Author Archives: Reb

My big puppy

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Look who had a birthday!

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Bowser at 5 weeks, and at 2 years!

And yes I really did want to throw him a birthday party but resisted! Instead he got some special cookies from the Petco cookie bar, a trip to the dog park and a trip to the store to pick out a couple of new toys. (he is eating the chipmunk as we speak!)

I love this dog, yes, he drives me crazy, but he is my buddy!

Also I love that he is my guard dog during deployment, thank goodness he learned being protective from somewhere because he was NOT like this in Spain!

 

Eat the Street: Mililani

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This is something I’ve been wanting to do for ages, before we even moved to Hawaii I saw some pictures from this event and was sold!

I love to eat and one of my FAVORITE shows is the Great Food Truck Race. Finally was able to make this happen!

First off, some advice. Get there early, as close to opening as you can. Park at a shuttle stop, no worries about finding a spot. Come hungry and with plenty of cash.DSC_0144

 

We did a quick sweep of the trucks (there were SO many-spread out over two parking lots!) to get an idea of what was out there and what we wanted to try. ets

 

foodWaffledogs, delicious! Especially drizzled with maple syrup. The kids were VERY skeptical about these but ended up loving them! ($3/each) Next up Xtreme Tacos, smoked chicken taco. It came with two tortillas and I was able to split up the filling. Because there was pico de gallo in it Omar didn’t want to try it and Mckenna didn’t love it. They were good to me though! ($2.75)

food2Our splurge of the day, wood fired pizza from Kiawe Pizza. So good. ($10) Pop pop donuts ($3.50) Aloha Pops ($3)

fairycakesAnd one more dessert to share, Death by Chocolate from Fairy Cakes. I really wanted everything on the menu! Mckenna was eyeballing the Maple Bacon Cake but it was just too weird for her!

We had a great time sampling lots of goodies. I am going to have to branch out and try some things I didn’t get to next time, Fried Musubi, octopus balls and Malasada burgers are calling my name!

More food truck dates and locations for Oahu:

http://www.streetgrindz.com/

Do you have any favorite food trucks or know of any food truck events?

 

 

 

Hawaii Nature Center

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So one thing that I am really happy that I am able to do is go on filed trips with my kids classes… This was my first time that I got to go with Mckenna’s class on a field trip. Those 5th graders are so much fun!

We were spending the day hiking up at the Hawaii Nature Center up on one of the hills above us… Unfortunately our bus driver ended up taking a wrong turn and instead we climbed up the other side of the hill toward tantalus. It was quite the scenic trip, it was beautiful but we were for real in the wilds of Hawaii. We FINALLY had a big enough area to turn around and back down we came, made the correct turn and headed up the right side of the mountain!

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The guides at the nature center were amazing, especially Kai and Kristen who were in charge of our group. We learned a lesson about how the islands were formed (I even learned a few things!) and how some additional geological activity has since altered the shape of Oahu.

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From there we were off to our hike. I was initially pretty nervous about the format because the kids were going off into groups of three and learning about a specific plant or tree on our hike and then they would tell the entire group about it. It worked out that every kid got to be a teacher which was great for them, helped with public speaking and knew all there was to know about a plant we saw on our hike.

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I am going to overload this post with pictures, sorry… I tried to at least condense them into collages! It was a REALLY beautiful trail! If you are looking for a nice hike Ualaka’a Trail is one to consider!babies

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After our hike we did an experiment about soil and the difference with forested land and cleared land. (spoiler alert, forests have high permeability). Of course I was loving all of this as its right up my alley and the kids were learning and having fun.

Finally time for lunch, a little late due to our detour! We ended up having a pretty spectacular view of downtown Honolulu and Diamond Head (which I now know was created from a secondary eruption and not from the initial volcano that created the islands!)

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This is a beautiful spot to hike and we saw a few different trailheads that started around here. We will be back to do some more hiking from here for sure!

Don’t let me out in public

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Another normal Thursday night, ran Mckenna to soccer practice and decided to take Omar for a quick haircut at the barber shop on base. School pictures tomorrow, don’t want him looking crazy.

Get to the barbershop in the mini mart, only a few people waiting, awesome. That never happens.

Time goes by, we are next in line, I am ready to shove Omar into the next unoccupied seat when the lady gestures at the guy sitting next to me.

I pipe up, ‘oh my son was next’ and the lady gestures to the Uniform Personnel Priority sign. Yeah, the guy sitting next to me was in uniform and was totally exercising his head of the line privilege. Something I am aware of. Something I encourage and see ALL of the time. 

I was mortified.

I apologized and told him to go ahead, I wasn’t thinking, I was so sorry, etc, etc… And then he was like go ahead, he’s on duty and was in no hurry to get back. In all honesty I just wanted to walk out of there because I was so embarrassed.

So Omar sat down and got his cut and the entire time my cheeks were FLAMING!

So. Yeah, hopefully I won’t be cutting in front of any active duty military in line any time soon…

 

Breakfast with a view…

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Omar had soccer pictures on Saturday morning over on Hickam, when he was done we had some time to kill before his game so we popped over to Wright Brothers for some breakfast. I LOVE eating here, it is priced really well ($3.25 for a kids plate and that includes a drink) the food is good and it comes out quick. Also the view is pretty great, right across the entrance to Pearl harbor. The outdoor seating is really beautiful although hard to come by, I was stalking tables waiting for someone to leave!
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It’s a great spot to take pictures (which is why soccer pictures are done here I assume!) Lots of pretty trees and a lovely backdrop. I’ll have to bring them back in something other than soccer uniforms!pose

 

There is also a seawall right by the restaurant that allows some great fish watching, lots of FAT fish from all of the bread people feed them. I even saw some yellow tangs which is crazy because we haven’t seen them ONCE while snorkeling.fish

Anyways, get over to Wright Brothers, have some breakfast or lunch and enjoy the view and breeze!

 

 

 

We are halfway DONE!

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So this weekend we finally had our halfway party… For those not familiar with the Navy, this is a party that the FRG (Family Readiness Group) throws to celebrate the halfway point in a deployment. Basically keep your spirits up. Thankfully I have an absolutely awesome FRG board and we threw an incredible party for all of our spouses.

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I just need to give a huge shout out to Target for their clearance Valentine’s items. This decor ended up costing about $40 for everything!

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We also had a little backdrop set up in the corner where we were recording video messages to send to the ship! Some of them got a little emotional and I was tearing up a little!DSC_0003

 

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I was a little worried that we were not going to have enough food because the RSVP’s had been pouring in and this was going to be potluck style.DSC_0006

 

Well I did NOT need to worry! We had SO much food! Not an inch to spare on the counter!DSC_0009

 

 

Thank you to all of the wonderful families on our ship…. Seriously, if you are new to a sea command, find your FRG! Not all of them are full of drama and catty women!DSC_0036

 

And my board is full of wonderful women… Taking on this position was SO outside my comfort zone, but I have made such wonderful friends in the process. I couldn’t have asked for a better team!

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