Makapuu Lighthouse

My parents, brother, and sister-in-law arrived in Honolulu about 10 days into our trip.  Most of the steps of the boys' citizenship process had already been completed, so we were free to play, play, play as we waited for their expedited US passports to be processed.

We celebrated Christmas a little early with the gifts my family brought.  My parents had found Hawaii outfits for the boys when they were in Maui, so Micah rocked out surfboards and Sam hibiscus blossoms for the next week.  My brother & sis-in-law had two amazing, hand-made quilts made for the boys.  The fabric used for the backing actually came from a women's relief organization in Mali.  Such a thoughtful & beautiful gift that I haven't had the heart to let the boys sleep with them and inevitably pee on them.

But as immaculate as the quilts were, the boxes and wrapping paper still trumped as most fun.  

Our first family outing was a hike up to the Makapuu lighthouse.  My dad is a haas and carried Micah in the Ergo during part of the hike (the uphill part, I'd like to add!) so that pregnant me didn't have to.  What a dad!

Once we reached the top, the view certainly didn't disappoint.

Then we set off back down again.  Apparently, there was a spectacular sunset, but my mom & I were too busy gabbing to notice!

Next on the agenda o' fun, the Peek/Corbin clan attempts to visit the North Shore.

An Unexpected Hangout

What we assumed would be tropical time solely with family ended up having an unexpected and much welcome interruption.  Our good friends from our church in Louisville, Ryan & Tara Beth Townsend, happened to be in Honolulu the same week as us for a conference.  We most happily took them up on their offer when they invited us for lunch and swimming at the swanky Sheraton Waikiki.

We had a fabulously yummy lunch at the Sheraton's beachside restaurant (anything involving turkey & avocado are always a winner in my book) and were blessed by such encouraging conversation.  I'm afraid that it's often the case that some people don't really know how to engage or ask questions about our life overseas, so they resort to not asking anything at all or asking superficial questions.  Not so with these dear friends.  They asked good questions about our daily life, how we handle the constant transition of our life, and how we would advise others who are looking to begin a life overseas.  But not only did they ask good questions, but they listened well.  Such an encouragement!  

I imagine that our mini-men were not as entertained by the conversation as we were, but there was plenty of fun in store for them in the pool later on.  Remember what I said about our boys loving all things beach?  Let me revise my statement by just saying they love all things water.  It's a fearless love.  A scary, fearless love (for this mama at least).

Should I be worried when my one-year old plunges his face into the water repeatedly?  And has now adapted these same behaviors to bath time as well?  Hmmm...

But there were plenty of hands on deck to circumvent an attempted drownings and to put lots of smiles on these little faces that I love.

We ended the afternoon with a legendary Dole Whip (pineapple flavored soft-serve) and left an encouraged, sunburned, happy Peek posse.

A Rite of Passage

Events of today force me to interrupt the Hawaii series to report an important rite of passage for our Micah: his first hair cut.

I've been putting it off and putting it off for months now.  I had a myriad of excuses: 

But I love those curls!  

I don't know how to cut Ethiopian hair (and surely no Chinese barber does either!).  

Our clippers are broken. 

But then what I just passed off as morning bedhead (which, I will admit, usually lasted the entire day because attempting to tame the mass just ended up with a crying little boy), started casting frightening shadows on the wall...

Then I started not being able to tell the difference between the shadow and his real, live hair...

I finally ran out of excuses when I heard that my friend Rachel gave her son his first hair cut with safety scissors.  So I grabbed the closest pair of scissors, put on an Elmo podcast in an attempt to channel his two-year old energy, and started cutting.  No strategy, no vision, no rhyme or reason...just started cutting.

I can personally attest that curly hair is very forgiving (and concealing) of chop-job haircuts, so when I was done, the boy before me was still pretty darn cute.

This face either means "What have you done to my head?" or "I'd rather be watching more Elmo than looking at you with that camera pointed in my face again."  I'd also like to point out the traces of breakfast left on his chin.  Because, let's be honest, when you're chasing two babies and incubating another, sometimes chins don't get wiped as they should.

Watch out, little man!  You're next and that Mr. T mohawk we know & love will be no more!

Nana & Grandpa

And what would three weeks in Hawaii be without grandparents?  Well, it would still be a lot of really great things but grandparents make it greater.  Kevin parents flew from Texas (first class no less!) for a visit, and we loved every second of it.  Considering that our boys are grandkid #9 and #10 for Anne & Ron, they've got the grandparent thing pretty much down to a science.

We visited a lookout with a blow hole rock.  When a big wave came, it shot up through the rock.  

Micah was less that overwhelmed. He was more content to be held by Nana and watch the flocks of Asian tourists go by.  I guess all the dark hair and cameras made him feel at home.

Then we hit up Sea Life park, which was more or less Hawaiian Sea World.  I figured it would be a hit with Micah since he loves, loves, loves fish.  My theory proved correct.

On the other hand, Wee Sam (though after carrying him for hours, I wouldn't necessarily ascribe to him the word "wee"), took himself a nice nap in the Ergo.  At least the majority of us were awake for one of our few family pictures.

But the highlight of our time with Nana & Grandpa was the way cool beachfront condo they rented.  We were no more than 6 steps from the beach.  A very uncrowded beach, I might add.

The question with kids on a beach trip, I've learned, is how they'll respond.  Will they be freaked out by sand?  Or will the eat it to their heart's content?  Will they cry at the mere sight of a wave?  Or fearlessly throw themselves into the ocean?  It turns out that our kids fall in the latter category and couldn't get enough of all things beach.  Including exploring the culinary qualities of sand.

So many thanks to Anne/Nana & Ron/Grandpa for making the trip and loving on our boys (and us!) so skillfully.  Looking forward to more of it next year!

Hawaii Life

Three weeks is a long time to be away from home.  But when you've got family to hang out with, US citizenship to apply for, and the cereal aisle to haunt, it's not too difficult to whittle away your time.  A stay that long was really only possible because of an amazing deal we were able to find on a house in Honolulu.  A local church in the area had a house available for us to rent for just $100 a week.  So for the bargain price of $375 (we threw in a little extra in the end to make up for the blinds the boys tore down and our love affair with the air conditioner), we had a place where we could build lots of fun family memories:

• Sam learned to fo-real crawl in that house.  No more army crawl for my little guy!  When he wasn't crawling, he was working on pulling up.

• We shared the house with my parents, brother & sis-in-law when they came to visit.  Mark & Valerie cooked fancy dinners for us almost every night, which eliminated a lot of stress from my life in having to take the babies to a restaurant.  They went to bed, we ate, and then I promptly fell asleep on the couch (that's the biggest downside of being in your first trimester when you haven't seen your family in a year and a half!).

• Football every Saturday!  It's been a while since we've gotten to enjoy that, even if it means watching our Aggies lose.

• We shared a room with the boys while my family was staying with us.  One morning, Sam woke up first and was serenading us with his typical morning songs & coos.  Micah, who apparently was not ready to be awake, yelled from his crib, "No!  Hush!"  Who in the world could he have picked that up from...?

• I will whole-heartedly say that having a backyard is an amazing thing.  Since both of our boys are water babies to the core, we stripped them down to their diapers and let them play in buckets of water on the porch.  And we didn't even have to worry about them drinking it the way we do in China!

• Speaking of our backyard porch, there were these cute tropical birds with red beaks that would perch on our porch railing.  I think there might have even been a nest inside the wall of the house.  Micah & Kevin enjoyed sitting out there in the mornings, Kevin drinking coffee and Micah bird-watching. 

• We were walking distance from a park, a public swimming pool, Wal-mart, the boys' pediatrician, and a bus stop that could get us everywhere else.  The weather was a welcome treat as we walked to all those places several times a week.

• While we were busy, we still had plenty of down time for the important things in life like naps & Sesame Street.

And She's Back In the Game!

I'm back and quite glad to be!  The blog atrophy can be attributed to three things:

• Our internet had issues, and I couldn't access blogger.  But that's fixed now (obviously).
• I was on vacation in Hawaii!  More blogs to follow with fun pictures of beach babies & grandparents.
• I went to sleep for three months and just recently woke up.  What excuse can I give for my prolonged sleepy state?  Well, it turns out that around May 18th, our family will graduate from two kiddos to three. Crazy times, right?  We will have gone from zero kids to three kids in 11 months, and at that point, our oldest will be a mere two and a half.  Even crazier times, right?  But Father's plan is perfect & wise, and we are so very thankful (though a bit overwhelmed!) at this blessing.

So stick around for more blogs about all things Hawaii and all things pregnancy.