Wailua, Hanalei, and Queens Bath

Saturday we did a little shopping on the East shore of the island. On our way back we stopped and had lunch in Wailua on the beach. It was finally a sunny day and was not raining. We made the most of it, not knowing what the weather would be on Sunday.

The water was muddy here, but still makes for a beautiful postcard image.

Making footprints in the sand.

Daddy trying to crack open a coconut we found on the beach. No luck.

We then drove to the North shore to Hanalei, did more shopping and had a sweet treat.

More birds and flowers.

Ching Young Shopping Center in Hanalei. I think this is my favorite little town on the island.
The scene was much different on Friday. No sun....pouring rain. What a difference a day makes.

Enjoying their shave ice. YUM

The river that irrigates the taro fields in Hanalei.

Hanalei Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Our love of adventure and hiking brought us to Queens Bath in Princeville. The hike was challenging due to the mud (very slippery), but well worth the trip. We even saw about five sea turtles and a few crabs. This made the entire trip. Watching the sea turtles was such a treat!

Our little billy goats just hopped around the volcanic rock.

I put the images in a collage....too many to choose just a few.

Lu'au

We just could not go to Hawaii without attending a Lu'au.

Before dinner we walked around the beautiful grounds. There are so many flowers and birds on the island. Everything is so lush and green. We loved just walking around.

I don't know what kind of tree this was, but it was so different.

Like I said, chickens and roosters! They are everywhere. I did learn their story today. I'll share it in another post.

Around the grounds where the Lu'au was there was many peacocks. Lucky for us they were mating, or trying anyway. The "men" weren't having much luck.

The girls on a little bridge on the grounds.

The grounds where the Lu'au was. This is just a small part.

Digging out the pig.

Waiting for dinner.

and the show...

There was more to the show, but the girls were getting SO tired. O was just about asleep (it was about 8:30pm and she had been up since 5am!) and we thought we better leave. We are glad we did there was about 300 people attending the Lu'au. That would have taken so long to get out of there. It all worked out.

We had a great time. The girls want to learn how to hula now.

Arriving in Paradise

Our day was long, but it was all worth it once we arrived in Kaua'i.

We woke up at 5am (at a hotel near the airport). The girls were great on the plane. Every 10 minutes O wanted to look out the window. She took a nice nap on the plane. Hawaiian Airlines is fantastic. We received three drinks, a snack and a meal (all included!).

Our condo is beautiful. 1800 square feet (larger than our house).

Daddy making dinner on our first night.

Great Room - living room, dinning room, kitchen

There is a den and bathroom behind kitchen

Kitchen and Dinning Room

This is a view from the front door. Go up to the Great Room and down to the bedrooms, laundry and garage

from front door going down to bedrooms. There is a desk here in this space with the phone and Internet hook up.

Our bedroom with bathroom

The girls room. They also have their own bathroom, which they love. O still comes to wake me up at 2am when she goes pee! She said she didn't' want me to worry where she was if I came to check on them. So sweet, but I'm ASLEEP AT 2AM!

The girls decorating the condo for Easter. Thank you Aunt C! The first thing the girls did when we got to the condo was make these foam Easter eggs. Now we are ready.

Sunset from our balcony (off the Great Room) on our first night.

The beautiful view from our condo balcony!

A few flowers growing near the condo.

Not a great shot, but this little guy comes to visit every day. He is just beautiful. He usually arrives on the balcony when I DON'T have my camera. I'm hoping to get a better shot before the end of our trip. We'll see how I do.

The other thing I promise to get pictures of are chickens and roosters. Yes, chickens and roosters. They are all over the island. It's the funniest thing.

We are having a great time. As I post this we have done family portraits on the beach and a Lu'au. I'll be posting Lu'au pictures later today (it's about 8:40am our time right now).

It has been about 74˚ and raining most of the time since we arrived. O keeps asking me where the sun is. It comes out here and there. Yesterday as we were out exploring it just started pouring!

Well, better get ready for our day. Check in again. I'm hoping to be able to sit and add another post tonight.

Hattitude

"...there's a little more strut in your carriage when you

wear a nice hat. There's something special about you." 

CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats

by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry

Last weekend my mother took the girls and I to the theatre. We saw Crowns. It was absolutely wonderful!

This wonderful musical is adapted from the book CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry.

I love hats. Now I want to read the book. I have several hats I've collected over the years. I wish I had worn one to the theatre last weekend.

When I told the girls I had fancy hats like they wore in the musical they got very excited. Today we finally were able to sit and look through my collection.

The girls had a great time trying them on. I should really start wearing my hats again. After all there is nothing like Hattitude!

click on the image to enlarge

How do you spell fun?

O: "How do you spell fun?"

Mommy: "How do you spell fun?"

O: "F?"

Mommy: "Yes, what next?"

O: "Un?"

Mommy: "Yes, F and Un spell fun."

CK's Field Trip Adventure

posted by CK

Last week I went to the theatre to see the Junie B. Jones play. On the way home a city truck crashed our school bus mirror, but it did not stop. We pulled into a truck repair center. The bus driver had to call her boss. Her boss said we couldn't drive with the mirror broken. We waited for 2 hours for the second bus. We went home on that bus.

While we were on the bus we watched a movie on the TVs, we talked, and played hand games. We did not get to eat our lunch until last recess (about 2pm). We did not have our lunches on the bus.

I did feel a little scared, but I got over it because my friends were helping me.

It was an awesome field trip. 

Field Trip

Yesterday I was one of the chaperones on CK's 2nd Grade field trip. What a fun day. Because CK is in a 2nd/3rd Grade combo class I was only in charge of two kids! Lucky me. The parents in the other classes had five kids each.

The kids all had a great time. CK has been there many times, but it was her friends first time at the Aquarium. Here are just a few photographs I took.

Sea Dragon

Sea Otter

It rained all day, especially hard when they were feeding the Sea Otters. I thought I would go with the fact it was hard to focus on the Sea Otter behind the wet glass. 

Sea Anemone

Jellyfish

Bird Watching

Tide Pool

Pierced Ears for Our Little Lady

CK has wanted her ears pierced for a few years. I had told her she could get them pierced for her 1st Communion. I can't believe that time has come.

Keeping true to my promise we went to the mall today to get her ears pierced. She picked out these very pretty 14k gold, 3mm ball earrings. Just beautiful!

She did great! A little nervous, but didn't move a muscle or shed one tear.

O, on the other hand, waved her hands around stating, "I don't want my ears pierced." I made sure to tell her it was her choice. When she was ready she could get her ears pierced for her 1st Communion or after.