New house

We have a new beach house that we are calling home in Hauula. 

Ethan and Sydney are warming up to the new home, but not to the shower without a tub.  Doug and I have abandoned ship on the showering and converted the double sink into a double tub.  They screamed during this 'bath' until we put them each in at the same time.  Now they scream when we take them out!

This house is furnished...with too many trinkets and furniture than I would like, but it's still relatively clean, so we're told.

The apartment has 1 bedroom and a large living room that we've converted to a bedroom.  It has worked out well.

There is one bathroom just off the kitchen.

Ethan and Sydney enjoy the bedroom.  They enjoy it so much they asked to get in their crib today!  I brought them toys and then I hopped in the shower--bonus!

We were welcomed by a 'harvest moon' tonight that was beautiful over the ocean.  It was very large, but photos never do that justice.  We brought Ethan and Sydney to see the moon just before bed (now at 7 pm instead of 8 pm before). Doug put on Ethan's brace while looking at the moon over the ocean. He still wears his brace at night until he turns three.

First Kiss

It is love at first sight.  We've been trying to teach Ethan and Sydney to give mom and dad kisses.  They are so sweet.  Today, Ethan appraoched Sydney and planted a kiss right on her lips--totally unexpected.  I asked him to do it again and caught a photo.  It nearly took my breath away, it was so sweet. 

First weekend

Thursday night, Doug and I sat in our double bed (we have a king-size at home...a bit of a change) side by side and I said, "it is so hot"! That will sum up our first week here pretty well. Without airconditioning, our house has been so hot. I take a damp rag to Ethan and Sydney and get them down to a diaper for nap time and point a fan directly on them so they will go to sleep! It has worked and they are now napping better than they have before.

Friday night, we packed a little picnic and walked to Laie Point. It was a beautiful evening.

We could see our house from the point.

Saturday was Utah football day!  We were excited that we had the right channel and Ethan and Sydney woke up from their nap to join us. 

Doug gave them Tings--their favorite 'junk' food snack.  He let them finish the bag (with our help, of course).  "It's football," Doug said...

Today, we took a walk along the beach with the stroller--we turned some heads. 

The park just a block or so from our house is filled with tents on the weekends.  We hear that the locals will set up and bring generators and this is their version of 'camping' by the beach.  It is pretty funny.

The highlight of our first week--Doug and I agreed--was that Ethan and Sydney are completely in love with the backyard.  They can roam and discover and go walk to the back and watch the waves roll in.  If they're grumpy, we just say "want to go look at the water?"

First sighting

I am terrified to see a cockroach.  Terrified.  Thursday night we were so tired and told eachother that we would go to bed early, for sure.  Just before 9 pm, something flew into the living room (our room as well).  I jumped up and Doug said it looked like a moth, but I wasn't convinced.  Doug went to the laundry room to throw in the last load of cat-smelling linens and saw a cockroach in one of the towels in our 'hamper' (a large tupperware bin).  He went outside to shake out the towel and somehow knocked the same laundry detergent that spilled open at Costco.  We had a flood of detergent on the floor and began clean-up.  Without spatulas, I used rice cooker paddles and scooped it into some tupperware containers.

We tried to laugh about it, and we did.  I just had to get over the fact that we were living with those nasty cockroaches.  Nasty.

First day at the beach

We decided Wednesday after our jog in the heat that it was time to actually get in the water.  We had walked along the beach in barefeet, but thought it would be great to take them for a little dip in the ocean.

Ethan wasn't in love with the water--waves coming at him that were as tall as he was...not his favorite. He opted to play in the sand and Sydney eventually joined him. They loved it.

They didn't love the clean-up though. We have an outdoor shower and jumped in with them and man...they screamed.  Doug and I decided it would be a few more days before we went to beach to get in the water again. 

From our front door, you can see a sliver of the ocean to the left of the clothes line.  We had lots of blankets and things on the clothesline because the previous tenants had a cat.  Enough said--yuck.

Going to 'town'

Without a car, it has been quite the adventure getting around and doing some necessary shopping.  We found out that BYUH would allow us a car for the day so we could head into "town" (aka Honolulu--1 hour drive) to visit Costco. I have always thought that Costco produce was, for the most part, expensive.  Well, after visiting 2 grocery stores, we couldn't wait to find some killer deals at Costco.  All the university had for the day was an 18 passenger van.  We jumped at the chance (since they were also covering gas at over $4/gallon). 

The drive was beautiful. To get to Honolulu on the highway, we headed straight through a mountain in a long tunnel. 

We visited Savers thrift shop and found some amazing deals on toys for the kids, pants for Doug for work, and some knives for the kitchen. Our furnished apartment has knives, but they were rusting (most of the metal in our apartment is rusted and/or green from being right next to the ocean).  I laughed when I saw an entire section of muu muu dresses.

We met up with a few people selling baby items on Craigs List and bought two booster seats (ironically, they match!) and a few toys.  We knew that all the locals shopped at Costco but didn't think it would be packed on a Tuesday at 3 pm.  By this time, Ethan and Sydney were done shopping and didn't hide their feelings.  We were checking out and looked like a circus.  In my rush, I knocked over the detergent and it fell about 6 inches off the cart bottom and busted and spilled all over the floor. We were a spectacle.

We owed it to Ethan and Sydney to stop at a park to play and eat dinner before heading home.  We knew that Ethan would love the pink vaccum we bought from a cute woman on Craig's List, but had no idea that he would drag it around the park and not let Sydney even touch it...once.

We dropped off the van 90 minutes later than we were supposed to, but we got so much accomplished in one day, it was incredibile. 

Operation: Move in 4 suitcases

I sat down in our new backyard today to write our first post from our little slice of paradise in Hawaii.  I grabbed a chair and had to take a photo of my view while I type.

This is the first 'real' move of our marriage. We spent time making a packing list, ordering and shipping boxes of diapers, wipes, clothes, shoes, crackers, and other items ahead of our arrival.  After a few crazy days, we arrived at the airport (thanks for the ride mum and dad!) with 2 kids in our arms. We checked 2 suitcases and 2 moster-sized duffle bags along with 2 car seats, and 1 oversized jogging stroller.  Our moms helped us sew and bag and pack the stroller such that it wouldn't get damaged in transit.  We each had 1 carryon and 1 backpack (a.k.a. diaper bag) in tow and must have looked hillarious.  We breathed a sigh of relief after making it through security and walked to the gate.

The airport was a playground for about 30 minutes while we waited to board.  They were facinated by all the 'trucks' outside and especially with the long hallways where they could run at full speed.  They wandered up and down ramps and were in heaven.  I started to wonder if they would be angry that we took them away from this playground to sit on our laps on the plane, but they did okay.

Our first flight to Los Angeles Doug and I sat in separate rows and I was directly in front of him.  The row had just 2 seats on one side and 1 seat across the isle.  Our entire rows were empty, except for us.  Ethan and Sydney had their own seat and had a great time. 

By the time we left LAX, Sydney was especially tired. She had refused to nap all day and it was now 7:30 pm (our body clock time) and was f.u.s.s.y.  We gave them some homeopathic Calms Forte (for kids) and hoped for the best. It was a VERY full flight and every seat was taken.  We were fortunate enough to have kind people around us who didn't seem bothered by the fussy kids.  Sydney was OUT while we were still ascending into the skies and Ethan was too excited to sleep. He eventually settled down for Doug about an hour after Sydney fell asleep.  The only challenge at that point was a 6 hour flight and no moving with a sleeping baby.  I finally asked Doug to hold both sleeping kids while I walked to the bathroom.  Standing up was a glorious feeling!

We arrived on Honolulu at 9 pm, although 1 am by our body clock time.  We both felt a little dilerious.  Paul, from BYU-Hawaii greeted us, helped with all our luggage and gave us each a lei.  We were so excited that the trip was behind us and an adventure ahead of us.

We stopped at the grocery store to grab some food for Sunday meals. We were shocked at the prices of food.
bananas: $1.39/lb
plums $2.99/lb
Grapenuts $7.29 for a small box!
almond milk (we get for $2.99 before) $5.99
Yikes!
We had a rough night with Sydney ready to be awake for the day at 4 am and Ethan up as well. We have a double bed and had all 4 of us snuggling.  Doug let me sleep until 8 am and he attempted to sleep himself for an hour or so.

I tried to put both leis on them but Sydney was completely disgusted with the idea.  Too funny.

Sunday afternoon, we took a short walk to a nearby park. The view at the end of our street was breath-taking with green mountains.

The park is just 4 houses down the from us, basically, and is pretty with a lot of grassy area to play.

My favorite part of our yard is a plumeria tree and lots of blossoms.  Ethan let me put one behind his ear.  Sydney wouldn't have it!

Aloha from Hauula, Hawaii!