Monday, November 13, 2017

Aloha: It's All about the Water


Did you know it’s possible to swim until you sleep? Well, it is! And Katura nearly did it twice today!

Our breakfast view - and what became "Our" table!
I seriously loved this!!
This morning I had us up early (again without an alarm. I guess part of me is still on Oregon time.) because there was something on the schedule just for Katura! Did I mention every night get get the Daily Iwa, the schedule for the following day’s activities? The must-do event was Open House at Aunty’s Beach House! Aunty’s is normally for children 3+, but from 8-9:30 we were allowed to go with Katura to check things out.

First we had a yummy breakfast from the Ulu Cafe. Seating was full which meant we had an excuse to snag a great table up by the Poolside Bar, with views overlooking the ocean and pools. Just after 8 we left and went to Aunty’s, leaving our half full box of malasadas in the stroller. (Malasadas are shown to your right.)  Remember that.


At Aunty’s we all had to get our hands sanitized to help prevent any major germs from spreading. We parked the stroller in the back yard and began the fun! The backyard was fake grass and three play structures. Katura first was enamored with a ball and a hula hoop. Then she was busy climbing, sometimes with the back and hula hoop. More kids started appearing and she was quickly making friends. There was one little boy in particular that she liked to play with the most. Remember him.

And now I'll flood you with photos. This is only a microscopic about of photos from that morning. You're welcome.




She's a rule breaker. This structure is for
keiki 5 and older. She's not that old yet.
You can't tell her no!
See that boy? That's the one I told you to remember!
I heard a lot of music inside the Beach House so we convinced her to come inside and see what was happening. The inside was so cool! Many different rooms for a variety of activities. Arts and crafts, movies and TV, games, costumes. Katura was happy to be Tinker Bell for a little while and also kept busy in the kitchen!

So many dresses for the girls. Boys had costumes, too!

She cooked us breakfast. And clearly we need a kitchen set now.


She wanted to be Tinker Bell!


Disney Junior was on.
I tried.
In the arts and crafts room she and her dad made a bracelet and they did some coloring. For a brief moment she did go join the dance party happening by the fireplace. It was all ridiculously cute! Sadly the fun had to come to an end. I even saw a boy crying because he had to leave. I was nearly crying when I went to grab our stroller and found our box of malasadas open and empty. Someone took our snacks! Was it an adult? A child? A mongoose? (There is at least one mongoose in the area, Shawn saw one multiple times!)


Back in our room we quickly changed into swim attire and grabbed the waterproof camera, GoPro and snorkel equipment. We were ready to hit the water!!

Shawn dropped us off at Keiki Cove and proceeded to go to Paradise Cove to snorkel with sea turtles!

Katura and I had a mother-daughter day. First we did the splash pad to get back in the swing of things.

We didn’t stay all that long before we went over to Ka Maka Grotto. This was a family pool with one of those cool infinity edges overlooking the ocean. She and I loved it! The water was nice and warm, and deep enough for me to walk around but not have to actually swim or crouch down. While in this pool Katura kept trying to get me to let go of her, so I figured this was a good time to go back to our chairs and grab her life jacket.



Our next stop was unplanned but ended up being a total blast! It was the Menehune Bridge, a place only for children UNDER a certain height. As her mom I was allowed to go with her. Water features galore! Bridges, slides, stairs, water coming up, down and from I don’t even know where!! We covered every inch of the place. Up the stairs. Down the stairs. On all of the bridges. Under the bridges. It really is quite huge - and VERY wet!! There are two slides, both of which we only watched the slightly bigger kids going down. The Turtle didn’t ever want to leave but I was able to convince her to go in the lazy river again.



A dad was nice and held a floaty steady for me so Katura and I could get settled, then gave us a good push into the river. That lasted maybe 2 minutes?? Katura wanted IN the water. The two of us ended up floating the entire Waikolohe Stream two times without any floaty toys. She had so much fun, especially when we saw Minnie Mouse!


I decided we shouldn’t ignore the beach, so we made our way down to Aulani’s cove next. They were setting up a bunch of staging for some big event (Hawaii Food & Wine Fest), so that was a little strange. But that didn’t hinder us from going straight out into the water together. It was perfect! No big waves thanks to a jetty keeping the water very calm. Katura had fun but wanted to get to the sand, so I of course obliged. We didn’t play all that long. It is nice and soft but maybe lacked some of the fun of her Hake Koa sand. Her toys were in the room so maybe that is why it was easy for me to get her to leave. The sand was so hot, and my feet were burning, hence my desire to leave quickly.


We rinsed off our sand before getting in the Waikolohe pool. This was really neat in that it is a zero entry pool, and enormous. Our exploration was cut short when suddenly Katura wanted to hug me. I could tell she was tired.
That is the face of a happy, tired baby!
Before we made it back to our room she was snoring! It wasn’t even thirty minutes later and Shawn was back from his adventures and we were all 3 hanging out deciding what to do.


 We opted to do the Menehune Adventure Trail, otherwise known as a scavenger hunt. On our way to check out the tablet for the hunt we saw Stitch and Duffy. They were busy so we just clicked photos as we passed, but Stitch did stop and play with Katura a little! What a surprise we had when we were going into the Community Hall and there was Pluto! Katura got to play with her old friend again, but was surprisingly shy compared to her Disneyland trip in May. Still it was adorable and she was so giddy!


The Menehune thing was basically just in the lobby floor area, and pretty much pointless. Don’t bother doing it. I heard there was an outdoor one that sounded like more fun but I guess it wasn’t an option when we checked out our tablet.

Next was lunch. Food here sucks for vegetarians. I got brown rice. Blah. Whatever. After lunch I slipped away to do some shopping and get souvenirs for myself and a couple toys for my Turtle.

Feeling the chill of the Menehune Bridge water spraying everywhere!

Then we went back to the pool, this time all 3 of us together. Katura took her dad to the Menehune Bridge and I had a good time laughing at his reaction to his wet you get as soon as you entire. Our little baby surprised us... and she went down the big kids water slide all by herself!!



Back to the lazy river we went. I love it!

Then the infinity pool where we did more Humpty Dumpty! We had done it earlier, too, and she was really getting into it. We leaned the Humpty Dumpty sat on a walk thing in swim class, but now she says "Umpy Dumpy" when she wants to do it. She’s growing up!

We finished our pool time in the big zero entry pool again. That thing is so big and apparently there is even a slide that empties into the cave area of the pool. As we were starting to leave we ran into the boy from Aunty’s for maybe the 5th or 6th time today. His name is Bear. They started playing together in the pool while all of us parents talked. And then our baby girl shocked us again! Being a zero entry pool, she was able to just keep walking right down into it like at the beach, without any stairs. She had no fear and kept going until her little feet stopped touching. Then she’d turn and walk back out. Over and over she did this. Sometimes she’s fall and manage to get herself together and get back up without our help. I was a proud mom. You could see her water confidence growing every time!

While I was busy watching Katura and Bear, Shawn was having his own experience. First off, Bear was in normal diapers, not swim diapers. So that jumped out at me as a mom since there are signs all over about requiring swim diapers. But then he wasn't in anything! Just naked little boy running around. He's a few months younger than Katura if I remember correctly. And he's still on the boob. How do we know this? Because while Shawn was talking to his mom (whose name we have forgotten) she whipped out a booby and started feeding him. Totally fine, but it did catch Shawn off guard a little bit to just suddenly see boob mid-conversation. Obviously he's used to it. I mean he lived with me and has kids. We ended up seeing her again the next day - and still we just call her Milky, since we can't remember her real name but we remember her desire to never wear a bra. We notice everything, okay?

The night wrapped up quickly after that. We finished our pizza from last night (the Ulu Cafe has a microwave so we didn't have to eat it cold) and basically crawled in bed. Katura was out by 7:30, which is when Aladdin was starting out on the lawn. Milky and Bear were going to see it, so the plan was to meet them there. We missed the movie, but clearly she was worn out!

I expect tomorrow to be nearly the same as today, and I hope it is!




~ ALOHA ~
°o°

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