A Trip to Haleiwa

On Mondays and Wednesday is substitute teaching at BYU Hawaii. He is finishing the end of the semester teaching a Book Of Mormon class for a teacher who just found out his cancer is back. :( He was relieved to have Seth take over and Seth is grateful for the opportunity. Although he was so nervous teaching the first day I was afraid he was going to pass out or drowned the students in a pool of sweat. Both unpleasant. But he survived and has taught again with a little less nerves. 

So on Mondays and Wednesdays we stay here in Laie. Get more school done and slow down. But on Tuesdays and Thursday we have decided to field trip and explore as a family. This last Tuesday we were heading to Laniakea Beach (Turtle Beach), Matsumotos, and snorkeling. We got a bit distracted with some of Seth medical records we were needing to get a hold of, so on our way (or out of our way) we found the Haleiwa Library, post office, bank with a notary, and the only fax machine on the North Shore in Wailea (not really, it just felt like it). So our field trip got a bit distracted and Jake ended up asleep (below). But the kids were very patient, thanks to the "Chronicles of Narna" on CD that Seth bought at Value Village. The kids love to listen to them as we are weaning them off of our car with a DVD player. They were in withdrawls until  they started listening to the CDs. They are actually very good. I highly recommend them. I haven't read all the books so I love listening to them as well. But four hours later we hadn't made it to the beach or Matsumotos. But we did find an awesome bakery with donuts!

 Notice how well he was buckled in. This is another sign of a fourth child. Unfortunately I didn't notice until now when I saw the picture. Ha! Slacker mom.

 Here's the bakery. It was rockin'. There were no holes in the donuts but a huge glob of chocolate frosting on top. They sold coconut turnovers that were to die for, as well as coconut peanut butter that I sampled. I didn't buy any because would have eaten it all with a spoon on the return trip. Nothing better that peanut butter and coconut!

 Jayne actually ate the whole donut, which is unusual because she usually just eat the parts where the frosting is attached.

 

Jake on the other hand, only at the frosting. He's car seat got a taste as well. 

But then we arrived! To the world famous........

Shave Ice! It was well worth the wait. You can see it on their faces.

Refreshed from the shave ice, we went to Laniakea Beach. For some reason unknown to me, the turtles love to come to this beach. There are volunteers that come to the beach every day to protect the turtle when they are on the beach. They put a rope on the sand around the turtle so that no one will bother the turtle. Jake didn't understand that but we grabbed him fast. He thought the turtle was a rock. You can see the pink rope in the sand by the kids. You can also see the size of the turtle. Pretty impressive.

 This turtle even had a name(that I can't remember) and she was in thirties. I am not sure how they tell them apart, but they tell us they do. They said that had 4 turtles on the beach that day, but she was the last to jump in the water. We also saw three other turtles in the water. The kids loved it and climb the rocks to spot more turtles.

 By then it was early evening and we hadn't been in the water. Jayne has announced that morning that she wanted to learn to snorkel, so that was one of our goals. So we stopped at Turtle Bay Resort's beach to teach her to snorkel. Just as we were walking to the beach, the heavens opened and it started to rain. But we have learned something here on the North Shore. The rain doesn't last too long. Usually it rains and then the sun is out again in 5 minutes or so. So we waited it out and had the evening beach to ourselves. It was high tide, so it wasn't good snorkeling, meaning Jayne will have to wait another day. But we all got in and swam.

 Here's Jake with a suspicious look on his face. I think he had just put fishy crackers in his mouth along with a handful of sand. It makes the humid crackers extra crunchy. Old Hawaiian secret- if lost crunch from humidity, just add sand. :)

 These are Jake's tools. A must for a boy a beach.

 Here is Ellie carrying Jayne into the water. They were laughing so hard I was worried they would drowned. But again they survived- the water and the laughter. 

We are working with Jake on his boogie boarding. He has been tossed a couple times from the ocean so he is still a bit nervous. But he was getting a hang of it and especially likes riding on my back. I love it too.