Return From Paradise

Family Picture

Giving the animals a ride in the ski boat

My birthday

We have been getting settled back in this week after a fantastic family vacation to Hawaii. We were fortunate to have Matt's parent's join us for a portion of the trip, which gave us the opportunity to have a few date nights.

We were a little "adventurous" and ate out at an authentic Japanese Restaurant (hey, that's a stretch for a girl from small town Texas...) They had an "all you can eat" buffet the night we went (this is high class...not the cattle call at Old Country Buffet, people!), which gave me an opportunity to see and sample a little of everything (except for the sashimi...couldn't quite do that one...) We also just ran with the whole "When in Rome" notion and we tasted a flight of sake. The sweet one was OK, but I think I can now just say, "been there, done that." Here is a sampling from the buffet at Ushio Tei: buffet. The wafu steak and the shrimp tempura were very tasty!



Our other big meal out was for my birthday. We went to an island legend, Roys, where we enjoyed Hawaiian Fushion Cuisine (the word fusion always makes it sound so much more exotic....just combine seafood with an Asian influence and you've got it.) And because my biggest dilemma at restaurants is that my palate gets bored with one main dish, they offered an entre called "Classic Four," which paried together 4 samplings from the menu (including seared ahi, mahi mahi, butterfish, and some other fish I couldn't pronounce.) Top that off with a monte cristo cake for dessert (chocolate cake infused with peanut butter filling and then deep fried and served w/ ice cream) and you have the makings for a yummy and memorable birthday dinner.

On the playtime front, we did enjoy the beach pool, though our lil man still absolutely hates the sand (hence no sand castle-building pictures at the beach.) It was a bit cool at the pool some days, so we were glad to have a long sleeve rash guard for Colin. There was a huge section with water only 3 inches deep, so Colin could drive his animal toys around in his toy speed boat while mom and dad lounged at the edge of the pool.

Here are some other highlights from the trip:

- We drove up to the Dole plantations and on up to the north shore, the surfing mecca of the world. When we arrived at the north shore, we turned around and drove home, as it was 9:45 am and the lil mister was already asleep for his "afternoon nap." Our day (and yes, this was my birthday) began at 4 am. Good times on the sleeping front!

- We realized the sleep issues were do to three (yes, three) budding 2 year molars. Praise the Lord for Motrin, our best friend and the keeper of all that is happy and bright.

- Matt and I enjoyed a snorkel outing together at Kahe Point, an area dubbed the "electric beach." The water is really clear, but not an over abundance of fish. I saw an awesome (huge) parrot fish, some humu's and angel fish, but nothing noteworthy like a sea turtle.

- My MIL and I drove into Honolulu one morning to do some birthday shopping. Wouldn't you know we finally had success at the very last store in the whole shopping center! Banana Republic has some cute things for their spring line-up.

- Our resort was awesome! We had a full kitchen, dining, living area, which was separate from the two bedrooms. It was so nice for everyone to have their own space. It also helps when feeding a munchkin. We just stocked up at the local Safeway (milk was $6 a gallon - yowsers!) and it worked really well.

- Lastly, it was so awesome to have 3 generations of family all together. I've always seen larger family groups on vacation together and always thought that would be such a fun way to "go on holiday." Pretty cool, indeed!