Trip to Hawaii: Kauai

On Wednesday, May 23rd, the children and I set out on our journey across the country.  I was pretty nervous prior to traveling when I found out that Jesse wasn't on the same flights or even airport as us.  But after a few moments of trepidation, I took a deep breath and went into full scale planning mode on how we could make this work for us.  I lucked out that day and the kids were straight up awesome on our travel date. We rode the Dartmouth Coach from Lebanon, NH to Boston, MA and it dropped us off at our terminal about 1.5 hours before our flight left.  We struggled slightly with all our luggage until we hit the check in lines for US Airways.  Thanks to some really wonderful airport employees, we were checked in quickly and hurriedly unloaded our two checked bags and headed to the security checkpoint much lighter than before.  Again I had more awesome employees that allowed us to go to the front of the line and a very nice man behind me that helped the kids get their carryon bags up on the counter.  The only sticky situation we got into was when Eli first dumped his soda all over the chair and his happy meal while waiting at our gate and then him standing up with his Happy Meal container and having the entire bottom fall out because it was wet, causing his food to spill all over the floor.  Beyond that it was smooth sailing.  The children entertained themselves with games and movies on our Kindle Fires, playing games on my phone, coloring, matchbox cars for Eli, snacks, and complimentary soda.  It was perfect timing when Maddie announced she was finally bored right as we were landing in Phoenix. All in all, it turned out to be a great day and I am proud to say I'm no longer scared of flying solo with the three kids at an airport.  I would totally do it again in a heartbeat.  We had a crowd of people meet us at the airport and I will never forget the pure joy etched on my children's faces as they ran to greet the family.  Joanna, Abby, Nona, Papa, Grandpa and Grandma were all there right outside the security checkpoint with huge smiles on their faces! It had been ten long months since we had seen Abby, Grandma and Grandpa and it was exciting to finally be reunited.  I cannot even explain how badly I had missed my parents or how nice it was to finally see them.  It has been an incredible experience to learn how to live our lives independant of outside family, but also very difficult to go long time periods without my parents or sister around.  The first thing I did once we loaded in the car is head straight over to my sisters house to see my new niece Keira.  What an amazing experience it was to hold that sweet newborn in my arms and love on her one week old self!

The next day Jesse and I were up early early early and on our plane headed to Kauai.  We felt like it was a wonderful opportunity to spend one on one time with each other before he headed off to Baltimore for the summer. Here's a super brief synopsis of our vacation:

Thursday: Flew in, spent HOURS at the airport with the car rental situation, Adam picked us up, dropped us off at our rental property in Princeville, tried walking to Hanulei, ended up catching a taxi into town, ate at L&L Hawaiian BBQ, had a snow cone (wished it was a shaved ice), caught the bus back semi-near Princeville and walked the rest of the way home in the rain.

Friday: Jesse took the bus into Hanulei, rented us a scooter, we drove over to the GINORMOUS beach house next to "Secret Beach" and hung out with family. Stopped at the Kilauea Light House and snapped a few pics before arriving at the house. I paddled boarded in Hanulei while Jesse, Ryan, Josh, Gina, Kendra all went surfing. Came back and had an amazing seafood dinner complete with crab, oysters, lobsters----Uncle Vince had the seafood shipped from the mainland by one of his friends. T, J, Sarah, Kendra, Josh, Erin, Ryan, Michael all hiked down to Secret Beach and had a bonfire with smores. Drove Adam's car back to our rental due to rain and time of departure

Saturday: drove back to beach house, Tiffany went with Sarah, Kendra, and Gina to nail salon where they got mani's/pedi's. After we went to lunch with all the girls at ........... Jesse went spear fishing with Josh, Michael, Jeremy, and Ryan. Stopped for some local cold coconut at "The Coconut Experience" on or way to the hotel. Got ready for the wedding, drove in the RAIN to Tunnels Beach, soaking wet, watched the beach wedding then headed over to the Tavern for wedding dinner. Had some drama with keys and the scooter, ended up leaving it at the beach. Following dinner, drove over to the beach with it pitch black and followed J back on the scooter. Had some difficulties getting the top to Adam's jeep back on during another massive rain storm. Another late night :)

Sunday: T woke up late while Jesse went back to the beach house for brunch and to take Adam, Ryan and Erin to the airport.  J ended up being gone literally for HOURS that day.  Like until 2:30pm because there plane took off much later than anticipated. Once he returned we went on a little drive, took pics by some bamboo trees and I ended up getting attacked by mosquitos.  Like literally 40+ bites on my legs and arms....no fun. Also stopped at a beautiful beach called Waiakalua Beach, aka "pretty beach" and took some fun sunset pictures.  Ended up being a memorable afternoon full of beautiful, scenic pics.

Monday: Went snorkeling in the AM near "Queens bath" which included a swim/walk through the turtle cave. T ended up smashing her face into a lava rock with lots of blood and some nasty cuts, had a trip to the local grocery mart to get tools to dig the rocks out of my lip laceration. Debated going to the ED but ultimately didn't, had a yummy shaved ice and met up with Brad and Jackie & family at a noodle restaurant. Had fun visiting with friends, T's face/jaw/lip continued to ache :(

Tuesday: Hiked up along the Napoli Coast to the _________ waterfall and beach, was a beautiful 8 mile hike. J and I are a little competitive and probably ran halfway up and back. We were told that we reminded an older couple of a couple of billy goats...made us feel young. J swam in the waterfall water. Both of us slightly tweaked our ankle/foot. Ate L&L BBQ after, went to a farmers market and ate legue??sp?? and chocolate covered bananas. Got fancy ready, then walked over near Queens Bath at sunset to snap HOURS of photos thanks to the mister. Ate dinner at The Tavern.

Wednesday: Packed up place, checked out, then headed towards Lihue for the airport. Stopped and bought a few souvenirs on the way. End of trip and excited to see the kiddos again <3

Anticipation

Websters dictionary defines anticipation as "the act of looking forward; pleasurable expectation" and "visualization of a future event or state".  I have to admit that I have been doing both of those things right now.  Since we moved away from home, I have thought and thought about when I would be able to come back to visit.  Dates were reviewed frequently and when we received Jesse's cousins wedding invitation to be held in Hawaii the end of May, we knew exactly when we would be making travel plans to fly back home.  Now that most of the arrangements have been made, I have been hardly able to contain my excitement that I will get to see my parents and sister in one short day.  I cannot believe that it has been 10 long months since I have seen my family face to face.  To further cap off this euphoric feeling is that fact that my older sister just had her baby last week and I will get to hold this little piece of heaven in my arms in a mere 24 hours!  And I look forward to watching my children rebond with their uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents as they get to spend LOTS of quality time with those we love.  It is has been really difficult to see Eli pretty much not remember most of our family due to being gone for so long at such a young age, so I think this will be pretty great watching him reconnect with them again.  One of my most memorable things growing up was the vast amount of cousin time we shared at virtually every family get together.  I have always felt bad that my children haven't been able to experience this because they only have two cousins (now three!) and we moved so far away from everyone.  It will be really great to watch my kids hang out with Kaylin (5) and Zack (almost 3) now that they are all a bit older. So basically I will be away for awhile and consequently not blogging.  I'll see all of you in about a month!!

Sachem Bear

Back in May we started hearing rumors that there was a Mother Black Bear and several bear cubs roaming in our general forest area.  We didn't really think too much of it until we were woken up by Maddie screaming that a big bear was going through our trash cans.  Jesse and I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs in disbelief.  Sure enough there was a large black bear digging through our trash within feet of our house.  We watched and filmed for awhile until she finally decided to leave, dragging one of our trash cans with her into the forest.

Later that day we had our community garage sale and Jesse came running over saying that he could see all three bear cubs and the mother bear in our back forest probably only 20 feet away.  Needless to say we had dozens and dozens of people come over that day and spy on our friendly neighborhood bears.

After that they seemed to get increasingly brave towards humans and the bear was found frequently digging through random trash cans and even near a barbeque looking for leftovers.

This prompted a mass e-mail to all of the residents in Sachem reminding us to not leave any food (trash) out and to keep our barbeques cleaned up.

After several weeks I was greatly relieved to find that the bears had moved on to bigger and better places.

Although it was fun to have such a large animal so close to us, I was more than ready for them to find another home.

Our Weekend with Papa

Whenever Papa comes in town, we know that there will always be fun things to do.  He is truly such a blessing in not only my childrens lives but mine also.  Some of the fun things we did with him included:

Riding around in his convertible

Fixing BOTH cars for hours a day (at least J and his Dad did this)

Hike to Boston Lot Lake/swim session with Daddy

I ran my 10 mile run with friends Saturday AM in prep for my half-marathon coming up!

Rocket Launchers in the yard

Moe's dinner for FHE

*the kids had ongoing argument/debates about who was sitting in Papa's convertible.  Robby told me that it went "so fast" and that he wants us to buy TWO of them.  I told him to talk to his father about this :)

 The water was freezing cold at Boston Lot Lake when we went swimming.  I did wear a bathing suit but after sticking one toe in the water, I decided to sit on my towel and soak up the sun rays.  My kids were a bit braver and with their Daddy's "help" {aka: pulling them out in the water with him} they all got in.  Eli was not too pleased to be stuck in the cold water and immediately voiced his concerns.....with lots of alligator tears and pouting.

We can't wait to spend more time with Papa (and the rest of the grandparents) coming up the end of May!!