Kc and I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii again with our little family. My mother in law Mary had called me and asked if I was interested in doing a house swap with someone in Hawaii that a friend had told her about. I immediately said yes! The couple was looking for a house big enough to accommodate them and and one of their children and grandchildren. Luckily we had enough space and spare rooms and so we swapped houses and cars. We tried to make everything as cheap as possible so we bought tickets out of Las Vegas since they are way cheaper than flying out of Salt Lake. We drove down the day of since our flight left at 6:30 pm. On the way back we ran into a little trouble as they had completely canceled our flight home. This was not ideal, but that is what you get when you travel on such a cheap airline like Allegiant (you've been warned.) We did get out the next day though and while we would rather have left on our original flight everything turned out ok considering.
Travel with toddlers is hard. That's why you don't see a lot of people doing it. They can adapt it's true, but when you are a 1 or 2 years old you want to play and explore 24/7 and it's not so conducive to standing in long lines at an airport for hours on end. In addition you have to deal with the whole napping/sleeping situation. Elijah is like me and he can't just fall asleep wherever or whenever. Olive could crawl up on a rock and fall asleep in 30 seconds and I don't think I realized how lucky we were to get such an easy little traveler as we did take Olive lots of places when she was very little. Elijah is at the age where he wanted to constantly get up and move around on this tiny plane. He tried to crawl over the seats and run down the aisles, and then when he got tired he couldn't sleep. I always plan for the worst and then everything turns out better than I had expected and so upon reflection I think everything went ok, and by that I mean it could have been a lot worse. This mentality has always helped with traveling, but it's still hard to hold a little boy still when the seatbelt lights are turned on and it often results in a lot of struggle. I had wanted to take a picture and show the real side of traveling with youngsters, but it's kind of hard to take pictures when you are chasing little boys down aisles, getting your face stepped on, or trying to rock as slowly and methodically as possible to coax your child to sleep. Olive said she wants to go back to Hawaii next year and I said she will have to start to be a little mom to make that happen. If we have another I think we might need to slow our travels a bit. We'll see where life takes us.
I let Elijah do loops on these walking escalators to keep him busy. Luckily there were not too many people around.
Our first day in Hawaii we took the kids to Kakela beach. It's perfect because it has calm water, awesome sand, and a big park area with lots of trees and chickens for Elijah to chase. We wanted to have a slow relaxed local day to get the kids used to the time and environment change. Elijah could have chased those chickens aaaallll day.
I told Olive we were going to a beach with turtles not actually knowing if any would be there. This beach, Laniakea, is known for having turtles comes lay out on it's shores but it's not a guarantee. Luckily we saw a few turtles come to shore while we were there. It's illegal to touch them and volunteers come and place ropes to help keep people from getting too close. After we left this beach Olive begged to go back everyday afterwards. She loved seeing the turtles, she would say "let's go to the beach with the turtles!"
There were a few things I wanted to do while we were in Oahu that I hadn't done before. One of them was the lighthouse hike. We love to hike in Hawaii but this time I wanted to do an easy hike with the little kids. We went up with my sister, brother, and father in law. I loved spending time and talking with them on the hike up and the view from the top was beautiful. Elijah thought the ocean would appreciate his binky more than he would and decided to toss it over the edge right as this picture was taken. Luckily it landed on a little ledge and we were able to grab it. Little rascal. I wish I had taken a picture with everyone, I'm sad now to think that we didn't because it was a good memory to be together.
One of the places I wanted to visit on this trip was Hanauma Bay. I had never been because you have to pay to get in, it's crowded and touristy, and it's far away from where we always stay on the island. But since we were already in Honolulu and it is so famous and I wanted to try it. It was everything I was warned it would be and while the positive side is it's really shallow so you can see the fish up very close, that's also a negative because you are constantly having to watch out for coral. In every other department it just wasn't that great, and it did't help that I got completely berated by the lady sitting by us because my kids got sand on her towel and dropped some food that was attracting birds. So that was great. I would recommend Pupukea over Hanauma Bay hands down. Even if you have to drive an hour to get there! However the view of the bay as you walk up and down the hill to get to the beach, gorgeous, just gorgeous.
The past couple years I had seen this tree off the side of the road that I just loved. There is just something about trees for me, I am so drawn to them. I can't explain it. We had never had time to stop before and since we were on this trip with no particular agenda I told Kc I wanted to stop and get out and explore in this spot. We drove there and as I went to get out I looked back and Olive was fast asleep. I am still so sad about that because she would have just loved this place, but I didn't want to wake her so I just took Elijah with me while Olive stayed in the car.
Kc's little brother and his wife, Greg and Heidi, have lived in Honolulu for the past four years while Greg attended medical school. They were moving while we were on vacation there and I really wish we could have come earlier to spend more time with them but I was happy we got to be with them for a few days. It was hard for them to move, they grew to love it so much there but I am so happy they are going to be stateside and a lot closer to us! I loved Elijah and their little Zeke getting to spend time together. They are only a few months apart. I hope they can be close to one another growing up.
We spent a fun day in Haleiwa with my all my in laws before Greg and Heidi flew out. Haleiwa is one of my favorite towns in Oahu. We rented some canoes and a paddle board and went down a little river. A huge manta ray swam under our canoe with Heidi, Olive, and I and later we saw a cute little turtle after we had swapped Olive for Elijah on our boat. Afterwards we stopped for some shave ice and it really was such a fun day to get to spend all together.
Olive and her hair in Hawaii.
I can't handle it.
Olive and I hiding from the rain on the playground. I don't know why, but I love this picture so much.
Waimea Valley.
It has trees from all over the world. It feels like what heaven must look like, I love it there so much. After swimming in the ocean the waterfall feels very cold and Elijah was so excited to get in and then felt the water and wanted to get right back out. Olive was willing to swim with me over to the waterfall and let the water rushing down push us back out again. It was fun.
Teaching my kids to love the local food. Elijah is eating Poke (raw tuna in some delicious sauce) and Olive is eating musubi (a rice roll with spam wrapped in seaweed.) Elijah attempted to catch every chicken that crossed his path. Sadly, he had no success in that area.
Pupukea (Shark's Cove.) Easily one of the best places to take your kids on the whole island. Lots of shallow areas to swim and walk and see little fish and crabs and all sorts of marine life. On the day I told Olive she could pick anywhere to go she chose here. We got her to figure out the snorkel for a bit and she was so excited because I think it was super frustrating for her to hold on to mama's back while I snorkeled and not get a chance to see all the fun fish mama could see below.
Laie Temple.
There are lots of asian people that vacation in Hawaii, and lots of them don't speak any english. It was pretty common for some of them to come up and get right in Olive's face and try to take pictures of her, it was kind of funny and kind of weird haha. I think they just loved her red hair and blue eyes because you don't see that much in Asia. These girls just died when they saw Olive and Elijah and took tons of pictures of them. I ended up calling my dad to talk to them because he speaks fluent Japanese, it was fun to hear them converse. They played with Olive for a while and she was loving it. She was trying to instruct them what to do and so she said "raise your hand if you want to do this." And when no one raised their hand I told her they didn't understand that, so she said "raise your hand means you have to lift your arms, like this." haha Telling your child that people speak a different language is a hard concept for them when they are little.
Waimea was another favorite place to take the kids. The sand is fun and the water is warm and calm and blue. Olive and I swam over to one of the smaller rocks and jumped off while daddy jumped off the big rock.
Olive and I swam out to a rock close by the shore in the ocean at Waimea. We got to see a turtle that kept surfacing for air, I didn't have my snorkel on. A little later I decided to go back out with Olive again and bring a snorkel, we got lucky again and saw another turtle. This one was small and missing a fin. He was a cute little guy.
One of the things I wanted to do in Oahu that I had never done before was to try Malasadas. I had never had them because we always stay on the north shore and all the bakery shops that sell them are in Honolulu, but since Kc had to drive there to take his dad to airport I had him swing by and get some on his way home. They were piping hot when he got them and so they were still warm when he got home. Olive, Kc, and I goggled them up so fast. They are every bit as amazing as they are claimed to be. Delicious.
After a full day of fun at the beach I had wanted to go to sunset beach to watch the sunset. I told the kids we were not swimming just watching the sunset and playing on the beach, good thing I was smart enough to leave their swimsuits (and my own) on under their clothes because 5 minutes after this picture was taken we were all in the water. It couldn't be avoided.
Heli Heli Grass. It closes when you touch it.
The fruit stands have evolved a lot over the years, and I don't think they are as good as they used to be but we still had to stop and get some lychees and some sugar cane for these kiddos to gnaw on. Look at that cute face!
We had a hard time keeping track of this guy. Can you see him?
A fun little find by the beach.
That selfie game at The Elephant Thai Food Truck. That was some GOOD food. And the kids were crazy and wouldn't sit still for 5 seconds.
Kc wanted to walk to Goat Island. I was a little hesitant at first because you have have to carry these kids across coral thorough the water that gets at least waist deep and you are working with the tides that rise and fall. I agreed to do it though and besides one big splash to the face on the way back that Elijah wasn't very happy about it went great! I didn't take my phone to the island because I didn't want it to get wet, but I regret not putting it in a bag or something because the island is so beautiful and I didn't get any picture there. It's so green and you can only walk on the outer rim because it is a bird sanctuary where they protect the nesting birds but you can see them and we got to see one of their cute little nests that they burrow in the ground. There are lots of crabs, shells, and coral on the island that we collected. Elijah was completely mesmerized when we went to the back side and watched the big waves come crashing against the rocks. It was a really fun morning. The two pictures above are still shots from the Go-Pro video Kc had strapped to his chest. The first is us leaving the island and the second one is when we had almost reached it. It was fun to watch the video and hear Olive and Kc's conversation on the way over, I love them.
Can't help myself. Always setting a bad example.
Another first in Oahu trying Ted's bakery and the chocolate haupia pie. MMMMMmmmmmm. We stopped on our way to sunset beach and then decided to get another whole pie on our way back we loved it so much! I love the plain haupia pie the most (which is coconut) the kids loved any pie you put in their mouths.
I saw this swing off on the side of the road on one of our drives. I had to stop there and go for a swing. Growing up my dad always pulled off for adventures and I can't help that I have the same instincts. My eye is always looking for adventure of any kind.
I realized on the last day that Kc and I had no pictures together so I tried to take a selife with him, it wasn't going that well so I asked Olive to help. Here are the results.
Our last time swimming on the North Shore before we left (or thought we were leaving) Hawaii. It was a beautiful evening together.
Our flight got canceled out of Oahu, which sucked. You may be thinking that Hawaii is not such a bad place to be stuck, which is true, but when you are spending half the day at the airport and then taking a shuttle to a hotel where there is no food or transportation and having to call into your jobs and request more time off it's not so appealing, but we made the most of it and went for a little swim in the pool. Thankfully we were able to get out the next day.
Oh man, we had the best time. We were grateful to have Kc's dad come spend a week with us while we were there. We loved having him. I am now reflecting that I don't have any pictures with him and that makes me really sad because he was present for a lot of our adventures and my kids just loved it. He is such a loving and generous person to have around. We also loved our time with Greg and Heidi and I'm sad we don't have any pictures with them either. I still have the memories though, and those are wonderful. We were able to do all the things we wanted and more, it was an adventure I'll never forget. Now we have to start scheming to figure out a way to go back next year!
