Category Archives: Life in hawaii

Out with the old…

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So. 2012.

Really you weren’t so bad. Or at least you didn’t start off that way.

January we stayed busy in Spain with Three King’s Day, Puerto Sherry, and eating at my favorite 100 Montaditos.

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February was Mckenna’s Rainbow Birthday which was SO much fun to do and a day trip to Vejer de la Frontera.

The 'new' part of the town.

The ‘new’ part of the town.

March brought basketball, homemade hot sauce and a scrapbooking getaway for me.

The girls!

April was a super busy month for us with an ER visit, beach days, Easter, zoo trips, children’s theater, goat farm, hosting my first bunco and FERIA!

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May was even MORE feria, Mother’s Day, a trip to the bee farm and a photo session from one of friends!

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In June Omar reenlisted in the Navy, I had my going away lunch at work, we celebrated Father’s Day, took a day trip to Portugal, I graduated, and we had our last week in Spain.

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July, oh July. We left Spain (and left part of my heart there), moved to Hawaii, saw tragedy in Colorado, went to Hanauma Bay for the first time (of many!), and the kids started school!

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In August we finally got to move into our new house, hit up the North Shore, snorkled, got a Harley, and swam with a sea turtle for the first time!

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September. My month of woe. We spent some time at Kaneohe Bay, Omar turned 5, and we found out daddy was deploying. Daddy deployed.

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October saw more beach days, bird rescues, the end of my football season, a month down of deployment, a port call in Malaysia for Omar, and a great Halloween for the kids.

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In November we hit our four month mark of living in Hawaii, Mckenna made it to regionals with her robotics club, we elected Barack Obama for a second term, my husband got older, I got older, I hit my one year blogging anniversary, we hit our 11th wedding anniversary, and the kids and I spent Thanksgiving in California.

One. More. Bite. Of. Pie!

In December we lived through another tragedy, I baked WAY too much, took a million pictures of the kids at the beach, threw a party, and had a wonderful Christmas.

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2012 it’s been real. Peace out.

Joint Spouses’ Conference 2012 Recap

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Okay so this was awhile ago but I had such a great time and took SO many pictures I wanted to share it. Also I had forgotten my camera and had to drive home and get it so after doing all that these pictures MUST see the light of day!

The Joint Spouses’ Conference is a military spouse conference that is hosted each year by one of the branches. This year Navy had the privilege and the conference was held on Ford Island.

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We had the CO of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam open up the conference, then a really cute little message from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dempsey and his wife.

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I was actually second guessing my decision to go at the last minute, I was getting some major anxiety over the fact that I was going to know NO ONE! I found out the night before that one of my friends from football was going to be there so at least I had someone to eat with!

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We got great little welcome baskets and a tote bag full of more goodies. The entire conference was decorated SO well, I was very impressed! Those ladies did an awesome job!

There was a large list of workshops you could take: cooking, painting, photography, sailing, hula, lei making, business classes. You name it. I went with Lei Making, Beyond the Mai Tai, Hula and Chocolate.

First up Lei Making. I really enjoyed this and was amazed at how easy it is, just threading flowers. Tuber roses smell AMAZING! We also did a ti leaf lei which involved twisting ti leaves. It was not really complicated but my brain is old and tired! So I ended up with a ti leaf bracelet! This workshop was put on by the Hale Koa hotel which is a military hotel in downtown Waikiki. The women were great and VERY informative. Seriously I would love to take some Hawaiian studies classes!

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Sporting my new handmade lei of purple orchid and tuber rose!

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Next up was Beyond the Mai Tai, which was also hosted by the Hale Koa, but the bartenders this time. And yes it was still rather early in the day for drinking but what the heck. We had some delicious samples, got some great recipes and all got a little bit tipsy. Good times!

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Lunch was delicious! We had a ton of dessert and it was hilarious to see all of the photographers whip out their cameras to take pictures of the food. I know my husband rolls my eyes at me but it is so nice to be among like minded people!

 

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Our guest speaker was Mrs. Hawaii who happens to also be a Navy veteran and current military spouse. She was not your normal pageant queen but was really down to earth. She is doing some amazing work with childhood obesity and nutrition in Hawaii.

IMG_9907aWe also had some adorable little hula dancers but my camera was on a wonky setting and none of the pictures turned out.

After lunch it was time for Hula lessons! This was a class that was insanely out of my comfort zone. I don’t dance. Like, ever. Well maybe if I’ve had enough to drink but the mai tais had worn off by now! But this is something I really wanted to do and thankfully we had a great instructor, the same lady from the Hale Koa that taught me lei making! I don’t have any pictures because it’s pretty impossible to take photos and hula. But I had a GREAT time and actually remembered most of the steps!

Now, time for Chocolate making! This was fun basic intro to working with chocolate.

We had our ingredients laid out in front of us, ganache with some different flavorings like lavender, cocoa powder, cayenne, sea salt,  and nuts. I thought mine looked like the Hawaiian islands.

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And here I am with all of my finished truffles. And a chocolate dipped strawberry.

IMG_9919aI really liked the sea salt as well as the cayenne truffles. I accidentally gave Omar one of the cayenne ones when we got home. He was like ‘what is wrong with this, its burning my mouth!’ Sorry! My kids aren’t fans of ‘weird’ chocolates!

We wrapped up with some more food as well as a silent auction and a basket raffle and I was beat! I had a really great day and met some really nice women. Really my only complaint was that everyone had their iPhones in front of their face all day. We aren’t there to check FaceBook, we are there to meet people and have a good time. It was kind of annoying but whatever. I am really looking forward to going again next year, I think the Army will be hosting.

 

And here are just some random photos from the day:IMG_9874

 

 

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Ko’olina Lagoon aka Sometime you just need to go to the beach

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So after  long day of fun we decided to keep driving west until we hit the beach. One of the best beaches on that side of the island are the Ko’olina Lagoons. We grabbed a spot, pulled the ever-present beach chairs from the trunk, and just enjoyed this fabulous life we have.

 

 

 

 

This was one of the best sunsets I’d seen since we moved here, we are rarely over on the west side of the island and the sunsets just aren’t quite as pretty from Pearl Harbor, too much in the way!  Stunning.

 

 

Mckenna of course wanted to model for me… This girl loves having her picture taken but it’s hard to get one now where she isn’t posing like a crazy person. 

 

And then there is this kid who HATES having his picture taken but I can occasionally get such a wonderful shot of him I could die.

 

Okay, disgusting post I know, my kids are gorgeous, I live in paradise. What can I say, it’s a rough life!

 

Leonard’s Malasadas

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If you ever see this sign or this truck pull your vehicle over and immediately buy some freshly made malasadas. Malasadas are Portugese doughnuts, why they are so wildly popular in Hawaii? I have no clue. But they are delicious, fried dough. Enough said.

We got to sample our first ones at the pumpkin patch. (Also sorry if you hate the filter on the pictures, I was in the mood for an old school look) The line wasn’t too bad and the malasadas were being fried fresh… $1 each, we all picked cinnamon. OMG. Heaven. These would have to be eaten fast, once they got cold there is no way they would be as good. (not that I would know, we had no leftovers!)

It’s my Blogoversary!

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So an entire year of nonsense. Who would have thought? Honestly, I have NEVER been one who has been able to keep up a diary or journal – and Lord knows I am not a writer – so I am pretty proud of the fact that 180-some posts later I am still enjoying this.

I am only kicking myself for not starting sooner. I’ve been reading blogs for years and was very intimidated. Finally decided to jump right in and I am so happy I have. I hope that people reading get a peek at our life and maybe learn a little about living in Spain or Hawaii.

So onto our day today!

Veteran’s Day so the kids were out of school. Once again I am sitting there wracking my brain trying to find something fun to do.  I have to try and force my children out of the house or else we will never go anywhere, become hermits and I’ll never shave my legs again.

So google, various military wives forums and bingo, out to MCBH to hit up their Tiki Island. I love this side of the island, it is just so beautiful and EVERY time I come out of the tunnel I just can’t believe I get to live here!

Started off with a little mini golf. Omar had never played before, and it was only a tiny bit frustrating to try and get him to hold the dang club the right way! There weren’t too many people there so it was great.

 

 

 

 

Here is Omar after hitting his hole in one. Guess he caught on pretty quickly, he was the only one to get one!

 

After a round of mini golf we hit up the bumper boats. Oh. My. Goodness. I don’t know when I last laughed that hard.

 

 

 

 

The boats have squirt guns on them. We were soaked.

 

 

 

 

Mckenna. Soaked.

Omar. Soaked.

 

Adios Tiki Island! If you go do boats first so you can dry off during golf!

After that I drove around the base a bit, ending up driving up this hill? Not sure if it was legal or whatever, but there were no signs and no one stopped us. And the view was spectacular!

 

We ended up having a great day (after a mandatory commissary run that was painless! A miracle!).

On to a busy week, thankfully it’s a short one!

 

 

 

So sometimes we sneak into pools…

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Okay, this was an honest mistake. Mostly.

See we knew there was this awesome pool on Fort Shafter, sand in the bottom, great splash area, beautiful views of Pearl Harbor and the ocean..

I assumed that is was the same deal as the pools on the other bases, like Hickam and Pearl and Tripler. They are there for all military to use.

So we get there and there is a sign in book and a sign that says something about a pool pass. Uh-oh. But instead of turning around I act like we belong there, sign illegibly in the book and grab a chaise lounge. It probably helped that it was late in the day and the lifeguards were bored.

I guess the pool is only for the residents of the Island Palm Housing, which totally sucks because we aren’t going to be able to go again and my kids LOVED IT.

Look mom! Sand. IN THE POOL!

 

Seriously, this is a genius concept. It’s like the beach but with clean, chlorinated water. Heaven.

The sandy beach side of the pool is shallow and great for little kids (and big kids, Mckenna loved it).

 

There is this rock wall divider that separates the sandy, shallow part from the non-sandy deeper part.

 

 

It really was a great pool and I’m bummed because we probably won’t be able to sneak in again and it’s the ONLY pool that Omar actually asks to go to. And yes we are spoiled by a ridiculous amount of pools (and beaches!) but dang it! This one was awesome!