The Real Hawaii

The last post was a post that was supposed to show you how beautiful hawaii is.  Beautiful beaches, flowers, waterfalls, etc.  It is a beautiful place!  But, that is not Hawaii!  Hawaii is fun and scary, it is dirty and wet, it is crazy and sometimes more than a little bit grumpy, but that is our Hawaii!  So here it is.... Our REAL Hawaii!!!

It all starts with a beautiful house in Kealekekua Hawaii!  I just learned this trip that my grandpa Boone found the foundations of this house as a result of a tsunami, the tsunami washed the foundation somewhere around this property (I am retelling what I know of this story, if anybody knows it better comment or call me and I will fix it)  My grandpa got it and turned it into this home.  It has been through 2 tsunamis (that I know of) and survived!  As you can see, the left bottom part of this house is encased in screen which gives it most of it's charm because every morning you wake up smelling and hearing the ocean.  I LOVE IT!!!!!  I even told my husband, if we won the lottery by some random chance that someone gave me a winning lottery ticket (because I do not play) I still do not think I could change this house!  It is all Boone and it is ours, which makes it perfect!

Here is the view from our dining room.  Big round table surrounded by screens to keep Hawaii a part of your day even when you are inside!!!

So, the beautiful house that we have is no more than a 25 yards to the best beach in all of Hawaii!  It is called Manini Beach.  I will tell you all about it but to help further explain how awesome it is, I went to snorkel bob's to rent a lookie board (basically a boogie board with a mask in it so little ones can see the fish with out putting their heads in the water) and the couple being helped infront of me were renting snorkeling equipment, their conversation went something like this... couple- "So we heard that Kealekekua has the best snorkeling in all of hawaii" Worker- "that is true, but Hawaiians are very protective of the bay and they do not like tourists down there, so the only way to see it, is to buy a charter boat that can drive you into the bay.  Do you want to pay for a charter boat?  I can get you a good deal?"  Couple- "No, thats okay, what is something that is good, that we can go see?"  HAHAHA!  This is the bay we live on!  Yes, I am totally bragging! Then, I took a second to thank my Heavenly Father for being blessed with a family who raised me on those beaches during the summers when I was a kid!

So, back to Manini!  The beach you see in these pictures is not the beach I was raised in.  The local Ohana has put a lot of money and time into this beach and it really shows.  It used to be a rock and coral beach, we would have to wear rock hopper shoes into the water, take them off when you got in the water, throw them up on to the shore, and then put on your fins and snorkel gear.  No longer!  The ohana got sand hauled in so it is now a sandy/rocky beach.  The sand is not the fine sand that you get at the resort beaches, in fact when you pick up a handful you can see teeny-tiny shells, coral pieces, rocks etc.  But it is small enough that if feels good on your feet!  They also had a bathroom (port-o-potty) put in and the landscaping is well taken care of.

Manini is where we spent most of our time.  We would wake up in the mornings and go for a swim/snorkel, we would come back to the house and then go out on an adventure for the day, come back home, walk back down to Manini and go for a swim/snorkel until the sun went down.  Other days, we would just spend all day at the beach only to go home for food/water/naps.

It was a hard life:-)

We boogie boarded!

This is a little further to the left of the beach, but as you can see this beach is made of lava rock.  But that is what makes it the best snorkeling in Hawaii!

This is on our first day and we taught the boys the 'hang loose' sign.  They love to do it.  Even to this day (which is now July 5 and we went back in the beginning of May), the boys love to say Aloha to people instead of hi and flash the the hang loose sign.  Which cracks me up because when they say it, it does not sound like Aloha unless you know that, that is what they are saying, so I can only guess what people thing my boys are yelling out to them:-)

Our first family picture in Hawaii!  Notice the clouds hanging over the mountains in the background.  It felt like we were on the Hilo side of the big island while we were there because it rained everyday, all day.  Kona never gets that kind of rain!  But it was nice, I would not have changed it for the world, pus the water felt warmer while it was raining!

In the background of this great picture of me and my awesome Tow-Monster, is the other side of the bay where Captain Cook Monument is.  A quick story about that... My brother Bryce and his friend decided that they were going to swim across the bay to the monument (where the snorkeling is even better) on the way there they were attacked by jellyfish and Aaron (my brothers friend) started to cramp up.  They made it to the other side, but decided instead of swimming back across the bay, they were going to hike up that mountain where after a really long and hard hike, it would meet up with the road... WITHOUT SHOES!!!  They are crazy!  Luckily some man saw them and felt bad for them so he gave them his phone to call us so we could pick them up at the top of the road.  It will make a good story to tell their kids some day!

This is a picture of me and my boys with my dad.  My boys and I had so much fun with Grampy there! I loved having my dad there for a few reasons, mostly because I love him and love spending time with him, but also because when he gets to Hawaii which is his home, he changes.  He stars talking like the locals and although it used to embarrass me, now it is pretty cool!  He also taught my boys how to say a lot of things in Hawaiian.  They now know eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly, belly button, and bum in Hawaiian, and still to this day they use the Hawaiian words instead of english.  Just a quick example... Last night was the 4th of July and I was talking to Cohen about how he might need to cover his ears if the fireworks get to loud.  He looked at me and said 'plug my pepeiaos?' And I said 'yes your pepeiaos, like this' as I showed him.  He then spent the next 5 minutes plugging and unplugging his pepeiaos.

We went swimming in our pool a few times before we went to hawaii, but it was a little too cold to go often and get the boys ready for the ocean.  Arlo, had no problem jumping right in with his floaty and snorkeling.  In fact he loved it and he went more often than I did! But Cohen on the other hand ended up being a beach bum.  He loved playing on the beach.  His favorite game was to go down as close as he could to the water when the waves were out, and then as soon as a wave would come he would run to the shore and try to run faster than the wave so he would not get wet.  But they also loved looking for shells and other things in the sand.

These are also great pics of the boys playing at Manini.  

Here is a great picture of our beach.

This Is probably my favorite picture of our entire trip!!!!  Our beautiful beach, the clear water, a good picture of the sand that is on Manini... And then you have Cohen!  That face pretty much sums up our trip... Yes it was that good!!!!

Here are a few videos of Manini.  On the right side of the beach there is this little cove that is perfect for the boys to play in and catch crabs.  I spent hours in this cove when I was little and it is so much fun seeing my boys do the same.  But, at the end of the cove it is a perfect place for jumping off the rocks.  This is where Arlo learned to swim!!!  Arlo and I would jump off the rocks and swim with the waves back to the shore.  Because you are so buoyant in salt water he did a great job learning to swim, plus it was a bonus that when he needed a breath all he had to do was stand up and breath!!!

Here is a video of us waiting for the perfect time to jump....

Here is our jump....

And here is Arlo swimming after the jump....

The other beach we loved to go to was Ho'okena.  It was a soft sand beach a few minutes from the house.  I did not get any pictures at this beach because it was sandy and I did not want to take my camera on the beach.  But at Ho'okena the waves were big and there were lots and lots of turtles 'Honu' for the boys to look at because they would swim right by your feet.  Also, at this beach on the last day we went and the spinner dolphins were out. So, Tim and Arlo and Auntie Niki got to go out and snorkel to the dolphins while they swam right next to them.  Arlo loved seeing them, but when he came back he was mad because he did not get to touch one.

Although we did not get any pictures at the beach, here is a video of Cohen when we were coming home from the beach.

Manini and Ho'okena were our beaches of choice, but tide-pooling captured my boys hearts before we even got off the plane.  One of the first things I did (at Grampy's request) was go to walmart and buy a little plastic fish tank.  As soon as I got that fish tank home we were off.  I am really bad at directions but at out beach house, in front of our house is Manini and off to the left side of our house is state land. If you hike down a path a few hundred feet, you get to the tide pools.

Here is the wall and the path that separates our house from the tide pools.

What are tide pools you ask?  It is where the lava flowed into the ocean and created all these little pools and pockets where when the tide is high, get filled with ocean water and ocean animals, then when the tide is low, it leaves all these little pools for little boys to go exploring in.  In these pools we found fish, eels, wana (sea urchins), crabs, snails, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, starfish and so much more.  A true playground for little boys, big boys, mommies and daddies, aunties, uncles and grampys too!

So, this is what the tide pools look like...

Here are the pictures of us having fun in the tide pools!

The squiggly starfish were Arlo and Cohen's favorite!!!

This is hard to see, but right in the middle of this picture is a tiny eel.  You can see his head, the rest of his body is in a hole, but did you know that eels can jump?  This one flew from one tide pool to another, by going over dry rock, when we tried to catch him.  AWESOME!!!

 Some beautiful shells we found.  They all had animals in them, so we could not keep them... I was so mean I did not even let the boys take them home in the fish tank for the day!

Arlo and his wana (pronounced vana). 

Here is the fish tank...

We always caught the creatures and let them go in a 12 hour period, so we did not kill any of them, but they were the best pets while we had them!!!

Besides the sea creatures that we found in the tide pools, there were many other creatures that the boys grew very fond of.

The first being our friend Bryce, who is not my brother but a gecko.  

And lets not forget the Coqui frog that are obnoxiously loud at night when you are trying to sleep!

This cute frog was caught late at night while mommy and Cohen were sleeping!  Dad and Arlo when on a frog hunt and found this little guy and decided to bring it up to the house to play/take pictures with while mom was sleeping... super fun!

Besides our favorite spots, and favorite friends  here are some pictures of just favorites!

Favorite snack... Hawaiian Shaved Ice

Favorite Sister!!!

This one is all Tim... Favorite Politics

Favorite Grampy!!!!!

Favorite fruit!  Dragon Fruit... Yum!!!!

We can't decide which is our favorite sunburn...

Yes, mine did peel as well, my boys called the dead skin that came off my back zombie skin!  The other day Cohen had a hang nail and he came to me crying.  I could not understand him at first but after a minute I got the jist that he was sad that he had zombie skin!  It was so sad and funny all at the same time!

Favorite Donkey...

This pet belongs to our neighbor and the boys loved him!

Favorite Park....

Favorite Boys....

Favorite time of day for mommy!!!

Really, there are too many favorites about our Hawaii, and not nearly enough pictures!  But hopefully these will last till next month when I find time to post about all the places we went!!  Haha, hopefully not next month, but with my record... who knows!