Back Home From Paradise

Sorry this is a few days later than we returned from our trip. We all needed a bit of recovery time coming back to the cold climate here, and also adjust to the time again, and then it was right back to work and school the day after we got back! So we've all been busy!

Wow, what an amazing trip. I am so glad we were fortunate enough to have this opportunity to go on a tropical vacation as a family before our new addition arrives. It'll be a while now before we can manage to fly anywhere again, so it'll be a trip to remember for a while to come!

The last half of our trip had far better weather than the first half, which was a relief. I don't think Roland ever would have gotten over it if we had only gotten 2 beach days out of the entire trip.

At Ke'e Beach

Being that we weren't sure how mother nature was going to treat us after being kinda mean on the first half of the trip, we took advantage of the nice weather on Thursday (the 20th if you need a date perspective. I'm a little behind on posting this :/) and went to the north shore to Ke'e beach. It is the furthest North on the island you can possibly go, and it was beautiful. We watched some surfing, played in the water and had a great time. On our way back slightly after noon we were starving so we decided to stop at a food truck on the way home and grab some grub. Paco's Tacos looked the most promising for having things that we would all eat, and it was really good! Cultural Realization of the day: I saw a hand painted  "United States Post Office" sign on a shoddy building on our way back, and I realized if I saw a building like that in Rural Saskatchewan, I would think it's extremely sketchy. However in Hawaii it seemed quaint and I really wanted to find something I could mail out from it. Strange, huh?

FOOD TRUCK!

On Friday morning, there were flash flood warnings again (this also happened on the previous Sunday), and they did not lift until after noon, so we ended up staying in almost all day. And don't tell Roland, but I was totally OK with this. I've said before, and I'll say again, that I enjoy the rain. I don't really want to be at the beach all day every day anyway, so it was a good excuse to just take it easy around the condo. Brayden and Roland went to the pool while Rosalie and I were napping, and that seemed to fulfill their outdoor needs for the day.

At Kilauea Lighthouse (From Instagram, that's why the colours are all fancy...)

It's so nice that the locals care...

Saturday we headed up North again to go to the Kilauea Lighthouse and found a beach that Roland wanted to see from one of my Kauai calendars I get every year. Lumaha'i beach was absolutely beautiful and I wish we had started out early enough that we could have spend all morning there. It is advertised in many flyers and island guides as being a not very friendly swimming beach, and there are not any lifeguards on duty there, so we had plans on just taking some pictures and then moving on to Lydgate beach, but it turned out to be a great beach. Yes, most of the area is really not swim friendly, and there are even big signs up warning tourists to be aware of the harsh undertow of the surf (nice that the locals care about the tourists enough to make up their own hand made signs warning us of dangers), there were so many local kids Brayden's age body surfing and boogie boarding, and I was totally surprised that they didn't die, but I suppose that's the advantage of growing up in Hawaii, they would learn how to play safe and not panic from a young age. They looked like they were having a great time in any case! There was a part of the ocean that led back into what looked like a little river that had tons of parents around with little ones swimming. We could have made a great day slumming on that beach, but we had to head back to eat lunch anyway, so we left without spending a whole lot of time there. Next time maybe! (which may be in about 10 years :/ )

See all those little heads? Yeah, they are children under the age of 12 leaping through dangerous waves...

We stopped at Ono Char-burgers for lunch, it was a little shack that only served burgers but came highly recommended and we weren't disappointed. We ate until we were stuffed and then headed on to Lydgate Beach (where there was a tide pool and lifeguards ;) ), but the clouds came in and showered slightly on us the whole time we were there. The tide pool was pretty churned up because of the surf and we couldn't see more than a foot deep into the water. A BIG change after being at Lumaha'i and the ocean was perfect and turquoise. So, not too impressed with Lydgate, but apparently it's better during different weather conditions.

Sketchy little Food Shanties all over the place. And Yes, we did actually eat here.

Roland had stated at one point in our trip that if he didn't get to see a big waterfall up close, it wouldn't feel like Hawaii, so on Sunday we headed to Wailua Falls in the morning, made a quick stop at Walmart for some provisions, and then went to Salt Ponds Beach after lunch. Salt Ponds was another beach that came highly recommended as a kid friendly swim and snorkel area. I liked it better than Lydgate because it was much clearer (and probably because the weather was nicer). We left a bit early from the beach to head back to the condo to prep supper because Tyler, Amanda, and Finn were coming over to join us for supper! They had been so busy since arriving on the island that we hadn't had an opportunity to see them. It was great to catch up and see some more S'tooners in Hawaii.

Wailua Falls

Monday we headed out for breakfast bright and early to MCS Grill in Hanapepe, which we had heard ads for on the radio. It was a little disappointing in the selection, there were only about 8 choices on the breakfast menu, none of which were Eggs Benedict (which I had been jonesing for since we decided on breakfast), but the food was great and we were the only people in there for a while, so the service was great and we could let the kids run around a bit without interrupting anyone. We did a last little bit of shopping at Poipu shopping centre, and finished off with some gelato before heading back to the condo. This was the first day that Roland admitted to being burnt out, so we ended up staying in the rest of the day. We admitted to feeling guilty because we felt it was a waste of our second last day in paradise, but we really had done A LOT on this trip. We just needed some R & R.

Our last morning Roland and Brayden had scheduled a Snuba tour (it's a cross between scuba diving and snorkeling), so we headed to Lawai Beach for the morning. Unfortunately for Rosalie and I, it was overcast all morning, but she got to play in the sand and chase some birds so she was happy. The rest of the day was mostly dedicated to cleaning up the condo and packing all of our stuff that had managed to get spread all over both floors of the condo. We dropped off our excess food to the Kauai Food Bank and found the recycle bins for all of our recyclables. After Nap time we headed to Waimea to have one last Shave Ice at Jojo's, then just popped back to the condo to pick up our stuff, headed to the Brick Oven Pizzeria for supper, and then it was off to the airport to come home!

Rosalie at Lawai Beach. All overcast, so she wore her beach cover-up.

It really was a fantastic trip. It's funny how it felt like we were there for a really long time, but at the same time it felt like it flew by! We really did pack a lot of stuff into our days. We definitely won't say that we wasted much of our trip. We did almost all the things that we said we wanted to do, and went to all the places we wanted to go to, so it really was a last great "Hurrah!" before we expand our family and stick to road trips for a while.

I say this every time I go to Kauai, but if you have the means, you REALLY should go. You won't regret it.

Mid-Hawaii Trip Update

Sorry for the long delay, but we have been busy! Despite the poor weather the first few days we were here, we did find a lot to keep ourselves occupied.

After coming in really late after our delayed flight, we hit the hay and had a pretty good sleep. The next day we had our work cut our for us though. With Roland's luggage still missing, we needed to go get him some clothes that he hadn't been in for 36 hours straight. Westjet was only going to cover him for $100 for the first 2 days, so he was gunna start off getting clothes and survive on sharing hygiene stuff with us, hoping that his bag arrived before long. I was also in the market for some jean shorts for Rosalie, but no luck.

The great thing about Hawaii I discovered this day is that it loves me, or at least the air does. I woke up with human hands! And by that, I mean that I went to sleep with dry, crummy, crocodile skin, and I woke up with nice, beautiful, hydrated, soft, human skin. This was literally over-night. *KAPOW* Mind-blown.

On Friday, we we're rained out again, so we went out shopping again for things that we hadn't found on Thursday, stopped and had our first Puka Dogs of the trip, and then went with Erin and Rob to Hanapepe for their monthly street fair. It was a pretty fantastic experinece and something that we probably wouldn't have done had the weather not been crummy all day.

Saturday we decided to go out for breakfast, unfortunately our first choice of location was closed on Saturdays, but we headed to the local Tropical Burgers and had a great experience there. The birds were a bit pushy though. They were ready to clear our table before we were done eating. We also popped into Kapa'a to the Ice Cream shoppe that we got our marriage licence at to see our picture up on the wall. Unfortunately, they renoed the whole store and had placed all of the photos in albums. They offered to pull them out for us, but we declined. It wasn't the same. I was FINALLY able to find some jean shorts for Rosalie at Macy's but they are one size too big, I bought them anyway, but she really has to wear a onsie with them to keep them up. With just a tshirt or tanktop they either fall right off or show off WAY too much diaper, but that's ok, they work. Once we got home Roland called westjet again about his luggage and were told that they still had no clue where it was, but that after 48 hours, Roland is entiteld to get a maximum of $250 worth of stuff reimbursed. So YAY more shopping, but BOO still no luggage. This made Roland start taking stock of all of the things he packed and consider things that he won't be able to replace.

Hawaiian Realization on Saturday: Frozen Perogies are basically unheard of in Hawaii. This is something I had just never considered before. I meantioned it on FB, and it seems that the strong mennonite communities in Western Canada may be the reason that perogies are a total norm there. Who knew?

We started to slow down a bit by Sunday, the crummy weather was starting to wear on us all and we were wondering if we were going to get any beach days while we were here. Went for a nice supper at Keoki's with Erin and Rob, and had some delicious Hula Pie. That was seriously the highlight of our day by a longshot.

Monday was a bit better. It didn't rain all day, but it was cloudy and warm. So it could have been a [lame] beach day, but we just kinda hung around the condo. We went to our first Luau with Erin and Rob in the evening. The Smith Family puts on a great party! The Smith Family Garden Luau comes as one of the highest recommeneded Luaus on Kauai, despite the not very Hawaiian name. (Our host explained that though, his grandfather came over from Europe and fell in love with his grandmother, a native hawaiian woman... so the Smith Family began!) It was a beautiful evening for it, the food was fantastic and the show afterwards was really fun! The dancing was amazing! It is a total recommend for anyone that comes to the island!

At the Luau (Photo courtesy of Erin, all of mine are still on my camera and I didn't bring the cords to transfer them)

Yesterday was a relief as the sun came out in full force and gave us a fabulous beach day! We started out our day going to the Waimea Canyons to show Rob one of the Rainiest spots in the world, then it was back to the condo for lunch and right out to the beach. It was so fun watching Rosalie's first time in the ocean. She really wasn't sure what to make of it. She REALLY wanted to go into the water, but didn't particularily like getting too wet or being completely out of control. So when I took her out initally, she was egging me to go in further, but I held her back.  But when Roland took her in, she got a little more than she bargained for and after getting wet right up to her head, she came running back to mom for comfort. Then she was more than content with my conservative ways after that! We all got a little burnt (including Brayden! which is a first), but were happy enough to get at least one beach day.

Rosalie alternated from wanting to go deeper in the water to wanting to be pulled out immediately. I don't think she really knows how she feels about the ocean.

Today was Erin and Rob's last day, but they were nice enough to take care of Rosalie for a few hours while packing up a checking out of their condo so that the three of us could go and do Kauai Adventure's Tubing Tour, which was really fun! You float down a stream (well, ok, it's basically a ditch, but really clean and not along roads!) that was a manmade irrigation system for the sugar plants back in the day, and you go through tunnels and over little teenie rapids... it was pretty fun and we learned a lot about the sugar plantations that used to be the island's primary industry. After that we came back to Poipu and had Puka Dogs again for Erin and Rob's last Puka Dog chance, and then Roland and Brayden headed to the beach with them while Rosalie and I took a nap. It was a bit of a shame to miss out on another fabulous beach day, but I was already burnt and didn't want to push it. Plus the forecast make it look like we will get more in the next week...

OK, so the water doesn't look that clean, but it was surprisingly clean considering it was basically a ditch.

Sorry this is a really choppy post, it's almost more documentative than plot driven, but frankly, I'm not much in the mood to write. I mean, who would be when they're on vacation? I promise my next one will be far better written, and I will actually care if it's good and entertaining or not...

But it's been a really great first half of our trip! Even with the rainy weather and lost baggage. Let's hope that the next week will be just as fun if not better! (although that will be tough without Erin and Rob here! They were basically our fun-stuff wingmen. ;) ) Stay tuned for the second half of our trip!

About Time! We Are Back in Hawaii. :)

After an interesting (and LONG!) trip over, we are finally back in Hawaii where Roland and I got Married. This, to me, seems like it's long overdue, at the same time feels like I was here yesterday. I still remember how to get around Koloa and Poipu, which is kinda like our neighbourhood while we are here. Brayden commented how it was weird that we haven't even been on the island for 24 hours and after getting groceries at the Big Save, and I could just direct Roland on how to get back to our condo without the GPS. I've been here 3 times before, but the last time was over 3 years ago. I guess this is kinda like my very expensive, exotic, home away from home. (Just for the record, I'm blogging this from the lanai, on a beautiful sun-showery day. Yeah, my life SUCKS! ;) Sorry, I don't mean to rub it in, but seriously everyone should come here)

Out on the Lanai. Look at my Girl's curly hair!!

Getting here was far less enjoyable though. The trip over from S'toon is generally a pretty long one, regardless of when you come or which route you take. Our flight was expected to take about 13 hours from Saskatoon to Hawaii, including the layovers and stuff. Our first flight was Saskatoon --> Calgary (+ 1 hour Layover). Rosalie was not perfect on this flight, she didn't like the concept of sitting on laps when she HAD to, she doesn't mind if she chooses to, but that is entirely different. But it was only an hour long flight and she didn't freak out that much, so it was good. She actually threw more tantrums in the airport rather than on the plane. The hour layover was great because we could walk around use a real bathroom, and I think it helped keep Rosalie sane.

The next leg was Calgary --> Vancouver (+ 3 hour layover), it was much the same on the plane. Little freak outs but nothing major, distraction techniques worked well; She loves looking out the window for takeoffs and landings. The three hour layover was good, we actually needed that extra little time to sit in pre-customs because of Roland's luggage being lost. When we got to the international gate, and through security again, we had to identify our luggage via images that they brought up on a computer. When our luggage images were brought up one image was "not available", so we had to sit in a little room and wait to see if it showed up. It never did. After about 45 minutes a Westjet rep came to tell us that, really, he didn't know where our bag was. He tried to sound like he knew everything, but was really non committal with his answers. What we got is that our bag was maybe still in Calgary and accidentally got sent to the carousel rather than transferred to our next flight. But there was one more flight from Calgary before our flight to Lihue left, so there was a possibility that the bag would catch up with us. After we were sent on our way to customs, it seems like we became a security risk because we were missing a bag. I don't understand how this could possibly be our fault when we got our other 5 things, but whatever. In any case, more delays. Once we were allowed through there we had just under 2 hours left in Vancouver. So we went to find someplace to eat, figuring we'd like to actually sit down in a restaurant. If there was just one thing that was less than ideal about the Vancouver airport, it was that I would prefer if there were more options for sitdown dining. The only option we really had in the international section of the airport was the Canucks restaurant. It wasn't bad, lots of pub food, but it would have been nice to have options. At least I got to watch a bit of the olympics.

The last flight was always set to be our longest, for our Vancouver --> Lihue we were hoping that Rosalie would sleep a good chunk of it. Once we got to our gate, with about 20 minutes before we were supposedly going to board, and announcement came over the gate intercom that our flight was going to be changed, and that we needed to stop over in LA in order to refuel because of really harsh winds over the pacific and they didn't figure we would get there from Vancouver. So we were a bit disappointed, we knew it would add some time to our flight, but we didn't anticipate just how long. In hindsight, I think they did that on purpose so there wouldn't be a revolt, because it wasn't until we were taxiing out that they told us that we would only be stopping in LA for about 45, but our new adjusted time to arrive in Lihue was now 1:10am when it was initally 9:45pm. It made sense, I mean, if we didn't have enough fuel to get to Hawaii from Vancouver (which is normally a non issue), there must be some strong headwinds to contend with, resulting in it taking longer to arrive. So although the stop at LAX only set us back 45 minutes, the strong headwinds set us back an extra 2.5 hours. I mean, really these things happen and no one has any control of it, but they really should have told us before we left the airport. Had we know that the flight was going to take so long we would have bought extra food and stuff in the airport, but it was clearly a good  marketing strategy because I heard them say several times that they were already sold out of things like Turkey Sandwiches. Total cash cow for this flight. Rosalie slept on and off, but was REALLY grumpy for the last 2/3 of the flight (and who could blame her, she hadn't napped all day and then being so over tired and on this flight for SO long), I think each of us got a little shut eye, if only for a few minutes, we got free movies... but it was SO long. I was counting down the minutes.

Once we finally landed, we had to wait until all of the luggage was put on the carousel to make sure that Roland's luggage had not caught up with us, which it hadn't. Then we had to pick up the rental car, thank goodness this big delay thing is common in Hawaii and all of the rental car places stay open when flights are delayed so late. Once we got to the condo, we all went to bed almost immediately, including Rosalie, thankfully.

But, ALL that being said, I am so stoked to be here now. It's been less than perfect weather this time around; the first time that has ever happened in the 4 times I have been here. But I'm not too offended by rain and a bit of wind. There are lots of things to do around the island when it's rainy. As long as we get a couple of nice days to get to the beach and hopefully I can get a little bit of a tan while I'm here, but otherwise, I must say, it's still better than Saskatchewan right now.

Another Heartbeat Appointment

Yes. There still is a baby in there, even though I am having no symptoms of a pregnancy whatsoever.

Heartbeat of 164 bpm, still suggesting another girl... but I'm still having feelings of a boy occasionally. So who knows? We'll find out in August one way or another!

Next baby appointment is our ultrasound. Cross your fingers that everything is OK with this babe! :)

Winter's Bone

The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley. With two young brothers depending on her and a mother who's entered a kind of second childhood, sixteen-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.


I'm not gunna lie, the entire reason I read this book was so that I could watch the movie guilt free. I am kinda in love with Jennifer Lawrence right now, and the movie adaptation of this book was her first Oscar nomination. I didn't even read the little back synopsis on the book, I was just perusing the online library, requested two other books (for when I am going too and from and am in Hawaii) because there is a wait list and decided to grab one more that I could get now, so that I could start it and not have to worry about finishing it before we leave. The way things worked out, this book is relatively short and I finished it in three days (it kinda boosted my book reading ego after taking so long to finish A Dance With Dragons)

Without knowing much about this book going into it, but knowing that Lawrence plays Ree in the movie, I found myself drawing a lot of comparisons between Ree and Katniss. For the most part, I think Lawrence is a very eclectic actress and doesn't get type-cast really, but these two rolls are very similar. Katniss and Ree both raise younger siblings because their mother's have suffered a breakdown of sorts and can't take care of their families, the dad's are not around for one reason or another, they are from low socioeconomic status communities, and both are rather cold without many friends.

I found the book very compelling, and shocking at times (but it made for a very slow moving movie). For some reason I was thrown off by the fact that references were made to CDs and other relatively modern inventions. It really felt like this book should take place 40 years ago, I think it is mostly because of the poor community. When you hear about these people living using a potbelly stove for heat, it seems to make me think of times where I figure that would have been normal. I suppose I also tend to I think that farming communities seem quaint and old fashioned, and it makes me think of times of old...

This book isn't for everyone, there is lots of drug use and violence, but I can understand that those are a testament of less affluent communites. The book was OK, but I would find it difficult to recommend to just anyone.

Am I still pregnant?

I'm finding the early part of my pregnancy very difficult this time around. I'm not sure if it was the same when I was pregnant with Rosalie, but during this pregnancy I have had some extreme cases of paranoia . I thought I would be all OK and fine once I heard those little thrumps on the doppler, but I am still worried all the time about this baby. Not debilitating fear, just worry.

At this point in my pregnancy, I suppose it may be because now that I have gotten over the morning sickness that so often accompanies the first trimester, I really am not having any other symptoms of pregnancy anymore. Then I have days where I feel like I'm not as fat as I was, or that my belly is softer than it was yesterday, or the fact that when I weighed myself and I have lost weight since the last time I took note of my weight (which was only about a week ago), or I think I am sleeping on my belly too often.... I keep thinking that I feel baby movement, but all of my books and apps say that it is still too early for that. I'm probably just trying to comfort myself by finding something that can tell me that everything is still alright. So now I am just itching for my next doctor's appointment on Monday to confirm that it is all really still there and baby is ok and I can hear that fabulous little heartbeat again.

A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5 - A Dance with Dragons

It's a little embarrassing that I didn't have a single book review in January.

Hear me out though! I had a plan, even if it was a slightly flawed plan.

I thought with my 2014 reading challenge, it would be better to start out with a book that I KNEW would set me back and put me behind schedule because then it would give me the motivation to keep up and get ahead of the game afterward. Still, I didn't think this book would take me a month... which really, I should have seen coming. The last one took a month to read, but I figured that I had motivational issues with that one because it was so crummy. But I looked back at the others in the series and the second and third took me around a month to read as well. The only one that didn't take me that long was the first one, and I'm pretty sure it's just because that one ROCKED MY WORLD, and it still took me 3 weeks to finish.

But yes, be prepared for more reviews coming in the future! I should be able to stay on track now (until August... and then I might have issues keeping up again ;)  )

~*~

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance — beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys's claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone — a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

I really enjoyed this one, but I had some bittersweet moments while reading it because I know that the 6th book hasn't come out yet, so I will have to wait a while to continue the story and I hate that. I wanted to finish it ASAP, but I also wanted to cherish it until the next one comes out (which the publisher said will NOT happen in 2014 now, gah!)

There were a lot of really BIG moments in this book, lots of game changers (par usual), but far fewer deaths than I expected, which I actually kinda enjoyed, but made me VERY nervous going into the last few chapters.

I have discovered that Barristan Selmy is my new Ned. He's honourable, and honest, and such a father figure. The problem with that is that it means he's not very good at playing "the game of thrones" and thus I am concerned for his safety.

My new favouritest book quote EVER I discovered in this book, some of you may have seen it when I posted it on my facebook: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, a man who never reads lives only one" - Jojen Reed. LOVE it! 

George really needs to get a move on for the next book! I am ready!! :)