Author Archives: Reb

Spring Break… Still.

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This has been the LONGEST break ever! And we have kept up our insanely busy days. It is keeping us busy and we are having a lot of fun, but I am not gonna lie, I am going to enjoy Wednesday when they go back to school. (For two days! Then they are off AGAIN for Good Friday!)

So weekend recap… Saturday was a crazy fun day. It started out with a Deployed Spouse Appreciation Day put on by the Pearl Harbor Chapel. They had a great day set up with breakfast, lunch and classes for us to attend. I was pleasantly surprised because the photography session I had signed up I thought was some photography pointers and ended up being a free photo session. Hooray! I am really looking forward to seeing how the pictures turned out!

Anyways, my first session was pie making, which I didn’t really NEED to take since I already make a pretty bomb-ass pie. However, if there is food involved, I am signing up for it! My friend Cat happened to finish her photo session and was watching us so I dragged her into our class and made her make a pie with me.

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Then I had my great photo session with the kids. I can’t wait to see how they turned out! When I finished with that I poked around a bit and spied on some of my favorite ladies while they were in their sessions.spouse2

And then we all got to enjoy lunch together with our kids… We were able to eat the pies we had made earlier in the day… I may have snagged the pie that Cat and I had made and brought it to our table… Hey I know that one wasn’t made with licked fingers or anything!

We decided that our weekend wouldn’t be complete without a hike thrown in… Off for our THIRD time to try to find the King Kamehameha’s Summer Palace ruins… And what do you know? We actually found them! I am going to put those pictures in a separate post because it is a pretty awesome hike! Unfortunately we hiked it in the rain, which was pretty fun for me, but the kids were not pleased!

After all the rain we made a quick pit stop at Starbucks for some hot chocolate and coffee to warm us up.

Then off to football practice. Three hours of football practice. I almost died. Our coach FINALLY decided to wrap it up and we all got together at a teammates house for a potluck. The kids had fun playing together, us ladies all had fun hanging out together, it was an all around good time.  Had to finally call it a night because we had a scrimmage the next day, Sunday, and wanted to get together to warm up before that. So more football! We warmed up a bit then drove up to Wahaiwa for our scrimmage… that we lost. Again. I swear we are the Bad News Bears! But we had a great time playing in the rain and the mud, the other team was a bit rough and I am covered in bruises! Yes this is FLAG football!

527837_10151566954398582_181472165_nPost game muddiness… I LOVE these girls!

Pottery Painting {Spring Break Day 4}

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Today we combined our regular fun spring break activities with an FRG event. I invited the FRG to come join us for a pottery painting day at Hickam. I was VERY upset to learn that budget cuts may soon be affecting our favorite cheap place to paint! The kids had fun painting and hanging out with friends. We had a pretty good turnout of FRG ladies which was great, and I painted a replacement mug for my last one that has developed a hairline crack! pottery painting

 

After expressing ourselves artistically some of us headed over to Wright Bros. for a delicious lunch by the water… Grilled veggie panini for me, yum! The fish were out and about and we saw DOZENS of yellow tangs. Why have we never seen these fish snorkeling???

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Cutie kids and cutie moms… Seriously, I have met some really great ladies this deployment!cuteAnd Mckenna is ready for a baby sister… Sorry to disappoint! Not happening!

 

Diamond head! {Spring Break Day 3}

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The night before doing this hike I had talked to my mom who reminisced about doing it 30 years ago! I’m sure not too much has changed since then so hopefully this pictures bring back memories for you mom!

First off, there was zippy parking in the crater (there are only 50 spots or so inside) so we had to park down at the community college and walk in.

dh1The walk up to the crater isn’t too bad at all, although walking through the tunnel is a little unnerving… Especially when buses decide to honk all the way through. Also, I love that my kids were coordinated in yellow and black! Thanks guys!

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Diamond head was formed long after the initial volcanic activity that formed the island. Both this and Koko head were formed by secondary eruptions, basically a magma burp. Crazy!

dh2It was hot and dry during our hike, there wasn’t much breeze. Thankfully there are lots of spots to sit and take a water break. I was amazed by the number of people doing this in flip flops… I know its not a REAL hike but it was NOT sandal friendly!

Also? There are stairs. No fun at ALL! I jogged up half of them and then felt like I was going to die. That’s enough of that! The stairs are part of the original fortifications. There are pillboxes all along the coast and I’m pretty sure most of them had guns, but I don’t know that any of them were actually used.

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Oh yes. More stairs.

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Finally! The very top! The breeze was fantastic and the view was amazing. You can see from Koko head to Waikiki. It was SO crowded up there, everyone was squishing and squeezing, trying to get a photo. It was a little insane. dh5

And the award for the most perfectly placed shave ice truck goes to….dhice

 

A nice cold treat after that hot hike. This was a pretty easy one, Mckenna kept track and from the start of the trail in the crater and back it took us exactly an hour.

Of course, we then needed to go cool off…

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Spring Break Day 2

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Movie Day!

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Afterwards we headed over to Costco to raid the free samples. I am always amazed by how rude adults can be when it comes to free samples! Pushing in front of kids and not saying thank you, unbelievable!

 

Spring Break is here! Day 1…

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It’s that time again where I trade in the drudgery of early mornings and packing lunches  for the drudgery of keeping my children entertained for the next week and a half.

Day 1, we started off Spring Break with a bang. Dave and Busters for lunch and games. In hindsight I should have probably held off on this one as a bribe until the end but oh well. They have actually been fairly decent to each other lately.

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Look they are even sitting on the same side of the booth, that NEVER happens!! I love Dave and Busters Military discount, especially since I have banned them from drinking anything but water when we go out (I am sorry, $3 for a soda or juice that is hardly touched? No thanks!) Our lunch ends up being quite the deal… Of course I took NO pictures of us playing games, the lighting up in the arcade is horrible anyways. We didn’t hit any jackpots on anything but we had a good time playing.

As we were headed out to the car I decided to take a little detour and hit up Menchies.

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Seems like we are one of the last to hop on this new trend of building your own dessert… There was nothing like this in Spain and we really don’t go out for dessert much. The kids LOVED it and can’t wait to go back!

menchiesIf you haven’t been to this type of FroYo shop before, you get to pick your flavors and topping and add whatever you want to your bowl. Then you pay by the ounce. Needless to say, keep a sharp eye on your kids so they don’t fill up the entire bowl! I went simple with cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries, while the kids had some interesting combinations. Mckenna got red velvet and mint with red velvet cake chunks, Omar got mint, ice cream sandwich and coffee with sprinkles.

We will be back! Must try everything!

 

Lulumahu Falls

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This was SUPPOSED to be our ruins hike but yet again we just cannot get to the right trailhead! But I do love hiking with Cat because we just go with the flow and find our way somewhere else! We thought that we were on the right trail this time as we were finding our way through a bamboo forest and seeing some pretty cool walls here and there:

not the right wayBut when we hit a stream we knew it wasn’t the right trail. We did suspect that we were now on the trail to Lulumahu Falls, as many people do the ruins and the falls in the same day. I am going to post photos in the order that you should do this hike, I took some of them on the way back to the car to use as landmarks.

Lulumahu Falls!

Take Pali hwy to Nu’uanu Pali Dr. Follow this up to where it almost reconnects with Pali and park in the small parking area.

This is your trailhead. This hike is probably trespassing but as the land isn’t in use any more by the Board of Water Supply I don’t think it is TOO serious.

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Make your way to the left, the should be a trail through the ti leaves that ends at a big grassy ridge.

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There is a trail as well as some old steps that lead to the top. Stop, realize once again that this is the coolest place to live, and take a million pictures. There is a great view as well as a reservoir.

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Take the gravel road pictured above to the right. It should lead to a set of concrete stairs. Follow those up and you should see a fenced in water holding tank. There is a small trail leading behind the fence. Take that. If you follow the big wide trail it will just loop you back around.

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Just keep following the trail. It is a beautiful walk through the woods!

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Word to the wise, wear shoes that you don’t mind getting soaked. There are lots of stream crossings. At the dam you can walk right along the top, it wasn’t slick and was easier than trying to hop from rock to rock. We criss-crossed the stream many more times that day!

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Finally after lots of scrambling we made it to the top! And what a reward for the work!

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It is a beautiful spot to eat some lunch and take a break.

topoffallsI loved this hike!

As far as difficulty level, I wouldn’t really recommend this hike for small kids or carrying a kid on you. While we had both it was difficult at times, there are some tricky areas. Lots of scrambling, stream crossings, over and under and climbing boulders. Our kids and dog just happen to be pretty bad-ass!

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