Beach picnic, friends in the yard + jui jitsu continues...
Pretty social week this week with a beach picnic Wednesday and (the same group of) people over for dinner in the yard Thursday (and Luke continues to go to Jui Jitsu, that’s been great). COVID cases are rising here right now so I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re put back under stay-at-home (or decide ourselves not to socialize for a while). But being around people has been lovely. (And my family and friends near and far made such a fuss over my birthday…that was so nice…)
Awaiting a pretty major storm (aka Hurricane Douglas) over the next 24 hours, hopefully it won’t be too big a deal. We’re taking advantage of it to spend the weekend relaxing at home.
Happy Saturday!
XO
XO
Yoga + surf + a hike somewhere new
Another fun summer week reading with Zo while Luke does Jui Jitsu, yoga with the kids in the evening and most of these pics are from my birthday which started with great little surf, lunch on the beach, an adventure to Makawao Forest Preserve involving a 6-mile hike, ice cream, beach sunset, cake and more ice cream…it was divine.
Happy Thursday!
XO
Po-po goes surfing, Baby Beach, new desks + Luke makes scrambled eggs!
Some highlights from a lovely week:
Duck pond, always a good time
Po-Po the polar bear used to go in my pocket snowboarding at Zo’s request…this week she asked that I take him surfing…
Baby Beach for the first time sunset picnic with friends
We got desks for the kids at Target, the kids helped their dad put them together
We were watching Zookeeper Saturday night and Luke said he was hungry and was going to make himself scrambled eggs…I thought of hopping up to help but figured I was sitting right there so what could go wrong…and he made himself eggs no problem. Crazy how grown up the kids are getting
We let the kids spend some allowance on Amazon and one thing they got was a sprinkler to run through…they had the best time out in the yard Sunday…
Happy Monday!
XO
Beach, palms, turtles + malasadas
4th of July week this week, really nice to get some time off!
Some highlights:
Jeff and I spend time everyday in the backyard under the palms…with kids typically running around the yard…
Been spending some individual time with the kids, Luke and I walking this week and Zo and I reading while Luke is in Jui Jitsu…
Our social life these days is at the beach…we’re starting a Tuesday afternoon beach day with a few friends, last week we went to Black Rock which is usually mobbed with tourists so we figured it’d be good to get some time in before things shift back to being a bit more open starting August…
Been yoga-ing under the palms in the back yard a couple times a week, and my garden is growing pretty well…
For 4th of July we pitched a tent for the kids in the backyard for the whole long weekend. They love it, have been spending all their time in there. We’ve been playing rolling log and I’ve been reading to them in the tent…Trixie Belden from my childhood is a hit. Books I loved as a kid are hit or miss around here, some they love, some they say are “old school” and they’re not interested…
Yesterday was the 4th and we started the day driving over to Wailuku—beautiful drive as always—and getting malasadas which are a local thing, kind of like donuts, we got them hot out of the fryer and then went to our “we usually see turtles there” beach to eat malasadas and watch the turtles…this would be the start of a fun tradition except we can’t do it anywhere but here…but as my friend Jerica said maybe future 4th of Julys it’s donuts and some sort of turtle like a mural or something, the hunt to do something similar in the future could be fun. We also got a bunch of fireworks for the driveway and had dinner (tacos from the taco truck) and surfed with friends at the beach and the kids swam and the kids’ friends across the street came over for the fireworks after…it was a really fun 4th…
Happy Sunday!
XO
Reading in the car, pink hair + costumes all week
Happy Monday!
Couple cute things:
Zo has been making me little notes that say, “You are the best!”
Me to Luke: “I didn’t surf today because there were no waves.” Luke to me: “There are always waves. Waves of love.”
Quiet week this past week.
Zo and I have been reading in the car when Luke goes to Jui Jitsu, that’s been lovely.
I dyed her hair temporarily pink (should last a week or 2).
Lots of costumes happening this week.
We had a beach day yesterday and also one morning last week I took the kids to the beach for 1/2 an hour in the morning and I felt better all day and Luke told me last night that he did too, so think that’s going to become standard.
We watched “The Goonies” last night which both Jeff and I liked when we were kids so fun to share with Luke and Zo.
Hope everyone has a great day!
XO
Opening up a little...
Lots of firsts this past week:
Luke’s back to Jui Jitsu, Zo and I have been sitting by the ocean and reading while he’s in class…
Jeff and Zo ordered chocolate covered crickets online and we all tried them…the consensus is thumbs down…
We had 2 friends over to the yard Saturday evening (grown-ups only)…
We got real food from a real restaurant for Father’s Day…we took it home to eat it but still, first time in a restaurant since all this started…
A little late posting last week’s recap, this week has been a little nuts with work. Always ebbing and flowing…hoping for more balance in the coming days though…
Happy Wednesday!
XO
Quarantine-(ish) week 13-ish
So there is currently ONE active COVID case on the island of Maui, and because of that fact we are starting to slowly loosen up our strict quarantine. Still no travel or stores if we can avoid them or restaurants, and we wear masks when in public places (and only Jeff and I go, eg to the grocery store, the kids stay home). BUT…we sat on the porch and had a beer with our next door neighbor last week while her 3-year-old grandson played in the driveway with the kids. We met friends at the beach and went swimming. Luke and I have been surfing with our neighbors and he went to play with them Sunday after. Doing these things outside is making me more comfortable, and only with a few people we know well. It’s weird coming out of strict lock-down. My first goal is to keep everyone safe but I also feel that the kids are suffering from a social perspective so trying to balance all that out. Plus ONE case on Maui…if we were somewhere with more cases I’d likely keep everything status quo.
Kids got treats for the cats on the beach walk and had the best time giving them something special. We have a beautiful and skinny cat that keeps showing up in our yard, Jeff named him Captian Zeebra Pants, we call him CZP for short, which is really fun to say out loud. We got a bag of cat food and what we put out is gone in the morning, kids are hoping to get to be friendly with CZP.
And Luke’s learning to surf. Lots of enthusiasm. I keep an eagle eye on him and we generally go with others so I’m feeling like it’s very safe.
Other than that…I’m working, Jeff’s doing a great job taking care of everything else, we’re hiking as a family, kids are reading to their grandparents and writing letters and doing some math, but there’s also some screen time and dolls and legos and robots and drawing and stuffed animals and bike rides and tag and hide and seek and board games and listening to all sorts of stories via Alexa…which reminds me of my story records when I was little…oh how I loved listening to those…
All is well, so grateful.
XOXO
Quarantine week 12-ish
Another week…lots of good stuff…
Beach walk with cow birds to chase (also bread for the ducks on a different day)
Car needed some work and I took it as I could work while I waited. Ended up needing a rental car and when I returned the rental car and picked ours up Luke came with me and we had a little beach picnic
ZOOM Thursday Night Supper Club, it was our turn to cook and deliver food (and kids did some awesome drawings on the bags)
Lots of play time with the kids, their favorites right now are BattleBots and LOL dolls
Luke got a special Jui Jitsu stripe for training during COVID in a sweet little ZOOM ceremony
All is well here as things slowly open up. We are far behind most of the mainland as far as what is allowed. Still a 14-day quarantine (can’t leave your house or hotel at all for any reason) in place for any air arrivals so it’s awfully quiet on this island. We are also not seeing the civil unrest that’s on the mainland and grateful for that. We’re also still not sure what we’re doing as far as living situation/jobs but taking it one day at a time and decisions will come.
Happy Monday!!
XO
Quarantine week 11-ish
Last week of 2nd grade…we’ve got “junior 3rd graders” now according to Luke
Paragraphs of the week (“what I want to be when I grow up”…Zo: baker and vet/scientist; Luke: marine biologist)
Thursday food delivery (and Zoom get-together) from Vanessa, Felix and Bill, with “unicorn margaritas” and home-made guacamole
A modular house delivered in the neighborhood, we walked down to check it out
Signs for the Sacred Hearts end-of-year parade
Zoom (online) Jui Jitsu…not ideal but I love that Aloha Roll is making it work…
Stuffie gifts for the kids…they don’t need stuffies but they sure have gotten a lot of happiness out of the little koala and llama
Happy June!
XO
Quarantine week 10-ish
Aloha!
A lot of good last week (I’m a little late posting due to the holiday), including:
Early morning duck pond
Up close and personal with Sampson, who lives in the house and the kids see around all the time. We caught him and put him outside but saw him later that day again (kids like to think it’s the same little lizard anyway)
Unbelievably clear and beautiful snorkeling 2 days last week. So. Many. Turtles.
Sunset beach picnic to start off Memorial Day weekend
Our first papaya! It was delicious. 10 months since I put seeds in the ground
The delivery bag is from our friend Felix, he and Bill and Vanessa and Jeff and I are taking turns delivering dinner for the other groups every Thursday, and then we get on Zoom and chat…and Bill takes minutes which he sends out after which are hilarious…kids have “Kids Night” with screen time and we all get a break…Thursdays are something to look forward to right now…
Memorial Day at Kapalua beach which was amazingly uncrowded. John and Jo brought unicorn and pegasus floats for the kids and they (and we) had the best time
Happy Wednesday!
XO