What have we been up to?

 I just realized it has been a month since I have blogged. How time flies when you’re having fun!

***Quick update on the arm I almost lost, it still hurts! The Huge raspberry has faded and you can barely see the mark, but the area is still very sensitive.

 

9-25-15

Sea Glass Beach-

After hearing about this beach I decided we had to go, the very next day. I was able to find the directions online and it seemed to be an easy drive. Turned out to be a little more difficult than expected. Before we finally found the beach, we ended up driving through some kind of crop. It wouldn’t have been too bad if we did happen to drive right by a few people tending to their crops. Awkward! This is when the “Y” plates come in handy. I’m sure they spotted them and just brushed it off as, ah crazy Americans lost again!

I expected to find a few pieces of sea glass, after all the name of the beach is Sea Glass beach, but they really should change the name to Beach Covered in Sea Glass! It did feel a bit like cheating since you had a bucket full of piece in about 5mins, but the challenging part was to find unique colors. We collected a lot of white and brown colored pieces, but I was on the hunt for blue and green. Green was fairly easy to find as well, but not blue. The kids got very excited when they found a blue piece to hand me. Now I just need to find some large glass jars to display these beauties.

Not only did we find sea glass, but also left with many shells too! The family knows my favorite shell has become the pukka shell and just like the blue sea glass, the kids were very excited to find mommy a pukka shell too. My little minions are expert beach combers now!

Of course we couldn’t leave the beach until we tried to find some sea life. McKinley actually came across a large sand crab by almost walking into it. Preston quickly jumped into action to catch it, and he did, he put on quite the show in doing so. I am still amazed he was able to catch it without getting pinched. We can now call him “The crab whisperer” haha.

Covered in Sea Glass and Shells

Trying the catch the crab

He did it! *He is holding the pinchers

Such a beautiful day

My little beach combers

 

 

McKinley was the only one to check out the little cave

 

Finally decided to open my pineapple wine from the Pineapple farm. You can really taste the pineapple and it was delicious! The bottle didn’t last very long and now I am wishing I picked up more than one. I should have known. Have I not learned, you buy by the case, right….mom?  

Maybe my wine glasses are too big?

10-3-15

Ogido Park-

I am facing my fears and we have continued on our Park search adventures. This is by far the kids favorite park so far (it is really 3 separate parks in the same area). I was a bit hesitant as we were walking up and not because I saw a roller slide, but the danger sign *below*. Not something you really want to see. We spent at least 2 hours here and STILL had to drag the kids away.

Park 2

Park 3 (toddler park)



Park 1


 

 

 Spooky!

                                                                     Um.....

10-10-15

“Dump” Beach in Nago-

This is a beach we have named ourselves and not because it is a trashy beach. You will have to ask Kayden how it got its name. lol This is actually the second time going to the beach. This is also the one where Kayden thought all the hermit crabs were chasing him.

We were here at low tide and were able to walk waaay out in the rocks. We spotted lots of fish, star fish, and sea cucumbers. Then we saw a few sea urchins-this is when we headed back to the beach! None of us had our water booties on and it only takes one wrong step and someone was going to be in a lot of pain.

We finished our stay with the kids playing in the water and I went shell searching. I will admit, I have an addiction-to shells.  I am still amazed at the amount, quality and variety of shells on these beaches. Each time I find a new shell I haven’t seen before. It is very easy to want to keep looking. My search usually doesn’t end until I hear Preston yelling down the beach saying I’ve gone far enough. Lol Yes, dad.

Even though this was the second time at this beach we set up camp in a different location. It actually looked like it hadn’t been touched for some time, which is probably why I found all the amazing shells I did. However, the hermit crabs in the area were HUGE! They were rock climbing hermit crabs, real dare devils. I found a medium size guy that obviously needed a bigger shell. I felt bad for the little guy, so I picked him up to relocate him to an area with larger shells and he pinched me! Very rude.

Exploring the rock

This is the guy that pinched me!

They are just HUGE

They are pretty fast too

I searched all of this beach

 

10-11-15

Bike Riding Fun-

The kids loved getting to ride their bikes again. Next weekend I think we will take the training wheels off Kayden’s bike!

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine elevator music as they are waiting

 

When the doors open,  they are off! I had to get out of the way of the other two.

 

 

 

Sea Wall Walk-10-11-15

We have been to many beaches here and yet we waited until today to check out the beach that is DIRECTLY in front of us! I can’t believe it took us so long and it’s really a nice beach. After stuffing Preston’s pockets full of shells hehehe, we continued to walk the sea wall down. The weather has been paradise this last week. The crazy humidity has gone and the wind has come. We still reach about 86 degrees, but it really feels chilly without that humidity. I think we will start walking the sea wall nightly ;) Although the kids and Preston found it very hard to just WALK. Next time I will have to bring the jogging stroller so McKinley and I can keep up.

 

Along the sea wall there are a few sets of stairs that lead down to little beaches. We explored them all.

 

 

'Home' Beach

 

The sea wall trail. I was the water bottle holder.

10-12-15

Kin Kannon-do Temple and Cave-

In the spirit of Halloween I have been looking for some more ‘spooky’ things to do. I signed us up to take a spooky tour at the end of the month. We are all looking forward to that one and I can't wait to blog about it. I’ve been hearing a lot about all the caves around here. Now is the time to explore these since ‘habu’ season is ending. Although you still have to be careful of the giant and poisonous centipedes. Eek. I found a great beginner cave just down the street from us to check out.

The kids had school today, but Preston had it off. Once we picked the kids up we surprised them by taking them to THE CAVE. This is also the location of a temple, so we were very careful not to seem like we were being disrespectful.

Just looking at the entrance, it looks spooky and the stairs go straight down. We walked all the way down, took a few pictures and headed back up. Honestly, that was enough time for me! There was one area where the stairs curved and at the side was a dark cove, this is where the kids were a bit scared. Other than that, they enjoyed the trip.  

a place to leave offerings

The Temple

Entrance to the Cave

Here we go...

This is when I started to rethink this trip

Coming up to that spooky corner

At the bottom looking up

I will note about Preston's haircut. This is what happens when you do not specify you want an American 3 and you end up getting a Japanese 3 haircut.



Have to go back by that spooky corner!

I want to say these are prayer papers

 

What do you do when you have collected so many shells?
10-9-15

you have to clean them of course!

Kayden wasn't too into it. lol So serious playing xbox

Makayla made Kayden a new hat. Such a good big sister.