checking-in....

....takes on two meanings right now. 


First I realized I haven't checked-in at all since we've been in Utah! We've been here since July 20th and have had an amazing 4+ weeks. Absolutely wonderful. Full of swimming, sun, family, fun, cousins, get-togethers, friends and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I love being able to come here to visit. It does not feel like home, but I love coming to a place so familiar so I can drive without looking at maps and knowing where to get good food. Did I mention Cafe Rio in the above list?! Their new mint lemonade was amazing, and a new love along with my favorite salad.  The only thing I didn't want to try was the worm that Bryson found and enjoyed.....even after he washed it I could not be convinced to try that delicacy!

Totally opposite of yucky - look how sweet! Madeleine loved being an older cousin who was called upon to hold the babies.  She was in baby heaven!  

I haven't had consistent internet access - my mother doesn't believe in it. Okay - just kidding! My mom just doesn't use it - so she doesn't have it. Good for her - a tad bit exasperating for me. So I visit my in-laws and let the kids play here and jump online to catch up...but usually it's been to do PTA things which are more than in full-swing and causing me to have slight heart jumps every few hours. We start school in 3 weeks and there is a lot that is being done...but so much to still do.

Which is why - I'm checking-in tomorrow to fly home....a week earlier than I had planned, and I'm taking the kids back with me. Which was totally not planned. I mean they are our kids - so of course they were going to come eventually! I have some friends from college coming next weekend for a girls get-together so the kiddos were going to stay here for the weekend spending time with my mom and Nana & Papa Lord, then my mom was going to fly them home. However, we couldn't nail down a schedule where my mom could reasonably fly them out - life is too exciting with a zillion things going on...and most importantly - Bryson missed us. Terribly.

And we miss him. And are ready to wrap up an amazing 7 weeks and go HOME. It's so incredible to me that as much as I can't wait to leave the city when school gets out, my body and mind needs to go back after a break. It's our place. Our abode. And we do love it because it's where we are supposed to be right now. I'll probably not love it so much mid-January --- but for now, I'm missing our city.

Ta-ta for now...I'll post again and catch up on the summer adventures when we land and get SOLID Internet back. Whew - I've missed that. Until then...here are some quick pictures to enjoy.

   

 

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!

400+ memories

There are days when the camera goes.  And goes.  And goes!  Today was one of those days - we went back to Maelekahana Beach for the first time with Dad/Bryson since he arrived.  

 I had my camera out a few times during our time there, so I knew I was taking a lot of pictures, as I had the setting to do multiple pictures as I held down the button so I could get the action shots in succession.  However, I ended up with over 400 pictures from just our beach outing!  There are a lot of pictures below - and even more saved on my computer so I really tried to pick my favorites and give a flavor of our day.  I love the beach - the kiddos love it when we are there, but it's so funny to try and get us all out the door!

 We had a perfect day - the weather was beautiful without being too hot!  Not one of us got sunburned...although Bugaboo just always gets kissed by the sun, and looks like he has been lightly burned on his face for a few hours.  It eventually fades away - but he has the Robbins face!  My dad gets really rosy in his cheeks and face, as do I and my sisters....it's just our body type when we are outside, warm or exercising.  Got to love that Robbins Royal Flush! :)

 Every so often - there is a bit of salt water that gets in the mouth or the eyes....and then we get this kind of look!  And a quick run up to the beach for a wipe off with a towel & a rinse out with REAL water!

Jacob decided to put goggles on to try and help out with the water getting in his eyes.  The result - I think it worked and he looks incredibly awesome and is even more fun to photograph! :)

I love Jacob's face down in the right hand corner....it made me smile really big when I saw it!

The kids had the idea to try and surf on the boogie boards.....

keeping their balance took a lot of energy....

 ....and sometimes they did really great!

 

 ...and sometimes they spilled out into the ocean.  But then they were ready to jump back up and try again!

 

 

 

 

After we'd been at the beach for about 3 hours, Bryson pointed up and I noticed the dark clouds that had rolled in.  We've had rain storms each day that come in spurts and last anywhere from 5 -15 minutes.  They don't last long at all, but they are the torrential downpour that you'd expect in a rainforest area.  We already had one this morning, so I thought we were clear for the day....however, the clouds seemed to tell us something different!

We packed everything up and got to the car & the first rain drops came splattering down within a few minutes.  And then it was the downpour!

Back home - we cleaned up.....and just like the Nursery Rhyme ~

Rub a Dub, Dub - 3 men in a tub!