Hawai'i

I'm not going to go into every little detail of our trip, because I imagine that gets a bit tedious for you readers.  So here are some of the general things we did, and a whole lot of pictures!

We arrived late, Hawaii time, and my parents picked us up and took us straight to the hotel, telling us that they thought we'd be happy with our room.  When we got there, we discovered that we were on the 14th floor, the very top!  My Mom had some doughnuts, which I scarfed down (along with a few chocolate-covered macadamia nuts) and then we pretty much headed to bed.  We woke up early to this view from our balcony:

And because we had no kids with us and it was super easy to do, we threw on some clothes and headed to breakfast at Cinnamon's.  I got French toast and Craig indulged in their specialty, red velvet pancakes with a white chocolate glaze.  I may have stolen several bites of his!

It's like chocolate cake for breakfast.  But better!

Walking back to our hotel, it was still early so we had this great view of the Hilton Hawaiian Lagoon with Diamondhead in the background, and hardly anyone else around!

Most of our trip was spent like this.  Get up when we wanted, get breakfast where we wanted.  Wander to either the beach or the pool or do whatever activity we had planned for the day.  Figure out where we wanted to eat for dinner.  Repeat.  It was AWESOME.

We spent a lot of time at the grown up pool, which had just been re-done and was lovely and quiet.  I enjoyed not worrying about kids drowning.  And I also liked splashing in the pool remembering what I do in a pool when I don't have several kids all hanging on me at the same time.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed lazing in the water!

These tiny little pompom flowers kept dropping on me

Lovely sunset from our room

One evening after dinner we found Volcano Shakes, and enjoyed this s'more shake.  It was really good, but a lot of work (and mess!) to eat!  We ultimately decided we were glad we'd tried it, but probably wouldn't bother again...

One morning Craig got up early and went scuba diving.  Unfortunately he didn't get any underwater pictures (a fact that made him sad), but he had a great time exploring some wrecks and seeing giant sea turtles

My huge pink hat made me easy to find on the beach

My parents had these new funky snorkeling masks-- my Dad looks ready to be in Top Gun!

With my parents, we took a ride in an outrigger canoe and it was amazing how fast we could go!  (I may have sung some Moana under my breath.)  We got pictures from that, but our computer isn't recognizing CDs at this moment.  One of these days I'll figure out how to get to those pictures.  Then we went snorkeling and saw a bunch of fish, including several humuhumunukunukuapua'a, which made us happy.  My parents were a bit disappointed in the number of fish we saw, but I thought it was pretty great.  Until a few days later when we went again and THIS time someone was throwing bread to the fish-- then we saw TONS.  So many fish I felt like I could reach out and grab one.  I even worried a little that I might get bit.  But it was amazing.  I love snorkeling.  Some day I'll get scuba certified and get to go with Craig-- I'm pretty sure I'll love that even more!

Managed to get a table on the beach at Duke's

Waikiki at sunset

We hiked Diamondhead one morning.  This was especially fun for me because I wasn't able to when we went to Hawaii five years ago.

One of the best things we did was go parasailing-- we took pictures AND the drivers took pictures, so forgive me for oversharing on this one.  But it was just so cool!!!!

All hooked in and...

...Ready for lift-off!

Higher we go!

This was why we had to buy the pictures.  I love this so much.

The water really did look just like that!

This is another of my favorites

Everyone got dipped.  The captain warned us, "If you don't want to get wet, there's a movie theater just down the street."  I thought that was hilarious.

Splash!

My Dad hugging the eagle before he sent it on to his grandkids

On Thursday we drove to the PCC, stopping at Boots & Kimos in Kailua for a breakfast with macadamia nut syrup-- to die for.  

It was an hour long wait to get inside, but only a ten-minute wait if you just grabbed a table outside!

We took tons of pictures and video at the PCC, but you could probably get better stuff by going to their website, so I'll skip those for now.

We celebrated my birthday there, so Craig got me a pretty lei!  We also got massages, which were amazing-- best massage I've ever had.  When it was over, I felt like I was made of silly putty.  In a good way...

My parents took us to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on my birthday and it was uh-may-zing.  Words cannot describe. 

Then we watched the sunset, and THEN we watched the Hilton fireworks from my parents' balcony.  It was a pretty good way to celebrate!

Another morning we went to Leonard's bakery and got these-- they're like giant doughnut holes rolled in sugar and then filled with your cream of choice.  I got two-- one with custard cream and the other chocolate custard.  They were so rich I could barely finish, but they were fabulous.

There are my parents!  And their missionary nametags, too!

On our last full day, Craig took a surfing lesson.  I splashed in the water and took a few pictures of him before I decided I was too likely to end up dropping his phone in the water.

I love how they give the newbies the biggest surfboards imaginable!

See the guy standing up on his board?  That's Craig!

I got artsy with my camera

I think we gained back half the weight we'd lost before going, but we expected that to happen.  (Craig had some crazy notion that we would try to exercise while we were on vacation, but I quickly disabused him of that notion.  Although I do need to get back to all that healthy stuff now that we're home...)  We had such a great time, though-- it was nice to just be able to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.  It was nice to take a break from worrying and counting heads and buckling and unbuckling car seats.  It was nice to have a few little adventures.  And it was really nice getting to hang out with my parents so much!

I don't know if or when we'll ever be able to manage a trip like this again, so it's also nice to know that we can bask in the knowledge that we made the most out of this one!

Le Reunion

So I said that I was also going to my high school reunion on our way out.  Since I like to be chronological, I'll start with that.

We got to my parents' empty house late-- around 11pm, which is 2am east coast time.  (My parents are on a mission in Hawaii, and my sister Tracy is watching their home for them, except when she gets called away on what can only be described as Extreme Babysitting Assignments.)  We ate a salad we'd picked up at the grocery store and pretty much went straight to bed.

I woke up early excited for my reunion.  I showered and slathered on as much mascara as possible.  My hair cooperated and looked as good as it had in weeks, so that was promising.  I had arranged to meet up with some friends (and their spouses) at the Streamliner Diner for breakfast, but then Tracy pointed out that getting a table for 8 people on a Saturday morning would be next to impossible.  Fortunately, my friend Charlotte was super nice and went really early to get our names on the list.  I think she waited for an hour.

Meanwhile, I was all ready to go and wanting to see my friends, but Craig was still sleeping.  I was torn between wanting to be nice to him and wanting to get going.  I stalled as long as my patience could manage before prodding him out of bed (what a way to start your first day of vacation!).  Meeting up with my friends was SO FUN.  And meeting their spouses (some for the first time!) was delightful.  And, of course, the food was fabulous.  Naturally, we didn't take any pictures.  I don't know what is wrong with me...

Next was the first part of the actual reunion, where I got to see one of my favorite teachers and a whole lot of random people.  Most of the people there I knew and recognized, but couldn't remember ever speaking to.  Or if I did, it's because we were friends in elementary school, but never after that.  How does that happen?  Growing up is such a weird experience!!!!!  But I still found friends to chat with, and even a girl I'd thought of as my nemesis who was super fun to catch up with-- surprise!  So that was cool.

And it was the only place where we actually took a picture:

Me, Elizabeth, and Charlotte (all dutifully wearing our name badges!)

By then I was exhausted, so we headed back to the house and took a nap!  Because we could!  Because there was no one around to tell us not to!

My Mom's roses, which Craig so helpfully watered for her

After napping, Craig and I went to the park near my house where there was enough of a signal to facetime with the kids for a few minutes.  Then we went to dinner at my favorite Thai food restaurant, and learned that it's better to eat Thai with a whole crowd of people so you get to sample more dishes!  Instead, we just ordered WAY too much food for two people.

Next was the other half of the reunion, which was also super fun, but with more people I knew but never managed to say Hi to.  Go figure.  But I sure enjoyed spending more time talking with friends.  We ducked out a bit early hoping to grab ice cream from Mora, but they closed early, so that was really sad (I felt so bad for Craig, who'd been such a good sport about the whole day and then didn't get the ice cream he'd been looking forward to!).

Looking at facebook a few days later, I saw that they'd taken group photos at both reunion events and I'd missed them both!  Which was especially lame since I'd missed the big class photo back when I was IN high school (I'd been out of town).  {Sigh.}  But I guess if that's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, then I've led an easy life.

Instead of ice cream, Craig and I went and sat in my parents' hot tub for a bit and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the woods.  We went to bed late, again, and I woke up early, again.  This time I woke up because I was excited to see Natalie!  Once again I puttered around trying not to let myself wake Craig up too early, but eager to get going.  Eventually we headed out the door and drove to Natalie's place, where we got to hang out until it was time for church.  After church we had a quick dinner (bless Natalie for feeding us-- we thought we'd have to eat airport food!) and then Natalie dropped us off at Sea-Tac.

On our way out, we flew right over Bainbridge Island and I got the best aerial view of it I've ever had.  I snapped this picture a bit late, I was so entranced.

That's my island!!!

We also were heading west during the sunset, so we got to enjoy that lasting a good long time.  This picture doesn't do it justice-- it was gorgeous.  It almost made up for the big jerk sitting in front of me who had his seat leaning back the entire flight, and kept trying to shove it further into my knees...

Pretty sunset!

I'd been really nervous about the reunion-- I was kind of relieved to have it all over and feel happy about it.  Now I could relax and just enjoy Hawaii!

I'm back. Sort of.

We flew home on a redeye Sunday night/Monday morning (a week and a half ago), landing at Dulles at 6:30am.  We managed to collect our luggage, catch our shuttle, and get to our car without too much trouble (well-- there may have been some exasperation on everyone's parts as I frantically ran around the airport trying to figure out what door I was supposed to be exiting through and Craig kept telling me I'd done it wrong rather than actually telling me where I SHOULD be going-- but we did catch the shuttle and managed to hold it rather than waiting for the next one an hour later).  Craig's car even started, so that was also good!  Then we had to stop in Manassas and fix a leaky sink there (the joys of being a landlord!), but that also went quickly, and we made it home to Charlottesville before 11am.  So not bad!  I don't really pull all-nighters-- I didn't even when I was in college-- so this was a new experience for me.  But I also don't really sleep in places that aren't my bed, so it wasn't shocking when I didn't manage to sleep on the plane.  I probably could have slept in the car, but I felt like it was my job to chat with Craig while he drove and make sure he wasn't falling asleep.  We amused ourselves by trying to rank everything we'd done in Hawaii (we didn't get far, but it was a fun way to relive it all!).  Oh-- and the A/C in his car had stopped working, so that made the drive home super fun.

But it was WONDERFUL hugging all the kids.  Camille was in her high chair when we walked in the door, so I took off the tray and she fell into my arms and hugged me for five minutes! 

Back with my baby

And Kendra!

And Ryder, too!

And it was really fun giving them their souvenirs that we'd bought.  And then I stumbled into bed and napped for...  three and a half hours?  Still not nearly long enough.  (I'd warned Tracy that even though we'd be home, I'd still be relying on her for a bit.  She was a really good sport about it.)

My parents had sent this bald eagle-- it was an even bigger hit than I was!

We only had Tracy with us for another day and a half (during which time I used her for more babysitting so I could finally get the safety inspection done on the new van), then she flew back to Seattle late Wednesday morning.  And then on Friday we drove up to Palmyra, New York to camp for a couple days!

So I'm still really dead.  I know I have so much blogging to catch up on, but I'm kind of wandering around in a fog still.  Colton waking me up in the middle of every night is not helping, either.

But for now, Hawaii was awesome.  Camping was awesome.  I will be sharing lots of pictures in the near future, if I can only get a decent night's sleep!

This picture seems like a good one to end a blog post on!