Pearl Harbor & Waikiki

No trip to Oahu is complete without seeing Pearl Harbor... so again we ventured down to the Arizona Memorial. It was a beautiful sunny day jam packed with Pearl Harbor, shopping at Waikele, and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to the North Shore. Nadia entertained us all at dinner with her drinking from straws and "talking" to everyone and anyone that would look her way. She is such a little miss personality; truly a social butterfly. I have to laugh because both Inoke and I are more introverted and she is just a spotlight lover. I love it.

Playing Tourist, again.

Inoke's brother in law, Sami came to visit us for a few days. He is only here in Hawaii for three days so we have been trying jam in all the sights in a few days. Next trip he will have to stay longer, but we are trying to hit the main attractions. Here are some pictures of North Shore... we went up to the Heiau at Pupukea and walked around checking out the sights. I love that place you can see FOREVER up there. Sadly it hasn't been preserved as well as I would like. But, it is still a good stop. After the Heiau we headed for Shave Ice at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa... I was totally bummed that my shave ice DROPPED on the floor, uhhh! But Inoke was nice enough to share with me and Nadia too.

Cruisin' the sights of da Big Island

As I said below Inoke was thrilled to get a Hummer to drive around for the weekend. I am glad he enjoyed it. Here are some pictures of the sights and the Captain James Cook Memorial. I think Captain Cook interests me because he is pretty famous back in Alaska for his discoveries, so I feel connected in a sense. We drove just over an hour down crazy windy roads and through the back country to get to this monument. Then when we were parking, Inoke was convinced that we took a wrong turn since there wasn't really any big signs... nope that is is a small heiau and a plaque dedicated to Captain James Cook. Hey it was an adventure, and I am glad we got to see it. Notice the picture with Inoke and his favorite sign... "No Park Dis Space" yep only in Hawaii. After we found a little mom and pop shop and got some Shave Ice... it was fun.

Marriot Beach Resort Waikoloa

WOW, that is what I would say about our resort. I loved it. Especially the pools. I was surprised at how empty the pools seemed to be, then I looked down on the beach an saw the mass of people there. I guess if people come to Hawaii they would like to sit on the sandy beach... me I was loving the swimming pool sans sand. The hotel was beautiful especially at sunset. We had a great time swimming and relaxing and playing tourist. I even got to go to the gym! I was so excited to have a treadmill to run on in an air conditioned room... it was great for about ten minutes... then I started to get bored watching that little red dot move along the imaginary track and now I have a renewed love for running outside where the scenery changes.

Pu'uhonua O Honaunau

I think this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The history of the City of Refuge was so intriguing to learn about. Perhaps because our own little town of Laie used to be a Hawaiian City of Refuge also... there were 31 total in the Hawaiian islands, 6 on the big island alone, this is the only one that has been preserved. It was a very cool walking tour full of tidbits of trivial history and ancient stories. Like there was a big rock there that the wife of King Kamehameha I hid under after getting into a disagreement with her husband. The big rock wall was 17' thick and over 10' high and 1,000' long all made by hand with no mortar. It separated the royal compound from the city of refuge for the commoners. Amazing history, totally worth the long drive to see.

Kona Hawaii Temple

I was a bit surprised to see the temple right off the main highway, but it was beautiful none the less. Notice the "vog" it was crazy how hazy the weather was from all the volcanic ash.

Da Big Island

I really wanted to make Inoke's first Father's Day a memorable occasion; so I planned a little weekend getaway for the three of us to Kona. It was AWESOME! You would think that after living in Hawaii for nearly eleven years I would be well traveled to the outer islands, nope. This was my first time venturing out to the Big Island. Inoke had been there a couple times for work and so he was very excited to "show" me the sights of Kailua-Kona. Wesley hooked us up with a super deal at the Marriot Waikoloa Resort. Wooohoo, it was a beautiful resort about twenty miles north of the airport. Super secluded, and super nice. There were three swimming pools at our disposal, a 24 hour gym, and a view to die for. It was fabulous. We had a wonderful weekend checking out the sights. I had wanted to do four things: work on my tan at the pool, see the Captain Cook memorial, see the "City of Refuge" or Pu'uhonua O Honaunau, and check out the Kona Temple. We did it all and then some.

On our way to the airport Inoke was grumbling a bit about how we should just stay home for the weekend and is it even worth all the trouble to go... blah blah blah. By the time we rented his dream car (a Hummer) and cruised out to the resort watching the sun set on the Kona Coast, his attitude had done a 180; all of a sudden it was "Why are we only staying two days? Can't we stay longer??"

Above are some slide shows of our weekend...

Hot Summer Days...

We have had a couple scorchers the last week or so. Summer has officially begun down here in Hawaii. It is hot, hot, hot. I am so grateful that our house has a decent breeze, when and if there are trade winds, we get them. I don't know how we would survive without the trade winds, I love them... Saturday I took Nadia over to have a "play date" with my friend Adrian's little boy Kahiapo. We were going to go to the beach... but those "blessed" trade winds were fierce on Saturday and while they keep the house cool, they also blow sand in every crack and crevice of your body... (not so cool). So we opted for blowing up the kiddy pool and let the kids have some splashing in the yard. Nadia was a little timid at first... but she warmed up to the idea and soon was enjoying herself immensely.

And here are a couple shots of my little curly hair diva. I really love all her little curls, they are slowly getting longer...

Happenings...

I have noticed that I am slacking on the picture updates around here. Things have been going well the past few weeks. We are enjoying the early summer and getting to the beach more often. Nadia is really taking to the beach now that she is a little older. She loves to pick up hand fulls of sand and splash around the water.
The most recent mantra of the house has been "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." Nadia is trying so hard to crawl. I never realized how painful it would be for me to sit back and let her do repeated face plants into the floor. Ahh, it takes every ounce of control to keep myself sitting there and not to "rescue" her. She on the other hand just rolls over and gets back up on all fours and tries again and again and again. She is so close to getting it right, I am excited and a little timid at the same time. After all, crawling means mobile... mobile means child proof the house and baby jail time... I have some things to do to prepare.

Added to the crawling attempts are her first two teeth. The bottom two teeth have broken through the gums and they are sharp little buggers that is for sure. She seems to be handling teething well, only main complaint I have is the constant slobbery drool. She drools like a Saint Bernard these days. One of her favorite things to do is to give kisses. I love kisses from her (even if they are a bit slobbery at times). Inoke and I have learned to love baby drool, well Nadia's drool at least.

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday. We took advantage of the beautiful evening by sitting out on the grass and "practicing" crawling before bath time.

First faceplant of the evening...

Up again... try, try, again.

Big hugs from daddy, on the "attempts."

Still smiling at the end of it all.

Last Minute Shopping and Moce Mada...

Inoke's parents flew home to Fiji early yesterday morning. This past weekend was full of the usual last minute shopping (enough tee-shirts to cloth a small village and plenty of chocolate). It had been a while since I ventured down to the swap meet. It seems like every time I go there I have a mission to buy something for someone as fast as possible and straight back to the car. This time we took our time looking and walking around the entire stadium. It was actually pretty fun looking at all the cool touristy treasures and enjoying the sunshine while we were at it. Well I enjoyed the sunshine, I think everyone else was ready for some shade. Here are a few pictures of our last outing.

Inoke was pretty excited to find a Fiji Flag flying next to the Bob Marley one...
I had fun in the hat booth trying on cowgirl hats... (nope I didn't buy any).

Here are Tua and Nau pushing the stroller with all the loot...

And here is one tired little girl. I think we all wished we could take a nap by the end of the day.