A weekend adventure, part I (Barber's Point)

Last weekend was an adventure. Both days we got into the truck, not really knowing where we were going, but loaded down with drinks and snacks.

We decided to check out the western part of Oahu. We hadn't been that way at all, and there were several spot that we'd heard were good. Our first stop on Saturday was Barber's Point Beach and Lighthouse.

It's a beautiful beach, but it's not a good place for kids to play in the water, and it's crazy getting there - we had to drive through an industrial park.

I love the palm trees by the water.

The waves at this park were pretty big, and there was a rocky ledge there at the end of the beach, so we did not get in at all.

Lola had a ton of fun on this outing. I'm not quite sure what's happening here, though. It looks like poor Lola is about to do a faceplant in the sand. But she did not, so it's cool.

we found these little tide pools in part of the rocky ledge, and Lola loved them. She was drinking some of the salt water (nutty dog...), and she kept getting in the water.

And here she is scratching her back on the rock. She is so funny. :)

I was a little disappointed by the lighthouse, I thought it would be... bigger, cooler. It was a little boring, but hey, we've seen it now.

The view from the lighthouse.

The waves were really crashing on the rocks. It was fascinating to watch.

We found some cool shells and pieces of coral at this beach.

Before we got back in the truck, poor Lola had to get washed off in the shower they had, because she was covered in sand. She was not happy about that, but Colette wrapped her up in her own towel, and she just chilled out.

another little beach on the North Shore...

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago. I've been lazy about posting my pictures, I know. I'm sorry. :)

We went to the north shore this day (i don't even remember exactly what day it was, lol!), and found a little beach park that looked nice. It wasn't too crowded, either.

Apparently my pictures don't know how to load in order (or I'm just not paying enough attention to how I'm loading them), so sorry if I jump around...

Colette was riding the waves up the beach.

I sat on the beach towel for most of this trip. Hey, remember how I kept saying I could relax when I got to Hawaii? Guess what. I'm here now, so I can relax! (on the weekends, anyway. I still have housework and stuff to do..)

We always have to stop the kids from running into the water, so we can cover them in sunblock. We have upgraded to the kids waterproof SPF 70. It works for all of us (we are WHITE). We even put it in Gavin's hair, or his scalp gets sunburned.

No, I don't know these people. They got in the way of my awesome pictures.

A cute apron for a cute boy...

Colette has a really cute apron that her Meme (great-grandma) got for her at the Country Peddler's Show. For the past couple days, I had been thinking about making one for Gavin using hers as a pattern. I finally just sat down and did it.

It took me about 3 hours to make it, but I had many little interruptions along the way, and I was not organized (my stuff is barely unpacked). I am really happy with how it turned out, and Jeremy even said it looked good. (He said I should sell them, lol.)

I didn't start out telling Gavin that I was making an apron for him - he's way too impatient, he would have been on top of me the whole time I was sewing. He walked in, though, while I was sewing, and figured out I was making an apron. When I told him it was for him, he was so excited. He kept coming in and asking if his apron was done, he wanted to wear it.

He tried it on once I was done with the apron, and he was just so happy to have it. Gavin kept walking around in it.

I got the fabric last year at Ikea, and the binding is a white quilt binding. I made the top part different from Colette's, I figured it would be easier to have it squared off than rounded.

And here's Colette modelling her original apron. She said that she liked Gavin's new apron better than hers, and she wanted me to make a new one for her too. She gets so jealous!

I made bread!

Today I was bored, and so I decided to make bread. Challah bread to be exact. I love it! I had never made this bread before, much less tasted it, but I've heard it was really good. I was not disappointed. The recipe makes two loafs, and here is the first one.

Yes, that is mojito mix in the background. Want to come over and drink it with me?

North Shore Dinner

Tuesday evening, we drove up to the North Shore for dinner, and to try to catch the sunset. We wanted to try a place called Cholo's, an "authentic" mexican restaurant. We figured we would probably be disappointed by the food, being that we are from a place with such awesome mexican food, but we had to try anyway.

Cholo's was actually better than we expected! I figured that I would just be let down by enchiladas (because there are so many variations on a normal enchilada, you know), so I played it safe and ordered the Carne Asada. It was pretty good. The only let down I had with my meal was the tortillas. They were just warmed up store-bought tortillas. Oh well.

After dinner, we tried a North shore tradition, "shave ice". I have a few things to say about that. 1. "Shave" ice? really? we can't add that "d" in there? Sorry, these kinds of things bother me. There are signs all over the island for "shave ice", and it seems to me that it should be "shaved ice", right?

2. Another discrimination because my hometown is so close to Mexico: these things do not compare at all to raspas. Yes, the ice is good. But the flavors here are just weak. Jeremy and I were sad that they don't have tiger's blood flavor here. Back home, they would have a huge sign with all the flavors (like 30-40), but here they had maybe 15. Oh well. It was still a nice treat, and the kids enjoyed it.

I had been wanting to see the sunset for a while. The island has mountain ranges on both sides, so you can't see the sunrise or sunset from our house. We'd heard that the north shore was a good place to see the sunset.

We found out that it was, indeed, a good place to see the sun set. If the weather allowed. We did not get to see hardly anything because of the clouds in the way. It was still a lovely view, though.

Looking away from the beach, we saw the moon already out, and a rainbow! Yes, there's a rainbow there. Squint until you see it. or just humor me and tell me that you see it. :P

I had to take a couple pictures of the kids, and I think they turned out pretty well.

Jeremy wanted a picture with the beach in the background. Isn't he cute?

And he took one of me too. Actually, he took three of me. The other two turned out horrible. But this one isn't too bad.