Love these kids

 JT got a mohawk. Mr. B rocked a faux-hawk. It was cute. For a week. By the second week, I was determined that they both needed the rest of the haircut.
These guys. Love them.

 In our cleaning and organizing of the garage, HeaBug found her brother's old leapster. She was quite content to pull up a spot on the floor and play her new "game". Pexie, our almost 3 year old rottweiler, thought it looked like a good idea. They were camped here for almost and hour. Love these girls.

My sister-in-law sent me this pic of our Kalani Man. It's so hard when a part of your heart is growing up on the east coast but we love getting a steady stream of picture updates and thanks to Facebook and texting, we enjoy getting to watch him grow up. We are SO excited that he (and his mama and auntie) will be coming out to visit us for a week this Summer!! Love this boy.

St Joseph's Parish Fair

Spring nights. On this particular Saturday, it was nearing bed time but we'd gone out for a late dinner at Fusion Sushi. This amazing, lit up, no joke, school/church carnival had taken up residence for the weekend near the house. We passed it every day that week on our routes to and from school. They were obviously excited. I'm never too excited about huge crowds, price gouging and "Carnies". But thanks to us having been together for so long thus giving the ability to silently communicate (with the help of eyebrows and eye shifting), we agreed we'd surprise these munchkins with a trip to the Parish Fair. 

 And thrilled they were!! What? It's 8:30 Mom. You guys are the best ever! You mean we don't have to go home right now? We can go on rides?

Mr. B did have to climb into the kiddie fun house to retrieve Ms. HeaBug. She got scared and got stuck. She wouldn't budge. Dad rescued her. 

 Flying swings, little coasters, ferris wheels... All of which cause little knots in my stomach but I pushed that to the side in favor of allowing them to experience this fully.

 Bumper cars for Mr. B and JT. HeaBug didn't reach the height requirement so she played a $3 game to win a pink monkey that was cheap and cheesy and totally made her night.

 JT's face says it all for me. This is how I feel at the top of a ferris wheel on in a sky bucket or on a ski lift... But I kept a smile on my face and encouraged them to do so too. Once they got over the initial, WHOA... They soaked it all in with delight. (Mr. B laughed at me the whole time.)
It's great to live in such a big city and still access this small community living. Love me some LBC!

Spring Break 2013 in Hawaii

10 months ago we booked 5 tickets to Hawaii using miles on our Hawaiian Miles Visa. Complete, roundtrip. bam. Two weeks later, that awesome Mr. B suggests we take Maga as she was celebrating her 50th. (It's actually what we gave her as her present). Mr. B got the airline tickets and I was put in charge of finding us a great place to stay. Since there were six of us, we were looking at two hotel rooms. Alternatively, I decided to look at renting a house. I found the most amazing place! As we didn't pay for the flights, I figured we could splurge a little on the stay and MAN was it worth it.

Poor HeaBug was still fevered and JT was coughing like he had the plague. Our flight was in the evening out of LAX on a Monday. Since we'd booked the tickets so far in advance (for a 12pm flight) the flight times were changed (to a 5pm flight). Our first 5 tickets were placed on hold, not canceled but not confirmed seats either. Good thing Mr. B got it sorted out the few days before we left! We had the confirmed seats but they were scattered throughout the plane. Traveling with two little ones, that is just not an option for me. We asked the lady when we checked out bags and she says there is nothing she can do, flight is full. Once we got through security (Which we flew through considering, little shoutout to my bugs for being awesome travelers) I went up to the desk to work my politeness. I let the Hawaiian in my voice come out a little and took poor sick, sad Hea up on my hip. This lady was happy to help. She accommodated us to put the kids in between Mr. B and myself, Breezer was one row back to the right and Maga was right behind us. What a little Mahalo can do. AND they had leis for HeaBug and JT at the gate, with wishes of "Hope bebe feels better". LOVE!

After the 5ish hour flight, we were all feeling a little like junk. We originally rented two compact cars as it was cheaper than getting a loser cruiser  mini van. But the lady at the desk said she could hook it up with a mom-mobile van. It's all good, we could all ride comfortably together. Plus, cheaper was better!

We left Honolulu, crossing the island to get to Waialua on the North Shore which was where we were staying for the week. Putting faith in Google maps, we finally pulled into a cul-de-sac and it said we were there. Looking around, the middle of the night, it didn't feel like we were in the right place. It was dark so it was pretty hard to see. Mr. B pulls out his flashlight and we get out of the van and walk down what looks like an alley or a driveway. Thankfully it was the latter of the two. We opened the wood sliding gate and pulled the car into the space. There are two units. As we used the garage door opener in the garage, it accidentally opened the other unit's garage. We must have scared them something good! Ground level was the garage, in the front door and up a flight of stairs, we walked into an amazing living room. Even at night, we knew this place was cherry. The 2nd floor held the living room with a fold down queen sized futon situated in front of the full wall pocket doors, dining room kitchen, bar a hallway and a full bath. The 3rd floor housed a bedroom, laundry, full bath, and the master bedroom, also with full wall pocket doors and a balcony with an en suite powder room and bath.

This is what I woke up to the very next morning. Not even out of bed, just looking to the right. Happy girl.

Looking off the balcony.

And THAT sunrise. My oh my, Waialua I love you.


We knew we needed to snag some breakfast before we went to the PCC, which was our plan for the day. So we headed in to eat at Cafe Haleiwa. Yum.

Polynesian Cultural Center was lots of fun

 Fun fact... if you've visited the Samoan Village at the PCC... this is the SAME GUY!

 Ali'i lu'au. Even though she was sick, girfren got up to do the hula.

 We toured Iolani Palace in Honolulu. Even the kids listened to their own audio tours walking through time.

 We celebrated Mr. B's birthday at the Chart House. Poor sick girl was still sick. At this point I was also full on sick, JT was coughing like he had the plague and Mr. B was getting sick. (Breeze was two days behind).

 We loved playing in the "backyard".

 The Dole Plantation was good fun.

 Hiking up to and swimming in Waimea Falls was amaaazing. The water was SO cold when we first got in but we were fine after a minute.

Still a little grumpy

We ate at so many awesome places! We got to catch up with a mainland friend! Thank you Yelp, we were never at a loss for food options.

 We were finally well enough to breathe through the snorkels so we visited beautiful Hanauma Bay.

Hawaii was amazing. We were all sad to leave. The kids and Mr. B are convinced we need to buy a place so we can come back whenever we want. The property we stayed on was so beautiful, it felt like a little slice of heaven on earth. Best Spring Break.