Hawaii Vacation–Big Island II

Thought I’d better update this a little. On Saturday we took it easy. We went shopping for awhile, got a few mementos for family, checked out the Costco there and then decided to drive around the city of Kona off the beaten path. We went up the hillside where there are lots of houses but also lots of vegetation. The roads have no continuity to them, i.e. straight north/south or east/west but more like they put in a road where it worked. There were some nice houses up there though. They seemed a lot newer and more well taken care of than a lot of others we had seen. That night, since it was my birthday, we decided to go to a local type restaurant to try out the local faire. We found one in the yellow pages that we decided to try. It took us about an hour to find it though as it was tucked way back in a shopping district. We walked in and here it was just like a fast food restaurant. The food was good though and not too expensive. Dad was a little disappointed as he wanted to at least have a nice place for my birthday. We made up for it the next day though. That night we went back to the condo and watched TV. We had thought about going to a movie but neither of us were in the mood by the time we got back from eating.
On Sunday we went to another Southern Baptist church which was quite different than the one we went to on Maui. It was much more conservative/traditional–even more so than our church in Montana. The regular pastor was on vacation so they had a lay pastor lead the service. They gave out a pen/bookmark package to all the women in the church–which was great as I had forgotten to take a pen along and you all know that I like to take notes at church. After church they had refreshments so we got to talk to some of the people there.
After church we went to a place called St. Benedict’s Painted Church. It was a church that a Catholic priest had built and painted in order to witness to the Hawaiians many years ago. He couldn’t talk their language so he used paintings of things in the Bible to witness to them. He had no artistic training but had done a great job on the church. it was a cute little church.
Then for lunch we went to a brunch at the Royal Kona Resort which they had there for Mother’s Day. It was really good (expensive but good). An all you can eat with many different foods than we would normally have. We pigged out on the crab legs and shrimp. Of course, we ate other things also. They also had lots of different desserts, some of which I finished but most of which I ate a bite or two. We then decided to go for a longer ride and went up north to Mauna Kea which is an inactive volcano. We went down this paved (?) road which was very bumpy. Reminded me of the way 212 through Montana used to be with all the potholes and roughness. We turned off once to go to a campground (potty stop) and saw this huge bush which turned out to be a geranium. It was beautiful. We also saw an army camp that they have up there and use for practice. We went up the road that goes to the top of Mauna Kea but didn’t get to the top. Our little tinny car just didn’t have the guts to get there. The part we did go up had a 17% grade and the rest of the way was a 19% grade so we would never have made it. We did stop at an observatory that is halfway up and talked to the people there. After we left there we went down the bumpy road back to main road and turned further north going to almost the northern most tip of the Big Island. Lots of farming country and cute little towns up there. I could live in one of those easier than in Kona or especially Honolulu. We saw more old lava flows which were interesting. Some lava flows are slow which make them more smooth and the fast ones look like tumbling, jagged rocks. Both of them are fascinating.
We saw where Harrison Ford has his Hawaii home along the coast but since I didn’t have him on my speed dial Dad decided we wouldn’t go there. It would be rude to just show up and not let him know we were coming. The truth is though that we could have gone there without any problem because in Hawaii they have a law that says that all land along the ocean is public so if someone has a house built right up to the ocean anyone can go to beach that is there anyway.
After that we went back to the condo and started our packing.
The next morning we took it easy, packed up the rest of the way, did a little more shopping and went to the airport. The airport we left from in Kona was much different than the one in Honolulu or even on Maui. This was was just a bunch of little open air buildings, almost like shacks with a common area in the middle where you waited for your flight to be called. They had one restaurant and 3 small newsstands.
Thus our vacation in Paradise came to an end. We had a wonderful time although it was a lot busier than we had expected. We made it that way ourselves as we wanted to see so much. If we ever get the chance to go back we will probably pick one island and just tour that one along with some down time. We did have some down time but actually needed to get back home to rest.
A big thank you to our children for making this possible. It is a trip we will never forget and never regret. We have lots of pictures so if anyone want to see them let us know.
Love to you all.

The Next Chapter in Eli’s Book

Today I think I will retire.  I’d quit, only there is no one to which I can give my resignation, and I want to collect benefits.  Therefore, I am retiring.

Navayah Emeth decided not to sleep very well all night.  I have no idea how many times she woke up, but I counted my sleep in consecutive uninterrupted minutes, not hours.  At 7:35 a.m. (they slept in!) when Eli toddled into the room with his good-morning announcement (“I wvent poopy in my pants and my diaper.  Will you tchain me?), I had been better.  I had to scrub at my eyes for a few minutes before my lids became light enough to keep open longer than 3/4ths of a second.  I plodded through the morning routine, mostly moving on auto pilot and also acting unsaintly and speaking loudly (ok, yelling) to my children.  Around 10:30, I wandered onto the couch and accidentally fell asleep.  Eli was in the bathtub.  This was not smart, I realize, but I had 6 brain cells left, and only one of them was anywhere close to conscious.  Had I been in possession of more than that, I would never have left him unsupervised anywhere, especially not the bathtub.

At 11:00 or so, Hannah puts her hand on my face.  I realized I was sleeping and dreaming, not awake and checking on Eli.  She immediately informed me of what had happened in my “absence”. 

“Eli went poopy in the bathtub.”
“No he didn’t.”
“He did.”
I groan and wrench myself sitting.  I have to fight against what is probably large quantities of iron or other heavy metals pumping through my veins and making every limb harder to lift.
“Also, he pooped on the wall and rubbed it all over.”
I had Hannah call Daddy and report the news to him.  I trudged to the bathroom.

Eli had smeared chunks of excrement on the rug, the bathmat, the sink, the vanity, the floor, the space heater, the bathtub walls–inside and out–, the bathtub faucet, deep into the corner grout, and as high up on the shower walls (all 3 sides) as he could reach. Finger paint.  Ironically, the only area of the bathroom that was free from his special painting was the toilet.  It was completely untouched.

WHY?????

Interestingly, there was a full moon today.

Conveyor Belt and Sleeping

Ok, so those two things don’t have much to do with each other, but it sums up my life these days.

I’ve compared my day to feeling like a conveyor belt – moving babies around and around the same circle of places.  We start the day in the play gym with toys hanging overhead.  Lately, they (especially Paul) have been rolling to their tummies, then fussing because they don’t like it for longer than 5 minutes or so.  After several times with them rolling to their tummies, fussing, and me flipping them to their backs, I finally get sick of it and move them to the bouncy seat for a little relaxation.  Then it’s back to the floor, flip and flop, then to the exersaucer and jumperoo (two toys that let them “stand” and play with toys).  Paul also enjoys relaxing in the swing, although Lucas doesn’t take it for very long.  Then it’s to the crib for a nap, to my lap for feeding, and around and around we go.  Sometimes, there’s 5 minutes in there for me to finish and email or do the dishes.  Good thing I’m not a picky housekeeper.  The bathroom hasn’t been cleaned in probably 6 weeks. (Sorry Mom! I know you taught us better than that!)
As for the sleeping part of things, the boys started getting more difficult to put to sleep lately, so we had to bring in the big guns: letting them cry a little more than before.  I looked online at the “cry it out method,” and found a methodical approach to letting them cry: going in to comfort them without picking them up, lengthening the amount of time between comforting each day.  Lucas has been able to fall asleep after only 1-2 minutes of crying; then he “sings” himself to sleep – yes, a form of “singing!”  It’s quite cute!  He now does it in the middle of the night also.  James heard him this morning singing at about 6am, then again at about 6:40, and finally got him up at 7:10.  He must sing himself back to sleep because otherwise he’d probably be fussing.  Paul started off crying for about 15 minutes the first night with us going in twice, and four nights later, he was down to 5 minutes and we didn’t have to go in once.  He also sings as he’s falling asleep, but only when he’s being held.

They’re very active little boys, and it’s getting harder to get much more than the necessary chores done every day.  I try to take a walk at the mall with them in the stroller 2-3 times a week.  It’s usually during their morning nap, so they sleep while I walk, and then I usually have 5-15 minutes after the walk to enjoy a cup of coffee and my book.  It’s a nice routine.  Afternoon naps sometimes work out, other times not (see post on our personal page).  Nights are getting better, thought sometimes they wake at 1 or 2am, and won’t fall back to sleep without nursing.  “Normal” is one feeding at about 4:30.  But that changes day to day.  We’ll probably start some rice cereal this week.  Am I ready for that?  I finally feel like things are manageable, and feeding solids just makes things busier.  They probably could get by for awhile on just breast milk, but I also like the idea of not worrying about keeping up my supply.

Well, time to play the conveyor belt once more!  God, grant me patience!

Mistakes

So tonight I was talking to my daughter in the kitchen while she ate supper. Here is our conversation.

Me: Did you know you’re pretty?

Kelle shakes head yes.

M: Who made you pretty?

K: God.

M: Does God make mistakes?

Kelle shakes her head yes.

M: No. God doesn’t make mistakes.

Kelle looks at me for a few seconds, then says: He made you.

So apparently my daughter thinks I’m a mistake. She did follow this up after I had finished laughing with. “Mom, you’re pretty.”

Hawaii Vacation–Big Island

I’ll start this post before I forget what we did.
We landed here in the afternoon, picked up our car–a tinny (yes, tinny not tiny) compact Dodge with individual locks and roll-down windows, nothing automatic–and drove to our condo–Kanaloa at Kona. We checked in and went to the condo–first floor, ocean view, NOT air conditioned, unless you call open windows air conditioning. In a way it isn’t too bad because now we can hear the waves, hear the birds and also feel the breeze. It is a little humid though. At least there are fans here. We went out for supper at a place called Bubba Gumps. The food was okay–4 kinds of shrimp–but we sat about a foot from the ocean and when some of the waves came we almost got wet. it was really neat. Thursday morning we went to the orientation breakfast and set up a tour around the island. We were going to do a helicopter trip but $400+ per person was a little steep. Maybe next time we come we’ll do that. (Dad does talk about a next time.) We sat and relaxed most of the day then went and got some groceries and made our own supper which we will be eating leftovers a few times. The next morning we got up early and a small tour bus picked us up at 7:15 a.m. We spent the next 12+ hours on the tour. Was very worthwhile as now we know what we want to go back to see things. We hope to go a few places today and tomorrow. One of the places I want to go is to an International Market and another is a church that has paintings sort of like the ones Michaelangelo painted we’re told. Dad wants to do some more road exploring. We got to see a volcano up quite close that was spewing smoke–which is really all over the islands, the smoke that is. We walked through a long lava tube, saw steam vents from the volcano, went to a black sand beach and saw a huge turtle. The vegetation here is so sporatic. The rainfall will be 40 inches per year one place and a mile down the road it will be 200 inches per year. There are 11 of the 13 climates on this island and everything from rainforest to desert just short distances from each other. We saw waterfalls and rode over bridges which went over deep valleys. There was lots of lava and it can be different colors–brown, black, etc. and some of it has no form of life on it at all. We saw wild pigs, turkeys, and wild donkeys.
We went to a coffee plantation, orchid farm, macadamia nut farm, a park with a beautiful waterfalls right in downtown Hilo, saw lots of mango, guava and other fruit-bearing trees right along the road. We even saw a Noni bush. We had ice cream at the macadamia nut farm with nuts in it. At our last stop we got to have a native “donut” with bavarian cream inside. I think it was called a malasada or something like that. Yum, or as in Hawaiian “Ono”! We were both tired when we got back to the condo so just heated up the dinner from the night before. I’m learning how to speak in the Hawaiian way–vowels are very important but the sounds are different. a=ah, e=long a, i=long e, o=long o and u=oo. I guess one is also supposed to pronounce all the vowels in a word. So Paia=Paheeah. Some of the words and even towns have more vowels in them than consonants. Aloha is hello, good-bye and love. Mahalo is thank you. Anyway, I’ll write more about today and Sunday after we do things those days. Love to you all!!

Hawaii Vacation–Maui

Time to try and remember our days on Maui. We got there in the afternoon and rented our car. We were supposed to have a compact car but ended up with a Dodge station wagon. A little too big for our tastes. We found our condo at Kaanapali which was Kaanapali Shores Resort. It was about a 30-45 minute drive from the airport but most of that was along the coast. Beautiful scenery. (Duh!!) We were on the 6th floor with a partial ocean view and partial view of some apartments getting reshingled. It was air conditioned which was nice. The condo was also very nice. We didn’t do much the first evening except go out for something to eat and relax.
Day 2 was first spent going to an orientation breakfast, looking at some more of the resort, I spent a little time on the beach, and then late that afternoon we went to Lahina–5 minutes down the road–to Front Street and walked along the little shops there. We saw a huge Banyan tree which was very interesting. We saw Tammy Leep’s sister who lives there and works in one of the shops. After awhile we went down to the dock and boarded a boat, the Spirit of Lahina, for a dinner cruise. We had a good time and it was very relaxing. Got to see the sunset and even a rainbow on the hillside. Some of the people saw a spout of a whale waaayyyyyy in the distance but I didn’t see it. Dad did though. After dinner we went back to the condo and relaxed until about 9:30–then to bed. Most of our days seem to be: awake at 6-6:30 and ready for bed by 9:30. Guess we’re still on mainland time.
On Sunday we went to church at a Baptist church–the walls were doors that slid back and so the breezes drifted through the sanctuary. All the visitors received a shell lei. I really liked the service and the sermon was great–to be continued this Sunday so I won’t be able to hear the rest of it. After church we went to the Maui Ocean Center and saw all kinds of marine life. It was really neat–probably not as neat as snorkeling but it’ll have to do. That night we went to a luau. The food was good, the entertainment was fun and we had good conversation with the people around us. (I found a girl for Tim but didn’t get her name and number–bummer!!)
Monday we took our car and drove up the the Haleakala Crater. We thought about doing bikes but they would only bring us half way up and we wanted to go to the top plus it was quite costly. We saw the crater, went hiking in a lush area and really enjoyed the day. The vegetation is really different around here. On the hike we first saw sparse vegetation but as we went into the cloud we saw rainforest vegetation. Even had wet hair and clothes because of the mist. It was beautiful! That night we had a beautiful sunset off the lanai of our condo.
On Tuesday we did the daring thing (according to lots of people) and drove ourselves on the Road to Hana. It is known as a steep, winding, sometimes narrow road. Didn’t scare us Montanan’s though. We saw some beautiful coastlines, waterfalls, botanical areas, a black sand beach, a lava tube which we went into, a blowhole and lots of greenery and flowers. It was a wonderful drive and we were glad we hadn’t taken a tour bus. There were some places that were narrow but you just stopped and waited for the guy on the other side of the narrow spot to go through first or went through first ourselves. The town of Hana isn’t much but the way there is great–a must see if one comes here. There was a little town called Ke’anae (sp) on the way that was quite interesting. Also we saw, in the distance, a church that had been made of coral many years ago. On the way back we stopped by a beach near Paia where there were wind surfers, regular surfers and a parasailer surfer. Fun to watch!
Wednesday morning we got ready to go to the Big Island, then I walked on the beach a little and Dad read for awhile. We returned our car and boarded the plane to Hawaii’s Big Island.

Hawaii Vacation–Oahu

April 28–We left Minneapolis at 8:55 a.m. and arrived in LA at 11:00 a.m. Yohan, a friend of James, picked us up at the airport and brought us, first to James apartment, and then to a Fat Burger for lunch. He really didn’t want to go back to work but knew he needed to so left us at the restaurant and we walked back to James’s place from there. It was quite warm–90+ degrees but the walk was good. We just lazied around the apartment all afternoon, reading, playing on the computer and watching TV. James was able to get off work by 6:00 so the three of us went to a Korean restaurant for supper. By 9:30 we were ready for bed as we had been up quite early that morning and the time change made it even later.
April 29–Up at 5:45 and off to the airport. James dropped us off and went to work. We checked in and waited until 9:00 when our flight left for Honolulu. The plane was a large plane with 7 seats across. The flight took around 5.5 hours so the crew showed 2 movies–both of them “kids” movies. Larry watched one of them (I slept) and I watched some of the second one (Larry read). We landed in Honolulu, went to get our luggage and met a representative from Pleasant Holidays who directed us to a small bus which brought us to our hotel. We are staying at the O’hana East, which is about a block off the beach, on the 19th floor also known as the Penthouse. It is not a fancy penthouse room–just a plain room on the top floor. At least we can see the ocean (between the other tall hotels) from our lanai (balcony for those of you who don’t know what that is). After settling in we walked down to the beach and familiarized ourselves with our surroundings. We were able to watch and listen to a show that is put on by a dance studio. This was performed outdoors on an open park area. Adults and kids were performing plus three men were playing and singing the music. That night we were both in bed by 8:00 and asleep by 8:30. That calculates into 11:00 California time, 12:00 Montana time, 1:00 Minnesota time and 2:00 Florida time. Of course our bodies were still on Minnesota time since we were there before LA.
April 30–Oh to sleep in!! But our bodies were on Minnesota time yet and we were both awake at 5:30 finally giving in and getting up at 6:00. Showers felt good, and we had to be at an orientation breakfast by 7:15. We first got to read our free newspaper. Breakfast was so-so. At the breakfast we were able to book an trip around the island of Oahu for Thursday. After the breakfast we took a city bus and went to Pearl Harbor. Very interesting and also very sobering. It made me feel funny knowing that 1000+ men were still in the Arizona. It also made me very thankful the Tim was now home and now in the same danger that these men were. We took the bus back, spent some time in the room, did more walking around Waikiki. On the beach was another show which we watched about 1/2 hour of–we had missed the rest of it. One of the fun things this night were the street performers. There was music, mime and also three guys who were living statues. One was black and white, one silver and one gold. They were at different areas. As we were walking down the street suddenly the silver statue moved and totally scared two gals who were walking by. When they went past the gold statue they made sure they were as far away from him as possible. We managed to stay up until about 9:30 but were again ready for bed.
May 1–May Day. Up again by 5:30–Our tour around the island left by 7:30. There were approximately 25 people on our small bus. A very interesting tour guide drove the bus and told us a lot of interesting things about Hawaii. We first went to Pali Lookout which was an interesting battle place. It was high in the mountains but because of the “vogg”, volcanic fog, which has been here since we arrived. It is from the volcanoes on the big island. from there we went to the Dole Plantation–bought some pineapple ice cream and other goodies. Next was the Waimea Falls. This can be a very large falls–when there is lots of rain–but not right now. At the bottom is a pond in which anyone can swim. Lots of interesting plants on the grounds. Then we went to a place for lunch. The people make it out of the back of a moving van–any kind of shrimp you want, chicken or pork. It was excellent. Wish we could go back there!!! Yum, Yum. Kept going on the bus, saw where the Polynesian Cultural Center is but were not able to go there. (have to save that for another trip). We to a place where they grow macadamia nuts and Kona coffee. Lots of tasty samples here. We went to the Valley of the Temples–Buddhist. The Asian Headstones were huge–very costly. At this cemetery the people will put something that the person who died liked to eat or drink–bottled water, coffee, beer, coke, oranges, Mc Donalds, and other things. There was also a pet cemetery here. We went to Hanauma Bay where James had done his snorkeling. Very beautiful. One thing we really noticed was how many different colors the ocean could be from dark royal blue to teal to almost a yellow. We saw Diamond Head but didn’t stop. Lots more scenic areas but none that come to mind now. It is really a different country that what we are used to. Lots of people here–not a place where Dad and I wish to live. We are looking forward to tomorrow going to Maui. We leave here around 12:00 to catch our plane at 2:00. I’ll catch you up on more tomorrow or the next day.