Hukilau & Diamond Crater

One of my favorite parts of this vacation is that we had time to just relax and enjoy what day to day life. The kiddos could open the door and head outside and play with the neighborhood children - which there was always at least a little group to choose from, as the BYU-professor families living nearby all had a lot of children (5-6 and even 8 kiddos per family made for a lot of children always around!). It was so much fun for my 3 to make little friends in the neighborhood while we stayed there - and although I wasn't as relaxed as other moms to just let my children hang out all day together (seriously, these are great moms, but I must have some NYC paranoia...I couldn't just let my kids be out there for hours on end!), the kiddos still enjoyed a sense of what it would feel like to live in a neighborhood while we were there.

When Bryson got into town, I knew we would need to balance some downtime with some of our other times of hitting the beach and doing activities. I'm continually trying to calm down the type A personality in me, so that we could enjoy the part of vacation we all wanted...to relax!

Our first day of the week together, I was a little anxious to get up and going - so much for working on that Type A in me, right?! However, the kiddos decided to just head out and do their own things - such as Bryson got on his bike and finally learned how to ride on his own! He was so excited to reach one of his goals for this summer - now we just need to work on tying shoes. Although that goal is a little tricky to work on when we were wearing flip-flops most days. No worries though - the perfect part of summer vacation is that you have goals to keep you focused, but not to worry when you aren't working on them non-stop. I can't begin to express how much we needed this time to catch our breath in life!

Bryson Jr. also is our champion at playing Phase 10, and while I was still antsy to get out and do something!....he pulled Bryson (Dad) and I into a game. Isn't it always said that we learn so much from our children?....for me - it's to remember to take time to play in the moment - not to make the play time the destination of what I'm working to do. We enjoyed a fun game and few hours of just enjoying time together, and still enjoyed an afternoon outing!

And Jacob - well he is always great at keeping things real. I loved his outfit combo on this particular day....I try to let my children have freedom in dressing themselves most days. When the kiddos are in school, I'll try to help them choose outfits that match - but here, hey we are away from the fashion stresses of NYC, so why not let him live it up?!

By that afternoon we were ready for some time at the beach, and we packed up the snorkel gear thinking that Temple Beach just straight down from the temple might provide some snorkel time. Well - the surf was not cooperating, so we walked down to nearby Hukilau Beach. The waves were incredible and we got some great boogie-boarding time....almost too good & big of waves at times! {I didn't get any crash pictures, because I was in the water for those....but we did get some crazy big waves!}

Hukilau Beach {Laie}

We did have one place that was on our most-see/do list. To climb to the top of Diamond Head Crater. Bryson studied volcanoes for his research project in the spring, and he was so excited to see a volcano. Even though this volcano hasn't been active for thousands and thousands of years, it was still worth the climb. We drove into Waikiki on Wednesday the 13th - my mom was flying in that afternoon so we needed to pick her up at the airport & we realized this would be a great time to fit the hike in as well. Which took a little more effort than climbing this tree! {kiddos at the base of the crater}

Near the top they had this little "turn-out" to enjoy part of the view. It was already beautiful & helped us gear up for the last part of the hike....which was a steep climb up a lot of steps!

From the very top these were some of our views....

I loved this view above us while we were climbing down the stairs. It almost looked like you could monkey-bar your way down. Almost. :)

We were hot, sweaty & super thirsty when we hit the bottom....but we were so happy that we climbed together and checked something off our (small) list of things we wanted to do while on Oah'u. It was actually hard to get out the door on some days to work on checking things off - we were enjoying so much not feeling that we needed to be somewhere at a specific time. There were some days it seemed why not just enjoy the beach and sunshine right by us. However, it's also great to feel that rush when you accomplish something - and after we started hydrating ourselves with some Hawaii'an Shaved Ice we got to relish in the moment that we did something rewarding - and fun as well!

the trip that didn't want to be documented...

On the first full day that Nana and Papa Lord were visiting, we decided to visit a favorite spot we found on our trip here 2 years ago.  Waimea Falls.  It's a short 3/4 mile "hike" up a paved trail that is lined on both sides by a beautiful botanical garden area.  The trail leads to a natural falls, where they let you swim in the 30 ft. deep pool and even swim up to the waterfall.  Overall, it's a favorite memory, now from both trips.

The only glitch with this trip....it almost seemed like we weren't supposed to document the trip!

We arrived at the park around 12noon.  Although the hike is not that long, with children and stopping to look at the plants and just enjoying the area, it can take about an hour to climb to the falls.  Then to swim and head back down - I realized we'd need to eat the packed lunch before we began the hike.

We stopped under a huge tree that grows effortlessly here - and I wish I would have thought to get a picture with my camera right then...but I remember thinking I should just enjoy the moment through my natural eyes - to be in the moment completely and not behind the camera lens.  It wasn't until after lunch - a good 30 minutes into our outing, that I took out my camera to take a photo and realized I had left the SD memory card in the laptop back home....I'm working to download pictures each night, which is good - it's just bad when you forget an important part to have the camera work!

I was so tempted to run back home and get the card - but it's at least a 15 minute drive from that spot, so I would have made everyone wait 30 minutes while I ran home.  Hindsight - I should have taken the first photo I thought of, so I would have realized I had left the card and gotten it at that time.  Again - why hindsight has such a perfection rate! :)

Since I had a back-up with the phone camera, I realized at least I could get a few photos...they wouldn't be as great as I wanted, but at least I'd have something.....so off we went.  We enjoyed the hike/walk up - commenting on how incredibly green everything was.  So much of the vegetation seemed different than when we were here before....this time things not only seemed more green, but bigger, plumper (almost as if everything was full of the water the plants had enjoyed drinking from all the rain!), and the flowers were gorgeous in the colorful finery!  And I didn't get one picture.....yet.

At the top, we were excited to see the waterfall and quickly listened to the orientation from the Lifeguard about safety on the water....the kids put on their lifejackets and adults picked up a boogie-board and we picked our way down the rocks (a sharp and painful walk!) down the water's edge.

And the water was FREEZING!  Not like I had experienced with the Montana lakes and rivers during my high school years...but still this water was much colder than we had expected!

As children usually are - they were the brave ones that got into the water first, and then we adults followed slowly behind.  It took awhile and I felt a tad guilty for not being more adventurous and diving right in after the kiddos - but that cold was a shock!  Even after being warm from the hike and how nice a swim sounded...the reality was so much colder!

We were finally all in the water, and swimming towards the waterfall.  I realized that it looked a lot more intense and full than 2 years ago when we were here.  I remember reading that Oahu received so much more rain in June than they do during some entire summer months.  I looked at the waterfall and realized we were seeing the results of all that rain!  It was so powerful that instead of like our last trip, where we all went right under the fall and sat on a ledge for a picture....this time you could only sit about a foot away from the outside of the fall and you were still pummeled with water and felt like your breath was being sucked away due to the rapidly falling water.  It was quite a surprise that we weren't going to be able to go into the fall - but after watching a few people who braved swimming under the fall for about 15-20 seconds, I realized this was not for the faint of heart this time around....and there would be no way to get the kiddos under that fall.  Looking at it from the side and out in the pool from a distance seemed a much safer and better bet this go around!

We splashed around for some more time....because once you are in the freezing water - it actually felt nice.  And it took us awhile to get the boogie-boards so we didn't want to give them up before we were really ready to go.  When Bryson came up with his teeth chattering....that's when I decided it was time to head out.  :)

Right after getting everyone out, I was picking up my boogie-board and I realized someone else had let their board go and it was heading down to the stream that empties out from the big pool.  I went to scoop it up, and somehow my brain didn't register that I was going to use both hands - because when I picked up the other board, my hand let go of the phone in the other hand.  You know how you watch things in slow motion and you are thinking to yourself - 'how is this happening'?!  And yet it all goes by so fast?!  That was this moment --- I watched as my phone dropped into the water - which thankfully was only about 6-8 inches deep, and in my head it registered that I had to get the phone out fast!  I scooped it up and started to hit buttons to make sure everything was working.  I walked up to the lifeguard tent and turned in the two boards, and the lifeguard looked at the phone in my hand --- it was dripping a little bit of water.   He told me that if I put it in the dashboard of the car, it might help it to dry out, and of course to try the rice trick....putting the phone into rice and closing it securely so that the rice absorbs any extra moisture.  The phone seemed to be working just fine - so I hoped it wouldn't need anything done.  

Then I noticed that the screen started to get darker....and my pictures were starting to look like I was in a New England fog zone....or as Jacob says, "a very froggy place".  

The phone even stopped working at one point, and I started to panic.  How was I going to explain this to Bryson?!  Then thankfully it started to work again....sort of.  I did end up needing to put it into rice when we got home as I realized that I could get most things on the phone, but I couldn't make a phone call out.  Hmmmm...strange. 

When we got back - the boys wanted to go to the beach for a little bit of time.  Madeleine wanted to stay home and rest with Nana and Papa.  Since I'm working on the goal to hit the beach any day we can, I took the boys down to the Hukilau beach....about a 3 minute drive away & watched them both swim and enjoy time running around the water and trying to boogie board a bit.  We spent about an hour there, and then we needed to come back home so that I could get ready.  The kiddos were staying home while I went to do a session at the temple...working on another goal for this summer to get to the temple more often, and I was so excited to see inside after they had worked on remodeling the entire thing and rededicating it.  

It was a beautiful time to be in the temple.  It's interesting how sometimes when I get the chance to be by myself I don't know what to do with myself at first.  I'm fidgety.  Trying not to think of everything that I should be doing.  And working hard to stay focused.  Thankfully all my efforts at first were just working towards getting into a session on time - I was working to get there for the 7pm time, but I didn't even leave the house until 6:50pm .  This might be a problem at some places -but here the home we are staying in is really close to the temple.  As in, I counted steps and estimated it's about 300 steps away.  That is so  close!

And it was exquisite and I did finally calm down and found ways to relax while partaking in the blessings of being in the Lord's House.  Absolutely amazing.

And this is walking home - I wanted to try to capture at night time the view from the back of the house....this is it!  You can't see the temple completely as there are some rather big trees that grow along the perimeter of the temple grounds....but you can see the white glow of the temple and the house we are staying in, is directly in back of that rock.  It's absolutely amazing to look out all the time and see the temple as the main thing you see out the window.  What a perfect view anytime - and particularly we are so happy to have it while we are here.

That wraps up June 30th....another fabulous day in paradise, and even with some unexpected pictures to document the fun and experiences!