Another Weekend for the Books!

We've gone and had ourselves another fabulous weekend! :) Seriously, this weekend rocked. We woke up yesterday morning and hiked almost all of Kealia Trail. It's a kick ass hike that goes up the side of the mountain behind Mokuleia and overlooks Dillingham airfield, until you get to the top and then it looks over Makua Valley. Apparently if you go to the end, you can see down into the Waianae side but Eve wasn't digging any more hills and the people that went before us seemed a little underwhelmed by it.

After this fabulous hike, we came home to shower and hit a wine shop in Aiea that we had a Group on for...yay Group ons! On the way home we decided to go watch sunset and this was our reward...ahhhhh.

Today I had to write a term paper, so I stayed home to work on that while CRH and our friend, Wendle, took Eve paddle boarding. I was super jealous because I love SUP and it was super pretty outside, but they kindly came home around lunch and grabbed me after I'd whipped that paper out. We paddled out to the end of the river, where they had gone before. For whatever reason today, I had a rough start. I think the wind was high and the current strong and my confidence low because I fell off pretty quickly trying to turn around and get the kid. Anyway, it was awesome once I got over myself and we had a great time! We saw turtles and CRH may or may not have accidentally run into one...perhaps. It was Wendle's first time and he loved it.

As we were coming in, Eve paddled she and I some back into the shore and then she decided she wanted to go back out. CRH hopped on and took her out and lo and behold, she decided she wanted to stand up! I was sooooo proud of her! She did it a few times with him on the board and then she took off on her own and paddled herself in at the end. That kid never ceases to amaze me!

We headed over to Turtle Bay to check on the now 10 day old baby monk seal and to watch sunset. It was a perfect end to a perfect weekend. The baby was pretty active today and we had fun watching it swim and snuggle with its mama! If you can believe it, it was also Wendle's first seal sighting and yes, he's from here. I'm glad he's checking things off his bucket list before he leaves for Seattle this month!

Grandmamas, Mamas, and Babies

Last week was THE reunion! My Mama brought my baby home!!! It was not a moment too soon! Actually, it was a day late thanks to United...but this is a happy post. I'll rail on them later. CRH and I met them at the airport with leis (and wine for my mom). It was a long tedious travel process!

The same day they arrived, a mama monk seal had a baby in the same spot where she had one last summer. It immediately became part of our to-do list. We didn't do a whole lot except sit around on the beach, drink wine, and laugh as she had requested to do this trip. It seems I showed her the entire island last time and she just wanted to relax this trip. I've heard I'm a bit of a travel Nazi.

The first night here, we caught sunset at Monument. The next day we had a lovely beach day there. We sat on my favorite beach the following day and watched the turtles. That was an awesome day! I triple love this picture of them.

We visited the monk seals and walked the grounds of Turtle Bay. There is a place there that CRH and I have determined will be Eve's wedding spot, so I showed that to my Mama as well. I love this picture of them too. I took it with my phone, but it's surely to be a sentimental one. Check back in 25 years for the follow up one of them standing in that doorway.

My Mama was also here for Eve's 1st day of 3rd grade. What a special day that was to take her with us to Eve's school. I left Eve in her classroom and walked outside to my Mama standing there and spontaneously burst into tears. I actually cry every year and it's lessened over the years, but this year with her here it was so just cool. She left on Tuesday to many tears from Eve Hart. Eve said this was the best summer EVER and she didn't want it to end.

I loved every second of her visit and now it's back to the grind. We are doing a new hike tomorrow, so stay tuned for more pictures.