Every pay period I doled out a bunch of quarters. The moment those coins made it into the boys' sticky fingers, they were plotting ways to spend it. If they had a toy in mind, they would put those quarters in their piggy banks for a couple of months at the most, but most likely they would make their way to the dollar store.
Not Alaina. She knew what she wanted and she saved every single penny. In three and a half years, she never spent a dime. (Not true. Last year she did gift me $1 for my Christmas present.) Every birthday card would be shaken for cash to be carefully stored in her wallet. Every penny earned was squirreled away. I started getting semi-annual updates on the girl's progress. At first I thought it was cute. Fleeting, but cute. After a couple years, I was very impressed, but still imagined she would break and find something really great to spend all that cash on. Three years passed and I was even more impressed and slightly worried that she'd actually get there one day. Then, this last winter, she hit $300. Robert finally started to worry and sat her down and told her, in all seriousness, that times had changed and Hawaii ticket prices had risen to $700, meaning she would now have to get to $350. Heartless, I tell you.
Alaina would not be deterred. Instead, she took it in stride and continued the packing away of her hard earned cash. With the help of another birthday, we knew she was going to hit her mark by this summer. Finally Robert and I sat down and discussed a trip to Hawaii. Since she couldn't possibly travel by herself, I took it upon myself to be the one to take her. No, no. I don't deserve any praise. A mother sacrifices for her children. :)
We decided it would be even more fun if my Mom came with us. She also was willing to sacrifice for her granddaughter. In fact, nearly everyone I talked to was willing to give up a week of their time to help the poor child out. (Such love for Laina!) Unfortunately there were just so many free miles we could scrounge up...(what? We weren't actually going to pay cash for those tickets! They're expensive!)
So. Robert got the tickets and broke the news to Alaina one week before she was going to hop on the plane. Alaina was ecstatic. She could talk of nothing else. She wanted to pack that very instant, but we made her wait for a few days. Every night she wanted to snuggle and talk about the exciting adventures we were going to have. It was sweet. And intense.
Finally the moment came and off we went. We met Mom in L.A. and flew together for the remainder of the flight. Alaina's little nose was glued to the windows the entire decent.
When we landed, we found that the North Shore, where we were staying, was having an unseasonably wet week. We had to find our way to the condo in the dark, through a rainstorm but we were able to get there without too much of a problem. When we woke up the next morning, it was to a complete downpour. Fortunately, in Hawaii, if you want to find the sunshine, you just have to drive to a different part of the island. Since we hadn't made any set plans, we were able to follow the sun for our adventures. We mostly let Alaina choose her activities, however, both Mom and I have a few friends in a Hawaii, and so we were able visit with them as well.
Nothing really talks about a trip as well as a bunch of pictures, so I leave the details to a minimum and flood this post with pictures of Alaina. :) (prepare yourself. There are over 50 pictures here. Possibly the most pictures I've ever put in a single post. If I was really nice, I'd separate them into several posts, as to not overwhelm you. However, it is late at night and I don't have time or energy to make this easy. Just scroll through fast or close the page half way through. I justified putting all these pictures in by remembering all the time it took Laina to get there.)
On our first Sunday we went to church with some good friends of mine from our college days, Kristi and Jeff Collins. One of my last memories of Hawaii was of Kristi bringing home Malia, her oldest, from the hospital. She had one of the most harrowing and painful birthing stories I've ever heard (I'll just say: emergency c-section...no anesthetics.) but then she brought the most perfect little child home with her. Since then, Malia has grown into a sweet, pretty girl and has been joined by her sister Rachel and brother Andrew. After church we walked along Kailua Beach...possibly the most gorgeous beach I've ever been on.
After dinner everyone scattered, but I did manage to get this picture of Kristi and Malia.
The Dole Plantations. We saw lots of pineapples. We ate pineapple ice cream and...
We saw a double rainbow. Can you see it? ("A double rainbow!!!! What does it mean!?!"--youtube favorite.)
At the condo.
Hanauma Bay
Another day at Kailua beach. The water here was just amazing. We spent all afternoon just taking turns with Alaina jumping up and down in the waves.
And building more sandcastles, of course. (Although, Mom's little bumpy buildings here looked a little suspect. We weren't quite sure what she was going for...)
We spent most of our time at the beaches, but we did have a few places on our to-do list. One was to go up to the Pali, where the wind is always blowing a million miles per hour, and the view of the North Shore is tremendous. The wind didn't disappoint, however, Alaina (poor girl) had discovered a new trait that we never knew she had. Car sickness. With all the windy roads, the sweet thing didn't stand a chance. We weren't able to pull over fast enough and she threw up on her clothes. Fortuneately she had brought her swimsuit with her, so she got to wear that up at the chilliest, windiest place on the island. What a trooper.
It did get cold enough that she got to share Grandma's shirt for a little while. :)
Here we are doing our best super-man impressions.
Here we are at a random beach we were passing and couldn't stand not to be on. So we took a walk and Alaina took a swim.
Another thing on our to-do list was the PCC. The Polynesian Cultural Center has got to be one of the best places to see native Hawaiian (and all the islands) dances and traditional way of life.
We stayed and ate at the buffet and afterwards we went to the night show. Alaina said that the fire dancers were her favorites, while I always have a love of the Tahitian dances. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but we did get a good one of Alaina up on the stage before the show started, dong the hula. :)
This is the beach the was a minute walk from our condo in Laie. The waves were choppier which made for really great jumping.
We were there with just about 6 other people. Isn't that crazy!
Out by the old Banyon Tree.
I had to include a hair picture. Just one....I promise.
We joined up with Jeff and Kristi and their family again at Three Tables Beach.
We stayed for a good while after they took off because I just couldn't get Alaina to come out of the water.
Well, who can blame her? I did finally get her to come out by embarrassing her enough at the end though. I had been calling her for a good 5 minutes and she kept ignoring me. Completely. So I started yelling, "I know you hear me child! I know because all those people around you can hear me too. Look. Now all of them are staring at you. They are wondering why you don't listen to your Mama." I went on and on until everyone around her was laughing and pointing at her. Finally she looked up and said, cool as a cucumber, "Oh. Hi Mom. I didn't hear you." before she sauntered out. What a pill!
We spent a good part of one day hiking though Waimea Falls. It is a botanical garden and it is absolutely gorgeous. I have decided that I need to have this view from the back of the house I retire in. In fact, we were all scheming how we could relocate into the actual park.
You could wear one of these leaves for an entire outfit if you found your self in tight spot. Or in a yellow polka dot bikini. :)
Here is Waimea Falls. It doesn't look huge from the side, but once you swim up to it, it can be a little intimidating. Robert and I swam up to it about 12 years ago, and then the only other people in the lake were our friends. This time it was pretty full of tourists. Mom and I decided not to go in, but Alaina was so brave and swam in by herself. She went right up to the falls and jumped into them two times. I'm so proud of her courage.
Right after that we went to Hale Iwa for Shave Ice. Now, when we were there, it was always Matsumoto's that was the place to go. However, we were informed by the Colins that Matsumoto's was just for the tourists these days and not so tasty anymore. Apparently the new place for locals to go is just a few buildings down at Aoki's Shave Ice. We weren't disappointed. Well, Alaina did order the strangest combo ever including a healthy dose of sour apple mixed with two other strange flavors. She swears it was delicious but after one taste of her's, I stuck to my own, yummy shaved ice.
Near the end of our trip we decided to take Laina to Wikiki. It's such a famous beach that we felt she had to at least experience it as well as a little bit of Honolulu. After spoiling her with the gorgeous beaches of the North Shore, with their pristine water, sugar sand and relatively empty beaches, she was not so impressed. If you see her face in this picture, you can see how worried she is that people would be running over her. We didn't stay long and we were all happy to get out of the crazy of Honolulu traffic.
About 15 min. inland, out of the center of Honolulu is the gorgeous town of Manoa. It is mostly a college town with older homes with actual yards and quiet, tree-lined streets, tucked right into the base of the mountains. It is so breathtakingly beautiful.
And although the view is something amazing to see, the reason we were there was this amazing lady. Sally Lee was my social worker when we were going through the adoption process. She brought us our sweet Ethan and just for that we we'll always be eternally grateful. She was also by my side at the hospital when my etopic pregnancy burst through my fallopian tube and we lost our first set of twins. She is such a kind and beautiful person and I was so very happy to reconnect with her on this visit. We were also able to meet some of her family who are just as wonderful as she is. The very good news is that she has family in Saint George, so there is a chance we'll be able to see her again, sooner than later.
Sally also offered to feed us on our way to the airport, and so, instead of shoving down a bag full of fast food before we rushed off, we got to sit down in her beautiful home and have a delicious stir fry she claimed to have just thrown together. (I'm going to get the recipe and see if that is really the truth.:)
(This picture was taken before Alaina knew I had my camera up. I think she looks so peaceful and beautiful. I sure do love this girl!)
Finally we made it back to the airport. Our flight was the red-eye and Alaina was such a trouper. During our layover, she couldn't wake up and went right back to sleep until the next plane came.
Hawaii really was a wonderful trip. I think I'll have Alaina save up for Austria next....
