Hawaii- Part 2, Molokai

Molokai is a smaller island in Hawaii. 10 miles wide, 30 miles long. Life runs a lot slower there. They don't have any major Costco's or grocery stores, or any major stores at all. The island only host a few thousand residents, and they live off the local organic farms and shops. This is why it's called "Hawaii back to nature". There isn't a lot of tourism, and the locals like to keep it that way. Visiting Moloaki isn't for seeing and doing and snapping photos...it's more for becoming part of the culture and the island itself. This is where Brian really "unplugged". We loved it. We just lived "molokai-style" for a few days and already miss it. It was such a nice break from our regular hectic, crazy life. 

 Tuesday was a travel day. It was also Valentine's day and Brian surprised us all with fresh-flower leis. They were beautiful and smelled even better than they looked!

 

This is Brian's favorite thing Zoey does....cuddle and snuggle his arm. It's so cute. 

We traveled in a little 6-8 passenger plane. Four of the seats were for our family, so we were a large part of the flight! It was exciting, but I could feel each smallest bit of turbulence and it made my stomach fly to my throat each time, so I was a little nervous on this flight. 

Oahu from the air (we also saw whales from the air)...

Curious boys looking out the windows....

Wednesday morning, Brian took Jackson fishing to catch his first fish! He loved it, they both did! The first reel had 3 hooks; Jackson lowered it to the bottom and came up with 3 fish! This was "Captain Clay." He was a great guide. Jackson caught around 20 fish in about 90 minutes, and decided he was done. So I came to pick him up at the wharf and Brian went out for a private fly fishing excursion. He didn't get a catch that day, but he did get to see a ton of sea turtles and stepped in a pod of "harmless" reef sharks!

We did the same thing we did on Oahu...beach in the morning, naps in the day and beach late afternoon. Jackson helped himself to the sunscreen..... we luckily had no sunburns this trip (ok--Brian got a little burned on his calves from his fishing trip, but htat was all)!

From this point in our vacation, it gets a little hazy as to what day it was, and when we did what....but we also visited a local macadamia nut farm. The fresh nuts were creamy delicious! Zoey fell in love with them! They also enjoyed cracking the nuts with the hammer....

Molokai is home to where the lepers were banished in the 1800's. This is a lookout to that secluded colony ( you can only see it from personal invitation, mule ride (no road entry), and have to be over 16 years old....it's very exclusive). It was a bit chilly and windy at the top but the view was amazing!

Just beyond this colony, are the largest sea cliffs in the world...also only available to see from a plane or boat charter at certain times of the year. We weren't lucky enough to see the cliffs this time, so we'll have to go back! We have seen photos and they are impressive!

We loved, loved, loved our little beach bungalow! It was perfect! This is the view of the beach from inside....

There was a nice yard for the kids to play in when they weren't on the beach...it also had great views of Maui and Lanai from here. 

The last day we were there, we went to church at the local ward, which was a part of the Maui stake and the Kona Temple President had come to speak. It was a great service. We had to check out right after church, but had a few ours before our flight, so we took a drive around the island. pictures just cannot capture the beauty....

It had rained the night before, and after the clouds cleared, we witnessed a waterfall!

Some impressive sea cliffs, just a glimpse at what the other cliffs might be like!

Zoey's favorite treat on the island...local doughnut holes served on a stick! Our last indulgence before saying goodbye!

Man, I miss it!

Hawaii- Part 1, Oahu

Our kids call this place "wahoo!" because that's what it sounds like to them... and by the time we had to leave it, Jackson said while looking over the ocean, "When I am a grown up daddy, I am going to live in Hawaii because I love Hawaii."

We had a great time. We arrived late Thursday night, just in time to get to our place and go to bed. The kids traveled well, but were really zonked by the end of the day. One of Jackson's favorite parts of the trip was the plane ride...everything was so new and exciting!  

The next morning, Jackson and Zoey woke up around 5:30 am Hawaii time and decided they were ready for the ocean, so they got dressed in their swim suites and danced around the house singing "We are in Hawaii!" We had to stall them a couple of hours as we waited for the sun to come up so we could go to the beach. After we saw the first glimpses of sun, we headed out for a morning walk on the beach. Brian and Jackson caught a little sand crab. It was fun to see the kids chase them around on the sand. They were amazed the crabs walked sideways and thought it was really funny! 

We stayed in Hau'ula (near the Laie Temple and BYU-Hawaii). Our beach house was right on the ocean. It had a little grassy area for the kids to play on, a stone wall to keep them from heading straight for the water, but then right behind the wall was our own private little beach area and the ocean! We loved every minute we had in the sun and sand. We rarely saw people on this part of the beach. That night, we went to Turtle Bay for dinner. I thought it was delicious but after Jackson told us he didn't like going out to eat and only liked our food at home, we decided that was our last meal out. We actually ate better and cheaper at home anyway. We grilled fresh ahi and steaks for dinner and lots of fresh fruit- and it was cheaper! 

 Jackson and Zoey enjoying an orange soda..... tongues orange and all!

We did visit other beaches (Ko olina had great snorkeling and Ala Mona was calm and warm). But these pictures basically sum up what we did. Beach.

We went on some pretty scenic drives getting from one part of the island to the other. One stop we made was to the Buddhist temple. It was gorgeous and if we didn't have the kids with us we would have taken a tour, but they wanted a beach, so we kept driving.

On Sunday, we went to the local ward and visited the Laie Temple. Jackson and Zoey decided it would be a good idea to wade their feet in the temple pond- crazy kids! They were really tired at this point in the day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging around the house. It happened to be the rainiest day there, but since it was Sunday anyway, we didn't feel like it dampened the trip at all.

 On Monday, we visited the Dole plantation. The kids loved the train ride and the famous "Dole whip" pineapple ice cream. That night we had a delicious meal on the beach and said good-bye to "wahoo!"

Zoey picked out this little yellow sundress and would wear it every day. She called it her "Hawaii dress." It was so soft on comfy! 

Photos!

My goal was to get the laundry room completed before our vacation to Hawaii. What started as a desire to add shelves for storage, turned into a whole re-decorating job. Brian always says, "If you're going to do something, do something right." I found an armoire on KSL that needed a little fixing up, and I didn't feel like I had the energy to "fix" it just yet.  So I planned to just use the armoire as it was until I had time to do something about it. The only problem was that the armoire was siting in the garage and I needed Brian's help to get it upstairs and in the laundry room. But he wasn't about to bring the armoire inside without it looking nice first. SO...it forced me into fixing it up so that I could use it.

That made me think about the ceiling that needed repainted in the laundry room, and then the walls needed a new color, and then of course the ideas kept spinning off from there. I wish I had pictures of the "before" project but basically it was a big room with no color and no storage. Here is our "after" product:

This is the armoire that got the whole thing started. I repainted, distressed and glazed it and put new hardware on it. It's a fantastic turquoise color- I absolutely love it! The picture doesn't do it justice though because there is a yellow tint to it for some reason. You have to see it in person though. This now holds all of my laundry detergents,  cleaning rags, iron and things that use to sit on top of my washer and dryer.

New shelves and labeled baskets! I love these! I love having the room organized. I use to have random piles all over my house of mis-matched socks, dry-cleaning, or ironing piles. Now they are all in one place and labeled! And I love the bar underneath the shelf that can hold hangers and clothes after they are ironed or need air drying.

 This is the overall room...the walls are a pretty blue color. Like I said, all these photos have a yellow tint to them (making it look greener than it is), so it's much better in person.  All accents are in black and white and the armoire is the one piece in turquoise.

Our wash sink. This also use to be cluttered with junk, now it's just a pretty place to wash stains out! 

 I love our new laundry room. Brian was quite pleased with the end results too! Although he supported my desire he didn't want anything to do with the job... which was fine by me. It was a fun project for me to do anyway. So, until I needed help with hanging shelves, he stayed out of the way and let me do my thing. He was very impressed in the end! I love how a little color can make a room so much more cheery.

Aloha!

Our camera has been broken since Christmas and we are still waiting to get it back from the shop...so I won't have pictures to share of my new laundry room (which I'm so excited about), OR the pictures of our Hawaii countdown chain taped to our wall OR pictures of the kids' luggage already packed with swim suites and flip flops! But I found this image of how we all feel about the recent trip we planned:

We are SO excited for this winter getaway! We knew we wanted to do something, but didn't know what. We knew we wanted to do it before the new baby came, but not sure when it would fit. Our kids are all at a good age where we can do something a little more fun and not worry about nursing infants or nap schedules. Who knows when the next opportunity will come?!?

Just so happens, Brian's work schedule had a short window open up and we took it! We decided to go all out, and so we are leaving on February 9th to Oahu for 5 days (Ko Olina area) and then flying over to visit the little Island of Molokai for 5 days. The flight for the whole family (5 seats) costs us a whopping...da da da...$10 (Thanks to all of Brian's work travel-- we finally get a little 'payback' for having him gone so much)! He has worked so hard for so long, he could really use this vacation. He'll be doing a little open ocean fly fishing on the side- who knew? He found a captain who can do it and so he's going to try it! I'm excited for him...can you catch mahi on a fly?

Here are some pictures of the place on Ko Olina we've decided to stay for the first half of the trip (try not to drool :)

The place we found on Molokai is super awesome! I don't have pictures, but we'll take some while we are there! We get a private beach right outside the home...literally. The backyard is the beach. Awesome!

Our winter hasn't been too bad this year, but being somewhere tropical for 10 days sounds sooooo nice to me right now! Jackson and Zoey asked me to print pictures of Hawaii for them to hang in their rooms..and they literally already have their bags packed!  We are just counting down the days! Can't wait! Can't wait!!

"The Organized Home"

This past month, after cleaning up from Christmas and getting over the flu, I've had the bug to organize every nook and cranny of our home. I'd attribute it to the unusually warm winter we are having and say it's the "spring cleaning fever" but Brian would attribute it to nesting and getting ready for the new baby.

I've found the energy and time to clean out and organize every room and closet, sift through and sort cabinets and drawers, wash walls and baseboards, compile a new cleaning schedule, organize the toy room and make new list of "house rules," come up with better solutions and systems, finish projects that were started 3 years ago and never finished...and it feels really good! It's like the new year has given me the excitement of having a fresh new start and I'm taking it and running with it!

My next project is making a functional and beautiful laundry room....I found an awesome armoire on ksl classifieds for $100 that I want to refinish to use as extra shelving in our laundry room. I also found these great ideas below from tip junkie: make-your-own drying rack, re-purposed candy jar for laundry detergent, check your pockets sign...great ideas! 

I also have plans for the kids' bedrooms since we'll be doing a little switcher-roo with everybody as we make room for the new baby. 18 weeks left! Let's see what can be accomplished!