Throwback Thursday

Linking up with Bonnie again this week for another round of retro memories...

www.thelifeofbon.com

I'm still digging through all those boxes underneath my desk.  The purging process has slowed considerably, though, as we ramp up for both a LATE family vacation and the start of the school year shortly after we return from Florida (more on that later...)  

In my digging, I came across a whole stack of pictures from a Hawaii vacation in 1981.  My parents LOVED to travel and we made some major trek every summer to national parks, beaches, campgrounds...always in the car, always with the Kenny Rogers cassette tapes, and always with stops along the way to various rock shops and roadside stands.  This particular summer, though, my parents decided that they needed to take their close friends on a trip to Hawaii.  These friends were from New York and had never been to Hawaii before, so what better tour guide than my mother who had grown up there and still had people there?  She conspired with her best friend, Irene, to put together the multi-island tour of a lifetime...and it was!  (If you've been reading here for awhile, you'll recognize Irene's name.  In 1981, I thought she was just my mom's best friend, just "Auntie Irene."  Later I found out that she was my BIRTH grandmother.  Read here and here for further clarification on that confusion.)

Irene and my mom took us around all the touristy sites on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii.  As many times as I had been to Hawaii with Granny for summer vacations, I had never been to the outlying islands and certainly had never done any of the touristy things, so this was a whole new experience for me.   

this is the whole group of us outside a hotel waiting for my dad to pick us up

We traveled in a giant pack of six or seven at all times, which is normal for me now, but completely unnerving for 11-year old me.  When you're used to being an only child, adding even one other kid in the backseat can be a tumultuous experience.  On one of the islands, we rented a station wagon.  My parents sat in the front seat.  Their friends sat in the back.  And their 13 year old son was my traveling companion in the rear-facing backseat with two suitcases piled in between us so we wouldn't have to look at each other.  I remember thinking on that whole vacation how nice it would have been if these friends had had a daughter instead of a son.  (ugh...I despised that kid.)

Despite suffering through the close proximity of a 13 year old boy for two weeks, I thoroughly enjoyed that vacation.  It was so fun to hear my parents talk about their island home with so much pride and delight.  Their friends LOVED the trip and were overwhelmed at the beauty of the islands and the warmth of the people they met.  

Macadamia Nut Factory, Hawaii

Fern Grotto, Kauai

Diamond Head, Oahu (it's that volcano in the background)

this is a postcard, but this is what our sinks actually looked like in the hotel...I was totally impressed

Punaluu Black Sand Beach, Hawaii

I loved looking through all these old pictures and once again got completely lost in the memories of this amazing trip.  I'm so grateful that my parents decided to take their friends on that tour and to have all those memories of the wonders and sights of Hawaii ingrained in my memory.  I love that I can claim that place as my heritage.  And we look forward to re-creating that trip for our kids in the coming summers.  

Memorial Day Drive

This morning, around 11:00, Craig and I found ourselves home alone with no children.  They were all occupied with friends and wouldn't be home for the rest of the day.  So, we snuck off for a little drive on a gorgeous spring day in Dallas.  

Craig has been dying to get out to Camp Trevor Rees Jones where his scouts will be having their annual week long scout camp next month.  He likes to survey the land and practice the drive and check out the surroundings so he knows exactly what to plan for.  

We had lunch on the way out and stopped in to check on a pair of shoes I desperately needed at Kohls.  They had my size AND they were on sale.  

Oops, I was writing about a drive wasn't I?

OK...back on track now...

Look at this beautiful scenery...and within just a couple of hours from our house.  It was just gorgeous at this camp today.  Totally quiet, no scouts yet, cool breezes, pretty wildflowers everywhere.  I found myself slightly envious of those boys who get to spend a whole week out here next month.  And then I accidentally disrupted an ant hill, started sneezing, and realized that I'm an indoor girl (who greatly appreciates the outdoors...but more from INSIDE the car.)

Seeing an alligator was one of the things on my list of stuff I wanted to do today.  

Why would anyone do that??  Did you see the mouth on that thing up there?

That whole little log was filled with turtles basking in the sun.  But these guys are super skiddish, and as we got closer they jumped off into the safety of the water.

I'm so grateful for all the beautiful things that surround us.  It's harder to find them sometimes in Dallas than it used to be in Utah, but there are plenty of them.  So glad I brought my camera today.

And here's what my mother is doing today to celebrate Memorial Day in Hawaii...this is so cool!  Every year, they have this amazing lantern festival to remember family and friends who have passed away.  They buy a lantern and write the names of all the people they want to remember on the sides of the lantern along with little love notes and messages.  

Ralph and Irene are Chris' parents (my birth grandparents.)  Irene was my adopted mom's best friend.

Krash was my mother's husband.  He died of colon cancer in 2010.

Then they take these beautiful little lanterns and set them on little floating platforms (like surfboards) and they float them in the ocean.  They've been doing this off the Ala Moana Beach in Oahu for 14 years.  Thousands of lighted memorials floating on the water.  

Doesn't this just make you ache to be in Hawaii tonight?  ...me too

I'm so grateful for all the people who have come before me to pave the way for all the opportunities I have and my children will have.  

Happy Memorial Day.  Hope you had a great weekend.  

Reminiscing

I have been happily immersed in pictures for a few weeks now...trying desperately to tag them and sort them on this computer, so people can get to the ones they need (ok...I'm really the only one who needs that, but it's a definite need and I like to organize stuff, so I'm doing it.)

Look what I found...

 this is a picture of my mom (my adopted mom, Dollie, not my birth mom, Chris...sorry it's confusing here sometimes) taken in 1969 at Honaunau National Park.  

this is me taken in January 2011 also at Honaunau.

Fun huh?