Hiking Kauai

As I started to type this post, I realized that I didn't remember the name of the hike that Tom and I did, or how long it was, or where it was located. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this is going to be the worst post in this history of blog posts." But then I remembered there's something magical called the internet, that helps you with these problems.


Tom and hiked to the Makauwahi Cave Reserve, a limestone sinkhole, along the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail. The trailhead is somewhere east of Shipwreck's Beach, which is located beside the Grand Hyatt Kauai, on the southern tip of the island.The hike itself was about 2.5km one way, or 5km round-trip. Not a particular challenging distance, and the trail was well kept easy to follow. An excellent outing for a couple of geoscientists such as ourselves!

There's something very satisfying about hiking beside the ocean. Especially on a beautiful day with blue skies, warm weather, and no toddler to chase back and forth. I'm not going to give any commentary on this hike, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Aloha!

The Return to Kauai

Ahhhhh...

The sweet sweet return to Hawaii.

Morning view from our Air BnB townhouse.

Tom and I have talked a few times about if we would ever buy a vacation home somewhere. We've always thought no, as we like trying out new places, and being tied to one place would make you feel obligated to go there all the time. But we love Hawaii, and as our family has grown, going back to the same place doesn't seem like such a far stretch anymore. Who knows? Maybe one day!

In the meantime, we've returned to Kauai! The last time we were here was two years ago when I was pregnant with Lacey! Now she's a rambunctious 20 month old, and we can't wait to introduce her to the sun, sand, fresh fruit and ocean.

Our flight to Hawaii marks Lacey's fourth round trip flight, but it was by far the longest we have embarked on with her. We weren't sure how she would do! To sum it up succinctly, Lacey did great!

We flew to Vancouver, and then on to Kauai with my parents, and Lacey had a great time swapping between seats with mom and dad and grandma and grandpa. Miraculously, both my parents and I had an empty seat beside us, in a very full flight, so there was room to spare for Lacey. We got her ready for bed by giving her milk and changing her into her jammies and she was clearly confused about what would happen next (asking us for a crib, please). But Tom got her to fall asleep on him, and then he rolled her into the empty middle sleep  where she slept soundly for three hours. She would have slept for longer, but there was turbulence and we had to hold onto her and that woke her up. By then, there was only an hour or so left in the flight, and she watched some Frozen on our tablet.

When we landed in Kauai, Lacey announced that there was "No snow!" as we collected our luggage in the open air luggage carousel. We filed a lost luggage report for Lacey's playpen (ung), and made our way (without incident) in the dark to our Air BnB townhouse.

In the morning, Lacey saw her first "Daddy chicken", which was one of the greatest revelations of the trip. There are chickens running wild everywhere on Kauai. And pointing out mommy and daddy chickens everywhere we went became a favorite pastime.

We had told Lacey that we were going to a hot beach, but her only memories of a beach are the cold and misty beaches of Tofino, so she was both uncertain and suspicious when we arrived at the Poipu beach the following morning. However, it did not take long at all for her to warm up to digging in the sand, and wading in the water. Soon, "Beach? Dig in sand!" became a frequent request, occurring multiple times each day.

Beach bum.

My parents spent the first week of the trip with us. It was their first time on Kauai, so we hit some of the main tourist attractions, like Waimea Canyon, aka, the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.

We convinced my parents (who have never been big sushi adventurers) to try Hawaiian  poke, and my mom promptly got a horrific bout of food poisoning. I think it's safe to say they will be steering clear of sushi for many more years to come...

We drove out to the North side of the island (we were staying in the southeast), and everyone enjoyed the change in scenery. The North side of the island receives the majority of the rain, so it is much more humid and lush than where we were staying. We stopped for some shaved ice on the way home.

We saw some surprising wildlife on the beach, including a giant turtle, and a monk seal. Lacey witnessed the monk seal sneeze, which made a huge impression on her. She asked for the seal to "Achoo" for weeks to follow.

All the activity was hard on Lacey. She played hard, and she crashed even harder. Mornings and afternoons were spent at the beach, sightseeing, or enjoying the pool that was part of the townhouse complex.

One of the bonuses of travelling with grandparents is... Baby-sitting! One morning, Tom and I managed to get away, and we headed for a hike (to follow in an upcoming post).We also managed to squeeze in a dinner out on our own!

The days with my parents melted away in a blur of beaches and farmers markets and good meals. Before we knew it, they were headed home, and we were relocating to a smaller condo on the east side of the island.

After grandma and grandpa left, the weather also took a turn. It wasn't terrible, but it was often overcast. And with no sun to add some much needed heat to the humid air, it sometimes felt a bit chilly. We tried to make the best of it. We went to a plantation with a kitschy train ride, that ended with Lacey being able to feed some farm animals (goats, pigs, chickens, etc.), and Lacey thought it was amazing-- don't let her sour expression fool you! Lacey had only seen a lot of these animals in books, so seeing them in person was a big thrill for her.

We found a pretty cool playground.

We explored tide pools.

And we managed to get one beautiful, hot day with blue skies, and barely a cloud in the sky.

And just like that, our last week in Kauai was gone.

Through some miracle, we had the nicest lady in the world sitting beside us on the flight home. Almost immediately after we took off, her took it upon herself to relocate her seat, so we flew home with an empty seat between us. Lacey was exhausted, and twenty minutes into the flight, she was fast asleep. And she slept the entire way to Vancouver, not even waking up when we had landed and the lights in the cabin came back on. She was fairly chipper in the Vancouver airport, and promptly fell asleep again on the connecting flight home.

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better holiday!

Love you Kauai-- we'll be back!

We Eat Braaaaains!

At work, I get the first and third Friday of every month off. When we work on a Friday, there is a rotating schedule, and someone is the designated treat-bringer.

Friday, October 27th was my treat day. Based on the treats that I have brought to work over the years, I feel like I've developed fairly high standard for myself. So this time was no exception, I could not disappoint. With Halloween just around the corner, I went with a monster them.

Basic rice krispie squares, with some chocolate work make a melty Frankenstein monster!

And an impulse purchase of a cupcake kit in the line at Winners (the most clever marketing strategy there ever was!) resulted in these Halloween-themed muffins. Banana chocolate chip, and banana carrot zucchini, with some cream cheese frosting!

The team was pleased!

Cross Stitch - Project Numbers

My sister-in-law, Ashley, has been an avid cross stitcher for many years, but it is something that I have never tried myself. Lacey's room features an alphabet that my mom cross stitched for my sister some 40 years ago, and two cross stiches from Auntie Ashley. I decided that I wanted to round off these stitches by adding one made by me!

I scoured Etsy and found a pattern I liked. Then I bought all my materials at Michael's. Finally, on the last weekend in August, I got started.

After about six and a half hours that weekend, this is what I had to show... Barely finished 1 of 9 numbers. This is when I thought... WHAT have I gotten myself into?

I had no idea that cross stitching would be such a long a tedious process. Luckily for me, I LOVE long and tedious processes! Ha!

Over the course of about eight weeks (and countless hours!), I slowly finished the cross stitch for Lacey. I cross stitched in the evenings after Lacey had gone to bed. I would squeeze it into every opportunity that I got. At one point I even considered taking it to work with me and cross stitching during my lunch hour (I never did, I was always too paranoid of spilling something on it, or getting it dirty during transportation).

And... The finished product!

I am super happy with it! It looks great on the wall next to Lacey's other cross stitched creations. And Lacey has been slowly learning how to count to ten. Although she doesn't understand what the numbers mean right now, we have been making an effort to point them out to her, and recite them so she can learn to identify them.

If you find yourself intrigued by the idea of cross stitching, I purchased my pattern here on Etsy. It was great, easy to follow instructions, and no difficulties from a first-timer!

Our First Turkey

Now that we are in a house, we finally had the space and seating to host our first Thanksgiving! Not only was this our time first hosting of a major holiday, but also our first time making a turkey. Keep in mind, when I say, "our first time making a turkey," I actually mean, Tom made the turkey.

Here's what we were serving up for Thanksgiving 2017!

Hehe, just kidding!

I didn't really have the foresight to take a lot of photos of our first Thanksgiving, but I can tell you that despite some stress (not leaving enough time to defrost the turkey... not entirely sure how long it takes to cook a turkey in our new oven...), things turned out great. Tom and I took care of the turkey, stuffing and dessert, and our family brought beans, brussel sprouts, potatoes and appetizers.

I made cornbread the day before, and Tom used it to make cornbread stuffing. It was AH-MAZING. We will DEFINITELY be doing that again! Here's a shot of the turkey, glistening, straight out of the oven.

And here are a shot of the pumpkin pies, modified from this Paula Deen recipe.

The food was consumed with gusto, and we are thankful to have shared the day with our family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tofino 2017

Our second (maybe annual?) trip to Tofino has come and gone... And what a blast it was. Much like I previously posted about the summer, it felt like this was Lacey's first experience on holiday even though it really wasn't. We did two trips while I was as on leave last year, but Lacey sat up for the first time when we were on the West Coast, so she was barely mobile. And she had been crawling for only a week or so on our second trip.

Let's take this from the top. 

We flew out to Comox  on my birthday, September 16! The flight went well. It was early enough that it was before Lacey's nap time. And since we flew with my inlaws, Barb and Dave, and Lacey's Auntie Ashley and Uncle Andy, the moment she got a bit squirrely, we would hand her off to the next set of hands  to get distracted. Lacey did great on the plane. She colored, she played with plastic bugs, she ready books and she drew on Auntie's tablet app.

She did even better during the three hour drive. We ended up with the world's crappiest Dodge Caravan car rental, but Lacey loved it, because she could see grandma and grandpa in the back seat with her. She slept for about forty minutes (about all we can expect on a travel day),but we all arrived at the Cox Bay Resort in good spirits.

After ditching our bags in our rooms, we all headed out for a beach walk to stretch our travel weary legs. And what a beach walk it was! There was a wall of fog that had moved in to the beach, and you could barely see 15m in front of you! It made for some very interesting photos.

Walking on sand only gave Lacey a moment of pause before she was off exploring. She also didn't mind the water coming in and out. She seemed to like the sensation of when the surf comes in, and whisks away the sand from underneath your feet. 

After our first afternoon in Tofino, we started every day the same way. We slept until Lacey woke up. Then Lacey asked for:

1) Milk

2) Grandma and grandpa

3) Auntie and Uncle 

4) Beach

On the following days, we tried to find indoor activities, because it poured and poured and poured. Although it wasn't great for our holiday, it was just what Tofino needed - - they had had a dry summer, and were on water restrictions. In the neighboring town of Ucluelet, they have a small aquarium with many touch tanks. Lacey was very interested in looking at the fish, crabs and jellyfish. However, she was not brave enough to touch any of the starfish anenome or other creatures in the touch tanks. 

Grandpa has a memory from when he was a kid, of getting a stuffed bear when he was in Jasper. So when he saw the perfect bear for Lacey, he picked it up and gifted it to her. As you can imagine, Lacey was a big fan of bear (or Bee-ear, as she says). Bear is now another full time resident of her crib at bedtime. 

We watched Auntie and Uncle go surfing, we visited a park in town, and we went on a hike on the Wild Pacific Trail outside of Ucluelet. We beach walked every day and investigated kelp, and on the last day, it was even nice enough for us to get out some sand toys for Lacey to do some digging. We wore Tofino's latest fashion (metal bowls) on our heads, and practiced our balance by drinking milk on those bowls.

We ate good food, and enjoyed the company of our family! It was a very nice trip, and I can see us doing it again! And if you don't mind me saying... We ARE a pretty good looking family unit!

Still... According to Lacey, vacations and the beach are the Worst. Day. Ever.

I'm the Worst.

Remember when my zucchini plant was flourishing like the most beautiful plant there ever was?

Well... It doesn't look like that anymore.

Because I AM THE WORST.

I decided that the zucchini plant couldn't possibly self-sustain itself in such a small pot without fertilization, so I stuck a fertilizer stick into it. A fertilizer stick for house plants.

MISTAKE.

The plant started to shrivel up almost immediately. 

I had good intentions... I swear! I didn't mean to kill it!

So... Next year... No rogue fertilizing of garden vegetable plants.

Let this be a lesson to you all!

Making the Most of Summer

Now that we've arrived in September, I can say that we have made the most out of Lacey's first summer. I know this technically wasn't her first summer, but last year, she was only 3-5 months old, and she wasn't really able to do anything on her own to enjoy the summer. I would lay her on a blanket outside in a green space outside our condo and she could watch the wind in the leaves-- but that was about it. This year was an entirely different experience for her. Being outside was a whole new world to Lacey, and she loved it.

What did we get up to this summer? Let's recap.

We ate pancakes and sausage at a Stampede Breakfast.

We watched Grandma line dance.

We went to the zoo.

We ate ice cream!

We went swimming in a backyard pool!

We went to Barrier Lake for a family picnic

We went to Waterton National Park.

We chased a ball!

We played in a lake with cousins!

Like I said, not too shabby of a "first" summer!