A Tired, but Happy Grandma!

Susannah and I spent the week taking care of Carolyn's children while they went to Cancun, Mexico for a getaway. This was the first time she has left her children for any given length of time and now I understand why she needed a break! I think over the years we tend to forget how much work raising a family is. Anyone that says being a full time mother is an easy job and not much work has never had the job! Some nights Grant would be up at 4:00am and ready to play. Other nights he would cry and cry and finally have to be rocked to sleep. By the time we would get him back to sleep at 6:00am the girls would be up for the day. At least there was tw0 of us so we could tag team each other. I worked at Walgreens three of the five days that they were gone, so Susannah did the major share of the work. She was so good to go and do it without complaining. She will make a good mommy some day!

This was one night when Grant was up and wouldn't go to sleep. He tried and tried to put on the sunglasses and finally got them on...albeit upside down and over his nose instead of his eyes!

We did craft things with Juliana and Malia everyday to keep them busy. These were the sunglasses they decorated with jewels...aren't they lovely?

Every morning we would let them swim in their kiddie pool. They would spend hours out there, and usually get Grant soaked. He didn't even mind as long as they stayed out of his way and let him go down the slide! I love my grandkids! Cute, smart and way too funny!

Aloha!

We arrived in Hawaii about noon on Tuesday. It was warm outside but a little overcast and beautiful. We stayed at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on Waikiki beach. The view from our room was beautiful and you could even see the surfers in the water:
















I went to the beach in the mornings while Travis went to work. Then in the afternoons I would go shopping or just read my book and then we would go out to dinner at night when he got in from work. I know! Life is hard!

On Saturday morning we went to the swap meet at the stadium and then drove up to the north shore. We went and bought some dinner at the local grocery store and ate it on the beach as we watched the sun go down. I had fun with my new camera, and took about a hundred pictures with all of the different settings. I got a good butt shot of somebody, so I guess I need to be a little more careful when snapping the shot! Sunset Beach is one of our favorite places to sit and enjoy the sun coming down...and it didn't disappoint us!

We went to an old coffee plantation and he showed us how the cacao pods grow and how they harvest them for chocolate and then explained the coffee bean process and how it becomes coffee. I think he was pretty disappointed with me after I told him I love the smell of coffee, but I don't drink it! He just turned and walked away. Didn't get a big sale that day!

I loved the colorful pods that the chocolate comes from.


Rows and rows of coffee beans were laid in the sun to dry.

We also went to a Botanical garden in Honolulu while we were there. The trees were beautiful. One tree, called a shower tree, was covered with yellow blossoms and no leaves. Everytime the wind would blow. All of the blossoms would shower the ground. The Baobab tree was huge (note the park bench beside it).

It was a very relaxing week and much needed. I was ready to come home, because that is my favorite place to be, but our "second home" has become very familiar and a comfortable place to be! I am just glad that my husband knows all of the roads and how to get around!