Adventures On the Road

I grew up on an island, 10 minutes from the beach, and never officially learned how to swim.  And although I have since gone snorkeling (with a life vest), gone scuba diving (and landed on the bottom of the ocean), and fallen off of a sailboat (while still in the marina), I have never really found myself very comfortable in the water.  I wish I did.  But my preference is to keep myself in water that I can touch the ground in and never open my eyes underwater.

And so, I do my very best not to extend my water discomfort to my two girls who are just discovering what water is all about.

Today I pushed down my own fears as I watched in awe as they body surfed in the oncoming waves in the shallows of our beach cove and shrieked with glee when the waves splashed them in the face, spun them around in a circle and did not care one bit that they were my babies who have practically no beach/water experience.  They pushed me way beyond my comfort zone, and I had to fight back the urge to rush to their rescue and save them from the waves, while also being uncomfortable with how the waves were pushing and pulling me.

Luckily, Nathan is comfortable in the water, and just kept telling them to keep their heads up, always watch the oncoming waves, that when one wave goes out, another one is coming in, and to spit out the water.

All in all, today I found myself unbelievable impressed and inspired by my girls.

As I sit on the plane, halfway through a flight to Hawaii with two almost three year olds, I feel happy that we have reached the point where there are periods of independent play and also nostalgic and feeling like time is moving too fast when I think about the pudgy 23 month olds that we traveled with last year.

At the time, the girls seemed to be so old and capable and independent, and now I look back at those pictures from a year ago, and I see these pudgy toddlers that were barely toddling around.

Now these girls are telling us about all of the garbage trucks, airplanes and firetrucks they are seeing. And also asking for more popcorn or telling us adamantly that ‘no, they do not want to go potty’.

And so, as we embark on a trip that will absolutely fill up all of the memory on my phone and computer, I wanted to take some time to remember our trip to Hawaii last October.

The girls were almost two, and….

It kills me to admit that we were ‘that family‘.  You know the ones….the family that you see in the boarding line up and you think to yourself, ‘I hope I’m not sitting near them’…..or….’those kids better not be crying the whole time’.

It was a 6 hour flight and we were packed to the max with new books, games, snacks, their lovies (bunny and lamb), soft blankets and the anxiety of parents about to embark on a 6 hour flight with two 23 month olds…eek!

When we booked our flights we told ourselves, yes, it’s a long flight, but once we survive it, we’ll be in Hawaii!  And that makes the tough travel day worth it, right?

The answer is – Yes, it was worth it.  But we didn’t escape unscathed.  We had ‘that kid’ that cried pretty much all through landing.  Which sucks because you know it’s the pressure on her ears, but when she doesn’t want to drink anything or eat anything, you just feel helpless and like you have to ride it out.  That said child also didn’t nap AT ALL during the 6 hour flight.  But I cling to the fact that we must not have been a complete mess during the whole flight because the flight crew was in love with the girls!  To the point, that one of the flight attendants asked me if it was Brooklyn that was crying during landing, and that her cries sounded soothing. Soothing!  Yes – she actually said that.  I’m pretty sure they also carried the girls off the plane as Nathan and I were loaded down with a camera bag, diaper bag, tote and rolley suitcase.  Needless to say, we don’t travel light and nimble anymore.  Also, movie watching and naps (for me) on long flights seem like a thing of the past.  Which is so painful to realize since I used to be the one that was asleep before take off 😦

Other than visiting the Dole Plantation, we had absolutely no plans.  Good and bad I think, as I probably would have wanted to do a little more research on things to do/visit/eat.  BUT, we splashed in the kiddie pool, visited a waterfall, looked for sea turtles, ate garlic shrimp at Giovanni’s shrimp truck, left a Disney Aulani character breakfast hungry (these girls were super scared of the characters and spent the whole time on our laps) and generally soaked up sunshine, sand and that aloha spirit.  It is hard not to think about what it would be like to live there full time, especially when you know you’re heading home to rainy days.

But for now, I leave you with some of my favourite photos of our trip from last year, and I hope to share our Hawaii adventures this year a little sooner than November 2020!