Hawaii

What a week, what a day. All this stuff in Boston just feels way too close to home. Only a few years ago, we were cheering at the Boston marathon and Greg was on MIT campus, daily. So relieved that our friends in the Boston area are all okay and so much sadness for those who are not.

For a happy distraction, reflecting on our trip to Hawaii seems like a good thing to do....

This was our second trip back to Oahu since leaving in 2008. Kai clearly remembers our last trip and was really looking forward to this one. A cold for he and I put a bit of a damper on the trip's beginning as we both felt pretty lousy. But sunshine, fresh papaya everyday, salt water and tropical breezes certainly helped us both feel better. You'll notice I didn't mention sleep. We all slept in the same hotel room for the first time ever on this trip. Overall, it went pretty well. The kids were exhausted each night and fell asleep rather than keeping each other awake to all hours. But a combination of the time difference and a little person named Teia, ensured that everyone was awake as the sun came up.

One night Teia fell out of bed and woke us all up. She settled back to sleep quickly but the rest of us tossed and turned all night long. So we were all pretty much sleeping by Teia's schedule, except that she was the only one taking 2 hour naps every day. But its hard to get too annoyed with her. She just enjoys life so much and brings us so much joy with her exuberance and love. Just look at this face....

But despite sleeplessness and colds, it was wonderful to be back. We saw great friends and spent lots of time in the warm waters of both the ocean and the hotel pool. Kai was so relaxed and happy in Hawaii-mode. He went barefoot or wore his slippas everywhere and couldn't get enough of the water - the pool and "the water with the sand" as he called it. 

Mama even got out for a surf session. It wasn't too successful in terms of riding waves. I was more than a little rusty and conditions weren't ideal. But it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon to be in the water and I was joined by a huge honu who surfaced beside me and stayed close as I paddled back to shore. (Yes, it was lovely to see him but he reminded me of the other large creatures that might be swimming about and I lost my nerve for solo surfing 200m from shore!)

Our hotel pool had an interesting rule where kids had to get out every hour for a 15 minute adult swim. We were puzzled by this b/c the hotel had another pool for the 18 and over crowd. At first we were annoyed, although the kids didn't seem to mind their towel time. But a few days into our trip after realizing that our kids could easily spend 3 hours in the water (requiring intense parental supervision b/c they both can't swim yet and the water was a perfect depth for Kai but Teia needed schlepping around the entire time), we came to appreciate this 15 minute break which surely was intended for exhausted parents. We'd grab a sip of water and momentarily rest our arms and legs, weary from tossing 35-50 lbs in the air repeatedly. Then the whistle would blow and Kai and Teia (and all the other little people) were off like shots to get back at 'er. It is funny watching little people waddle as they try to go as fast as they can without running on the pool deck. 

One of the big highlights of our trip was taking the kids to a luau. Seemed like a good idea until a few hours before when we started to worry that we'd spent a fair bit of money on tickets and we weren't sure we'd even get through the meal before the kids would want to leave. We were pleasantly surprised. Not only did the kids enjoy getting polynesian tattoos, watch a coconut tree climber and sit through a meal of pulled pork, seaweed, poi and rice (while I filled them up with pretzels from a zip loc bag), they really enjoyed the dancing. 

Little miss Teia found herself up on the stage twice dancing hula. These days where Teia goes, Kai goes too, so we all ended up on stage for a hula lesson in front of about 200 people, even Daddy was up there shakin' it! 

The second time Teia went up for a Tahitian competition. We were so proud of her, confidently heading up with her hula dancer, wearing her lei and giving it her best up there. Kai also headed up to dance with his little sis but changed his mind when he realized that Mommy wasn't going to be on stage this time. If you look closely, you'll see him. 

Okay, after 3 days of upload fails, I have to give up on this video. I did post it to my Facebook page. I will try again in a new blog post. I did manage to upload a different video of Teia dancing, this time on the beach. If you're wondering about her slow approach to the dance "stage," Greg and I were instructed to be the curtains. 

The final event of the night was the fire knife dancers. Both kids were entranced. That is, until the dancer set the floor on fire. Kai turned to us and said "this is a little much, I need a break." Later that night we asked Kai what was his favorite part of the evening. He replied "not the fire knife dancers!" Teia on the other hand gave us a pantomimed fire knife performance back at the hotel room. Wish I had video of that!

It must have been a good trip b/c the other night Kai announced to me "I'm ready to move now!" He must have felt a little unsure though b/c he looked at me and added "but you're not quite ready yet." Can't blame him, every time we go back the idea of living in Hawaii again crosses my mind. Scary thing is, this time I didn't even find it that trafficky or busy. I guess I am beginning to get used to busy places :-/