Looking back, the time my parents were here was more like a staycation for me than a vacation for them. They helped out around the house with everything, and I do mean everything. They helped with laundry, dishes, cooking, mowing the yard, and taking care of the kids just to name a few things. It was so nice to have the help and get a little break from everything. Don't get me wrong, I still did some of it too, but not near as much as I have to do on a daily basis when it's just me and the kids. It was great waking up to my dad already having the coffee ready too. I won't lie, I probably took advantage of it a little bit. They know how thankful I am for everything they do for us though. God certainly blessed me with the greatest parents.
I'm not really even sure where to start with everything we did while they were here. I won't bore you with all the details, just the highlights for us. My mom had been walking at home in order to prepare for hiking. Her goal was to make it to the top of Diamond Head. With that goal accomplished, we also hiked to Kaena Point to see the sea lions and to the top of Pu'ukea. I think that's the name of it. My mind is drawing a blank right now. We got plenty of exercise while they were here. I can't remember but maybe 4 days total where we didn't go anywhere. Pretty much every day we found something to do. The kids each took a turn going to breakfast with Grandpa. I took my mom to lunch one day and my dad to dinner on another day. We drove around looking at Christmas lights. We went to Honolulu Hale to see the lights and to get our pictures taken with Santa. We took the tour of lights at Pearl Harbor. We went to Waikiki a few times. Of course we ate out several times and we did not have a shortage of ice cream going into our bodies.
I forgot to mention that while Trint was still home and my parents were here, Shay and Syd had performances we got to enjoy. Shay had a Hula performance and Syd was in a theater and chorus performance. They both did great and were fun to watch. Daddy actually got to participate in the theater performance too. He played a soldier along with three other dads. All they did was walk up on the stage in uniform and stand there, but Syd was so excited to have daddy there. At the end of Shay's Hula, they had the parents come up and do the Cupid Shuffle hula style with our kids. That was interesting. I'm not one to get up in front of people, but I did it. I grabbed my husband's arm and dragged him up there with us too. I was not going alone! The day after daddy left we got to watch Tristan perform with his school band in a Christmas band concert. He's the one standing in the back with drum sticks. It was several schools combined and made for a long evening, but they all did a wonderful job and afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream!
January came all too fast, and it was time, once again, to head back to the airport for yet another goodbye. Okay so maybe for the reason of my husband coming home soon, it was not too fast, but for the reason of my parents leaving, it was too fast. It's kind of a catch 22. So now that Christmas break is over and the new year has begun, things are getting back into somewhat of a routine. The kids are back in school and the girls are back in their Skies classes preparing for their next performances this spring. Now we're just waiting for daddy to come home. It won't be much longer now.
