The Walley/ Plouff Vacation Continues

It hardly feels like we've stopped while Derek's family has been here. We've had a few things that we've done for the second or third time but we've also gotten to do a few big new things too. We had a brief visit into China Town. It looks like quite an interesting place to visit, but apparently not at night. The homeless are plentiful around here and it seems even more so in China Town which isn't one of the best places. So, we'll visit again during the daylight but for this trip stopped in and had an authentic Chinese meal. Renee even ordered the shark's fin soup. The girls were pretty grossed out but Jett enjoyed it a lot! The girls had a night out shopping and we took the trolley to Hilo Hattie's to get a little hula rhythm into Renee & Freddye. Freddye's birthday was last Wednesday and we went over to the lagoon to try out Paddle boarding and then ended her special day with a trip to Puu Ualakaa State Park for one of the most amazing sunset views across the west coast of the island. We've visited the Bishop Museum again- we got season passes to it. This really is an amazing museum. We've visited it twice now and haven't covered more than maybe a quarter of all there is to see. They have such good hands on stuff throughout for the kids too that it's perfect for all of us to go to together! We also spent one day driving up the east coast of the island to the Polynesian cultural center. As a last minute stop we went to The Valley Of Temples to see the Byodo In Temple. The setting was amazing and the fog like clouds in the mountains behind it made the place stunning. Afterwards we went to the theme park which covers 7 island nations- Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, etc. They do shows and demonstrations for each and then we had a luau afterwards and then a wonderful show at the end full of hula, dancing and a great story. It was another tiring and beautiful day!

Walley/ Plouff Family Vacation

Derek's family has come to visit! His Mom & Sister and her son (Christina's family) are here for 13 days and we're almost half way through the trip now. I am so blessed by Derek's family. They have loved me and welcomed me into the family so I feel just like one of their own and they are such a blessing to me! We're having such a good time showing them around the island- maybe too good a time since we're pretty exhausted from all that we're trying to do! Poor Derek & Christina are going to just be completely wiped out at the end of the trip cause they are doing everything with us that they can and working too! We've taken them to a dolphin cruise, done Sunset picnics, hung out on beaches, seen the Royal Hawaiian band play on the lawn before we toured Iolani palace, went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, went hiking on the Windward side of the island (Renee, Freddye & I took the kids on a kid-friendly hike while Derek, Christina & Mike went on a longer one- pictures from that are to come soon!)... good times!

Date Nights & Discoveries

Derek & I have had a few wonderful date nights together recently. We tour our Hawaiian tour books advice & drove 15 minutes to Puu Ualakaa State Park where we were treated to an amazing view of almost the whole of Southern O'ahu at Sunset. A...mazing! We also were able to get away for a bit to tour Iolani Palace. This is the only Royal Palace in the USA and the tour gave us some interesting view into the history of Hawaii & the royals. I love architecture so I was in heaven touring the beautiful big place! Derek & Mia and Ella & I took off at different times to have some date nights together and the girls were adorable! :) They especially loved getting Daddy ready by doing his hair and picking out his clothes! We've all gone out together (with Christina too of course!) to 2 new beaches. One was ok, the other was simply amazing. Ko Olina resorts has 3 lagoons where the water is perfect because the waves are small and the snorkeling is good. Apparently this is normally quite a crowded area but was practically empty the day we were there and it was so peaceful and wonderful!

Friends from England!

Almost a year ago we were touring England and I was meeting old friends from Derek's days of living there. We stayed with Andy & Yadge outside of Manchester and when we said goodbye to them we had no idea that we would be seeing them again in less than a year! They were touring Hawaii on a cruise for their 35th anniversary and we got to play tour guide and take them all around the island. It was such a pleasure to see our friends again and we loved every minute of the much too short day!

Welcoming A New Family Member Into Our Home!

For those of you who may be wondering about the title of this post... no, I'm not pregnant! Nope, we've adopted a lovely 24 year old niece for our Hawaii trip! When we were in Georgia for Derek's brother's wedding the week before we left for Hawaii, we asked Derek's sister's daughter, Christina to come live with us. Things fell into place pretty easily once again and she agreed! She took a few weeks to finish her semester of school then flew out last week to join us for the duration of our trip. What a blessing it is to have her here with us already (and not just because we can now have a regular date night- though that is AMAZING!) and our kids have already informed her that she's now their sister. :) She doesn't start work at Starbucks for a week and a half so we're trying to get in as much fun stuff together as we can before that happens! We started off with Surfing lessons on Waikiki beach. None of us had tried it before so it was a pleasant surprise that we were all able to get up on our small beginner waves and have a wonderful time surfing. Sadly, exhaustion set in extremely fast and by the time we were done we were all quite exhausted. The next morning all of us were so sore and personally, it took days before my arms and shoulders felt normal again. All that paddling to get out to the waves definitely took it out of me!

The day after surfing we took it a bit easier by starting off the day with a parade. It was Aloha Week here and there was a parade going right past our apartment building. We just crossed the street and sat on the curb looking at our own place and had the best seats in the house. I must say that living in the city is so fun to me right now because I can't imagine ever doing it again. I was kind of picturing myself in "Miracle on 34th Street" being able to watch the parade from my city apartment! I couldn't remember the last parade I had ever seen that wasn't a Disney parade. This parade also had princesses in it, but they were real Hawaiian Royalty riding on their horses and adorned in capes & leis and my girls were going nuts! Over and over they kept telling me, "It's a REAL Princess, Mom!" It is odd to think of our country having royalty and a Royal Palace... only in Hawaii! After the parade we jumped in the car and headed a mere 15 minutes away from the city into the mountains for a mile hike through the rain forest to Manoa Falls. The falls were so pretty and of course, so was the entire hike. We ended the day muddy and tired but quite satisfied with our day.

Now it was Sunday. We have visited a few churches but not found the one that we'll be staying at yet. We all got up and dressed and in the car and simply couldn't find the church. It was pretty funny but since we were quite literally all dressed up and had no where to go, we figured that we could find somewhere pretty easily! So off we went to the Bishop Museum. This was a very cool museum. We didn't cover near enough and will have to go back. We did a show about the Hawaiian sky & constelations and toured a few rooms of the museum about the Royals & the old Hawaiian culture. They've got a great area for kids too where they have lava demonstrations and you can explore a fake volcano and learn about it. This absolutely counted as a school day! :)

The weather here has been amazing. We hardly sweat unless we're doing something active and then if you step into the shade it's immediately perfect. The rain here is so different thatn Florida's thunderstorms. You can quite seriously open the blinds in the morning to see an overcast drizzly day and by the time you've filled up sippy cups and put 3 bowls of cereal on the table it's cleared and is the most perfect Hawaiian day yet. These last few days have differed in being much more rainy. The rain here has hardly surpassed a drizzle but it's kept at it for a few hours each of the last few days. Poor Derek, who rides his bike 2 or 3 miles to and from work each day has come home quite soaked a few days. Yesterday the weather returned to it's normal and hopefully we can now convince Christina that was a fluke! We went down to Ala Moana Park & walked around and walked to Magic Island to watch the sunset. We've been here several times to see it set and it's been different every time. We just don't get sick of it!

Today Christina had to work but as soon as she was home we set off to get her out of the city for the first time. We drove 30 minutes out of the city to the East and stopped at Lanai Lookout Point. This is my favorite spot on the island so far. We've stopped a few times but not been in good climbing shoes. We made sure to be this time and we climbed down the rocky hills & cliffs and explored all around. We didn't leave this small area for a good few hours but it was amazing to watch the waves pound the cliffs and spray water sky high and see all this beauty close up. We found a small cave hole and climbed in it. There at the end of the hole was a good sized exit that went out into the side of the rocks where the waves were spraying. It was a very cool spot. The kids were amazing in sticking close to us and being troopers and going carefully when there were drop offs and slippery gravel and it was such a fun experience to share with them! Once again, we went home tired but happy!