This was our first hike, Lanikai Pillbox hike, it was an afternoon hike, after I finished my piano lessons. Gideon and Malachi came with me, it was a beautiful sunset, although Gideon wouldn't listen to me when it was time to go back down, so we ended up hiking back down (it was kinda steep) in the dark. We made it safely by the light of my phone, and Gideon learned to listen to me next time, because I'm trying to keep us safe.
This was our second hike, to Ginger Ponds, Caleb built a rock sculpture to place his painted rock on. He painted 12 rocks and brought one to hide on each of the hikes we did.
Caleb's best friend Chase came with us on this hike, because he is moving soon.
This is our third hike, the Ehukai pillbox hike. the waves on the north shore were really high, so it was really cool to hear the waves crashes while we're hiking, and to see the waves from up really high.
Gideon fell asleep in the hotel in the afternoon and took a nap, after 10 straight days of hiking every day.
This is the Makapu'u Lighthouse hike. We had to wake up super early, around 4:30am to get this hike in before we started teaching classes at our marriage retreat. The boys thought it was really cool to see the lighthouse on, and look at the stars and moon, and then to see the gradual lightening of the sky as the son began to rise. We had lots of good conversations.
This is the ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden hike, we've done this one several times before. The kids love feeding the ducks and fish, although after we had fed the ducks and made our way all the way to the lake shore we saw a sign that said not to feed the ducks, oops! Anyway, we still got to feed the fish, and see all the beautiful plants and flowers, and the area is gorgeous.
These ones are from the pink pillbox hike. The kids love exploring all the different pillboxes.
These ones are from our attempt to hike the old pali road, we tried coming to it from two different directions, and kept coming to places on the trail it was blocked off, so we gave up and went to the park, although we still got a "hike" in just in the walking we did trying to get to the trail before it was blocked.
These pictures are from the Turtle Bay to the Banyon tree along the northshore. The kids loved the swing we found by the ocean, and the huge banyon tree they got to pose in with their best friends for one final picture before they moved.
Best Friends On Sunday we went to the Byodo in-temple which was nice and quiet and not much of a hike, more like walking around the grounds. They thought ringing the gong was really cool, and feeding the fish again was great. These pictures are from the Kouiloo'oo ridge hike that we did. This was the longest and hardest hike we did, but had absolutely breathtaking views. Gideon also would hug random people on the trail, and tell them that he loved them. He caught a lot of people by surprise.
We made it up Koko Head stairs again!! Gideon loves climbing up "mount Koko head" as he calls it. Over a thousand steps up to the top!
These are from the food pantry that we volunteered at, the little boys climbed into the huge bin that was full of bottled water, and handed us all the water bottles to bag to get ready to give out to the people who were there for food.
The boys got a bouncy house for Christmas! They love it, and love that Travis set it up on the trampoline. They have been having a blast in it.
This is a picture from outside our house of the Bethlehem start that appeared on the 21st of June, it was cool to see such a big bright star close to Christmas.
Gideon turned 5 years old! He loved his chocolate rainbow cake, and the super tall race track he got.
Christmas Gingerbread house making is always fun, and yummy
These are from our last hike, Kaena point. It was a long walk, and we didn't end until sunset, but we loved the sunset pictures, and also saw a whale, although it was pretty far out in the ocean, so not too good of a view.
Looking at the fishies in the oceanarium at the hotel we stayed in during the marriage retreat we did.
December was a full month. The kids and I decided to do a 12 days of hiking with keiki (kids) Christmas challenge. We technically had all of December to complete the challenge, but the kids and I wanted to win, so we completed all 12 hikes in 12 days. Let me tell you, it was a little crazy, but we got it accomplished. We pretty much did our hikes each day, and I taught piano, and did a little school work (mostly with Caleb). Some of the hikes were pretty easy, but some were a little difficult. I put descriptions under the pictures about them. Gideon loved hiking!! He wanted to keep doing it every day, everybody else was ready for a break, and we didn't hike the rest of December after the first 12 days. We also had a strong bonds marriage retreat that we did in Waikiki December 10-12, (yes, we still got our hikes in, just had to wake up extra early on the 11th and did the sunrise lighthouse hike, and did the last one as a sunset hike on the 12th). With COVID restrictions still in place, our retreat was pretty different from any one we've done in the past. Everyone stayed in their own hotel rooms (with their kids) and attended the "classes" over zoom. We tried to keep them as short as possible, and give them activities to do in their rooms. All of the food was delivered to our rooms, and although the food could have been better, it was still free food delivered to us. We did get to use the pool that was there, and the little boys had a lot of fun swimming in that for a while. The hotel also had an oceanarium in their lobby, and we got to go down at feeding time, and watch the tropical fish for a while.
Samuel hadn't been doing all his schoolwork that he was supposed to be doing, so I was able to work with him, and help him try to get caught up. Gideon turned 5 years old, on the 14th. We turned the Christmas tree into his "birthday" tree, and put his presents under the tree for his birthday morning. He got a huge car race track, and it took Caleb and I three hours to put together. He loved going to the park and eating yummy food, and playing a lot. Our best friends in the neighborhood, Denise Wallace, is the one I would go walking with in the mornings, and was in YW's with, and Samuel and Caleb's best friends who they played with every day, moved. We drove them to the airport and said goodbye, it was hard to see them leave, when we had been so close, and done so much together. I had my piano recital on the 19th, over zoom, with 16 students, 3 of whom I had to pre-record because they went out of town, other than the videos I made not having the sound work, it went pretty well, and I enjoyed playing a duet with Caleb of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I made under 500 cookies this year for Travis to deliver to his soliders just before Christmas break. We didn't really go around much to neighbors and friends and deliver cookies or go caroling, we just seemed to run out of time this year. We did get to volunteer at a food pantry with the three little boys, where we helped sort out their shipment of food and helped the people in line get their food. Gideon, Malachi, and Caleb helped the most by climbing into a big bin full of water bottles, and handing them to us to bag. Christmas morning was fun, everyone got some fun items and candy, the little boys are super excited about their bouncy house. Travis put it up in the trampoline, and they are really enjoying it. We had zoom meetings with Travis' side of the family, and my side of the family. It was nice to be able to "see" everyone on Christmas.
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