Hawai'i Nei, Part I

Hooray!  The Farber-Lau and Laus just returned from a fantastic vacation and family visit to wonderful Hawai'i, specifically, the island of Oah'u.

July 10
Departure day!  The household (plus Aunt Sarah, who happily drove us to the airport) awoke at 5:00 to get dressed and throw the rest of the bags in the car.  Aunt Sarah drove us to the MSP airport, for our flight which was to leave at 6:00 am to go to Chicago O'Hare airport (ORD).  When we arrived to check in, we discovered that the airline (United) had canceled our first flight, but were able to get us on an American Airlines flight to ORD, arriving about the same time.  Whew!  We made our way through the airport and boarded.  The flight was a little bumpy, and we arrived on time . . . but we ended up sitting on the tarmac for around 30 minutes, and THEN there was no gate agent to greet the plane.  We made a mad dash off of the plane and RAN from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1!  We missed the next flight by minutes . . . we saw the jet pull away from the gate.  The United agents were apologetic and worked hard to rebook us through.  They ended up putting us on a flight to Los Angeles (LAX) and then to Honolulu (HNL). 
We made all of those flights and even had some cushion time that we could get something to eat and stretch our legs.  The highlight of our travel day was that Rose was given a first class ticket for the LAX - > HNL leg, but alas, as babies are not allowed in first class, Mama was the one who enjoyed it.  We arrived in HNL about 9:00 pm and after finding our bags, we made our way out to Kaneohe on the winward side of Oah'u to our rental condo.  We all collapsed into bed around 11:00 pm HST.  (Hawai'i is five hours behind Minnesota, so, that would be about 4:00 am CST!)

July 11

The best part about the vacation condo rental was the koi pond off of the lanai.  The koi were gorgeous, and throughout the entire trip, we enjoyed sitting out on the lanai.  The other entertaining part were the two ducks, thusly named Larry and Joe.  We fed Larry and Joe some bread and rice which enticed them to return each day to the door, to quack for more.

In addition to checking out the koi pond and entertaining Larry and Joe on this day, we also made a trip to Costco (did you know that the Honolulu Costco is the busiest Costco in the land AND they sell more rotisserie chicken than any other Costco?  Thank you b-school!)  to pick up some supplies.  We visited Ni-Ni and she was incredibly happy to see Rose (and us).  We all had dim sum, oh so delicious.

After dim sum, we did some more shopping, going to Safeway, and then Sam's Club.  At Sam's Club, we ended up buying some seared ahi poke for dinner.  So delicious and only about $4/lb - it was a steal.  We had dinner on the lanai and all went to bed shortly thereafter.

July 12
Up early (thanks time zone change!) and off to Wally world to buy diapers and wipes!  After the store, we picked up Ni-Ni and had early lunch at Kaka'ako Kitchen.  So delicious, if you are in Honolulu, go!  In the afternoon, we went to the Honolulu Zoo to run around and check out our animal friends. 

 

 

 The best part of the Zoo, was, of course, the slide!

 

Hello Hippos!

After the Zoo, we went back to the condo and had some dinner on the lanai and then went to sleep!

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of our trip to Hawai'i!  I promise to post more soon!

PS - "Nei" is Hawaiian for beloved.  So when you say "Hawai'i Nei" you are really talking about your love for your beloved island. 

Try Something New

I love projects.  Mighty Girl (one of my favorite blogs to follow) shared a post about trying something fun for 30 days. She also included this short video about doing something for 30 days; I really like the idea of trying something for 30 days (I also loved Morgan Spurlock's 30 days, too, so bonus points to Matt Cutts for mentioning that).   



30 days is doable.  So, what should I try for my first 30 days?

Also, I've been reading The Happiness Project book and planning my own happiness project.  Maybe I should think about one of the resolutions I want to do in my own happiness project, and try that for a month?    If anyone else has read this book, and has started a happiness project, let me know.  Or, if you are interested in starting a group with me, that would be wonderful!

Yay!

Dear Rose - 18 months

Dear Rose,

Today you are 18 months old.  18 MONTHS OLD.  You have been with us for a year and half!  Amazing.  I was just telling Uncle Luther last night that one year ago, you were just beginning to sit up by yourself.  And now, you are a walking, running, whirling, talking, screeching, laughing, giggling, tiptoeing delight.

Behold you in the sink/tub at 6.5 months old (above) and you in all of your rolling-around-on-the-floor-18-months-old-glory (below). 

Oh, Rose.  What a month you have had!  We traveled to Hawai'i and you had a nice time visiting your Ni-Ni  and Uncle Luther.  We were able to see lots of other family and friends and it was a wonderful trip.  You survived TWO epic travel days (each about 23 hours long!) in order to get to Hawai'i and back, so you are becoming a very seasoned traveler, for someone so young.  Daddy and I are very proud of you.  I hope that as you grow up you enjoy traveling and seeing the world.  Daddy and I promise to do our best to share with you wonderful, delightful places, and to create happy memories with you around the world.

You are talking a bit more, Rose, uttering random and various words "Hi" "Bye" "Water."  You continue to babble at us, as if you are telling a very long, detailed story.  We find it infinitely adorable.

 Our friend Mairi from Canada came to visit us over the fourth of July weekend.  We loved taking her to our favorite spots in the Cities, and you enjoyed visiting the Sculpture Garden at the Walker.

Your love affairs with slides and melons continues. 

 

Oh my sweet Rose, curious, strong, smart, opinionated, nibb-able, Rose!  What fun will we have this new month?  I look forward to our upcoming adventures!

All my love,
Mama 

CSA Bounty o' Goodness Rounds 3 & 4

We've been busy making preparations for our trip to Hawai'i, so I've neglected to update you on the goodies we've received from Eener's Farm.  Our third batch arrived and we received more leaf lettuce, spinach, green onions, and more garlic scapes.  We also received some salad turnips (which really resemble radishes).  We most enjoyed this batch in salads. 

Our fourth delivery was very very green.  We received some collard greens, leaf lettuce, a type of turnip that only grows the green tops (called Seven Tops), and the most exciting yet:  broccoli and pea pods!  

We enjoyed some of this in a salad, and I even stir-fried up some of the pea pods and broccoli (and some of the garlic scapes from last week) with some onion, sweet peppers, fresh rice noodles and a little thai flavorings.  Delicious.

A few thoughts:  I have really enjoyed receiving our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shipment every week and it has really encouraged us to eat more fresh vegetables.  Our meals are more local, and we feel great from supporting a local family farm, too.

We leave for Hawai'i on Sunday, y'all, so our CSA deliveries will be on hold until we return.  This also means that our delivery the Monday after we return will hold 3 WEEKS WORTH OF PRODUCE.  I am alternately excited about this and scared that my body might implode from all that fiber.  (Not to mention what it might do to Rose's digestive system!  Hee!)

Ok.  More about Hawai'i preparations to come in future posts, too!