Full. a BIG weekend post.

From beginning to end, our weekend was overflowing with fun tropical happenings, resulting in a stiff body, coffee-filled Monday morning.

We’ve been in Hawaii for five weeks, and as amazing and surreal as that sounds, the reality of that statement is we only have one week left until we head home. It’s truly bittersweet. We’ve had the time of our lives spread across the beaches of Oahu, on top of spending time with Mimi (my mom). As bitter as leaving all of this sounds, the deliciously sweet side is when we land in Oklahoma, we’ll have one month --possibly two-- until this deployment comes to an end.

Friday we ventured to a lagoon, peacefully anchored between Honolulu’s city buildings and the Pacific Ocean. If you remember this post, this was the first place we visited when we first arrived here on the island. I was instantly bursting with creatively and a rekindled internal fire, which even today I’m finding hard to contain. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again… “This place is magical.”

The highlight wasn’t the calm pace of life inside city walls, or the lush lime greenery, or even the twinkling aqua water… it was these birds:

There were flocks of these white and grey birds, scattered along the sand, in between palm trees and around beachgoers. In one swiping gush, like synchronized swimmers, they fluttered up into the air and dashed around the lagoon making circles and figure eights. Everyone stopped to watch the show.

Swish, swish, swish, they danced through the sky, then like falling confetti, the birds gracefully bowed on the beach. William shrieked, “MOM-MOM!!!!”. Mom-mom is what Will now calls me. It’s the new “mama”.

birds circling the lagoon

Saturday came bright and early, as we drove out to North Shore to go hiking.

Our Destination: Waterfall.

It was beautiful and well worth the huffing and puffing, and the sticky sweat that came along with it. We passed through rivers, ponds, lush foliage, and tropical flowers. Stopping to take in the beauty along the way, we were treated with various species of exotic bird who sang from the tree tops.

The rumbling of water rolled in the background as it trickled around rocks and curved into the water hole. We made it!

My mom and the kids jumped in the water for a refreshing dip while I sat on the edge wishing I had brought my swimsuit. Krysta was completely over-the-moon to have been able to swim in a waterfall. I’m sure she’ll take these memories with her always. 

 my mom swimming with the kids

We couldn’t leave North Shore without going to the beach.

After our hike, we hunted for a parking spot where I swapped out my clothes for a swimsuit.

Let me just point out that I’m so glad we got to experience swimming in North Shore, however, I’ll never return to this particular slice of the beach. It’s totally not kid friendly or out-of-shape mom friendly. We lugged beach chairs, beach bags, sand buckets, and a cooler --along with William’s over-the-top ambition to run straight for the water even while I’m screaming “William stop, William wait”--  through the loose sand, up and over sand dunes, and down to the beach. I.THOUGHT.I.WOULD.DIE.

But alas, we made it just as the tide was carrying out, revealing a nice little drop off to fish my partially drowning kids out of the water.

We opted for plan B: to build castles, which ended up in a fight over whose sand is whose, so on and so forth. I turned to my mom, “let’s just call it a day.”  

this photo represents my kids the best-- Krysta posing for the camera while William runs in the opposite direction.

Don’t let these photos fool you….they’re actually squealing at each other.

The weekend ended with relaxing weather, cloudy and rainy. We were determined to have a low key beach day, and Hanauma Bay was the perfect location for doing just that. A bay surrounded by mountains and lined with palm trees, along with very small waves, lifeguards on duty, good sand for castle building, and lots of other small children to play with, plus great snorkeling on the reef for us adults.

It was nice and completely made up for Saturday’s beach experience.

I relaxed, sank into my beach chair, and struggled to stay awake. It felt so good.

The kids played.

And all was right.

Em


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