Cherry Blossom Candy Leaf

I knew there were more photos from Mexico! I remembered seeing them at one time and lo and behold, found them! Here we are soaking in the warm, beautiful water!

Ben's launching me in my sunflower inner tube.

This morning I woke up and checked Houdini's bowl as usual. He was upside down, as he has been most of his life, but he was still alive. This week, it seemed like he had a stroke and could not change positions even if he wanted to. I knew that he might be dying. I stepped outside after checking on him. It was dawn, but the sky was still dark. An owl flew out of my neighbor's tree and back into it as a shooting star raced across the sky. I thought this may be some kind of omen. I went back inside and Houdini was dead.

I am so sad. I remember when Houdini came into my life. Kari's class was doing some sort of science project and each group of students had their own betta fish. When the project was complete, the fish remained and Kari offered them to teachers at Park Oaks. I came in to see which one I wanted and knew right away. Houdini's fins were long and curly like hair and purple on one side and blue on the other.

In July, Grandma took the family to Hawaii. It was kind of like when the Brady's went to Hawaii sans the tiki idol, but not really. Keith, his girlfriend Michele, his parents out from Ohio, Danny, Jeremy, Jennifer, the three boys: Trevor, Jake and Chad, along with Ben and I all in one state and one hotel. The trip didn't start out as planned due to the three hour flight delay, but we eventually arrived safely. Keith spent a lot of time taking Michele and his parents around Oahu, Danny spent most days in bed with some sort of disease, Jeremy, Jennifer and the fam hung out mostly at the hotel and Ben and I rented a car and explored Oahu. Grandma spent time recovering at the hotel in between days spent with all other members of our caravan (She is 92!). (One thing to consider, to be able to be together more, we would have needed to rent a very large van, otherwise we could not really travel to many places together.)

So we arrived much later than we thought we would, picked up our rental car (PYG!) and went to bed.


The next morning our vacation truly began. Check out the view from our hotel room in Honolulu. We stayed at the Outrigger, Waikiki.

We had breakfast.

We drove up the Pali Highway to the lookout. It is super windy there!!!

Ben asked one of his Hawaiian co-workers which beach was the best on Oahu. We were told to go to Lanikai. We used the map to get there, only to realize that this was one of our favorite beaches when Ben and I were in Oahu 8 years ago. We went to the same exact spot on Mokulua Drive in a residential neighborhood. We took the public beach access path...

And found the same tiny beach in between two homes, and had it to ourselves. We even saw a sea turtle!






The next day, Ben and I took grandma to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.


She loves a good scoop of ice cream. And the fact that it was made with fresh pineapple - even better!



We continued on from the fields to the North Shore. We made Grandma walk the longest stretch of beach in Hawaii to be able to say, "I strolled the sands of Waimea Bay."

But the long walk through the sand took a lot out of her, so she napped. Ben and I strategically placed the umbrella over her and lubed any visible skin with sunscreen.


This is by far, my favorite place to swim in Oahu. When you get in the water, it's fairly shallow, but it gets deep really quickly which has something to do with the huge waves that rock this beach in the winter. In the summer, it is flat and the water is crystal clear and DEEP!

This is the life...

Below, can you see where I am in the water? I wanted to swim out to the horizon!


Check out how far Grandma had to walk to get to and from the beach.

We continued to drive around the island, stopping at this park (grandma stayed in the car) and the macadamia nut farm (she definitely got out of the car for that!).

Ben loves Mokoli'i Island nicknamed Chinaman's Hat. It reminds us of his hat.









On the way back to the hotel to meet up with everyone for dinner, we saw several different rainbows.


After dinner, we hung out with Jeremy, Jennifer and our nephews. (My camera does not take good pictures at night.) We decided to go swimming in the ocean right in front of our hotel.


On our balcony at the outrigger - downtown Waikiki.


Kari, her mom, her daughter Megan and Megan's best friend Maria happened to book a trip to Hawaii to celebrate the girls' high school graduation at the same time as us. Kari called one night to see if we wanted to go somewhere so the girls could try snorkeling for the first time. Rather than go to crowded Hanauma Bay, we drove the western side (West si-ide!) of the island, which is much warmer and dryer than the rest of Oahu. Check out beautiful Makaha Beach.

Kari, her daughter Megan and Megan's best friend Maria.

We drove back toward our hotels in Waikiki and stopped along this lonely stretch of beach.



We looked for shells and rocks. I found several dead star fish that were so cool looking I had to pick them up.


Later that night, Ben and I walked to one of our favorite restaurants in Waikiki, Keo's for Thai food.





The mangoes grow on Keo's farm and this was the most delicious mango I have ever had. I love dessert!

The next day, we took our nephew Chad on a couple of hikes. Our first stop was Manoa Falls in Waikiki, near the college.









Afterward, we hopped in the car and headed to Maunawili Falls. This was quite a trek through the muddy rain forest. Chad wanted to give up several times, and fell down a lot, but we finally made it! He was a really good sport on the slippery, gooey trail.




The boys let me jump first.

Chad was the smallest kid we saw jump that day. He fears nothing. Here is a video of his first jump. I am in the water waiting for him. I did not expect him to dive.

Chad and Ben getting prepared to jump.


Here's his second leap with Uncle Ben.

My nephew Chad takes a flying leap as his Uncle Ben waits for him in the water.

Because the hike back to the car was more difficult: we were tired, the trail was downhill for the most part and super muddy and slippery, we bribed Chad with Bob's pizza (they have the best spinach pizza made with a garlic sauce instead of tomato) and ice cream. We wanted the day to end on a good note.



Ben and I dropped Chad off, attempted to find free parking and walked back to our hotel at sunset.

We ate dinner together and later saw Jennifer and my other nephews Trevor and Jake in downtown Waikiki.

Jake, Trevor and Jennifer in Waikiki!

Danny and I, one night in Waikiki.