Grammy and Pop

Grammy and Pop are here! They got in last Tuesday night. We picked them up from the airport with fresh flower leis and hugs.

Levi was very interested in the baggage claim merry-go-round. He requested to ride it about 25 times. Instead he had to settle for watching it go round and round.

The first full day they were here, we all piled in the car and took lunch to the beach. We ate on a picnic table in the grass and then walked a couple feet to the sandy beach in Wailua.

As we made our way to the beach we spotted huge sea turtles laid out on the sand. We approached them quickly and tried to figure out why they were there. We thought maybe they were laying eggs, but we figured out that they were just basking in the intense Hawaiian sun. We learned at Sea Life Park that they are a unique Hawaiian brown turtle that swims up to the shore to bask in the sun often. We had never seen it happen before, so it was a fun discovery for all of us.

Thursday we went to Sea Life Park so that Mom could finally live out her dream of swimming with dolphins. We'd heard mixed reviews about this park and weren't expecting too much other than mom's experience. But, it turned out to be a perfectly lovely event. They had a dolphin show as soon as we arrived, so we immediately got to watch dolphins leaping into the air doing flips and dancing for their trainers. The backdrop to the show being the wide open sea and mountains.

Directly after the dolphin show we all headed over to wait for Grammy to have her face to face date with her own dolphin. Here's mom in her life jacket awaiting instructions and pointing out the dolphins to Levi.

Mom was the first one in her group to get to grab onto and ride her dolphin. They taught everyone the symbol to act out to tell the dolphin to come pick 'em up. So they sent mom out to the middle of the tank, holding out her tentative arm gestures, while the dolphin swam out, circled behind her back and then flipped over onto him back as he passed her. She had to grab onto his fins and hold on while he did a backstroke across the pool. The look on her face best expresses the unique position of swimming with a dolphin.

To be clear: In this picture, she is laughing with surprise at how it feels to be chauffeured across the water's surface on flipper's belly....not squealing in fear.

After the Dolphin swim, we all enjoyed a meal of hot dogs and soda on a balcony overlooking the ocean. Levi appreciated the view so much he pushed his stroller up to the railing, climbed in, kicked up his feet and ate his lunch in peace

Levi and Nathan also got to feed the sea lions. Those sea lions were so adorable and very involved in the ordeal letting children feed him. They placed themselves right up to the edge, expectantly opened their mouths wide and let the fish fall into their mouths. Levi wasn't exactly about touching the fish, but he did enjoy watching it all and mimicking the noise the sea lions made.

Levi's been watching Finding Nemo lately, so he was real excited about all the "fishies." Grammy and Pop bought him this little clown fish key chain in the gift shop, so he was excited to compare it to the real fish.

Thursday after Sea Life Park we checked into our beach cabin on Bellow's Air Force base. The weekend was spent trapezing back and forth between the ocean and the cabin. It never rained, and was sunny every day for seaside pleasures.

Pop brought a kite to fly with Levi on the sand. It was crazy windy, especially in the evening. We sat out on our patio every night to eat or talk, and it was almost cold because of the intense wind coming off the ocean. It was a really nice little vacation spot.

This is a Portuguese Man of war (jelly fish). Someone passing us on the beach warned mom and dad about this jelly fish. We had never heard of such a thing nor seen one, thus Nathan decided he was making it up. However, as mom and Levi were running from the waves that weekend, Grammy was stung by this blue demon.

Here is the war wound.

Nathan just bought a new phone with Internet service on it, so he promptly "googled" Portuguese Man of War to find out what we should do to make sure mom didn't die or anything. Although there were some scary "rare" side affects, she survived the incident with little inconvenience.

She even braved the waters after the traumatic sting, taking up her opportunity to swim off the Hawaiian shores.

This was an awesome tree turned fort that Levi and Nathan discovered near our spot on the beach. The whole tree looked like the tide had swept away all the sand, revealing it's roots. It was a really fun place for two boys, whatever the case may be.

Every time we spend time on the beach, Nathan finds it necessary to dig a big whole. And, inevitably, the only thing to do after the whole has been dug, is to bury yourself. And in this case, Levi.



Sunday, after church, we all grabbed lunch, ate in the car, and started a afternoon of driving around the Island, stopping here and there to look out at the amazing views. The rest of the pictures are glorious scenes from that day.






We still have many more activities planned. Pop leaves on Thursday night, but Grammy stays for a couple more weeks. There will be lots more pictures and updates along the way. Hope you've enjoyed this insight into the fabulous vacation of Grammy and Pop.