The Atkinsons

Our Second Week in Hawaii

Well, I'm almost home. I'm sitting here in the LA airport and Olive and I have had a long day that started at about 4:00 am and is still not quite finished yet. We have another half hour or so before we should board our next plane and miss Olive was so exhausted she fell asleep- I'm hoping this keeps on the plane, poor thing. It's a little harder to travel without Daddy to help us, but we are abusing my brother in law Spencer. (He deserves it since his wife has to travel with their 4 kids without him.)  I think Olive will be pretty happy to be back in her crib in her own room when we finally get home tonight, although I do think she will miss getting to see Mommy and Daddy in her room right when she gets up so she can wake them up in the morning (Mommy will not miss that.) :) 

I thought I'd take this little bit of free time to try to sum up the rest of our vacation in Hawaii. 

Kc left Hawaii a week before me. We both have jobs and both have taken lots of vacation time this summer- but with the way time off works at the hospital I was able to swing getting a little more time off so I decided to stay another week. Kc was the only one to leave that day and I didn't think things would change that much since I am pretty independent, but things did. I would say the only "hard" day I had in Hawaii was the day after Kc left. I think it was a combination of a lot of things. We crammed in everything we really wanted to do while he was here and so the day after he left it was like hmmm what should we do now? Also, it was just kind of hard. I like having him around. He helps me and he makes me feel good and things are better when he is there. The next day however I picked myself up by the bootstraps because, hey, I was in Hawaii! And I had an awesome last week from there on out. 

I took so many pictures while I was there and I am glad I did because I rely a lot on them to document everything we did, and because our time spent in Hawaii every 5 years is so precious and I want to remember every second of it! Time flew by while we there because we were go go go, and man I just couldn't wait to get up in the mornings and plan our days. Here are some of the pictures and things that we did in my last week there.

Kc's family went to the island of Oahu and we stayed in a town called Laie on the North shore. If you are planning a trip there any time soon hopefully this will give you an idea of some of the great things to do on the island.

Sunset Beach. We went there to watch the sunset and just talk and relax. You know where it gets it's name because it's wide and open and the sunsets there just makes you feel like the world is wonderful. It always amazes me how you can go to a beach a mile down and the sand and beach can be completely different. This beach has nice thick sand that looks like it's been made from chunks of big rocks or shells broken down. It feels good on your feet and it's easy to wipe off. Olive and I didn't go in the water but the shore break is similar to Waimea which Olive kind of hated so I don't think she would have liked it. The wave breaks on the shore and kind of sucks you in and often times these waves have big drop offs. The other kids loved it though, so maybe just not so great for really littles like Olive.

These pictures were taken at Waimea, and like I said it was actually the one beach that Olive didn't like. The shore break was too big and it had a drop off and she was just kind of scared of it. I can almost always get her to get over her fear of things especially since she is so rarely even scared of anything (much to my dismay,) but she did not get over her fear of these waves. On the other hand the water is clear and beautiful and so so blue. It has a big rock you can see in the picture above and you can make out the little people jumping off of it. It's famous for this. I don't get a ton of joy out of jumping off really high things- and being 6months pregnant it probably wasn't a good idea anyways, but I did jump off the smallest end of the rock and it was so fun. I had to do it about 5 times at least! The water is so clear and refreshing and it just felt so good. What I like about this rock is you can choose any height to jump off, so it's really a lot of fun and I totally recommend it if you go!

Hands down Hawaii just has the best climbing trees and I just find myself staring at them itching to climb! I was scoping out this branch for an attempt at a yoga move that i decided was too risky- ha! My worried mother will be happy to know that I do have some judgement, but that didn't take any of the joy out of climbing this magnificent tree.

Surfing while prego. I have to say when I first found out I was pregnant I was a little disappointed that I was going to be so far along while I was in Hawaii because surfing was something I had been really looking forward to. I had heard women say they surfed up to 7 months but I just thought no way, it seemed like it would be way too uncomfortable- but it really wasn't bad. I think with the buoyancy of the water and once you got on the board I think that little baby found a snuggly place in the back of your  belly and said ok, go for it! I will admit I felt slight discomfort at some moments, but it was totally worth it. Once you catch a wave you just think, I know why I'm doing this. It's the best feeling.

If I've said it once I've said it a million times. Olive is way cooler now than you her Mom ever will be, and putting on sunglasses and then passing out in this rock star position proves it. I didn't even know those were in her crib!

Passing on my love for trees, Olive's got the fever too.

Oh, how we'll miss our cousin June. I don't know what it was, maybe that curly red hair, but those girls just loved each other and I just loved to see it. I hope they stay close with one another. June lives in San Francisco so we don't really get to see her often, but from the very first time they interacted with each other they had a connection so I think time and distance won't get these two cousins apart. 

Hawaii has the best fruit stands, you just can't beat Hawaiann fruit! I will say however with the popularity of traveling to Hawaii having risen, the word about the fruit stands has gotten around and they are now really over priced. Boo. Every time I went to the stand there was also a tour bus there and we definitely were getting quoted the tourist price- but I will also say totally worth the mangos that just melt in your mouth! Little Olive tried everything, dragon fruit, mangos, star fruit, papaya, pineapple, and sugar cane. She inhaled that stuff like it was candy! You only live once!

The Hukilau. Hulilau beach was walking distance from our house and they have a tradition there of throwing big nets out from the shore and bringing them in to catch fish. Our family went out early one morning to attend one, and although they didn't seem to catch very much it's a fun tradition and something the kids loved to participate in. 

Poor Olive, she really got pushed to her limit on this trip. We were go go go, and nap time which is usually sacred at our house kind of got thrown out with the dishwater- so we did short on the go naps. This was hike to a small falls behind the PCC. I thought it was a beautiful hike over rocks and trees and a river, but it was a little harder and longer than we had expected and is not something a toddler could hike. I started the hike carrying Olive because she really won't go to anyone else. Poor KC got lots of stares and some comments about making his pregnant wife carry the baby but she really just wouldn't go to him! We transferred her to KC's chest after she fell asleep on mine. Then she shocked us all on our way down by preferring her Uncle Greg to any of us! I think she developed a little crush while she was there, and I don't blame her- those good looking genes go through the whole Atkinson family.

 We rented some canoes and paddle boards close to Haleiwa. I had never been on a paddle board before and to be honest never had a strong desire to try one, but it turned out to be pretty fun. Olive and I went out for a while, she just sat in the middle of the board and had a gay ol' time. I ran into a little problem because she decided she needed the paddle more than I did and I had to eventually jump out and swim while pulling the board so that she could paddle since that was the only paddle that I had. That's motherhood for you. I was also anxious to try some yoga moves on the board since I thought that looked like fun. The headstand was my first try because although it may look impressive it is one of the easier poses to do on a paddle board because you have such a small center of gravity. Then I made Kc try a partner yoga move with me that we had recently mastered on ground. This is what I love about Kc and what made it so hard when he was gone, he is willing to do stuff like this with me. Kc doesn't do yoga, and I don't think he particularly enjoys the stuff I make him do with me- but he does it because he knows how much I love it and it that means a lot to me. The first one is great because it looks like he is strangling me to death and we obviously bit the dust. In the second picture we got half way there and I didn't expect us to and I kind of panicked because I couldn't remember what to do next- and then we ate it. So we never really got the move down because other people wanted to use the board and we didn't want to spend the whole time attempting yoga moves- but we had fun anyways. And I think I may take a paddle board yoga class now!

Matsumoto's snow cones. Classic.

By far Olive's favorite thing was Pupakea Beach, also called Shark's cove. It's a great snorkeling spot and what is great about it is it's good for all ages. Adults and kids love the snorkel and there are these tide pools made by large coral rock that are the perfect height for toddlers and also holds lots of little fish and sea urchins for them to look at. Olive and I went back on our last day with her cousin June and her mom Angie. Out with a bang. 

We loved you Hawaii. You gave us lots of love, sunshine, and memories. Till next time.

A21

I also wanted to take a moment to share a little about my friend Callie and the company she is working for- The A21 campaign. I've known Callie since I was in 7th grade, and loved her the first time I met her. "Nice horse earrings" I think are the first words I ever said to her, and she still liked me after that so I knew our friendship would last. 

I've seen her go through a lot of struggles in her life, and her faith in Jesus Christ has always been her greatest source of joy and comfort. After getting a degree and doing different jobs she could never quite find herself at the place she wanted to be. She had done wonderful things that had brought her such satisfaction, such as working on a ranch as a wrangler in the summers- but at 28 she found herself living in the Seattle area, single, working as a nanny, and really wondering where she wanted to go from there. She often would come up with different things she wanted to do so when she mentioned this possible move to California to work for A21 I don't know that I gave it much thought. Something about this company spoke to her and she felt compelled to leave her friends and family and make the move to expensive California in order to work at an UNPAID internship at A21. Lots of people said this was a bad idea, and I know she felt hesitant and scared- but she did it anyways. The first call I got from her after she started working there brought tears to my eyes. I hadn't heard her this happy in a long time. She knew she needed to be there and she just raved about the company and all the employees and how they were so driven to make a difference. A21 is a company that works all over the world in an effort to stop human trafficking. A daunting task. It's difficult because you are exposed to harsh realities that I think the average person would rather turn a blind eye to. The work they are doing is real, impactful, and beautiful. Knowing that millions of women are abused, they choose to rejoice in just one life saved- because that is all they can do. One life at a time. And it is enough, because doing everything you can to save these women is enough. 

I write about this because originally Callie had promised to do only half the internship because that was all she could afford and she felt it was worth the opportunity, but now she is so driven and has such a love and devotion to these women she is trying to find a way to extend her internship. She has set up an account on GOFUNDME in an effort to raise funds to continue in this cause. Any amount of money would help, and you could not be giving your money to a more worthy person who has worked so hard her whole life and continues to constantly give everything of herself. If you want to find out more about The A21 campaign you can visit this website. And even if you choose not to contribute you should check out the wonderful things this company is trying to do to stop human trafficking. 

People are good. Life is good. Let's be good to each other.