Living Aloha!: January 2011

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Hiking Hawaii: Manoa Falls

Today I took the boys on a hike to Manoa Falls, a small but neat waterfall near the University of Hawaii. The hike was a decent one, but treacherous in places with wet, moss-covered rocks and mosquitos! Despite covering up with bug spray, if you stayed still too long you were eaten alive in a matter on minutes! Luckily, we kept moving and Ryah had a bug net to protect her.

This trail is about 3.0 miles roundtrip, and is completely jungle in scenery. The waterfall wasn't what I expected (or was hoping for) but it was still a pleasant end to our hike before we had to turn around and go back.

I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few:

Thursday, January 27, 2011

More Ryah Pictures!

I'm really having fun with my camera this week...I don't know why, but I'm getting such a vintage vibe from these pictures I took of Ryah. I feel like I'm looking right into a 1950's photograph! I love it!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

5 Months Old!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ryah's First Time At The Beach!

I decided to bite the bullet and pack up the kids for Ryah's first trip to the beach. I was a little intimidated without Mike, because hauling four kids out to the sand and sun and then getting them all home again is no small task. In fact, I probably brought a little too much stuff.

I got my friend Yanette on board and off we went to the North Shore. It was a bit of a pain in the butt to get all packed, then as soon as we left Ryah needed to eat, so I had to pull over for a bit to feed her. As we approached North Shore I could see the brown water warning I had heard about earlier in the week was still in effect. Great. The storms had churned up the water and caused mudslides into the ocean, making the water a mucky yucky brown. Blah.

Still, we pushed on, and got to the beach, only to find most of the beach had been washed away by winter waves! Gah! Well, we were already all the way up at the North Shore, no turning back now. We got everything unloaded and we attempted to get to the beach. Not even a few steps in and my beach cart turned over, spilling everything all over the sand! The lifeguard on duty must have seen us, two measly women with five kids and everything but the kitchen sink trying to get to the beach, and he offered to help. He loaded our stuff onto his 4-wheeler and drove it out to a great spot.

Whew! Once we got settled everything fell into place and the rest of the day was awesome! Yanette and I sat in a little beach tent with Ryah and chatted while the kids played. They played almost the whole day in the ocean! They had a lot of fun, and I felt accomplished!

We stayed for a good 6-7 hours...and we were all tired at the end of the day but in a good, beachy, warm sun and sand kind of way :)

Picture Sharing Time: FRG Wives Hike!

On Saturday, January 22nd the boys and I decided to join a group of FRG wives (military wives) on a hike. I've decided it's time to get out of the house more and explore Hawaii. We've been here more than a year already and hardly have any exploring under our belts. Of course, being pregnant for most of that year didn't help, but now it's time to get out there and see the island! We had gorgeous weather and boy, was it a hike! I carried Ryah in the Ergo, a type of baby carrier, and the boys walked. We went in a group of about 20, and we had a blast! Only one mishap...I took a fall after I got out of the car and scraped up my knee pretty badly. It was scary because I was already wearing Ryah, but I managed to protect her and she was fine.

The hike we went on was Makapu'u Trail, which leads up to an amazing lookout and a lighthouse. We had hoped to see whales but no luck this time. The road to the lighthouse was also closed, but the views could not be beat.