No sun today, thank you!

We woke up quite crispy today so decided to stay away from the beach. The school Lisa works at had a festival going on in Waimanalo so we headed that way. They had live music, keiki (children) hula, smoothies and jumping blow up toys for the kids. Ellie got her face painted with a unicorn and some hearts.

We also saw a horse with an aloha shirt on that Ellie had to have her picture taken with!


We then did a drive around the east and south part of the island. We've done this many times before but it's always stunningly breathtaking. It was bright blue skies and clear blue water.

Here is Ellie and Owen near Makapu'u Beach:





We drove through the Portlock area, which was first for us, looking for Dog the Bounty Hunter's house, but no luck. Made a stop at the Holano Blow Hole, but it was not blowing today.

This is Sandy Beach on the left. Great for boogie boarding, not so much for swimming. This is where President Obama hung out while campaigning here. He's a trooper!


The "From Here to Eternity Beach"


We went on to The Kahala Hotel, one of the fanciest places to stay on the island. Lisa says most celebrities that come to Hawaii stay here. I thought I saw Lorenzo Lamas by the pool but it couldn't be confirmed! They have dolphins and a pool with colorful fish, turtles and a manta ray!



Went to a new restaurant on Waikiki for lunch, Jimmy Buffet's at the Beachcomber. It was awesome inside and had really great food too!




Ellie did some hula hooping while there and Owen and Jeff had some fun too.












Checked out the surfing museum next door and the Gillis-Davis family did some space surfing!










Ellie decided to spend some of her money and opened an oyster to find a beatiful white pearl inside. Lisa and Jeff got a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory to take home for later and we checked out the newly renovated Royal Hawaiian (that's the totally pink hotel, one of the first on Waikiki). So, the beach of the day is: Waikiki

Kailua Beach

The first beach of the trip was Kailua. This is actually the beach that Tim and I got married on but our beach house was clear on the other side of the bay. It's not a snorkeling beach and doesn't have many waves, perfect setting for getting used to the ocean again.

Ellie and I headed out first thing and arrived about 9:30. Lisa, Jeff and Owen had to go and get Owen a passport. They met up with us later and we enjoyed several hours of sun and surf.



Ellie met another little girl her age and was thrilled to have a playmate. They spent lots of time building castles, dams and writing in the sand. When not playing with Brenna, Ellie's new cousin Owen is such a great source of entertainment. He's so cute and such a good baby. Very easy to take anywhere!

Went to lunch at Maui Taco for $5 burritos and headed home. Spent some nature time in their backyard chasing chameleons and then a nice dinner of grilled chicken and vegetables. It was another early night.

Ellie LOVES Daddy

Daddy I miss you very much! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! I love you SO much! You are going to be amazed on all I'm going to tell you.

The Toothfairy knew that I lost my tooth at the beach. Today we are going to a festival for kids.

You are the GREATEST DADDY EVER! When we go to San Francisco, I will be so happy to see you! I am thinking about you all the time. If you were here, you would love it so much.

Love,

Ellie

P.S. You're the greatest daddy ever!

How much longer?

We survived our flight...with just a minor mishap. Since you have to now pay for any luggage you take, Ellie and I thought we would combine our clothes into one big suitcase (thanks MOM!) and each take a smaller case as our carry on. When we went to board our flight, they asked us to valet our luggage as it was too big to fit on the smaller hopper from Moline to Dallas. We went ahead and gave them one bag but asked to keep the other as all of Ellie's electronics were in there. They agreed and the bag fit fine under our seat.

We had several hours to kill in Dallas. We had Mexican food, rode the huge escalators up and down a few times and even rode the tram ALL the way around the 4 terminals. Finally it was almost time to board and what did I JUST remember? That we hadn't picked up our suitcase from the valet when we got off the first flight! Holy Moly, we had to take the tram back to our original gate and were panicked we wouldn't find that suitcase. It had ALL of Ellie's clothes in it! It was there fortunately and our Honolulu flight had been slightly delayed so all was good.



The flight was 8 hours and 15 minutes from Dallas and not too eventful. We took lots of snacks, movies and books. They showed the movie "He's Just Not that In To You" and "Horton Hears a Who". I heard lots of, "Are we there yet" and "How much longer" but it was bareable!

Lisa greeted us at the airport with some beautiful leis made from the Puakinikini flower and we made our way to their wonderful new home in Kaneohe. The drive is always enlightening and puts us in a tropical mood. Green lush mountains, with a low hanging mist on the taller peaks. Lots of wild flowers and trees along the highway in all colors; pink, orange, yellow and white.



Their new home is set up SO nice, the perfect amount of space for their small family. We even have our own room! It has an AMAZING outdoor space with a two level deck and is surrounded by tropical plants and trees. There is even a mango, banana, coconut and plumeria tree!



We had some tacos for supper and a pina colada or two before falling asleep pretty early. Tomorrow's biggest challenge? Which beach to hang out on!

All of these pictures are from Lisa and Jeff's gorgeous yard!

Last Day of School!

This is it! I have just a few more items to finish up here at work and Ellie is working on her last day of first grade. I got a wonderful email from her teacher this morning that said she is so sad as Ellie is such a good student and a fun girl. She said she will really miss her.

We leave for Davenport this evening to stay with my sister Michelle and her husband Kirk. Our flight leaves at 6:30 tomorrow morning from the Moline aiport and arrives in Honolulu at 2:30 pm. I can't wait to see Paradise again and put my toes in the sand and my body in the ocean!

Reminder to all, Hawaii is 5 hours BEHIND you so feel free to call me when it's late at night at home!

Aloha!

I'm super new to this!

Hello all!

The Patterson family is off on another adventure and I hoped to share it with you along the way. Ellie and I are heading to Hawaii again for 19 days and then meeting up with Tim in San Francisco! We have some exciting things we're doing that we'd like to share now and we would like to keep you updated as we have time...so here we go!

Ellie. Lisa, Jeff, Owen and I are heading to Kauai for 3 nights and 4 days. I've never been to this seemingly gorgeous island and I'm super excited! We just pinned down our beach house the other day and I wanted to share some pictures. The website has been down the last few days but keep checking!

http://www.lauralani.com/

In the meantime...

Our house




The Yard


The beach in front of our house

ALOHA!