric.  Well after she returns to work after maternity leave that sweet little baby is coming to my house!!  I am going to watch baby Leilani until a spot open up at the child development center.  I can't stand the thought of the itty bitty babies going to daycare so I am excited about loving on this sweet girl.

Caroline is really excited about having a baby around too.  She asks me at least weekly if we can have another baby.  I'm hoping this will satisfy her!

Not sure how Eric will take being somewhat dethroned as the baby of the house.  He let go of her as soon as I took the picture.

Quick beach trip

This morning after dropping Caroline off for her 10am start time at school, the boys and I had to do some birthday shopping in Hale'iwa.  After we did our shopping (maybe 15 minutes tops!) we headed to the beach for a little sun and sand.  It has been raining like crazy here the past few weeks.  Duh, it's rainy season I know but the sun hasn't been out much.  With the sun and blue skies it was a perfect morning to enjoy living so close tot he beach!  The boys had a great time wading in the water, playing in the sand, and throwing rocks in the water.  We also played some football before coming home for lunch and a nap for Eric.

Holding their shorts up.  They still got wet!

Checking things out.

They played mostly by themselves while I read a book.  So wonderful!

It's hard to believe just a few short weeks ago that beach was getting pounded with 40 ft waves!!

Do you want to build a snowman?

Ever since we went to the movie Frozen the kids have been singing the catchy songs.  Eric and Caroline really get into it more than Will.  Make sure you don't miss the eyebrow action during the interlude.
This kid makes me mile for sure!

Makapu'u light house

Saturday morning we headed out towards the south eastern most point of the island.  It is past Honolulu, past Diamond Head, past Hanauma Bay.  We had stopped in Honolulu to look at a used car and then continued on to the hike.  It didn't stop raining but I had heard and read that this was a great place to see whales.  I have wanted to do this hike for a while now so we did it despite the rain.

Some of the scenery on the way.

Neat stuff to look at while riding.

Nit really wanting to go out in the rain.  She sits like a Crissman!

Caroline and Will looking out over the edge.  The clouds on the right bought some pretty heavy rain for a little bit.

Looking back towards Koko Head.  That rain was coming our way!

Seeing all the white caps on the water and the clouds and rain I didn't figure our chances of spotting a whale were all that great.

The light house.

There is a momma whale and her baby down there somewhere!!  We did get to see one!  Made it all worth it.  It was raining pretty good at the top and I was having a hard time taking pictures since I couldn't get my finger dry.  That mound in the water is what you see looking to your right when sitting on the beach at Bellows.

The rain stopped on the way down and you could see Koko Head a bit better.  We were almost to the parking lot and it started raining again.  I did have a towel and most of us had a dry sweatshirt in the car.

Wet but happy.

It was paved the whole way.  These too enjoyed each others company on the way down.

I am really looking forward to going again when the weather is better so I can see more whales.