Thankful Thursday

1. We really appreciate that we can spend the night at Yvonne's house before and after our trip. It means we get to spend time with their family, and because they provide us a ride to and from the airport in our vehicle, we avoid paying to park our vehicle at the airport for two weeks.

2. We've been able to visit all fifty states! Paul and I have talked about coming to Hawaii for 25 years, and it finally happened. Paul's mom really wanted to come here also, and his parents bought a time share in 2019 so that the seven of us could go to Hawaii, but her health (plus COVID) made that impossible. I know being with the Lord is much better than being in Hawaii, but still it's a bit bittersweet knowing she never made it here. 

3. Paul and I have been married for 24 years!

4. I'm very thankful for the thirteen years of life Oliver has had so far. Praying the next year will be filled with growth and many blessings for him.

5. We've had some amazing experiences here in Hawaii such as swimming with dolphins, parasailing over Diamond Head, surfing lessons, hiking on a volcano, swimming at beautiful beaches, holding a sea horse, etc. 

6. Yesterday when we stopped for malasadas, the man who was ordering ahead of us only wanted to purchase one, and the minimum you could buy was three. He gave us two and wouldn't accept any money from me. 

7. Yesterday we visited a National Park site where we learned more about Hawaiian culture and history. It was our 179th National Park site that we've visited (29 of those were "National Parks"). The kids have each earned four Junior Ranger badges so far on this trip. If all goes as planned, they will earn one more tomorrow and another on Maui next week. 

Oliver tried so hard to catch this gecko!

8. Today we saw many sea turtles at a National Park site that is 1,500 years older than the one we visited yesterday. It was our 173rd National Park site that we've visited (29 of those were "National Parks"). We also swam at Alula beach which is very close to the National Park. When we first arrived, there were other people there, but after they left, we had the beach to ourselves. As we were exiting, another family was walking toward the beach. The "path" to get to the beach involved walking over a lot of rocks! Ian had a bad encounter with a sea urchin shortly after we arrived, but thankfully we otherwise had a lovely time. The waves were almost non-existent, but the water was so clear that you didn't even need to wear a mask and snorkel to see many beautiful fish. Not counting the sea creatures, the animals that have caught our attention the most have been mongooses (SO many of them), chickens (ALL over the place), geckos, and cattle egrets. 

9. This morning, we had a wonderful tour of a vanilla farm. It was very informative - even more so than the chocolate farm tour. At the end of the tour we ate some delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. 

10. This evening, we had an amazing experience with manta rays. It was our second biggest "splurge" of the vacation in terms of cost (followed by swimming with dolphins last week). We had a very short (less than 5 minute) boat ride. There was one other family who was on the boat with us. The ten of us held on to a board that had lights underneath which attract plankton which then attract the manta rays. They are each between 12-23 feet across in length! As soon as we got into the water, one manta ray was already there. We had four females swimming up toward us and diving back down and then coming up again at the start of our time in the water. Then we had a break without any manta rays coming close. Sometimes we could see them swimming under us, but they weren't coming up to the board. When they came up, some would actually bump into us. After the break we saw two males, one of which came up really close to us. Ian used an underwater camera my sister gave me a few years ago to take some videos of this. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be so close to such majestic creatures! 

11. Yesterday when we stopped for malasadas, there were two other stands set up by the food truck. I bought us a fresh pineapple. It was SO delicious! We had to pay $5 extra to have it cut up, but since we're staying in a hotel right now, we don't have access to a big knife or cutting board. The kids and I consumed it in one afternoon.

Kona

Monday was our 24th wedding anniversary. Our first vacation together was our honeymoon in St. Lucia, and exactly 24 years later we are on another island together. After buying some more bread and fruit at a grocery store and getting breakfast from McDonald's for Paul, Nadia, and Ian, we drove to the Lavaloha Chocolate Farm in Hilo (just a few miles from our Airbnb). We had a guided tour that went from the cacao trees all the way to tasting the final product. We tasted the inside of the cacao pod. The pulp tasted better than the beans, although the beans are very good for you. During the tasting portion of rhe tour we tasted dark chocolate (70% cacao), dark chocolate with salt, dark chocolate with orange (my second favorite), milk chocolate (50% cacao) which was my favorite, milk chocolate with salt, and white chocolate with nibs in it. Oliver splurged at the end and bought a bar of their white chocolate. Hilo receives more rain than any other city in the United States.

Next we drove along the Pepe'ekeo scenic drive which features rain forest, waterfalls, and coastal views. It was gorgeous, and part way along the drive we stopped at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. It quickly became my most favorite botanical garden that I've ever visited. There were so, so many beautiful flowers. I took so many pictures! We also enjoyed watching some crabs along the shore. We also stopped at a state park which featured two waterfalls - Akaka and Kahuna (Akaka was definitely the prettier of the two). After this hike, we stopped at Tex Drive-In for malasadas. I had chosen one place for us to try shave ice and four places (between the three islands) for us to have malasadas. This was our second time to have them. At this stop Oliver and I chose mango, Nadia chose Bavarian cream, and Ian chose strawberry.  Our last scenic stop was at the Waipio Valley Lookout. We ended our day by driving to Kona, which is on the dry side of the island. We checked into the Holiday Inn, ate pizza and breadsticks at Black Rock Pizza, bought groceries and socks at Walmart, and swam in the pool (or sat in the jacuzzi) at our hotel. We have to pay $15/ day for parking at this hotel, but considering we paid $36 total to stay here for five nights and that includes free breakfast every day, spending $111 total for five nights is a good deal. 

On Tuesday our first stop was a Sea Horse Farm. We had a guided tour, and we each got to hold a sea horse, which was very special. The babies (fry) are SO small! We fed them some brine shrimp. We also saw leafy sea dragons while we were there. We then spent about five hours at Manini'owali Beach in Kua Bay. Both of the Airbnb's we stayed at provided us with beach chairs, umbrellas, fins, snorkels, etc. We brought snorkels from home, but while we're staying at a Holiday Inn we won't have access to the other beach gear. Paul and the kids encountered two sea turtles very close to where they were swimming at the beach yesterday. All of us saw some spinner dolphins from a distance. On our way back we stopped at Patricio's Mexican Taqueria for dinner. Since it was Tuesday, the tacos were $4 each. Oliver had a shrimp taco, and Ian had a ground beef one. I had a cheese enchilada (also $4), and Nadia had a quesadilla. We also got an order of nachos to share. The food was very tasty, and for Hawaii had very affordable prices. After we parked the van at our hotel, we walked along the shops closer to the shore. Oliver had a smoothie, and Nadia had a Kona coffee milkshake.

On our flight from Seattle to Honolulu, some of us had a can of a Pass-O-Guava drink. Since then we've purchased cans from various places (grocery stores, gift shops, etc.). Some cans have been under a dollar, and all have been under $2 each. Paul likes their iced tea. The kids and I have tried a variety of flavors such as Lilikoi Passion, Guava Nectar, Passion Orange, etc. We were pleasantly surprised that at the Holiday Inn breakfast on Tuesday morning one of the choices was Pass-O-Guava! I stopped drinking juice at breakfast about 30 years ago, but I made an exception yesterday for Pass-O-Guava.

On this vacation we've encountered a higher percentage of international travelers than we typically do. We've heard many different languages being spoken around us. The other family that joined us on our tour of the chocolate farm was from the UK (same language, different accent). In particular, it seems that there are many people from Japan here on vacation. 

Hilo

There are two airports on Hawaii (Big Island). We flew into Hilo yesterday (eastern side), and we're flying out of Kona on Saturday (western side). This morning, we started our day by driving to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The visitor center is currently closed as they are building a larger one, but we were able to get Junior Ranger booklets and badges and a magnet at a temporary welcome station. I'm counting today as our second day of school for 2025-26. We saw steam vents, hiked through a lava tube, and then hiked the Kilauea Iki Trail, which is 3.3 miles long and is a pit crater created through an eruption in 1959. This volcano has erupted many times this year. We would have liked to watch it erupting, but it hasn't erupted for the last four days. It wasn't raining while we hiked those trails, but it started raining a bit later. I had left the umbrella back in our Airbnb. Thankfully it wasn't raining when we parked to see the Holei Sea Arch, but it started raining again so we skipped the Petroglyph hike and the Desolation trail hike. It was raining when we viewed the Kilauea Overlook. I didn't include the larger volcano (Mauna Loa) in our plans. We do plan to visit one more volcano (Haleakala) when we are on Maui next week. Paul and I have been to several volcanos over the years (ex. Mt. Etna and La Soufriere), but the only other ones the kids have been to before are Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. Mount Rainier is one of my most favorite national parks in terms of natural beauty, but I have to say that the hikes we did on Kilauea were phenomenal - very unique. Today we spotted one mongoose and three wild pigs. I enjoyed seeing some beautiful flowers. We also saw a mongoose on Oahu. 

Our next stop was in Punalu'u where we visited a black sand beach and had dinner at the Punalu'u Bake Shop. At the beach, there were palm trees, and someone was selling them for $10. Paul and I enjoyed one in the Caribbean back in 2021, and when I told Oliver that he wanted to try one. I'm not sure if it wasn't ripe or what the deal was, but neither the liquid nor the solid part tasted good at all. It's a risk you take when you try something new. Oliver wanted to try a poke bowl. He ordered one at the beach on Oahu yesterday and discovered he doesn't like to eat raw fish. Thankfully he usually likes the new foods that he tries. Once we were back in Hilo, we made a five-minute detour to see Rainbow Falls. We weren't there at the ideal time to see a rainbow in the water, but we did get to see a rainbow last week on our first hike of the day on Oahu. 

In the first several months of the year we saw 48 of the 50 states' license plates. We haven't made any progress since May in finding the last two (Wyoming and New Hampshire). When we toured Cedarville in June, a woman in the admission's office said that they had students from 49 states. She was very surprised when I correctly guessed that Wyoming was the state they don't have any students from. She said usually people say Alaska or Hawaii. I made that guess due to playing the license plate game, ha ha! When we were in Ecuador it surprised me that we only saw license plates from Ecuador. Here in Hawaii the vast majority (I'd guess at least 99%) of the license plates are Hawaii plates, but I have seen some from Texas, California, and Oregon. I'm doubtful that this trip will help us find the last two states. We did a fair amount of driving today, but at least the driving wasn't stressful for Paul like it was on Oahu. Neither of us like driving in city traffic, and although Honolulu is very small compared to Chicago or NYC, it still has far more traffic than we're accustomed to dealing with. 

The swimming pool at our first Airbnb was closed due to renovations. It turns out the pool at our second Airbnb is only open from 9-6, and we weren't around to swim at time yesterday or today. The last seven days the kids will have plenty of opportunities to swim in the ocean, and maybe they will swim in a pool at the Holiday Inn in Kona. We're accustomed to eating a free breakfast at the hotel when we're on vacation, but because 8 of the nights of this trip we're staying at an Airbnb, we are only getting a free breakfast five mornings (at the Holiday Inn). 

Many years ago, I bought five t-shirts that were either Larry or Bob (the tomato). We wore them when we were at Sea World in Florida. For the second time in my life, I bought us each a t-shirt. I wanted one that recognized we have visited all 50 states. I would have picked a slightly different style, but I let Nadia pick one on Etsy. When it was time to start packing, I kept reminding everyone to pack their 50-state t-shirt. Ian told me he had packed his, but it turns out he didn't. I was very disappointed. So the pictures today just have four of us. Sometime in Pennsylvania I'll get a picture of all five of us wearing our traveled to fifty states t-shirts. We did bring other outfits that I coordinated for a family photo at the beach (a little dressier). I'm hoping to do that either in Kona or on Maui. The last time we had family beach photos was in 2019. Paul accidentally forgot to pack socks, and the only shoes he brought were sneakers. Since Ian brought sneakers, crocs, and sandals, he loaned Paul some of the socks he packed. We're hoping to buy Paul some more socks while we're on this island.

All in all, things have been going smoothly. We're all healthy. Nothing has been cancelled. The only time rain interfered with our plans so far was today. Thankfully, Nadia figured out that Cafe 100 wouldn't be open tomorrow at the time we planned to go there for breakfast, so we had time to make alternate plans. I wasn't keen on the mattress at our Airbnb in Oahu, but I like the mattress at this one in Hilo just as much as our one at home. We also are enjoying that the boys have one bedroom, we have another bedroom, and Nadia is sleeping on a futon in the living room. 

Farewell, Oahu!

 

In 2000 when Paul and I were discussing where we wanted to go on our honeymoon, Hawaii was high on our list, and at that time I thought we'd spend a week on Kaui. I knew that we could *never* go to Hawaii without visiting Pearl Harbor, so back then I assumed we'd add a few days on Oahu to that trip, but we ended up going to St. Lucia for our honeymoon, and we don't regret that choice. We went to several different Caribbean islands in subsequent years, and St. Lucia remained our favorite. Ironically, when I planned this trip to Hawaii, Kaui wasn't included in our itinerary. Considering we were only on Oahu for four days, we certainly didn't thoroughly visit the island. During our week on Hawaii (aka "Big Island") we will almost completely make our way around the island. When the kids were younger, we stopped at almost every science or children's museum along the way. They outgrew children's museums first, and now it's much rarer for me to include a science museum. We've had an ASTC membership for quite a few years, but ours expires this week, and I'm not planning to renew it. More recently we've been visiting zoos and aquariums far more often than we had in the earlier years, but on this trip, I didn't include any zoos or aquariums. Ironically, we were parked in the zoo parking lot today as it was close to where the kids had their surfing lessons. I figured we would just enjoy seeing animals in the wild on this vacation. 

August 7, which was Oliver's 13th birthday, was definitely the kids' favorite day of our trip to Oahu as they all loved the dolphin boat tour and the parasailing. Surprisingly, Paul said that dolphin experience was his favorite also. In particular, he loved it when a sea turtle swam right up close to his face. You're supposed to stay 6 feet away from sea turtles, but the sea turtles don't seem to know about that rule. Pearl Harbor came in as #2 in his rankings. Nadia and Oliver said their top three for Oahu were the dolphins, parasailing, and surfing. Ian agreed with their top two, but he picked the Kailua beach as his third most favorite. Paul's third favorite was the hike to the summit of Diamond Head. 

August 8 counted as the first day of 7th, 10th, and 12th grade for my kiddos because we toured Iolani Palace and then spent six hours at Pearl Harbor. The kids earned Junior Ranger badges. We visited the USS Arizona Memorial (by boat) and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. We had a guided bus tour of the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah Memorials on Ford Island. We had dinner at the Pit Stop Food Truck near our lodging. I *thought* we'd spend time at Waikiki Beach that evening. Our unit was a few minutes' walk away from the beach, but we opted to just relax in our unit after dinner and forgo the time at the beach (and skip seeing the fireworks that one hotel does every Friday night).

Today our day began by hiking to the summit of Diamond Head Crater. This is a VERY popular hike. You have to have paid reservations to do it at a very specific time, and even so it was crowded. We did a total of four hikes on Oahu. None of them were terribly long, but all of them involved significant elevation changes. The least was the first one (about 500 feet), and Diamond Head was pretty similar at 560. I thought the Lanikai Pillbox Trail (613 feet elevation change) was definitely the hardest. Manoa Falls included about 800 feet of elevation change. I purposefully excluded The Koko Head Crater trail although it is located very close to the first trail we did because it has an elevation gain of 1,200 feet in just seven tenths of a mile! After our hike, we had lunch at Barefoot Cafe on the beach. Oliver learned he doesn't like to eat raw fish as he ordered a poke bowl for lunch. Kudos to him for trying many new things! After lunch, the kids had surfing lessons. Oliver was the first to succeed, but all three were successful! After surfing, we began the process of returning the vehicle (we remembered not to get gas right near the airport) and going back to the airport. In hindsight, we should have packed sandwiches for dinner. The prices of food in the airport in Honolulu were ridiculous. Finally, we found some breakfast sandwiches at a Starbucks that weren't as absurdly priced. Our flight on Southwest was very short. The flight wasn't full, and they didn't serve any snacks or drinks due to how short of a flight it is. After we landed in Hilo, we got the van we've rented through Turo. This van was parked MUCH closer than the one in Honolulu. We had a long walk again today (with our luggage) after we returned the van in Honolulu. We stopped and got some groceries and then checked into an Airbnb where we are spending two nights before we head over to Kona's side of the island. 

I haven't even looked through all the parasailing or surfing pictures yet, but I've included a few surfing photos in this post. I took pictures, and Paul took some videos.

50th State!

On Monday morning I took the boys to the orthodontist, and once we got back home we started loading up the van, packing our lunches, and left to begin our drive to Maryland. Milo was VERY excited when he saw we had parked at the Seibert's house. Their home is definitely his home away from home. We stopped at a Target on our way to my sister's house to pick up a few things for the trip. We arrived at their home around 3:00 in the afternoon. My dad was also visiting them, so we also got to spend a little time with him. Yvonne very graciously allowed Paul and I to sleep in her very comfortable bed so that we could have a quieter spot to go to bed early in light of our early flight the next morning. Usually we fly out of BWI, but this time we flew out of Dulles, which is in northern Virginia. It's farther from their home, but we didn't have to deal with traffic delays given that we left her house around 4:00 am. I had selected a flight that departed at 7:00, but they had moved up the departure time to 6:30. Everything went smoothly with that departure. I had booked the flight through Alaska Airlines, but after they purchased Hawaiian Airlines, they changed the second leg of our flight to a Hawaiian Airline flight. After we landed, we took a train to the S gate only to find out that our flight had been moved to the N gate. We had to take multiple trains to get from the S gate to the N gate. After we got to our gate, we found out that we had pilots and the plane, but the crew was delayed. Waiting for the crew delayed our boarding by more than an hour.

Since we left Yvonne's house at 4:00, we didn't want to eat breakfast before we left. We brought blueberry Nutri-Grain bars for our breakfast and Ritz cheese cracker sandwiches for our lunch. The food prices at the Seattle airport are ridiculously high, but we were a bit hungry, so instead of buying sandwiches, I spent $16 for two large chocolate chip cookies plus two blueberry scones. Within the past 24 months we've been in the Seattle airport five times! The first time our destination was Seattle, a little less than a year ago we passed through Seattle on our way to and from Alaska, and in May we were in Seattle on our way from Phoenix to Baltimore. We don't plan on taking any domestic flights in 2026 so I think a lot more time will pass before we find ourselves in this airport again. 

I did a LOT of research when planning this trip, but I didn't think to research what food is served on Hawaiian Airlines' flights. I had booked this flight through Alaska, and I knew they didn't serve any complimentary food aside from Biscoff cookies. Hawaiian still serves free food! We got a turkey and cheese sandwich on ciabatta and a small (but very delicious) pineapple shaped cookie made in Hawaii. They also had more choices for drinks. The passion orange guava juice was SO delicious. I had selected our seats for the Alaska Airline flight, but those went out the window when this flight was switched to Hawaiian Airlines. They had Oliver by himself up near the front of the plane, Nadia and I in the middle, and Paul and Ian near the back. Paul took Oliver's seat, Oliver sat with me, and Nadia joined Ian in the back. Nadia and Ian were beside a window. Oliver and I were in the middle of a section of four seats. There was a man sitting on either side of us. This flight had free wi-fi via Starlink. We used our own devices and wireless earbuds on the first flight. On the second flight there was a screen on the back of the seats, but you had to have headphones or earbuds that connected with a cord. The only way to watch the free in-flight entertainment was to buy earbuds that weren't wireless. I bought one pair for Oliver and another for Ian and Nadia to share. Hopefully the next time we fly, we'll remember to bring both wireless and wired earbuds. Considering we left Yvonne's house at 4:00 am EST and didn't arrive in Honolulu until around 3:30 pm (which is 9:30 EST), it was quite an ordeal to travel to Hawaii from the east coast. This is part of the reason decades ago Paul and I kept choosing to go to the Caribbean instead of Hawaii. In light of needing to adjust to a 6-hour time change and how long it takes to get here, I am glad we are staying for two weeks.

I rented vans through Turo for all three islands. We had to walk farther than anticipated to get from our gate to where he had parked the Honda Odyssey outside a Starbucks. Our first stop was Ray's Cafe which looks like a hole in the wall, but the food was delicious, and the prices (for Hawaii anyhow) were very reasonable. Some locals were eating at another table. They could tell we were tourists, and they asked how we found out about the place. I guess not many tourists frequent this establishment! We don't usually bring much cash on vacation, but I knew there were some places (like this one) that were cash only, so I visited the ATM to get more cash before we left our home. The owner was very nice. He gave Oliver a free ice cream novelty, and when I tried to include a tip, he gave me some of the money back. Oliver's portion was so large, that he only ate half of his meal. He finished the other half for dinner on Wednesday night. Because we were behind schedule and tired, the kids asked if we could skip the hike to the waterfall we had planned to do before we checked into our Airbnb. We only stopped at Safeway to buy some groceries. We bought bread, turkey, cheese, ice cream, some fruit, cookies, one box of Poptarts (for Ian and Paul), and one bottle of reef safe sunscreen. Our bill was $109! We basically bought food for the 5 of us for 3 lunches, breakfast for 2 of us for 2 days, dessert for 4 of us for 3 days, and sunscreen. We had packed oatmeal packets for Nadia, Oliver, and I to eat some days for breakfast. I cannot fathom what families must spend on groceries per year if they live in Hawaii. Even at those high prices (ex. we paid $14.27 for 6 nectarines), we still saved money compared to eating out.

Our first Airbnb is a unit in a 38-story building near Waikiki Beach. We have three queen size beds, a dining room table that seats 8, a couch, and a patio. There are many things here in the unit for use at the beach (snorkels, life vests, beach chairs, beach towels, flippers, beach umbrellas, flip flops, sand toys, boogie boards, etc.). Parking in the garage is also included. We went to bed at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, which meant we had been up for 22.5 hours straight. Everyone except me was able to sleep until a reasonable time the next morning. I woke up at midnight and got very little sleep over the next 5 hours that I stayed in bed. I had a bad headache due to sleep deprivation two nights in a row. Thankfully, I got more sleep on Wednesday night. I still work up too early this morning, but I didn't wake up *as* early, and I had again gone to bed at 8:00 pm. Hopefully by tomorrow my body will have completely made the six-hour time change. I am determined to stay up later tonight.

The plan had been to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay on Wednesday morning, but my attempts to get us reservations when they became available at 1:00 pm on Monday had been unsuccessful. This was disappointing at first, but in light of our flight delay in Seattle, it made it easier for me to rearrange our schedule. I moved our visit to the National Memorial Cemetery from yesterday to today and moved the visit to the Tantalus lookout and hike to Manoa Falls from Tuesday to Wednesday. Yesterday our first stop was Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. This was a very easy trail to hike although there was a significant elevation change. It ended up being our favorite hike of the day. The views were gorgeous, and at the beginning there was a beautiful rainbow! 

Next, we drove to Kailua Beach Park. Originally, I had planned for us to swim at Lanikai Beach, but due to the fact they don't have parking or a bathroom, we opted to do the Kailua Beach instead (they are very close to each other). We walked from the Kailua Beach Park parking lot to the Lanikai Pillbox trailhead. This hike was *much* harder. The views were beautiful, but if I had to do it over again, I would have skipped it. Ian was the only one who did the entire trail. I came extremely close to passing out at one point due to heat exhaustion. I fell twice, and the second time I skinned my knee pretty badly. The beach was gorgeous. The water wasn't cold, and the view was lovely. The boys had fun riding the waves with the boogie boards. 

We ended the day by driving to two lookouts and doing one last hike. The second lookout (Tantalus) gave us a gorgeous view of Diamond Head. Our final hike of the day took us through a rainforest to Manoa Falls, which was where scenes for multiple movies (including Jurassic Park) were filmed. The third trail was harder than the first trail we did and much easier than the second one. At the end of the day we decided that our two favorite parts of the day were the first hike and swimming at the beach. We got our dinner from Rainbow Drive-In and brought it back to eat in our unit since Oliver was reheating leftovers for his dinner. Ian had a meal that consisted of two eggs, coleslaw, fries, and Arabiki sausage (Japanese). 

Some days, like yesterday, the activities don't cost any money. Today was our biggest splurge for this vacation in terms of the cost of activities. For quite a few years Nadia has wanted to swim with dolphins. I had asked Aunt Janet where the best place would be to do that, and years ago she told me off the coast of Oahu. Since today is also Oliver's 13th birthday, I asked him what special activity he wanted to do during our vacation, and he picked parasailing. The kids (to Paul's chagrin) picked the highest height (1,000 feet). Our day started with going to Liliha Bakery to try their famous Coco Puffs. Paul had a cheese Danish, and the kids and I shared six Coco Puffs. Our next stop was a three-hour boat tour off the west coast of Oahu that departed from Wai'anae. This trip was amazing. They located three different large pods of spotted dolphins. The first was the largest pod, and it was a nursery pod that included baby dolphins. Each time we jumped in the water and snorkeled around the dolphins. Our boat went near two other pods of dolphins. One was a pod of spinner dolphins. It's illegal to swim with them. They were very close to our boat, and some of them jumped out of the water. The third species of dolphins we saw were false killer whales. It would have been legal to get in the water with them, but they were swimming way too fast. Our last snorkeling spot featured several sea turtles and a few different kinds of fish. All in all, it was an amazing tour. On our way back to Waikiki Beach, we made a brief stop at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in Punchbowl Crater. We had dinner at the Steak Shack located right on the beach. All of the meals come with rice and a salad. Four of us had chicken, and Paul had steak. The meals were delicious. Ian and Nadia usually avoid eating rice at all costs, and they even ate some of their rice. Paul said it was the best meal he'd had on the trip thus far. It was cool having the waves crashing very close to us while we ate our meal. We ended the day with parasailing, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We have 1.5 days left on Oahu as we're flying to Hawaii (aka "Big Island") on Saturday. 

Our third teenager!

My baby is a teenager today. Since my kids are close together in age, it seems I'll have about 23 years of having kids in the house (2008-2031). That means 17 of those 23 years have already passed. If Oliver hadn't repeated fourth grade, I'd only have five years left. I want to savor the moments over the next six years! In Pennsylvania children aren't supposed to sit in the front of a vehicle until they are at least thirteen years old. Ian refuses to sit in the front. Nadia has been sitting in the front for a couple of years, but she didn't start doing that when she was thirteen. Oliver has been SO excited about being able to sit in the front. The photos in this post were taken yesterday. Since he is going to be wearing a bathing suit most of the time today, I had him wear his birthday t-shirt one day early. The rainbow on our first hike was an added bonus for the photo! 

Because he's turning thirteen in Hawaii, he's not having a birthday party this year. However, he asked to go parasailing for the first time on his birthday. He and his siblings are doing that this evening. He received most of his birthday gifts two months before his birthday. Pop Pop got him a bicycle. We got him rollerblades, a book, and Minecraft bedding and drapes for his bedroom. His bedroom has had a jungle theme for the last almost 13 years. At some point Nadia and Ian had changed the theme of their bedrooms. Ian's has been Mario for several years whereas his was vehicles when he was really young. We also gave him $13 which he used toward the purchase of a larger skateboard. He hasn't used the skateboard much, but he already read the book and has already logged many miles on those rollerblades. I made him wait until last week to open his gift from Aunt Yvonne. I figured he should open at least one gift closer to his actual birthday. He loves the set of 200 dominos she gave him for domino toppling and such. A birthday tradition in our family is to have donuts from Dunkin'. This morning we're going to stop at Liliha Bakery for their famous Coco Puffs (pastry not cereal). 

In many ways Oliver hasn't changed in the last year. He still wraps the same blanket around him throughout the day, even in the summer! He still loves to try new foods, especially seafood. He's already had shrimp and mahi mahi on this trip, and he wants to eat a lot more seafood over the next 12 days. He is still very generous, and he gives the best hugs. 

Here are some ways he's changed over the last year:

1. His favorite way to use his screentime turns the last few months has been to play with the Oculus. He's definitely used it far more than anyone else in the house has ever used it over the years we've owned it.

2. He now wears a ring all the time even though Paul is not a fan.

3. He's been attending the first service with Paul and I, and then he helps out in a kids' class for 4-year-olds and Kindergarteners during the second service. Multiple times Paul and I have had adults come to use and tell us what a big help he is.

4. He started regularly attending Bible quizzing practices on Wednesdays from 4:30-6:00, but we didn't feel he had put in enough effort to compete at Nationals. He did participate in other practice quizzes. We've already started working with him on memorizing verses from I and II Corinthians. I'm hopeful that next year he will compete with one of our church's teams at Nationals.

5. Oliver loves the fact that he has passed Nadia out in height. If the height charts are accurate, he will eventually pass out Ian, Paul, and I by several inches. Time will tell!

6. He got a new pair of glasses, and he wears them almost all the time. He chose an "aviator" style because of having seen the Mission Impossible movies.

7. He rarely asks me for help when he's doing his math lessons on Teaching Textbooks. This is a big change. He still doesn't have all his multiplication facts memorized. This summer he started getting a head start on his seventh-grade math. He completed more than 20 lessons plus some quizzes during the summer. 

8. He likes to buy fireworks with his own money.

9. Sometimes he stays up until 10:00 pm. 

10. He has now spent time in all 50 states! We visited the last three while he was twelve years old - Alaska, Louisiana, and Hawaii.

11. He took art and chorus at Meadowbrook Christian School for the first time in his life. He sang in the choir in two school programs (December and May), and he participated in a musical (Wizard of Oz) for the first time. 

12. Although he doesn't have a phone yet, he learned that he can use the Echo dot to call his friend Xandir. Some days this summer he has talked for hours with Xandir.

13. He's started playing with James, who is a friend from church who lives within walking distance of our home. He also has been spending more time with Ian, particularly while Nadia was working at Camp Susque.