Well, our vacation has come to an end! Tonight we head to the airport to return to reality. It's been a fun 5 1/2 weeks here on the North Shore of Oahu. While we'll miss the relaxing evening sunset walks on the beach, the morning strolls to the bakery for coffee and breakfast, the leisurly days of reading on the lanai and sitting in the hammock, the excitement of surfing the north shore waves, the airy outdoor malls we shopped at, the scenic drives along the coast, the Aloha spirit of the local people, and the massive amounts of quality time we got to spend together as a family, we will also be glad to get back to our own home in Colorado.

The ski season is here, and it's always nice to participate in a sport where you feel capable, as opposed to surfing where I realize how frustrating it is to suck at a sport. Work even has it's bright spots to look forward to, in that it keeps your mind sharp, and the interaction with peers is always interesting to say the least. Braedyn will enjoy being back on a better schedule where he knows what will be coming next, and he will be happy to see his favorite room with his rainbow fish wallpaper. Talisha is ready to be back in a clean house and in our own bed, vacation is fun, but staying somewhere other than home is always a little wearing. Most of all it will be good to see friends and family again, being away so long makes us realize how important those close to us really are. The friendships that we have can't be replaced, even by a beach in paradise! And with the holiday season coming up quickly, we look forward to spending time with family as well.

We had one last hurrah at the beach for Braedyn. He got to play in the sand and go for a swim with daddy. He must have known it was the last beach trip for awhile as he tried to get as much sand in his mouth as was possible.

Aloha Puppy!

Here's Braedyn in his new hooded, surf jacket.

How could we resist a couple more pictures of our favorite puppy who just loves her romps on the beach, as long as she is a long way from the water, and as long as she gets picked up everytime one of the big dogs comes up to sniff her, and as long as she gets to walk right between her two parents, and as long as she gets to get a bath as soon as she gets back to the house to get the sand out of her hair........ Talk about high maintenance.....

Braedyn at the beach, having fun even though he's a little sick. Notice the wind in the hair effect, we payed big bucks for that.

Another Braedyn and Daddy, beach, sunset picture

We're staying at Sunset beach on Oahu, so it goes without saying that we just have to post sunset pictures on occasion.

Getting a bird's eye view of things...

Braedyn and daddy watching the sunset at Wiamea Bay.

Braedyn and mommy at the beach

Getting dirty once again...

Going for a swim, or maybe a rinse to get all that sand off...

Our little sandman...

A lone foot peering out from the sand...

Braedyn hanging out in his little portable high chair. He's started to really sit up well in it lately and likes to be at the table with mom and dad.



Here's a view from beneath after Braedyn has dropped his toy on to the floor and is trying to figure out how to get it, of course daddy will pretty much always come to the rescue.

Here we are hanging out in the back yard of our place, Braedyn in the hammock.



Braedyn and daddy experiencing what grass feels like, Braedyn definitely likes the sand better.

Here we are hanging out at Kawela Bay. This is an area that is still very natural, and there are very few people that come here. There aren't a lot of places like it left in Hawaii. The land is actually owned by a nearby resort which is trying to expand onto this bay. The local people here are very against the expansion spawning bumper stickers that say things like "Keep the North Shore Country!". There is even a non-profit, grassroots organization that has been created to try to stop the expansion of this and other resorts in the area and to keep some natural areas in Hawaii. That group has information on their website.

Across the street from where we are staying, apparently someone is selling some baby pigs. We were considering buying one as a playmate for dori while we were here.....


But then we realized we already had a baby pig.

We had another afternoon at the beach and Braedyn let us know that he LOVES the sand. He ate about 3 servings and then grew these giant sand legs. He just can't keep his hands out of the sand even if he's being carried over the sand he is trying to wiggle loose so that he can grab some of it.

Braedyn had a lot of fun once again playing in the sand and got all dirty for mommy.

Getting a hose down at the beach shower and drinking fountain.

A North Shore Sunset Scene

Flying High on Sunset Beach

We spent the afternoon on the beach with Braedyn and finally got to use his new little sun tent. Of course Braedyn wanted to be out in the sand where he had easier access to handfuls of the yummy stuff.



So we built him a little sand chair for him to sit in and he went to town.


Then Braedyn got some playtime in the ocean where he had fun letting the waves come up and splash him on the belly.

Braedyn playing in the sand at the beach

Braedyn attacking daddy...

Dori and Braedyn playing a little tug-o-war

Nothing to do but Hang Out!

October 15, 2006: 7:07 am - Oahu, Hawaii - We were sleeping soundly, for once, the cough medicine had done its work and put the whole family into a deep sleep. Even Dori seemed to be enjoying her beauty sleep. Unfortunately our plan of sleeping in was not to be accomplished that day, not because Braedyn woke up crying or because Dori needed to go out to pee, no it was because Talisha woke up saying, "Is someone shaking the house"? The shaking soon stopped and we fell back to sleep, only to have the power go out a few minutes later. No more precious air conditioner! So we got up to investigate, in case this was another fiasco in the making with the cottage we were staying in. We really wanted to avoid being in the house if it caught on fire! Michael took a short walk down to the beach to see if the power outage had impacted anyone else, and it certainly had. It seemed like everyone else was without power. So we decided to make the best of it, and Talisha went for a drive to go pick us up some breakfast from Ted's Bakery just up the road (cheap, good breakfast sandwiches and donuts!). Well, she got there to find out that Ted's had no power and was not serving food. She flipped on the car radio to see if she could find out anything and sure enough, there had been an earthquake. The quake was a 6.6 and was centered on the big island of Hawaii (relatively far from Oahu). The power was out across the entire state and not likely to be coming on anytime soon.

So we made the most of the situation and decided to have grilled steak for breakfast with the steak we had planned to have for dinner that night. Then we pretty much just hung out for a while and listened to the radio to see what was happening. Not a whole lot of news, just a lot of people's throries of what was happening and when things would be back to normal. Since we had no food, nor any way to cook anything we decided to drive up to the Turtle Bay resort (which is nearby) since we had heard that they had a generator and had at least one of their restaurants open. We had an particularly disappointing lunch on the cold, not well cooked buffet line that ended up costing us an arm and a leg (probably won't go back there again). But at least they threw in the cup of coffee for free! We then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach with the kiddo and the dog and just relaxing like we have been anyhow.

That evening we decided we needed to get some more food and we were also in desperate need of some diapers. The local stores were closed, but we had heard that there was power in Mililani town which is not too far from where we are staying. So we headed up the hill where we found a wal-mart that was open. We went in even against my strong moral objections to the place and got a few supplies (diapers, flashlight, and cheetos!) and then headed out to find some food at a fast food joint. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone else on Oahu was in line at the only open Burger King so we decided to skip the hours of waiting and just subsist on cheetos for the night. We drove back to the North Shore and were delighted to find that the power was back on in Haleiwa. But as we drove past the town towards out cottage on Suneset beach, the coast line got eerily dark. Yep, the North Shore was the last place in Hawaii to get power, and of course that is where we were staying. At least we didn't feel like we had wasted $4.69 on a flashlight at wal-mart! We decided to just hit the bed early that night, so we put Braedyn down, filled out tummies with cheetos, and went to bed at a little before 9:00pm. At about 11:00pm we were woken to all the lights blazing on when the power was finally restored. Once we made the mad dash around turning them off before the kiddo woke up we went backe to bed.

All in all, the earthquake was pretty uneventful. The news made a lot bigger deal of it than it really was, at least here on the North Shore of Oahu. Most people here just went about their business (which is strickly centered around surfing) and made due without lights and stoves and tv's. The most amazing part of the whole thing was to be on the north shore at night with no lights on anywhere. It is amazingly dark when there is no man made lights and the moon and stars are covered by the clouds. That's all for our excitement for the day! Here's a picture of us hanging out that day.

Braedyn still really likes playing in the sand. We took him out for our morning walk along Sunset beach this morning and let him play a little bit.


He really got into it this time and got himself pretty much completely covered in sand. He had sand all over his belly, arms and legs; in his armpits, diaper, ears, nose, mouth and hair. He decided it doesn't even taste that bad (although mommy didn't like that at all).


So we gave him a series of baths to get the sand off, this was difficult as sand sticks extremely well to sunblock! We started off by rinsing him off in the ocean, which mainly moved more of the sand into his diaper. We then hosed him off at the house in the outside shower. Then finished him off with an official bath in the kitchen sink with some soap and shampoo. Welcome to life with a clean-freak for a mom, Braedyn!