Hawaii Vacation-Day 4

This week Mason has been taking the car to work in the mornings while the boys and I have some slower mornings at the hotel.  This has worked out pretty well since the boys aren't feeling well, and have actually been sleeping, which is huge for Woodrow.  Theo did a few school papers, and we relaxed around the hotel until Mason came to pick us up for lunch.  We ended up eating at Yummy Korean BBQ at a strip mall close to Ford Island, and I grabbed a Jamba Juice smoothie.  The boys didn't eat and Maximus just wanted to crawl all around...I miss the highchair!

I wanted to get on a hike today, so even though Woodrow was not feeling great, I decided we'd attempt the Manoa Falls Hike to a waterfall.  I got a little turned around on the directions and we stumbled upon a Chinese Cemetery.  It was a very pretty location so I hopped out and took some photos.  The Asian culture and influences are so interesting.  The kids only liked the dragon statues guarding the entrance.

The area around the Manoa Falls trail head was very beautiful.  There was a "Botanical Garden" but from driving by it, it looked like someones house with an impressive garden.  There were lots of chickens and roosters wandering the parking lot and patrolling the lot.  After living in Guam, the kids didn't even bat an eye at the wandering chickens.  One of the challenges of hiking solo with the kids is how to carry the gear we need on hikes.  Woodrow doesn't hike without water and snacks, so those are necessities.  Usually we just need water, snacks, bug spray, a diaper, and bottle supplies for Max.  I could tell this day that Theo wasn't going to do well carrying the backpack.  We tried it out, but I decided it wasn't going to be a good idea (and looking back that was the right decision).  I chugged some water, gave Max a bottle before starting the trail, and the boys each carried their water bottles.  Usually I rely on just using my phone to take photos, since carrying the Canon adds bulk, and I don't want to damage it if I were to fall, but I was really trying to take better photos on this trip, so I carried the camera and Max. 

The trail was 1.6 miles round trip and had a 784 ft. elevation gain.  I had also read that it was pretty muddy in some parts but that the 100ft waterfall at the end was supposed to be beautiful.  I'm not really too familiar with the shows Jurassic Park and Lost, but I guess some of the scenes were filmed in this area.  We set off at a very slow, but steady pace.  Woodrow was looking pretty pale and wasn't that in to the hike, but he was doing pretty well.  The beginning part of the trail was very flat and there were lots of pretty trees and plants to look at.  We followed the trail along a stream and stopped at all the trail signs to read about various stream life and plant life along the trail.  Theo did AWESOME on this hike.  He was a huge helper with Woodrow and had a great attitude.  I completely bribed Woodrow with being able to open a small little lego package when we got back to the car.

When we were about halfway into the trail I asked a woman who was hiking with her dad and children about how much longer it was to the falls to assess whether we should continue with Woodrow in his pitiful state.  She was concerned about us hiking the end of the trail since she said it got very muddy, slippery, and steep.  I told her we'd continue on and if we needed to turn around we would.  She said, "you must be military."  I said yeah, not our first solo  hike.  Closer to the finish line Woodrow had had it and was crying on a rock.  An older couple passed us and stopped to chat with Woodrow and even offered to carry him-which we didn't need.  They went on their way and the man kept calling out, "Come on Woodrow, you can do it." and "I see the falls, where's Woodrow."  A little embarrassing, but Woodrow did press on to the end to see the falls.  They did great!  I did have mom guilt.  The second half of the trail was very muddy, slippery, and steep as we had been warned, but we did pretty well.

The walk back to the car was slow and steady and thankfully I got a message from Mason that he'd gotten a ride back to the hotel, because we finished up a little later than I had planned.   After piling our muddy/stinky selves back in the car, we headed back to the hotel room and cleaned up.  We ended up having dinner at a small Mexican restaurant nearby and then headed to the airport to surprise my parents who were arriving to join us for vacation!

This was such an exciting part of the trip.  We haven't seen family since moving to Guam in April 2016, and no one has met Maximus yet, so we were so thrilled that my parents and sister and her boyfriend decided to meet us in Hawaii.  It was soooooooo great to hug them and see them. 

Hawaii Vacation-Day 3

It was another rough night with Woodrow.  We put him in our room on this trip so he wouldn't be goofing around with Theo all night long, and he's been up coughing and coughing.  Poor buddy, but darn I was hoping the cough medicine would help and just knock him out.  So, Mason and I didn't get great sleep either and unfortunately Mason's got to go off to work in the morning.  I finally woke up Woodrow around 9:50 so we could get out the door and go swimming at the pool before having to meet up with Mason at noon.  

The kids were excited to check out the hotel pool which is just so nice.  It felt great to be outdoors, and relaxing in the pool.  The kids had their floats on which eases my mind and Theo had fun playing with his Transformer toy he got with his McDonalds meal yesterday.  We had to get out around 11:30 and run back to the room to change so we could be ready when Mason came by for lunch.  Some of his coworkers were headed to the Boston Pizza Restaurant so we met up with them.  Pretty cheap, decent pizza.  Woodrow looked like death.  All day he basically looked about 1 blink away from throwing up, which was a struggle for me because of course I don't want him to feel bad, but I also had two hikes in mind for the afternoon, and really wanted to do one. 

After lunch we dropped off Mason and all three kids passed out.  Like sound, sound asleep.   Max actually slept all through lunch too.  So, I wasn't in a huge rush, but I decided we'd head to the waterfall hike so we could be shaded, take our time, and hopefully it wouldn't be too strenuous.  Well I missed the turn because the road on the highway was named something different, so after trying to turn around and get back to where I wanted to go I decided maybe that wasn't in the cards for us, and I'd head to the backup, Diamond Head.  I wasn't sure how Woodrow would do, but Theo had voted on this hike so I thought we'd check it out. 

Again, I need a GPS.  I got all sorts of lost and if the kids hadn't still be sleeping I would have been really pissed off.  I mean, Diamond Head is big, I could see it, I just kept getting on the wrong road too it, and once I got into Waikiki, talk about stress. I just don't do well in cities and with traffic anymore.  It was instant stress. Lol.  I finally made my way to the Diamond Head Overlook and we stopped and I took a few photos and watched a few surfers.  Theo and Woodrow were awake at this point, but wanted to stay in the car.  When we finally got around to Diamond Head, the trail was closed for the afternoon.  Basically for the next few months you can only hike in the morning--okay God I see the signs--no hiking today. 

We headed back towards Ford Island with a short detour at Pearl Harbor base, and a quick drive by the USS Arizona, but then we just ended up back on Ford Island where I decided we'd check out the USS Missouri.  It cost money to go on board, but you could walk around the dock for free and since it was about to close, we did this for 20 minutes.  Woodrow thought the battleship was pretty cool and both boys enjoyed walking around the area.  I thought Mason might be done with work early, so we just headed there to wait for him.  Turns out he wasn't done early today, but we got to see a submarine, some helicopters flying, and then just hang out for a bit. 

By the time we got Mason just after 5:00 I was definitely ready to be out of the car and was in need of some space--ha, there is none on vacation!  We took a short break and then decided to take a walk.  It was BEAUTIFUL out.  It was so much less humid than Guam, there was a nice breeze, and it was amazing.  We checked out where the USS Utah sunk and then let the kids play at the park for a few minutes before going to grab dinner.  We got Thai Garden and took it back to the patio at our hotel and enjoyed dinner outdoors.  Woodrow was mostly impressed with all the tiki torches at the hotel and Theo found some pineapple plants which was cool. 

All the boys are finally asleep.   Woodrow is loudly coughing and snoring, and Mason smartly inserted ear plugs for the night.  Hopefully tomorrow we hike! 

Hawaii Vacation- Day 2

This morning Mason took the car to work.  We figured it would allow all of us to get our bearings on the area and setting in to our new location.  The night of sleep was rough because Woodrow was up quite a bit coughing which kept Mason up tossing and turning.  Mason headed off to work by 7:30am, but Woodrow decided to sleep in until 10:30am (which would be a normal wake-up time in Guam), but I didn't want to wake Woodrow at all.  Max, Theo, and I hung out in the living room.  Theo did some school work, we Facetimed my parents, and when Woodrow woke-up we decided to take a nature walk around the hotel area.  I think I could build a photo album on just the flora and fauna alone.  It all looks so healthy and smells amazing.  Right next to our hotel lobby was a small part and the kids had a blast playing for a half hour while we waited for Mason to come for lunch.  They enjoyed trying the monkey bars, fireman pole, and twisty slide.  Max took a snooze on me, so I was forced to read for a few minutes on the shady park bench.  It was rough. 

Mason swung by a few minutes after noon and said he had to be back at 1 for his meetings, so we drove to a quick strip mall he knew of and grabbed Panda Express for lunch.  I got to drive the minivan back while he scarfed his lunch down and promised the kids we'd get them food after taking Mason back to work.  After dropping Mason at work I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the kids, but lunch was the priority. They picked McDonalds-shocker-and I looked up a local garden I thought would be fun to eat at.  Now, I should either just invest in renting the GPS with the rental car, or pay to have my phone turned on to work in Hawaii...I so need directions.  Fortunately we survived the day by using Google maps which worked just enough to show me the little blue dot where I was on the map. 

I was able to find the Maunaloa Gardens, but after arriving in the park lot, I realized it looked like a large grassy field with some trees that you had to pay to enter.  It looked nice, but I didn't really want to pay for our picnic lunch, so I scoped out my map, and decided we'd hit the road on an Ellen Adventure--I had somewhat an idea of the route I wanted to take, but no set plans.  We'd stop if I saw something cool and go from there. 

I found a road that basically went North from Honolulu across to the other coast and then looped around the Eastern tip of Oahu and decided to go with that.  The road took us through mountains, and beautiful greenery.  There was a cutoff that I decided to take on a whim, and it was like this magical foresty area.  The road was the Nuuanu Pali Drive and it was so pretty.  The trees arched over the road, you could see bamboo, hear birds chirping, and see flowers growing.  There were several cars pulled over in one area so we stopped too and it was a trailhead.  I hadn't really prepared to hike (not lots of water and we were in sandals), but we walked in a little bit before the path crossed a stream and it was so beautiful!  It reminded me of some hikes we've done in Tennessee with Mason's family.  The boys had fun running around with sticks and checking out the large boulders. If we were more prepared I would definitely have checked out the Judd Trail more.  A few people were on it and said it was fairly easy, but I didn't want to chance crossing the stream without a backup plan. 

We continued along the main road, Pali Drive, to the Nu'uanu Pali Overlook. I wasn't expecting to pay $3 for this overlook, and I did try to pass my ticket off to another guest at the end, but since their was security in the parking lot, we did pay.  I guess I wouldn't have minded if it was optional...anyways, the view was really nice.  We kind of laughed when it said high winds could blow bees nearby and sure enough there were bees flying all around, not really trying to sting you, but being blown by the wind.  The view looked down over Kane'ohe Bay and you could even see the island of Molokai in the distance.  The kids mostly enjoyed seeing the wild cats and chickens. 

Back on the road we headed down to Kane'ohe Bay and along the boast back towards Makapu'u Beach/Overlook.  There were several little spots to pull over and take photos along the shore line and we even saw some hang gliders which the boys thought was neat.  There were mild waves, lava rocks, and the Makapu'u Lighthouse to see (I hope to do that hike one of these days). 

By this time we needed to head back so that we could pick up Mason by 5:00.  After a slight detour (I took some wrong turns/missed an exit) but we got him in time.  After taking a breather and doing a quick clean up we decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner followed up with a quick grocery run at Walmart.  There aren't any Walmarts in Guam, so it was Max's first trip, lol! 

Again, everyone has been passing out fairly quickly in the evening.  I've been staying up grading papers and responding to work emails now that I'm teaching this semester.  And I'm about 100 pages close to finishing my book, so it's hard to not stay up all night reading. 

Hawaii Vacation-Day 1

Mason's travel season has begun and he will be gone quite a bit in the next few months, so when we knew he'd be heading to Hawaii this month for a 2-3 week conference we decided that the kids and I would tag along.  I was a little worried about pulling the kids out of school just after they would have gotten in the routines, but really what's a better age to pull them than PreK and Kindergarten, and they're doing lots of learning and family time here. 

We tried the Space-A route, it didn't happen on the way to Hawaii, and I'm still to worked up about the experience to go into it, so we'll end with we're here!  The kids and I used miles the night before Mason had to fly out and bought our tickets.  It worked well traveling together (more so I didn't have to go solo with all three). Maximus was not a huge fan of the 7.5 hour plane ride.  He wasn't bad, but what 11 month old wants to be contained for that long.  Theo and Woodrow did well, although Woodrow mostly growled at you if you interrupted his show watching or eating. 

We left Guam at 6am on a Tuesday morning, and arrived in Honolulu, Oahu around 5:30pm Monday night...weird!  I love the world clock feature on my phone.  I'm so confused with what day and time it is now.  Anyways, we got our rental car, checked in at the TLF on Ford Island (about 1 mile from where Mason's conference is) and then headed to dinner.  I think I was so overwhelmed seeing so many food and shopping options. We opted for Ruby Tuesday's (it was convenient) and I grabbed a Jamba Juice (YUM) afterwards.  We got settled into our room and were all passed out fairly quickly.  Theo and Max have the living room, and Woodrow is bunking with Mason and I. 

Too bad Mason actually has to work while the kiddos and I play. 

Maximus Turns 11 months

This little dude is on the move!  Maximus isn't quite walking yet, but his crawling, cruising, and climbing have taken off.  He's a speedy little one and quick to climb!  He's been caught climbing on the stools in the bathroom, the couch, the dishwasher, up bleachers when we watch Theo at Jui Jitsu.  He just wants to be moving and involved with everything.  And when he isn't crawling, cruising, or climbing, he's putting everything in his mouth.  Our guy can open cabinets and drawers so he likes to chew on his brothers treasures, legos, small bouncy balls, Cascade dish tablets, straws...nothing is off limits.  Our little guy loves the water, which means he is frequently headed towards anyone who's in the bath, at the sink, or if all else fails the toilet is full of water too.  Ha!  Have a painted a picture of a day in the life of Max, yet. 

All day long you can just see the little gears working in his mind.  He ADORES Theodore and Woodrow.  He constantly wants to be by them, and he has so much fun when they get home from school.  If we are changing his diaper and he hears them from the hallway, he practically flips off the changing table to find where they are. 

Max has three teeth now.  Yay!  First teeth are finally all the way through! 

Little dude is a little picky about food, but he does love carbs.  He likes French Toast sticks, pancakes, waffles, macaroni, ziti, yogurt, some fruits and veggies.  He still gets several bottles a day and lets us know when he's hungry. 

With the boys school schedule some days Max gets a long nap and other days he gets a few shorted naps.  Mommy is working on stopping the chores when the two are at school and Max naps so she can rest.  It's a short window! 

Max can sign "milk" and is working on signing more and all done. When you ask "Where's Da Da" He'll point and say Da Da!