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A baby gecko that was in the cabin. It is considered a blessing in Hawaii when a gecko is in your home or where you stay.
Sunset

After I updated the other day we did go to the beach. We were having fun and playing in the waves when mom said "OWW!!" She was looking at her arm trying to see what was hurting her. "Owww!" We were talking about jellyfish before we got in and she didn't know exactly what to look for. I had a feeling it was a jellyfish (what else would it have been?). I swam over to her and said "It's probably a jellyfish". We looked and it was stuck to her swimsuit cover up. She was already headed out of the water while at the same time taking off her cover up. She almost slung it on me too, it was pretty funny actually. I cut my toe on a rock following her out, and it still hurts! Anyway, we got out and went up to the cabin and grabbed the water hose. I dried off and ran up to the shopette to get some vinegar. The shopette is just blocks away and they carry most of the things you would need while you're there. It took me forever to find the vinegar. It was kind of hidden on the back of the shelf. I figured they were running low because everyone was getting stung. Out at Bellow's, they sometimes have the Portuguese Man of War Jellyfish. They only come in on the East side (Windward side they call it) of the island. When I got back to the cabin mom said that it was still stinging. It got her on her arm twice and on both of her legs. I felt so bad for her! The vinegar worked almost instantly and the sting was gone. A jellyfish sting turns out to look like a rash and she was worried at first. Luckily, she only had to deal with it for 20 minutes total and not all day. We didn't get back in the water that day but Thursday we did get back in. While we were swimming we spotted 3 more jellyfish and that made us kind of paranoid so we were constantly looking for them. We got out later on and just took it easy. At Bellow's, that is pretty much all you can do is take it easy. We hated to check out! The moon was full, the sunsets were pretty, and during the day it was gorgeous! At night we watched t.v. and dvd's. We brought food with us so mom cooked and we slept with the windows open. You will see in the pictures that we were so close to the ocean so we could really hear the waves. It was great! On the day mom got stung by the jellyfish, she took 2 long naps. One was probably due to the Benadryl that she took just in case she was allergic to jellyfish. On Thursday, I could not get moving so we drove into Kailua and got some Starbucks :). It helped! Well, that's pretty much all we did at Bellow's. It is like going to the lake only you're in a cabin on the ocean instead (with 2 bedrooms, cable, and a DVD player) We took plenty of pictures!!

Sunrise

From the car

The night we checked out at Bellow's mom had a hair appointment at the NEX. It took awhile but the girl did really well. I went and bought a book on all the places in the U.S. that we could stay on military property. You can save a lot of money by staying at these places. In fact, when we go to Disneyworld next summer we will probably stay at Shades of Green. It is a military resort on Disney property. I'm really excited about it, but we can't plan it yet because we don't know when he will get R&R. We don't even know when he is deploying for sure yet so we really don't know when he will get his 2 week rest and relaxation. Anyway, we got mom's hair done and then went to Dixie Grill and ate. I have talked about Dixie Grill before because it is a country type setting. It is country/beachy. We sat on the deck and had fun!!

On the wall in the women's restroom
This guy might scare you when you walk in the door! It scared Aunt Rachel when she went here and grandma and mom were expecting it but it still was funny! It scared me the first time and second. You feel like you walked into the men's room accidentally.
We stopped by Hanuama Bay when we were headed home from Bellow's to take some pics. It is the mouth of a volcano! People snorkel there.
Another shot of Bellow's on our trip.

Update to Our Stay at Bellow's

Hey! Just wanted to let ya'll know that we extended our stay one extra night here at Bellow's. So we are checking out Friday morning instead of tomorrow! I logged on at the Lobby to let everyone know since I promised a post on Thursday night. Its beautiful here so luckily they had an opening for an extra night and we took it. I'll have pics on Friday night posted, the moon is full and it is so pretty at night! It has been clear so we are lucky. Thats all for now, we are headed to the beach!!

Slight Change of Plans

Well we didn't make it to Dave and Buster's tonight. We decided to go next Monday because we were going to get ready to go to Bellow's and clean out the car. It had gotten pretty sandy so I cleaned it really well. Mom (who wasn't interested in taking pictures until it was time to clean the car) took these pics from the little car vaccum place on post :). No matter where you go there is a beautiful view really! Anyway, I don't expect mom to help me but I thought it was funny, of all times for her to get behind the camera...



My hair had gotten so long, Grandma cut 2 inches off of my hair before she left and it's still pretty long.

I'm catching up finally!!

I Love Hawaii!!

Monday, September 24th

I called Bellow's Air Force Station today to see if they had any openings for a cabin this week. They did so we are staying at Bellow's tomorrow night and wednesday night..yay!! Mom loves Bellow's too so we are excited. It will be 2 days without posting but I will take plenty of pictures and update on Thursday night when we get home. Now today we are going to pack and get ready to go. Tonight we are going to Dave and Buster's for dinner, because the Happy Hour is great there. The appetizers are half off, half off drinks, and they give you free credits to play upstairs with. There isn't a Dave and Buster's in Arkansas but I hope we get one. Its like a big kid Chuck E. Cheese only with much better food. Here is the link to the website:
http://www.daveandbusters.com/

Sunday, September 23rd


We got up early and went to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. We were there for around 3 hours and we made it all the way around the stadium!! We stopped for Shaved Ice about half way. We found tons of stuff and were soo exhausted by the time we got to the car because that place is so huge!! Mom was being hilarious.

Here is the link to the Swap Meet website:
http://www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net/
Next we went to the NEX (Navy Exchange) to get a shelf for mine and Jeremy's room. I have so much stuff and so does he, so I bought a cheap rubbermaid type shelf to put together and stand in our room. It looks so much better now though, very organized! I feel much better. I had a problem with the shelf though, because one level was red and for some reason the red was rubbing off everywhere! I had to take it outside and clean it like 5 times. It was a mess but its taken care of now!

The NEX was out of hangers so I drug mom to Wal-Mart to get hangers...she stayed in the car. I came out with Caramel Frappucinos trying to wake her up. Wal-Mart is starting to have coffee shops in them out here and that is not good for me!! I already feel addicted to Starbucks and their drinks at Wal-Mart were just as good. Anyway, in Hawaii there are rainbows almost everyday. The one we saw while we were leaving Wal-Mart was so bright and huge! It was a full arch too but we couldn't get it all in the camera.

We got home and started straightening up the house then went to bed pretty early. It was easy to sleep because that was a long day.

Saturday, September 22nd

We went to the Pearl Ridge Mall to eat dinner and shop around. I found a deal on some shorts at Macy's and that was about all we bought. I was excited about the shorts because the tag said $6.99 already 75% off and I was happy with that price. After tax at the register I paid $4 for them. Crazy! Thats cheaper than lunch! I felt good about only spending $4 at Macy's :). Hawaii state taxes are only 4.25%. Come on Arkansas why are ours so high? Anyway, Jeremy called me and I talked to him for awhile. He had to hide to call me so we didn't talk very long. They are supposed to be able to use their cell phones again starting on Friday the 28th. He is so ready to come home STILL. Since I've had family out here with me it made things much easier for me. I feel bad for him but I'm glad he'll be home in around 10 days. Then we want time to drag by slowly because he is still scheduled to deploy in Mid-December. They found out they're going to be in Northern Iraq. Anyway, we are still planning on being in Arkansas from November 2nd to the 18th. After Pearl Ridge I took mom to a Wal-Mart that she had never seen in Hawaii. We were just killing time plus I wanted some headache medicine (which we forgot haha!!). You know how Wal-Mart is, you get distracted and leave with stuff you didn't plan on buying. When we got home, my friend the cat was here to see us. He (or she) is so sweet! We let him in to see if he could catch the mouse that got in but he freaked out when mom closed the sliding door. I think he felt like we were cat napping him or something. He started meowing and stuff (I swear it was like he was crying because she shut the door). He liked being inside as along as the door was open so he could get out. He never found the mouse because it scared mom this morning haha!! I will try to set the mouse trap again tonight but it just grosses me out! I think he is cute too but I don't want him inside. He got the cheese off the last trap I set and it didn't catch him. I was kind of relieved! Anyway, here are some pics of the neighbor cat that we like.

Friday, September 21st

We went to the North Shore and got Shaved Ice and then went to the beach just to see it. We didn't really feel like swimming. There were signs up at the beach that said strong current and no swimming. I have never seen the no swimming sign before so that was strange to see. The waves were awesome! There were so many people surfing too it was really neat to see. The waves were coming up so high that it was totally changing the look of the North Shore beach. This is the beach that grandma, aunt rachel and I went to the most because it was the one they liked. Anyway, the water was coming up so high that it was leaving a little pond on the flat part of the beach. I didn't get many pics because my batteries died.

You can't really tell in this one but the water is up very high compared to usual.

We came home after this and watched movies. We didn't really want to go anywhere because on Friday nights most places we wanted to go were busy and so we just had some down time.

Well, I hope this caught everyone up on what we have been up to. I was behind and I'm sorry!!

Swimming in the Rain

Needless to say we slept in today and didn't get in a rush to go anywhere. First we went to the North Shore and swam while the sunset. A huge rainbow formed over the trees that we could see from the ocean where we were swimming. Then it started raining on us so hard! We stayed in and swam it was a lot of fun. Our stuff on the shore got pretty wet but no big deal. We came home after swimming for a couple of hours and took showers and went to eat at Zippy's. Zippys's wasn't that good. It is a Hawaii restaurant and it's just plain weird! The plates come with rice and macaroni salad and cabbage and different chicken and all kinds of other stuff. There is a plate there that has a hamburger patty on top of rice with gravy and then they put runny eggs on top. I just can't explain how weird that place is. Anyway, after that we had to go to Wal-Mart and we took our time since we had nowhere to be! We were there 3 hours seriously! It was just fine though. Mom thought it was funny to scare the heck outta me with the Halloween masks when I wasn't expecting it. We got home tonight and watched some DVR and now mom just went to bed and I'm on my way. I wanted to add that the other day at the luau I won a dolphin adventure!!!!!! I am so excited I get to swim with the dolphins I can't wait! I don't think I mentioned that already but yeah I love dolphins they are so cute!! I feel so lucky to get to meet them in person :) Sorry no pics today!

Busy Day!

Well, Today was nice. I slept in until like 1:00 p.m. of course, but I did talk to grandma this morning when they landed in Little Rock! I answered the phone and talked to her in and then crashed again. Mom was up pretty early but she stayed busy taking care of business online. We got ready and went to the International Market. Mom got tons of stuff there :). She got a bag, towel, shirts, and a lot more. Of course, since the International Market is right across the street from The Cheesecake Factory we went there for dinner. We shared the Chicken Costaletta and the Avocado Eggrolls. SO yum!! We just got home a little bit ago. It was so sad last night when we had to take gma and aunt rachel to the airport! I had to move the car soon after we let them out so we drove all the way around and came back up to where we dropped them off to make sure they found their way in. They weren't there so we knew they made it. Earlier on yesterday they wanted to take one last trip to the Dole Plantation for the Doel Whip Ice cream. We took our time all day because they didn't have to be at the airport until 7ish. We drove through the mountain on a little path called KoleKole Pass. It cuts through from Schofield Barracks to the west side of the island. Its a beautiful view and I wanted them to see it before they left. From there we went to Dole and then home to get ready and wait for time to leave :(. Anyway, after we took them to the airport we went and parked and watched them take off! After that I took mom driving downtown and showed her downtown Waikiki and Honolulu. We got Taco Bell and headed to the house! Here are some pictures from tonight and from yesterday before they left.


At the International Market tonight

Our fun before Grandma and Aunt Rachel Leave

First of all, I'm sorry its been so long since I last posted! The doctor gave me Ambien and I don't think its worth it because it makes me verrry dizzy and nauseous! I'll probably take it as a last resort. She said she sees around 4-10 women a day with the same problem I have, so that made me feel better. After going to the doctor we went out to Bellows Air Force Station (where we stayed last week) and bought our tickets to the luau. The are around $30 cheaper a person if you buy them there, so it was worth it for us to drive out there. We swam for like, 10 minutes but the waves were a little crazy so we left. On our way to D&B we stopped at Sandy Beach to watch the waves there. They call it Sandy Beach because the waves are so big you can't help but roll around on the opcean floor and get sandy. There is always sand stirred up where you play in the water there too.
This is Sandy Beach.

There is also a hang gliding strip next to Sandy Beach and you can see the guys coming down from up on the mountain. I only got a picture of the sign :)

After walking around and taking pistures we didn't get too sandy so we went to dinner at Dave and Buster's in Honolulu. We liked it a lot. I got a drink there called Candy Shop and it is one of my new favorite drinks! Anyway, we went upstairs and played some games after dinner. We really loved the interactive horse racing game. I really don't know the best way to explain, but you roll some pool ball sized balls into holes and there are certain levels ( walk, trot, run) and whoever gets to the finish line first wins! We played several times then came home! I talked to Jeremy on the way and he was about the same! Ready to come home.

This pic is outside D&B.


Friday September 14th

Mom got here today, this is the picture of her coming through the doors to meet us at the baggage claim.

Before we went to the airport, we went to the Nave Exchange and had supper. We also shopped around there. They have everything from Bath and Body Works to Victoria's Secret Stuff to Tommy Bahama. Also theres tons of restaurants there. These picture are the sunset from the parking lot.
On Saturday, September 15th
We went to Waimea Valley. You may remember that we went there last week. This time we brought mom! Gma and Aunt Rach were wanting to go there again before they left and Saturday was the best day for it. The walk there seemed to take forever but the walk back took no time! Here are some pics from our time at Waimea Valley
On the way in :) Taking a break on the way out
A tree with cool flowers

Mom after eating the Hawaiian Berry Ice





On Sunday, September 16th
We got up and went to The Buddhist Temple to look around. Its a major tourist attraction in Hawaii.






After the temple we went to Sealife Park. It was a lot of fun. They had a luau that started at 5 and everyone loved it. We saw shows and they served dinner. When we got there, they gave us free all you can drink Mai Tais. Then we had programs until 9:00 last night. We tried all kinds of local foods there and then mom drove home (I think they thought I had too much too drink but I really had not) Here are some pics!










Tonight we are going to eat then we are taking grandma and aunt rachel to the airport. So sad!! Their flight leaves at 8:45 tonight.