Tag Archives: Hawaii

Eat the Street: Bacon

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Okay, disclaimer here, we don’t only eat and go to the beach though it may seem so from my recent postings. We just haven’t done too much other exciting stuff!

One of our favorite activities is Eat the Street, and this months theme was bacon. Yes, I know, could they have picked a better theme?! It was amazing to see how many ways the vendors were able to incorporate bacon into their dishes. Once again I wish we could have tried everything but it is just not possible! There was SO much food!

Our first stop was the Whatcha Fillin’ truck for some filled waffle cakes, we went with the bacon mac and cheese as well a s’more. Delish! Should have tried the beer goggles flavor!

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Next up their favorite two stops, Waffledog and the thai chicken skewers. No bacon involved!
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We split the bacon wrapped shrimp plate lunch. They were insanely good. Great seasoning to them, and my kids don’t like mac salad so it was all mine!DSC_1205

Just an array of signs from the night, mind boggling the amount of bacon!signs

Time for bacon dessert! Maple bacon cupcakes and bacon walnut brownies! We found out the next day that one truck had chocolate covered bacon. Don’t know if I would have tried it! I prefer my bacon savory!

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May Day is Lei Day!

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May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, and it’s all about celebrating Hawaiian culture. I love it! Everywhere you go people are wearing fresh flower leis and it is such a fun celebration! We weren’t able to get downtown to see the festivities but we will for sure get there next year!

 

One of the traditions is to elect a royal court with a King and Queen and princes and princesses. We didn’t go see them but we have our own royalty in the house, Omar was elected to Kindergarten prince which is quite the accomplishment! The school is having their big May Day event later in the month and we will get to watch all of the grades dance a hula and the royal court will be dancing their own hula as well! I can’t wait!

 

But to celebrate lei day, the kids got to make some fresh flower leis themselves. Gotta love it! The plumeria are everywhere around here and Mckenna wants to start making them more often!

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Ko’Olina Lagoons

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Well the kids are finally back in school for their two day school week, but I wanted to share some more of our fun Spring Break adventures… On Monday we hit up Ko’Olina Lagoon, specifically #4 near the marina.

These lagoons are all man made but it makes for some great swimming for the kids. The water is nice and calm and there is a nice reef right outside the lagoon to keep the critters out. Unsuccessfully, there was a 4 foot reef shark spotted in here last week! No sharks for us, we did get a quick glance of a honu or green sea turtle. He was too fast for me to snap a picture.koolina

Yes the water is really that beautifully clear. And it was hot and sunny the entire time we were there, getting updates from all our Honolulu friends who were getting a downpour and my Virginia family who was getting snow! koolina1Shortly after I took the picture of our beach site I got reprimanded for having a tent up. I forgot that I am not too fond of this beach. Lots of rules, no umbrellas or tents, which is crazy because this is over on the west side which is the hottest side of the island! We did get to glimpse the cutest baby octopus ever! I don’t know how they even saw him in the water!

 

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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