Little Gymnast

Riley has definitely been flourishing in her gymnastics class.  She gets so excited every Monday morning when I mention that we will be going to gymnastics.  Riley is literally ready to leave the house as soon as I say gymnastics class.  I learned my lesson not to say those words until it is time to leave the house.  Yesterday Riley was ready to leave and we still had an hour before we had to be there.  It doesn't help that Riley can now open every door in the house and kept trying to go "bye-bye."  It makes me happy that Riley gets so excited to go to her class.  Riley still isn't a big fan of participating in the songs and dance in the beginning of the class, but she normally joins in on the last song.  That surprises me too.  Riley is always dancing around the house, I thought for sure she'd be dancing during the class.  I think she just might be shy to do it in front of the other people.  All in all the gymnastics class is going great.  Riley has expanded her horizons past the ball pit and now likes to do everything except the rope swing.  I'm very proud of her!

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Sorry for the scare of me not blogging anymore.  I was writing out of hurt and frustration.  I find that my blog is a nice way to vent my frustrations instead of letting them just boil inside of me.  I would never punish my family by not blogging and sharing the stories about my girls and our life.  I have realized that people take what they want out of the way someone writes.  You can't hear my tone or perhaps the sarcasm that I try to write with therefore things are taken way out of context.  I am guilty of this too.  I have read things that I take completely different than what the author meant.  Going forward, if you don't understand my way of writing than I'd rather you not read my blog.  It is meant for pure entertainment and not to hurt anyone's feelings or spark up a reaction where you feel the need to call people and talk about what I've said.  And if you are that person that doesn't understand me than this blog wasn't intended for you to read.  My blog is a happy place, sometimes filled with the frustrations of being a parent.  I love informing my family about the recent happenings of my life.  I'm not going to be using caution when I write either.  So once again, if you don't understand the way I write or think I do a good job getting my point across than don't read my blog.  Feel free to start you own!  Thank you and goodbye!

Misunderstood

Apparently my writing on this blog has lead to persons getting offended.  It is never my intention to offend anyone by the things that I write.  I actually try to be very careful in my wording so that I don't upset anyone by any of things that I talk about.  But if you don't understand how I'm expressing things through my writing then perhaps you would get offended.  Let me clear things up.  My children are not perfect by any means.  I have written plenty of entries about wanting to pull my hair out due to the frustration I have felt as a parent.  I am not perfect.  Obviously.  Nor am I the perfect writer.  I didn't major in English so maybe I don't write things the way I mean for them to sound.  I do my best to keep everyone updated on my life because we live so far away from family and friends.  Now, I feel as though I'm not doing a very good job.  My blog isn't meant to hurt any ones feelings.  I just try to write about my life experiences as honestly as I know how to.  With how I'm feeling right now I think that I may just be taking a break from blogging.  I'm really hurt and frustrated that I am offending people and other people are taking what I write the wrong way.  I apologize to everyone that I may have offended over the past two years with my entries.  When I do decide to start blogging again it will probably only be about my family and nobody else will be mentioned.  I wouldn't want to leave anyone out or make people uncomfortable.  My apologies to all, especially to those that I am misunderstood to.

Farewell Friends

Diamond Head was our last excursion with The Carter Family.  Monday was their departure day and Toni spent the whole day washing all their clothes and getting everything packed up and ready to go.  We literally stayed at the house all day.  Riley and I did leave for a bit for her gymnastics class.  Hadley was sleeping when we left and was still sleeping when we got home.  She took a three hour nap that day.  Hadley was one tired little girl from all the running we had been doing.  It was nice to have our friends come and visit us.  And it was great to get to meet my best friends little boy.  But I was looking forward to having my house back and getting the girls back on their schedules.  Not to mention I wanted to rest for a bit.  I now have to re-energize for my mom and Aunt Terry's visit at the end of August. 

Diamond Head

Sunday, we tackled something that I definitely wanted to do before we left the island, Diamond Head.  We have never attempted it because it's really not the most child friendly trail to go on.  There is absolutely no shade and it's quite a hike with kids.  But this is something that Toni wanted to do while she was here, so we got everyone packed up and headed to Diamond Head.  Diamond Head is said to be the most famous volcanic crater in the world.  Diamond Head is a volcano that has been extinct for 150,000 years. The crater is 3,520 feet in diameter with a 760-foot summit.  The trail is paved the entire way but can be steep in spots. I had read that there are two set of stairs, one with 99 steps and the other, 76 steps. Let me tell you, there are more than just two sets of stairs. There is also a 225-foot unlit tunnel.  By the time I got out of the dark tunnel I thought I was going to pass out.  Note to self: next time bring a flashlight so you don't get dizzy from walking uphill in the dark! 

Okay, so BJ carried Harry in the Baby Bjorn and I carried Hadley in the Baby Bjorn.  Toni carried a backpack with some water, because Lord knows we were going to need it.  Trey was in charge of Riley who wanted to walk, but we knew she wasn't going to make it the whole way.  Trey and I were slowed down a bit with Riley's pace, but with me carrying Hadley I wasn't too upset with Riley's pace.  I was super proud of Riley who walked up the first set of stairs.  I'm pretty sure it was the set with 76 steps, but I wasn't counting.  I was praying that I had the strength to make it up with the extra 20 pounds strapped to the front of me.  I don't think it helped that we didn't start the hike until 1 o'clock in the afternoon.  Hello heat!  Next time I'll be there bright and early!  The hike was well worth all the pain and sweat.  The views were breathtaking!  It was so pretty up there that I wasn't sure I wanted to come back down.  The hike down was much easier than the hike up.  I had to feed Hadley once we had gotten to the top of Diamond Head.  Then she fell asleep so I just carried her in my arms on the way down.  Trey had put our exhausted Riley in the Baby Bjorn to get her down safely.  Riley was much too big for that thing, but she was also much too tired to hike back down.  Riley hiked about half way up and Trey carried her the other half.  It was a great experience and I'm glad we got to do it with some of our best friends.

Back to the Beach

Saturday was a beach day.  We headed back to the Bellows as requested by Toni.  We got everything set up and all settled in and the guys went and grabbed us lunch from Subway.  We were all enjoying the nice afternoon and the beautiful view.  Then we noticed some dark storm clouds heading our way.  Trey reassured everyone not to worry because the rain would probably last five minutes.  And from our experience that is a very true statement.  Then we all start to feel the drizzle come down.  That drizzle turned into a full on downpour.  That downpour lasted much longer than the five minutes Trey said it would.  The storm probably lasted about twenty minutes or so.  It felt much longer though with the cold rain pouring down on us.  Trey was under an umbrella with the girls.  BJ did the same thing with Harry.  Toni wrapped up in a towel because she was freezing.  I on the other hand grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.  I thought it was funny and it was even more funny to see how miserable BJ was sitting on the beach in the rain.  The picture below doesn't really do the rainstorm justice, but it's the best I could do with my non-professional camera!  Let's just say you can normally see the mountains in the background which are being blocked by the downpour.

After the rain passed it turned into another beautiful day here in Hawai'i.  Riley played in the water and the sand.  Hadley fell asleep on me which lead to me falling asleep on the beach.  Ahh, that was a super treat to nap on the beach listening to the ocean.  It turned out to be a successful day at the beach.

Time for a Hike

Friday we enjoyed a nice lunch a Kona Brewing Co.  Oh, how I love that place.  The food is great and the atmosphere is fabulous.  My favorite thing to get is the Pepper steak, but with it being lunch and the activity we were getting ready to do, I opted to just order some pizza.  It was still a delicious lunch even if I didn't order my favorite!  After lunch we headed to the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail.  This trail offers some absolutely beautiful views.  And you get to enjoy the wonderful scenery of the ocean for the entire trail.  It was really hot on this afternoon so we were all getting nice and sweaty!  Once we made it up the first, steep, hill Trey decided it was time to take off his shirt.  Riley decided that she was going to get out of the stroller and hike the rest of the way with us.  She told us " I want walk."  Well if she "want walk" then that's what she got to do!  Who are we to stop our little adventurer??

Walking this trail really makes me appreciate where I live.  I mean, seriously.  I am so lucky to be living in such a gorgeous place.  It's fun hikes like this that makes me not want to leave.  Who knows, maybe we'll stay for another tour. 

Here is a group shot at the top of the trail.  It's stinks when you have a stranger take your picture and they zoom in way too much.  Not to mention you can't see Riley!  But I think it's pretty good shot of me and you don't get to see much of me on here!