So I was feeling nostalgic and decided to look through old photos of our little Quint man, which led me to looking at old photo books, which ultimately led me to finally look at my blog… and then I realized I hadn't written since July 2013!!! Nearly a year long hiatus from blogging… yikes! It couldn't be… this was a trend I was not liking the looks of… so I decided to do something about it :).
I know I have missed a lot of moments, but I decided to start with our trip to Hawaii this winter while Will was in the field :). While it is always nice to visit a paradise like Hawaii when it is dismal, rainy, freezing and snowing almost every other corner of the States, what made this trip so memorable were all the old friends Q and I were able to spend time with. It's a sad fact of Army life that you will always have to *physically* leave old and new friends with each new post/move. But it makes it that much sweeter when you see those old friends again, reminisce and see their toddlers whom you saw as newborns and vice versa. I am not as gifted as my husband is at writing and cannot adequately capture the emotions that go along with that, but it was truly special.
This trip took place somewhere in late January-mid February, when my poor husband was getting rained on and slogging through the mud at a field exercise in Rilea Oregon. Literally rode down the highway for 5 hours with his head sticking out of a Stryker, getting rained, sleeted and mudded (not a word, I know) on… and then his exercise began. And I was here… love you hunny!
Anyhoo, the first friend I HAD to see was Jessica Winograd… formerly Burks, my twice college roommates who was now married with 3 kids! She lived in Kailua. An absolutely GORGEOUS part of Hawaii, surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and the beach. Doesn't get much better. What was so neat about Kailua, was that it still retained this granola vibe. I mean, there were neighborhoods with chickens running around, people riding bikes to transport themselves (not just for recreation) and an amazing Whole Foods and Farmers market with TONS of local produce. It was awesome!
I spent an amazing 4 blissful days with my wonderful friend, mother and former roommate. It was so awesome being able to talk about the good old days, yet witness the wonderful mother and wife she had become! It was almost surreal. Oh-and the beaches, gorgeous hikes and snow cones weren't bad either ;).
HAHA, so when Quint first set eyes at the beach (pictured below) in Kailua, his first reaction was to take a step back, look up at me and gravely say, "Oh mama, that is too much water…" I could not stop laughing, it was hysterical. He was right… it was a lot of water, but it didn't take him long to grow to enjoy it :).
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| Kailua Beach |
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| Quint playing in the sand at Kailua Beach |
It was neat, I saw women put their children on these things called SUP (Stand Up Paddleboards) and paddle out to those far Islands! I thought it was crazy then… and that was BEFORE I tried SUP for myself! It is TOUGH, takes a lot of balance and core strength!
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| More Q, playing in the sand… hadn't quite warmed up to the water yet. |
Sadly, or not so sadly really, sometimes it is just too cloudy for a proper beach day… so you are forced to go on a really beautiful hike instead!
I love the below picture because we had reached our summit (HAHA, I'm using that term loosely to sound like a seasoned hiker…) and could literally SEE the storm we were about to be caught in about 15 minutes before it happened. It is just slightly to the right of my head. We reached the top, I looked out, then looked back at Jess and kind of mumbled, "is that…" and she goes, "oh yeah, I give it 15 minutes before we are drenched" HAHA… sure enough about 15 minutes later (thankfully near the bottom and close to the cars) it DOWNPOURED. No light sprinkles first, no thunder, no real warning (other than the fact that we'd seen it over the ocean) before an intense downpour. It was actually pretty neat. I think we salvaged that day by heading over to Costco for some treats! HAHA!… Even in Hawaii :)
Will had a weekend break from the field and I had left the envelope revealing the gender of our second precious little blessing on the counter for him to open :). So we face timed and Will opened the envelope and let me know that we were having a GIRL!!!! Definitely super fun
Shortly thereafter, Jess and I decided t would be rather appropriate to do a gender reveal shoot! Almost as much fun as the actual 'reveal' haha… probably because she's such a talented photographer :).
Snapped the bottom two, because it was just so nice to be able to take sunny walks and have Q ride his scooter whenever we felt like it! This boy got SO much outside time in January it was amazing.
We had another cloudy day, so we decided to go to the Honolulu Zoo!
The next friend we felt so blessed to be able to see again was Lindsey, Ethan and Doug! Our dear friends from Savannah, we lived next to for about 4 months while Will was deployed. Lindsey was there when Quint was born and vice versa with her precious Ethan… Lindsey (among other friends) pretty much saved me during pregnancy while Will was gone and then helped me through the craziness of having a deployed husband, newborn and full time job all at the same time! Not the best combo… I would literally text Lindsey, minutes before lunch and ask if I could come crash in her guest room for a nap because I was so exhausted HAHAHA… and she NEVER said no! It was incredible being pregnant and having newborns together; magical to see the tots they had grown into and the (pretty awesome) moms we had become :).
Linds is definitely never idle… it was raining when Linds picked me up in Ewa Beach, so she suggested the trampoline gym! What a blast… I didn't even know they existed before this HAHA! It was so fun watching Q and Ethan play again!
The next day did not disappoint. It was sunny as can be so we got in a little morning workout and then headed to the Lagoons!
Again, Quint was more a fan of the sand than he was the water… but that's ok. I love him anyway :). It was awesome… there was a Monk Seal that just decided to swim onto the sand and park himself there for the entire time we were there, sunning himself! Talk about cool! Quint and Ethan weren't too impressed, but they clearly had a lot going on. Plus, in their defense, the Seal was pretty lazy… literally a giant piece of blubber that occasionally moved HAHAHA. I still thought it was pretty darn cool.
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| Itty bitty little Monk Seal in the background… they had an areas cordoned off to give the seal some space so you couldn't get too close… so it wasn't really itty bitty, it just looks that way :) |
The next day was a little iffy, but we managed to fit in the Dole Plantation where we enjoyed their delicious Pineapple Frozen Yogurt and a nice train ride… Pineapple Frozen Yogurt, doesn't really sound like an amazing combination to me, but it was SO yummy and SO refreshing!! They top it off with fresh pineapple too, which really sends it over the top.
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| The train is here! |
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| SO happy on the train |
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| Haha, this is how I announced I was in Hawaii LOL |
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| Linds, Ethan, Q and me :) |
The next day it was off to the boats to see some PIRATES!!! I got it in my head to go cruise around on Honolulu's local Pirate Ship A. because it sounded fun and more importantly B. Quint is currently OBSESSED with Pirates.
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| Ahoy matees! |
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| Ethan was NOT a fan of the bandanna/eyepatch HAHA |
This was SUCH a fun adventure. They really do a nice job with this. The "Pirates" never break character… I literally don't know who had more fun: the adults or the children. They had cannons that made cannon noises and spewed water, they even created a mock battle with another ship/cruise boat, we literally found and pulled a treasure chest out of the water, complete with gold doubloons and they did all sorts of skits on deck to keep it lively!
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| Treasure!!! |
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| Quint was NOT shy when it came to the treasure! |
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| Hamming it up :) |
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| Swabbing the decks! |
So… just when I thought it couldn't really get any better, my amazing friends threw me a surprise baby shower at the Disney Character Brunch. Talk about being overwhelmed, humbled and feeling so blessed at the same time. HAHA, Lindsey literally took me in and I saw my other dear friend Erica Davis sitting there with her THREE kids and started to exclaim, "WOW, what a coincidence!"… then I looked around and saw my other friends- Jessica Winograd, Shelley Crowe, Maggie Clark, Eva Garwitz… I was in total shock and completely surprised and so thankful the Lord had blessed me with such amazing friends.
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| COMPLETELY shocked |
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| Aloha Micky! |
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| Q dancin' with Goofy |
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| Having a blast |
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| Goofy! |
Quint was obsessed with the Disney Characters! He literally could not get enough. I think he shoved 2 bites of food in his mouth and was constantly on the move, trying to find Mickey, Minny and Goofy! He kept trying to tell them things, give them things and show them all kinds of things. I think he knew this was a once in a lifetime type thing ;).
From here I went home with Shelley Crowe to their house on the beach on North Shore, in their new Range Rover… pretty much living like a Rock Star, no big deal ;). Completely became a North Shore bum, hung out, went to the beach, ate late dinners and donuts for breakfast and watched movies. Living the dream and loving life! Even got to catch up with Eric and Claudia Donahue and Mike Eisenlohr over Margaritas at Cholos!… well no Margaritas for me, it just sounded better that way :).
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| Notice the mugs… :) |
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| Beachin' aint easy ;) |
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| Sand surfing... |
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| "Surfing" |
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| "Salmoooon!" |
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| Just amaze balls… no caption necessary. I will be doing this in WA! HA! |
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| 'Mericaaaa! |
PHEW… this is delightfully exhausting just writing this epic post… I can't believe I actually lived this! OK, next stop Erica Davis! My other sista from a different motha… nah, doesn't quite work, but you get the gist :). My other Savannah homie and forever mommy friend! She has the most amazing house on North Shore. It is HUGE, up on the mountain with the most amazing garden you have ever seen. You name it, they grow it- avocados, oranges, coconuts, lilikoi, bananas… too much to name. I was in heaven. I literally made Erica take me to all the flowers and tell me what they were so I could document and take pictures! More of the dream here… when we weren't hanging out in the back eating fruits and soaking it all in in the back yard, we were playing in the tide pools, walking to school, eating Acai Dragon Fruit Bowls and doing a little sunset SUP! These short descriptions don't really do it justice, but I have to keep this post under control! Otherwise this would be a novel and I might not even go back to read it HAHA.
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| Madi and Ty showing Q how to use the rope swing :)… life y'all!! |
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| Look at the color of that Dragon Fruit!!!! SO DELISH |
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| SUP!… Even Q got on with Andy |
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| 'sup… HAHA |
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| Madi, Cole and Quint in the tide pools on North Shore :) |
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| More tide pool action |
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| Jonah, Ty and Q hangin' out, being men and eating snacks! |
We even made it to Benihana's… Quint's first Hibachi Grill experience… he was pretty impressed with all the fire and all the food being made right in front of him :).
So obviously Hawaii was pretty awesome, thanks to all of my incredible, gracious, accommodating, kind and just plain out-of-this-world friends. I went to Hawaii to 'get away' and it was more than I could have ever hoped for. I don't know if I ever want to go back, for fear that it could never be that good again once all the people I love are gone (run on sentence, I know…)! Hawaii just won't be the same without them :).
While vacation is nice, and I am truly blessed to have a husband that lets me do these kinds of things while he is gone, it is always better to be whole again and home with the man of our home, hearts and dreams! We love our daddy man!!!!
I literally could not hold on to Quint as he bounded across the lawn once he recognized "daddy's car"… it was a little scary, having him dart off towards the road like that, but heartwarming at the same time… especially since Will saw and thus stopped in the middle of the road to go run and give him a squeeze.
