HAWAII ONE-OH

Can you believe that Jonah and I have been married for TEN YEARS. Wowness. It seems like it was yesterday that we got married, except that we had three kids in one day. Also, we have had about 18 cars and moved 19 times. And, we finally divided the housework so that we both feel like it's fair: Jonah does all the cooking and dishes and grocery shopping and gets the older kids up in the morning, and I do all the other stuff and put the kids to bed. Also, he feeds the pigs and I feed the chickens. He does all the heavy lifting and I do all the lawn mowing (which is great because we don't have a lawn mower).

See how smoothly everything goes once you hit ten years?!

We HAD to celebrate, don't you think? Luckily, we tricked my mom into taking a flight up here to babysit our kids for a WHOLE WEEK while we went to HAWAII. The Big Island. We went to Maui for our Honeymoon, so we needed an even bigger island for our Ten Year.

Well, Hawaii NEVER disappoints. I always underestimate the place and then show up and WOW--one gillion times better than I imagined.

Jonah is the awesomester and found the perfect place for us to stay... a state park adjacent to one of the nicest Hawaii resorts and right on the most lovely beach I've ever seen. And it was a big $20 a night. We loved it. We got our own "condo" (A-frame campotel) and got a foam mat from a garage sale on our first day there to add to our camping mat so that the floor wasn't so hard. It was amazing...best "camping" ever. The campground was Australian/NZ style with a big dining pavilion servicing the six cabins, so we got our own food from Costco and were able to eat-in for all of our meals. It was perfect for us--we got to be outside for almost the whole week. Luckily, the weather was overly perfect, including the good wind we got every night that kept us cool when we slept.

We spent our days exploring the island, hiking, lying on the beach, and snorkeling. One day we swam and snorkeled for five straight hours in the bay at the Captain Cook Memorial...I was very hungry when we got back to the car. But, I really appreciated NOT having the kids at that moment because I knew that they would most likely be crying.

However, we learned our lesson from the blistering sunfries we got on our honeymoon and did not get sunburned once.

This was also supposed to be our first big scuba diving trip, but Jonah had to go scuba diving without me because the day we went out together the waves were huge and by the time I swam out to our spot with all my gear on and 22 pounds of weights I totally hyper-ventelated and couldn't catch my breath. It was super embarassing. Luckily we were just doing a shore dive just us two and weren't out on a boat with other people, so we just swam back in and I snorkeled while Jonah scuba-ed. I am TOTALLY going to do it next time though. I am not a wimp! I did great in my lessons even when it was only 45 degrees and there was a lightening storm while we were in the lake with 5 feet of visibility. But, we all have our weaknesses, so please don't bring it up to my face. I'm just posting it publicly so that I'll have all of you as witnesses that I am going down next time.

Okay, on to the photos:

As soon as we got our rental car and got up to our cabin, we put on our togs and ran down to the beach. Ahhhhhhhh. See the sunset in Jonah's glasses. Bliss.

This is on the way down into this fantastic valley we found not too far from our cabin on Hapuna Beach. It was a little slice of heaven, except for the decaying whale on the beach that gave the whole place a fairly strong odor. See it down there on the beach? It's the white lump.

It was just us and the cows and the whale.

Aloha!

Can you tell that we liked this valley?! This valley is the furthest west of the seven valleys on the northern tip of the Big Island.. the most famous is the Waipo'o Valley, but this one was equally impressive.

But we did stop by the Waipo'o Valley on the way to Hilo on Sunday. I took some time to beat up an old man.

For our NZ cuzzies: Hawaii's version of Pak-n-Save.

We stayed on the dry desert side of the island which meant we had perfect dry-warm-sunny weather, but not so much of this stuff above, which is usually what I think of when I think of Hawaii. Yet the Big Island is incredible because you can drive just one hour and go from desert to Hawaiian jungle waterfall land. Voila!

Can I publicly thank the writers of the Lonely Planet? Thank you. I have pretty much lived by the Lonely Planet guidebooks for the last six years. Even in Hawaii, the Lonely Planet is indispensable. It led us to a hike to the base of this waterfall, and we were all alone the whole time. Magic.

And also to these lava caves.

The Lonely Planet did not lead us to our most favorite place on the Big Island, but it was good to have at least one place that we could say we found on our own. We were actually camping about one mile from this little village called Puako, but didn't go over there until four days into our trip. We finally went to Puako to go snorkeling and diving, and while we were taking a lunch break in the parking lot, we started chatting up some local fishermen. They were pretty shy until I worked it into the conversation that we have a couple of pigs and then BAM! they we our new best friends. Seriously... if you want respect in Hawaii, just own a pig or two. We swapped pig stories for awhile and then one guy told us about an amazing little secret beach up the road. Then another guy really opened up and told us where to go to be 110% assured to find dozens of turtles sunning themselves or eating in the tide pools. He wasn't kidding. Over the next two days we really did hang out with dozens of turtles. It was the first time we missed the kids because we knew they would have loved it.

It is so sad when a vacation is half way over.. and then half way to half way over and then over. Bummer. We finally had to leave our great little condo and sweep it out one last time.

And say good bye to our Hapuna Beach and drive south towards Hilo. We did actually spend the last night, our anniversary night, at a resort south of Hilo. It was fun to make leis at the resort and snorkle right there at the hotel, but it was especially fun to celebrate our ten years together and dress up and have a romantic evening together complete with sushi and live ukelele music. I have the best husband. I love our marriage!

The flight home from paradise is always a drag, especially when on United. It ended up taking us a full 24 hours to get home. But, it felt like a TRUE miracle when we made it to Seattle and met my mom and Elsie at the ferry dock. My mom was more than a little worn out....not so much from the kids, but mostly from the demonic pigs who escaped 3 times a day and dug up the yard and gave my mom the evil pig-eye. Hopefully she realized what a service she did for us-- we haven't had a "just us" vacation for more than a night since 2002! It was heaven.

But it was good to get back to life here int he beautiful northwest. Hawaii is gorgeous, but we've got a lot of gorgeous up here too. (I'm not going to try to best Hawaii's weather however, or beaches, or flowers... but the food is cheaper here). Plus, Elsie gives us constant entertainment. She is ALWAYS dressed up.

Spring has sprung and we've been working very hard to get the yard organized and dirt moved before all the new grass grows in. The chickens have only another month and then we should start getting eggs! FINALLY! They do crow already. Hooray....sike. We sold half of the chickens, though, so they are getting more fun and less work.

Jonah's got his projects going all over the place. He works so hard some days that he collapses on the bed at about 8 pm. He loves it. We also finally have an oven so he has been making his famous cookies to everyone's delight.

Besides the booming chicken farm (ha ha), I'm working for a marketing company out of Portland as their Seattle Area Manager. It's basically about 3 hours a day at home managing salesreps. So far, so good. Also, my position required me to get licensed to sell health insurance AND promotional products, among other things... so if you or your business or nonprofit or family needs health insurance OR ANYTHING that has a logo or business name on it (from business cards to pens to m&ms to camp chairs to apparel to toys to everything), I can be a BIG help.

Ana did great in her second trimester at school and was especially impressed with herself and the improvement she's made in writing and reading comprehension. She had a piano recital tonight and did very well, but we think her true talent lies in public speaking because she LOVES that mic and can command everyone's attention with just a few words. She also has learned to drive with a clutch. ALSO, she learned that jump ropes make great escaped-pig whips--Man from Snowy River style.

Cam is our little surprise child, getting consistent perfect grades on everything and plowing through chapter books and any sort of nonfiction book on unusual animals (like woodpeckers or jack russel terriers) that he can find. He wears his wool coat every day with the hood on even when it's 68 degrees. He loves riding his bike and has been practicing on the new tetherball pole that Jonah put up so that he can someday beat someone else besides Elsie. He's a little addicted to PBSkids.org and Bakugan, but he also loves working with Jonah outside and riding his bike, so we figure it all balances out. He is VERY tolerant of Ana and incredibly kind to Elsie.

Elsie gets four times as many photos taken as any one else in the family because she adores having her photo taken. In fact, I don't think I'd ever remember to take photos if she didn't always ask me to photograph her! She loves having both parents home all the time, and especially loves that Jonah has to take her to the playground and playgroup and preschool while I'm working in the mornings. Elsie is very polite and very affectionate--every other sentence includes a "thank you" or a "love".She is coming out of her extremely naughty stage and has settled back into being an easy child, except for her mess making talents which usually involve dress-up clothes and princess dolls and cottage cheese.

Okay. I've blogged. What an elation and relief.

We love to hear from you so send an email or leave a comment or do some blogging too.

xoxo

Mahalo.