Eventful Day

We took Toni & BJ to Pearl Harbor on Thursday morning.  This is a must do for everyone visiting the island.  They have totally redone everything leading up to the boat ride over to the USS Arizona memorial.  We got our tickets for the boat ride which didn't leave for 2 hours.  That was a lot of time to kill, especially with having three little ones with us.  So we decided to walk down to Schooner's and grab an early lunch.  We had never eaten there before and it was rather yummy!  Plus it had a beautiful view of sailboats and the harbor.  It's definitely a spot that we plan on hitting up again.  After lunch we caught our boat ride and visited the USS Arizona and paid our respects once again.  BJ was all excited that his name was on the wall, B.L. Carter.  Riley did really well at the memorial.  You aren't suppose to talk while visiting the memorial but nobody seemed to pay attention to that rule.  But I still wanted Riley to be respectful and stay as quiet as possible.  And she did!  Riley just kept by my side and stared out at the water.  At one point she put her head between the rails of the fence and I thought her head was stuck.  I calmly pulled her head out of the bars and sternly warned her not to do that EVER again.  That would have been my luck for her to get her head stuck!  Hadley passed out on the boat ride over to the memorial.  It's exhausting getting toted around everywhere!

We got home around 2:30pm and only had an hour and a half before we had to leave for our Luau.  We were all really excited about the Luau.  I was the only one who had ever been to one and that was at Justin & Sara's wedding reception five years ago in Kauai.  Once everyone was ready we headed to Paradise Cove for an exciting evening ahead of us.  Tickets to a luau aren't cheap.  Luckily we were able to get a military discount which saved us $50 off of each ticket.  Since it was such a big savings we bought the premium tickets.  With the premium tickets we got a fresh lei greeting, we were escorted onto the premises, got a mai tai when entering, professional picture taken, and we were escorted to our private table so we didn't have to sit with any strangers.  It was fabulous!  The best part was the fact we didn't have to go stand in the buffet line, we got dinner served to us!  That in it self was worth it because we had the kids with us.

We got to enjoy watching plenty of Hula dances and watching them take the pig out of the ground, all while enjoying the gorgeous view of Ko'Olina.

I do have to admit that one of my favorite moments of the evening was watching the sunset from our premium seats.  I felt like I was on vacation and then realized that I am lucky enough to live here!

I'm not going to lie, I did enjoy a mai tai while at the Luau.  The taste brought back memories from being in Kauai and having mai tai happy hours everyday at the hotel!  We all had a really fun time and the kids were all pretty well behaved.  It was a late night for them.  We didn't get home until 10pm.  Yikes! 

I love this picture!

Dole Plantation

Wednesday we headed back up to the North Shore to visit the Dole Plantation.  It's always fun to go here and smell the pineapple sweetness!  We started in the ginormous gift shop where I thought Toni was going to buy the whole place.  The guys both picked out Hawaiian shirts for the Luau we would be attending the next night.  We finally made out of the store after about 30 minutes.  Then we hit up the Pineapple Express Train for a little tour around the pineapple fields.  There are speakers that give you a history of the Dole Plantation which is fun for those who have never heard it before.  Hadley and Harry both got to experience their first train ride.  Both of them were angels on the train. 

During the middle of our train ride Riley decided to start swinging her feet around and kicked one of her crocs off the train.  "Oh no," Riley yelled.  My response, "oh no is right."  I was annoyed that she kicked her shoe off, but even more annoyed that it had to be her $30 crocs.  She couldn't have been wearing a pair of $5 flip flops.  When the train ride ended Trey went to ask if someone could retrieve Riley's shoe.  Luckily there was an employee sitting on the back of the train that saw her shoe fly off and had already sent someone to retrieve her shoe.  Thank the Lord!  Riley was devastated about her croc.  She has an obsession with shoes and was thrilled when she got her croc back!  The day could continue in peace now.

We all decided to tackle the Pineapple Garden Maze next.  This maze was the World's Largest Maze in 2008, so I knew it would be fun!  As we were paying to enter we found out that there were 8 stations you had to locate and you had to get your game card stamped at each spot.  They tell you that the maze normally takes about an hour.  BJ & Toni teamed up against me & Trey.  Let the games begin.  Trey is pretty awesome with direction so I was letting him lead the way.  But then he wasn't doing so hot so we decided to split up.  I found probably half of the stations and he found the other half.  We were still looking for the last two stations when we run into BJ & Toni who have finished their game card.  Trey decides he's finished with the maze and doesn't want to do it anymore.  We were all hot and sweaty and it was time for Hadley to eat.  So as I'm feeding Hadley, Trey went and got us some well deserved pineapple ice cream.  Ahhh, just what the doctor ordered.  I didn't want to quit the maze, but I wasn't going to keep playing by myself.  We found out that Toni & BJ had a map of the maze that showed where the stations were located.  No wonder they finished before us.  We were going through the maze blind!  Trey & I became confident, once again, that we would kick their ass in Amazing Race.  Of course I told Trey he wouldn't be allowed to give up on any of our missions or detours!  Here is Hadley after we exited the maze.

We tried for a family photo, but we can't ever get the kids to both look at the camera!

Afternoon Minus Getting Sandy

The boys went deep sea fishing on Tuesday so Toni and I were left with the three kids once again!  Actually it was only the second time, but still.  Toni wanted a break from going to the beach so I figured it would be fun to go and walk around Waikiki and all the fun, touristy shops down there.  We strolled through the shops at the Hawaiian Hilton Village and Toni did some souvenir shopping.  Then we walked down by the beach so Toni could get a glimpse of Waikiki beach.  Surprisingly, it wasn't crowded on the beach at all.  But it's always nice to take a stroll with the ocean air blowing on you.  We walked down to have lunch at a restaurant called Duke's.  It was nice because it was a nice beachy atmosphere and had an ocean view.  It was a pretty hot day so we got seated before any of the kiddos had a breakdown.  You can see Harry's head is all sweaty from his hat!

Toni and I both enjoyed a delicious drink, the lava flow.  I had a much better experience with the lava flow than with the margarita I tried to drink a few weeks back.  Probably because it only had a little rum in it.  You couldn't even taste any alcohol and it didn't give me a headache. 

Hadley seemed perfectly content in the stroller so I was debating on whether I should leave her in there or put her in the highchair.  I decided to go with the highchair because I had a feeling that as soon as my food came she'd start flipping out.  Plus she'd have to go back in the stroller after lunch, so I figured I'd give her a different view for a bit.

Riley was being extremely well behaved.  Then again, she normally is for a two year old.  She was having fun coloring and watching all the birds that were walking and flying around Duke's.  Lately she hasn't wanted her picture taken at all so I think I should get an award for this shot!

Hadley was having fun sitting in her highchair.  She was just looking around at all the people and loving all the attention she was receiving.  I think it's the fact she has blue eyes because everyone is always going gaga over her and always complimenting her eyes.  That's right, she gets them from her mama!!

After lunch we walked through the International Trade Market.  They had some pretty jewelry and other little shops in there.  It was cool to walk through and another first for me since I've lived here.  Then we headed home because Harry was tired and Toni had a blister.  It was a fun afternoon in Waikiki.

Monday Madness

Monday we were planning on going to the lagoons at Ko'Olina.  Riley had her gymnastics class that I wasn't going to skip because we paid good money for her to go.  So I told everyone we would meet them out there after class, but they decided to just wait for us to get home.  When I got home I was expecting everyone to be dressed and ready to go.  Too bad nobody was.  Harry was still napping and everyone was in the pj's.  So I cracked the whip and got everybody moving.  Once I got both girls dressed and myself ready to go I made some sandwiches for everyone so we could enjoy a full day at the lagoons.  Ko'Olina is a good 30-40 minute drive from our house.  Parking can be difficult to get there because there isn't much of it and it's a popular place.  Of course we don't get there until about 12:30 which is when everyone is getting to the beach.  Needless to say there was absolutely no parking and the fact that we had to take two cars to fit all of our stuff didn't help the situation.  It was time for Hadley and Harry to eat so we went across the street to a shopping center so we could feed the babies.  Then we decided to hit a beach on the North Shore instead of waiting behind the tons of cars waiting for a parking spot.  Traffic was rather nasty once we hit the North Shore.  It's only a two lane road so it's not like we could go anywhere.  Hadley and Harry had been in the car for two hours and were letting us know they were sick of being in the car.  Toni was having a meltdown because she couldn't take the screaming anymore.  Riley and I were just taking in the views as we crawled along in traffic.  We finally made it to a beach, Waimea Bay.  Ahhh, so beautiful, right?  Well as soon as we got all of our stuff unloaded and set up the lifeguard makes an announcement over the intercom and here is what he said: "Just a reminder that the swimming conditions today are deadly.  You are swimming at your own risk."  LOVELY!  I just started laughing.  Of course after our 2 hour escapade to get our guests to a nice beach and enjoy a beautiful we wind up somewhere with deadly swimming conditions.  I didn't care, the view was well worth it.  And it was a beach we had never been to before. 

I'm not sure if you can really tell from the picture above, but there is a line of people up on the rocks(on the left hand side of the photo) and they were jumping off into the water.  Trey and BJ wanted to do it, but chose not to with the water conditions.  Of course that didn't stop all of those people!

All of the kids still had fun in the sand and sun!

After the Falls

After we left Waimea Valley we headed to Haliewa to grab some lunch.  Trey & I decided to take Toni & BJ to one of our favorite places, Cholo's.  The three of them enjoyed some margaritas while I sipped on my water.  I learned a valuable lesson from last time: no more margaritas for Rachel!  Trey and BJ like to act like little boys when they are together, hence the picture below!

Hadley is wondering where her margarita is!?!

After we enjoyed some scrumptious lunch we headed to K'aena Point so that Toni & BJ could see some more gorgeous views of O'ahu.  We've taken all of our visitors to this spot ever since we discovered it ourselves!  It's nice to just stand out at K-point and enjoy the view and take in the beauty.

Waimea Valley

One of the things that Toni and BJ wanted to do while visiting us was see waterfalls.  O'ahu isn't like the other islands where you can just drive down the road and see a waterfall.  The only waterfall I had seen while living here was on the way to Kaneohe Bay, it was pouring down rain so hard you could barely see out the windshield.  I saw a waterfall pouring down the side of the mountain.  That only happened once in the two years I've lived here.  So I researched on the computer and found a spot called Waimea Valley which has a waterfall.  It actually is a spot where LOST was filmed.  For those of you who are fans might enjoy knowing it's where Kate and Sawyer went swimming by the falls.  I have no idea because I never watched the show, but Toni is a big LOST fan so it thrilled her that we were going here. 

The walk through Waimea Valley was absolutely beautiful.  There were a bunch of botanical gardens and streams.  It was very peaceful and felt very "Hawai'i."  It was quite a haul to get to the waterfall but well worth it.  I couldn't believe people were actually paying to have a golf cart drive them to the falls.  The walk was seriously too pretty to miss.  Once we got to Waimea Falls I couldn't stop taking pictures.  It was just so cool.  I felt like such a tourist!  The waterfall made a natural spring pool.  We all took turns hopping in and swimming over the waterfall.  Trey took Riley in while I stayed with Hadley.  The water was rather chilly so Riley wasn't a fan at first.  But then she grew fond of the pool.  That is until Trey swam her over to the waterfall and she started screaming.  He had to bring her back and then swim back over so he and BJ could pose under the fall.  I always thought it would be fun the let a waterfall pour over me.  When Toni and I swam out to the waterfall and tried to climb up it felt like we were going to drown.  That waterfall seriously pounds on your head so hard you have to keep your eyes closed and can't see anything.  But it was a totally fun experience!

I'm so looking forward to taking my mom and Aunt Terry here next month!

Beach Day

Saturday the guys went four wheeling in the morning so Toni and I packed up the kids and headed to the beach.  We went out to the Bellows because it's beautiful there and it was the easiest beach for the boys to meet up with us when the were done playing.  I'm not sure that Toni realized what going to the beach is like with babies.  It's not just laying out your towel and sunbathing.  It's much more complicated as a parent at the beach.  Riley is an absolute angel anytime we are at the beach.  She is literally in heaven.  Both Hadley and Harry were grabbing at the sand and throwing it everywhere.  Toni wasn't a fan of Harry getting all sandy.  She said she'd much rather have him somewhere that he could be in his stroller and staying clean.  My response:  a vacation in Hawai'i probably wasn't the right choice then.  So what if your baby gets sandy.  You are in paradise, deal with it!!  This was Harry's first trip to the beach and he seemed to enjoy the water until the water hit him!  Once he got wet Toni took him up to our blanket and got him changed because he was all wet and sandy. 

Hadley fell asleep so I laid her down so she could nap a bit.  I took Riley into the water to play for a bit.  Then all of the sudden I felt this tremendous stinging on my leg.  It was a horrid burning pain like no other.  Then Riley started screaming and I knew she was feeling the same thing as me.  I grabbed her up out of the water and ran up to our blanket.  I looked down at my leg and realized I still had the creature suctioned to me.  "Holy shit" were the words that came out of my mouth!  I got my leg cleaned off and put ice on Riley's sting hoping it would relieve the pain.  I knew how much pain I was in and felt so helpless trying to calm Riley down.  I took her over to the lifeguard tower and he sprayed Riley's leg with an ointment.  Of course he ran out before he could spray me.  But as long as Riley wasn't in pain anymore was what mattered most.  We had been stung by a Portugese Man-of-War.  It's no ordinary jellyfish and I hope to never encounter one again.  Some people have horrible reactions to them and luckily we didn't break out in hives.  At this point we had been at the beach for about 4 hours and the guys had just shown up.  We were ready to leave which disappointed the guys, but I didn't really care.  My leg was burning like a bitch! 

I got the girls changed and ready for the drive home.  It wasn't the best time at the beach I've ever had.  But that's only due to the fact that Riley and I got stung.  I was hoping that the rest of our vacation wouldn't go like this day!