Hello friends! I hope you haven’t forgot me in my long absence. I apologize. I got caught up with the end of the school year and then bam, right into my family summer vacation. But now I am back and preparing to head out of town for the holiday weekend. I now know I prefer space between vacations and weekend escapes. I usually need a week to recover from vacations and a few days to recover from weekend escapes. My mind has a hard time turning back to routine. Oh and one last vent (that’s what I’m doing right?), we are having our home painted and repaired and the contractor arrived the day after we arrived back from our vacation. They arrive each day at 7:30am and leave around 4. AAAAAgggg!!!! That limbo state kinda stinks but I know it will be worth it in the end.
On the positive side, the rain took care of my lawn and garden while I was away so everything looks fantastic. I think I only lost one plant. The photos above are from my garden yesterday. I will share some vacation photos in my next post. But I wanted to pop in and make sure you didn’t forget me. I hope you are having a lovely summer!
Belinda
Hello Everyone! Wow, it’s been a long while since I have written a Happy Monday post. I didn’t plan on stopping my blogging but I had decided to take the summer and enjoy my family so I think crafting and blogging took a back seat.
This next set of photos are of our visit to Pearl Harbor, a sneaky date night Leao and I had, beach time, and taking photos on the property of the house we rented. They had amazing trees, flowers, and even a mini putting green! The boys got a lesson from our family on how to make a yummy Hawaiian dessert. I had one of the yummy finished products.
I took so many pictures while we drove around of the mountains and trees so I had to include at least one in this grouping. We had a family bowling night and I have to say I am pretty convinced that my Hawaiian family is in a league because they sort of wiped the floor with us! Beach time and books were a priority, of course, being the book nerd. The last two photos are of a few of us out for sunrise photos.
Each day we made dinner together and on one night our Hawaiian peeps made us some traditional Hawaiian food. It was so much fun to try the dishes and hear stories about some of them. I decided that I wanted to pack more educational activities into this trip since past trips we spent a lot of time on the beach. So we took a trip to Iolani Palace. It was extraordinary and I was glad to be able to take my boys to see this place and learn about the history of how the US. overthrew and took control of this country. It’s not talked about when you hear about Hawaii. Most often you only hear or read about Pearl Harbor but these magnificent islands were self-governed prior to that tragedy. So I included a few photos inside and outside of the palace. 
This last grouping is beach scenes, Pearl Harbor, family hanging out at the house, visiting Hanauma Bay and cousins hanging out at the pool.