Hawaii 2011

We had the great fortune to spend the end of 2011 and early 2012 in Hawaii.  Our friends joined us and we celebrated Christmas and New Years in the Aloha sun.

We should have called this our Hono trip.  As we saw lots and lot's of Hono or turtles this time.  We even saw them in the waters right off of Waikiki beach.

To accommodate school, airline miles and timing, we all came and left at slightly different times.   Brad arrived first, then I arrived a few days later then Maria and Nate came to join us.  Shortly thereafter Lilia and the kids arrived, then Brad left, then Mike Arrived, then the Cottles left and finally we left.

Here's Brad enjoying the view at Hanauma Bay.  Can you believe he actually went in the water?

Nate's an old pro at Hanuama Bay now.  We've got lots of photos like this one.  Although this year we got to hear him get REALLY excited and scream as he saw fish with his mask and snorkel.  He really took to the snorkeling.

In addition to the turtles we saw lot's of rainbows this time.  In this case a double rainbow from our dining room window.

There were some pretty spectacular sunsets too.

Nate got a tattoo, of a Hono of course.

Nate, Lilia and Shayne at the Dole plantation

Group shot.  Couldn't do the maze because it was too wet and they kept it closed.  But we did go on the train ride this time.

For a small portion of the trip we had Lilia's underwater camera and got some good photos.  That is until it stopped working.

Nate, Shayne and Chloe all took to paddle boarding.

Nate in his Santa hat on the beach of Hanauma Bay

Here I am at the Blowhole with Nate, Shayne and Chloe.  Behind us is the beach where From  Here to Eternity was filmed.

Chloe's attempt at a sand/snowman.  

Girls do what girls do.  And on vacation, or pretty much anytime they get together, that usually involves a drink and lots of talking.

We did take time to bury the kids in the sand.  Here's Shayne with his sand boobies.

The kids taking another turn on the paddle board.

We tried our best to have a traditional Christmas.  See our tree behind the Cottles?  Small, but it fit just right.

An excited Christmas morning.

Nate's favorite gift was his Heelly's.  He's gotten really good with them, loves to ride them everywhere.

Christmas day we walked to the beach in front of the Hale Koa and kicked it on the sand with our Santa hats.

They had this sleigh setup for photo taking, so we hopped in.

We played a little football on the beach.  Nate through his first  real pass.

Of course we made it to Hanauma bay several times.  This time we hiked  and got a different view of the crater.

Mike at the top, enjoying the view.

Proof I made it as well.

Shayne and Nate analyzing the swells, trying to find the right set.  We didn't see any big waves, but enough to get some surfing in.

For the first time since I was here with HP entertaining the Japanese we hiked Diamond Head.

Mike and Lilia joined me while Maria stayed back with the kids.

The view from atop Diamond Head.

Not satisfied with a hike, Mike had to hang out and get an upper body workout.

We took a boat ride out of Kaneohe Bay and they took us to a sand bar, where they setup a volleyball net and we played for awhile.

On the boat in the bay.

Nate had a few more surfing lessons.  He really enjoys it.  Although they made him paddle out this time.

He's getting really good.  Actually had him flipping back and forth on the board.

We were all feeling a little Hawai 5-0 ish, so we rented the outrigget.

Surfed some waves.

Had a great time

With some spectacular views.

Maria rented a paddle board, Nate likes to use it as a diving board and goes running off it.

For Christmas dinner we went to the Luau across the street.

Brad and I woke up one morning and the Hawaii Marathon ran right by our building.  I might have to try that one year.

Nate loved to be buried in the sand.

But when he couldn't get himself out, he needed help from me.

Overall it was a fantastic time.  Can't wait to do it again, although it may be awhile before we get another chance.  Loved spending the holidays with our friends.  Thanks for coming and sharing it with us.
Aloha.

Friendsgiving

Since Nate's birthday falls on or around Thanksgiving, we've found big parties are difficult to plan.  Combine that with his request to go to Disneyland and for his actual Birthday, we had a small party at home with family and a few of the neighbors.  Nate's favorite gift s to go play with his friends and he got lots of that.

The Martha Stewart in Maria was in full effect this year for Thanksgiving.  She made this turkey for the kids, filled with popcorn.  Regular popcorn for the "white" meat and Caramel corn for the "Dark" meat.

As expected when there are more than a couple of kids, we had a kids table.  The paper on top allowed the kids to draw all over it while eating turkey.

The children together before the big scavenger hunt.

The girls

And the guys

Cheers!

We had a great Thanksgiving, spending it with our friends.  Plenty of great food, drinks and conversation.  Thanks everyone for spending the day with us.

Happy 6th Birthday Nate

Welcome back.  We had a busy stretch, which means our normal routine was blown out of the water and I haven't updated the blog in a long time.  A lot's gone on, I'll need to catch you up and Nate's birthday seems like a great place to start.  After he spent the summer in the Merryhill (his preschool) program for K-6 graders, he was able to go on a field trip every week.  He went to places like Safari West, Laser X, Scandia etc.  Each week he would come home from one of these field trips and proudly state that was where he wanted to have his birthday party.  Well, as we got closer to his birthday, we told him, he could have his birthday with all his friends at one of those places, or we would take him to Disneyland.  So, that's how we wound up at the happiest place on earth!

At the park entrance.  Nate was not very happy to be taking photos when we could be riding rides!

Autotopia gave Nate a drivers license.  He insisted on driving, but he was trying to crash the whole time.
He had me scared for my life.  I don't think I'll ever be ready to let him drive.

Of course we wound up riding this ride several different times.  Maria hated it, so for the first time she was happy that Nate didn't want to go on the rides with her.

Nate being a bit silly while driving, doing his best Lilo interpretation.

We rode space mountain about 4 times before we finally got a car all to ourselves.  Maria liked this photo so much, we had to add it to our previous space mountain photo from the last trip.

We did two days at the parks (we did both Disneyland and California Adventure).  Nate was a real trooper, stayed awake and running around full of energy the whole time we were at the park and NEVER wanted to leave.  But once we got to the car, he was wiped.  Here he is, still in his car seat, with the seat belt on, but laying down sound asleep.

We've found that we really enjoy going in late Oct or early Nov.  The Haunted house is all decked out in Nightmare Before Xmas themes.  Maria picked up this new hat to celebrate the occasion.  However for the non-fan who glances at the hat, they assume it's a Jack Daniels hat.

This trip Nate really only wanted to ride space mountain and most importantly the Matterhorn.  I think we rode the Matterhorn like 10 times.  Maria insisted that we still ride some of the "baby" rides like Peter Pan and Mr Toad's Wild Ride.  Here's Nate pretending to enjoy waiting for Peter Pan.

He actually liked Mr Toads a little better, at least he could pretend to drive.

Nate trying to get at the Sword in the Stone.  No luck, but fun trying.

Over at California Adventure, they had a play area that Nate spent nearly two hours at.  They had these tire swings, bridges, rock climbing all sorts of areas to run around and play.  He got a kick out of the tire swing here.

Here's another of the challenges, where you are supposed to traverse the rock wall without falling off.  He's really good at these activities.

It's interesting that now they take your photo during the ride and sell it to you, if you want it.  As you get off the ride, they flash the photo on the video screens so people can see whether they like the photo or not.  Well, since everyone has camera phones now, people are just taking a photo of the photo and saving some $$$, as we did here on the Tower of Terror.

It was another fun and exciting trip to Disneyland.  We had a blast and can't wait to do it again.  Nates definitely more into the coasters and thrill rides, although he didn't much care for Indiana Jones, I think that one scared him a little too much.  Based on the number of times we did each ride, It's easy to say that Matterhorn was his favorite, followed by Space Mountain.  My favorite was the new revamped Star Tours. They really updated the story and make it so it's a different ride each time you ride it.  Problem was the line was rather long for that ride.