It Even Rains in Hawaii

On our third day in Hawaii, we let ourselves sleep in. We had breakfast on our lanai listening to live Hawaiian music, and hit the beach only to be poured on! It was set in for the whole day. We made our way to the North Shore, where we used to live, and where we planned to meet our friends (neighbors from years ago) for lunch. So much to see and reminisce on our drive. And beautiful amidst all the rain and the flooding up on North Shore! After a long winter, everything seemed so immensely green and lush to us.

This is where I had my wisdom teeth pulled!

The grocery store we used to drive to in Kaneohe, because the one in our town was too pricy for poor college students. That is, until we sold our car to buy a stroller and car seat and then used that to get our groceries in!
The old hygienic store. I've never actually been in it, but it looks so familiar on its corner, and I've always loved its orange colour.


Ku'aloa mountain range... I don't know how many times we have driven by these gorgeous mountains. It felt like coming home.

Chinaman's Hat. Years ago when Mr. Man and I were engaged and I visited him here, we were driving back up to North Shore and there was a motorcycle accident and the road was blocked. We drove back here and, needless to say, we made some memories making out hanging out for hours until the roadblock cleared.We finally made it to Laie, our old stomping grounds which were completely flooded!

We took pictures of all the normal things in our lives that we never thought to take picture of before. Here's Hale 6, where Mr. Man lived his freshman year at BYU-Hawaii.
Where he worked:
The health center, where I first went when I was pregnant and where Miss J had her first doctor:
Good old TVA:
Where I was pregnant and had Miss J (our neighbors we met up with lived right above us and we had our first babies just weeks apart!)
We moved to R building when I went psychotic, it was nicer (as nice as TVA can get) and had a yard and playground area for little Miss J (shared by all, but right outside our front door).
Miss J's first playground and the laundromat where I had some of my favourite clothing stolen (still bitter!)
The Laie, Hawaii LDS temple where we used to walk the grounds daily. (I have better pictures, but you can see how gray and rainy it was here!)

Our neighbor's two daughters they had when we lived here (such cute little girls!)
And their two little boys, who were enjoying the flooding a little too much:
(my boys would have fit right in with them!)

We had lunch at the BYUH cafeteria, which has not changed since 1996!!!
Then off to our friends' home to laugh, and talk for hours on end!!! (And get dry!)

Mother's Day Tokens

From Miss J:
"Dear Mom,
Thank you for loving me, cheering me on, and giving me the life that I love!

I will always remember when we read "Anne (with an e) of Green Gables" and how you did funny voices and we would laugh at the silly things Anne would say and do. Hopefully we can read the second book, it would be loads of fun!!

Mom, what I love most about you is you always find a way to give us love, you care so much about us, you tell vary funny jokes, and you share the love equally between the boys but not me, I get more love... kidding, you share love equally.

My favorite things to do with you are making cool cards, and reading books together. Happy Mothers Day. I love you Mom, Love Miss J"

From Mr. T:
"Mom You're the best mom. Your eyes are as green as green grass. Your hair is as blond as gold. Another thing about you is when I am sad or hurt you cuddle with me. Next, you are so good at baking. Finally, you are good at bowling. I love you, do you love me? Mr. T."

From Little E:
My mom's name is MOM
My mom is 23 YEARS OLD
My mom likes to COLER
My mom has GREEN eyes
My mom weighs this much (crossed out 22)
My moms birthday in on AGEST
My mom's favorite food is CHOKLET
My mom likes to help me GET DREST
My mom is the best at LANDRY

I love you Mom! XOXOXXO Little E."

Day One and Two

Lots and lots of flying. I finally got to read for pleasure!

When we landed it was rainy and overcast and HUMID. But still smelled divinely of Hawaii. Mr. Man is convinced they spray a scent in the airport... I like to think it's all the flowers and leis.

Once we got our luggage, rental car and some yummy Hawaiian food in our bellies we set off to find our hotel.
We stayed in Waikiki the first two nights. We had a "partial" ocean view, and were just steps from the beach, and blocks from the International Market. Even overcast, it was beautiful... look at the view from our window:
We did some shopping at the markets and downtown, and some beach time too. We were pretty exhausted and completely jet-lagged so we went to bed way too early and woke at some point to the weekly Friday night fireworks display in Honolulu.

Our second day was still pretty overcast, so we decided to do a lot of our hiking and snorkeling.
We hiked Diamond Head, went snorkeling at Hanama Bay (and ran into a friend from our olden days), hiked up to the lighthouse where we used to take Miss J, and then had a well-deserved dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory - another special spot to us. It was a long, beautiful day.

I snapped about a hundred pictures as we drove around... everything was so vibrant and green. I adore these trees that just spread out and are everywhere. It was heavenly.
Neither of us had hiked Diamond Head Crater before, and it was fun to do something new together.

(I don't particularly enjoy tunnels!)

It was horribly windy and we had to go through several tunnels and up hundreds of steps before we made it to the top to see this:

Hanama Bay was not nearly as busy as it used to be years ago... or perhaps it was the cruddy weather? Things have changed, we can no longer feed the fish, walk to the blow hole, and you have to watch a training movie about the coral and fish, etc. Finally we were allowed in the water, and the real excitement began (once I stopped hyperventilating and recalled how snorkeling works... yes, Amy I got my face wet!!!) We saw about 50 different types of fish and even swam along with a sea turtle. You've already seen our snorkeling mugshot, but here's the bay. Next time we snorkel we need to get a waterproof camera.
Finally we did the lighthouse hike... not sure what it's official name is. Mr. Man loves this hike because often you can see another island from the top (when it's not overcast) and it used to make him feel less isolated after years of being on our island! It's a gorgeous hike right along the coast with different vegetation, including cactus, along the way. Again, it was very windy - refreshingly so!


Last but not least... delicious dinner and bed for this tired but happy couple.

The Dandelion Analogy

{circa 2007}

I had a primary meeting last night and my sweet secretary (whom I'll call Jane) shared a spiritual thought that really hit home. So I'm basically plagiarizing her and sharing it here and adding my own two sense.

Spring has just arrived in our state (knock on wood) and dandelions are popping up everywhere. As Jane was walking home from dropping off her school-age children at school and giving her preschooler a piggy-back ride home, her daughter started noticing all of the dandelions popping up all over people's lawns. "Why can't we have dandelions like theirs? They have lots of dandelions; it's not fair that we don't!" She exclaimed profusely to her mother. Inside, Jane was thinking that there was a reason that they didn't have dandelions, and that she had made the active decision to make sure they did not have any. They are, after all, hideous weeds that spread like wildfire. And yet here was her daughter pointing out their beauty and calling them beautiful flowers.

Jane explained about how we all have learning experiences and trials in our lives, and how often we view those things as weeds, things that we really would rather discard from our lives. And yet perhaps we need to view them as flowers and look for the beauty and the rampant growth that usually accompanies such struggles.

I loved this analogy.

I think of it as the weed or flower debate.

My immediate reaction is that they are weeds and we need to get some round-up or some other hearty weed killer. And yet they are also the thing that most symbolizes spring to me, not to mention their many benefits - such as being entirely edible and also used medicinally.

And I've started noticing them more. Entire fields on campus, and rare ones creeping up in my yard. Some even worth picking. Another thing worth looking for in life.

Aloha!

There's no time for catch up.

I'm now in summer school for my first time ever. Talk about LONG classes, since these courses are being crunched down to fit into six weeks. And TONS of reading. I started yesterday and already have a mid-term next Tuesday. However I am so far very interested in the content, so that helps a lot. And it's only for six weeks.

Life keeps on rolling.

But for eight glorious days, time did seem to stand still as Mr. Man and I took off for a long-awaited and well-deserved child-less vacation back to Hawaii - where we first began our married life.

Here's a tease, but I want to record our day-by-days for memory sake when I have more moments to twiddle away on the computer. At any rate, we're alive and well and I should be back to blogging.... I can't believe how behind I am in not only blogging but blog reading too...