Being posted on the postpartum unit was a little curve ball. Discharge paperwork is different everywhere and of course I had to discharge one baby with out all of its paperwork done. Thank goodness the parents didn’t live too far away and were gracious to come back and finish signing a few papers (this might have been last week). My favorite patients of the whole week were my post-op GYN patients. I am glad to be away from the discharge craziness today though. Gotta love weekends.
Aloha Richardson’s Beach
With a single day off midweek we didn’t want to burn the candle at both ends, this had to be a more restful day than Monday was. Chad went grocery shopping so we were looking for a half day activity. The kids and I cleaned up the house and got everything we needed for the day together and next to the back door. Then we waited for daddy to get home. The kids headed out to play staying mostly out of the rain that is until it downpoured. Hannah found this stick with a ton of the tiniest mushrooms you have ever seen on it. 
When it started downpouring Eve just couldn’t resist playing in it. I didn’t see what she was doing until she was soaked (doesn’t take long in a downpour). She was banished to the outdoors until Chad came home or it stopped raining. I knew from experience that if I changed her before then I would be changing her again because she would head back out sided and again me lured into the beautiful rain cascading off of the roof.
In an attempt to stay local we headed to Richardson’s beach, it was raining still but the water was the same temp, and it rains most days so there probably wasn’t going to be another sunny Hilo day that lined up with my days off. So we grabbed our stuff and climed out of the dry car into the rain. Chad had said hi to a passerbyer that I hadn’t recognized, but as we were still surveying the park he started talking to someone else that I did recognize from the Easter Church service at Kurtistown park. Our neibors! We had talked to them for a while at Easter by had not seen them since. They invited us to sit with them under their canapy to stay dry from the rain. We ended up visiting and snorkeling, visiting snd snorkeling some more. It was good. The sun came out we all shared our lunch, Chad got the hammock out. Their boys were just older than Caleb so there was some good horse play. So much fun! It would have been so fun to have a water proof camera today. We saw some amazing fish, a ton of sea turtles, one eel don’t worry he was on the smaller size but when they open and close their jaws at you it is a tad bit scary no matter their size. The coral is practically fluorescent as it glows in its many different colors. 
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Detour Ahead!
We were headed to a beach up by Waikaloa u till we saw a beautiful lagoon north of Kona and just had to try to figure out how to get there!
We always have to stop at the rest stop going over saddle mountain between the two biggest volcanoes on the island Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, this time we found this cute bird’s nest on the ground!
This above GPS screen shot shows where we were on 19 when we saw the Lagoon and stopped! We backed tracked a short ways and found Kīholo State Park, we parked our car and then headed down the peach toward the lagoon.
We hadn’t made it too far down the beach when we discovered a fresh spring of cold water filling this lava tube! I ran back to the car to get the suits we had forgotten in the car and we dashed to find a good tree to change behind! A man there had a water proof flash light and after receiving permission we followed them into the cave a ways. We didn’t take the camera with us (phone). It’s not so water proof.
After we were thoroughly cooked off we hiked back up the beach toward the lagoon. We found this little guy taking a nap. He blinked at us a few times but otherwise didn’t seem too bothered.
The lagoon. Like a big shallow warm lake with tons of sea turtles and one big blow fish. We didn’t bring our snorkle gear but this would have been a good place for it.
This awesome beach house would be a dream come true every single one of those Palm trees was loaded with coconuts, it was not too big, and right on the lagoon.
But we would settle for this place, just the skeleton of a previous small beach house.
We didn’t stay too long because we were on the other side of the island and it was getting late. With an early work morning coming for the next day.
Chad managed to completely just a coconut he found.
We had to take another dip in the cool water on our way back, this time we had it to ourselves. So so fun! 
Chad broke open his coconut on a rock and we each took a drink, it was the best coconut we have had in a while!
We found an awesome burger place in Waimea called Village Burger, they had GF buns and Wasabi mayo dipping sauce for the fries that was fabulous!
Ok, this better not be the last time we have this, we will have to learn how to make this sauce at home.
Such a fun day! One of our bests! Now for a good night sleep and some cute Hawaiian babies in the morning.
Categories: Family Time, Fulltime, Hawaii local attractions, Uncategorized
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Countdowns and Updates
2 weeks (only 14 days I can’t even believe it) until my mom comes to visit!!!!!!!!!!!
24 days left in Hawaii….mixed feelings on that!
13 shifts left at work, yes, more than half of the days we have left will be spent at work. Good thing I love the work and my co-workers.
3 Sundays and Soup Kitchens and I think I work most of them :0( that sure makes it hard to say goodbyes.
The kids did their Memory Verse-a-thon this week and loved getting to call Pastor Erika and tell her all their verses for the purpose of raising money for kids camp this summer. Together they memorized 68 verses new to them (50 for Caleb, 18 for Hannah) which went a long ways towards First Kidz collective goal of 150 verses…the prize you ask?!? Pastor Erika will dye her hair pink. We haven’t heard the final tally yet but are watching FaceBook for pictures! Go Salem First Kidz!
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Akaka Falls and Waipi’o Valley
Again with no plan and not wanting to waste my last day off this week we headed out to explore more of the Hamakua Coast. Well we took a detour and checked out a few more beaches in Hilo. It was raining and not really a good hang at the beach day. Then we headed up to Akaka Falls.
Kahuna Falls was faint and very hard to see through the rainforest mist.
Akaka Falls is a bit mightier so you can see it but still not very well. Good thing the lucious green walk was so beautiful.
We used our umbrella from Great Grandma Lawhead for the first time not that it was raining any more than any other time. It just sounded like a good idea.
We revisited the location of the Laupahoehoe school that was taken out by a tsunami during School hours.
We visited several other beach parks along the coast. When we had stopped for malasadas at Tex Drive-in last week Chad had noticed the burgers, we headed back to do a taste test this time.
The kids opted to buy malasadas for dessert with their own money. They must be good. Then on to the Waipi’o Valley… We have been so close several times and some how missed it, not this time.
Waipi’o is the valley of the Kings once filled with people now only about 100 people live there. You have to have 4 wheel drive to get down there. We didn’t hike it today but now we have at least seen it.
Then we checked out the shops in Honokaa. We should be home before sun down. Now the work week can start.
Categories: Family Time, Fulltime, Hawaii local attractions, Uncategorized
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Visiting with Ricki
I had the pleasure of working with Ricki at my last assignment in Southern California. Since that time we have been planing to visit with her when she was here on the big island for her grandsons graduation this last week. It has been a pretty busy week for both of us and I was beginning to wonder if we would miss each other in the busyness. It just so happened that she was in our neck of the woods today and headed to one of our favorite beaches. We made tenitive plans for a picnic at noon. We got there a little before their group did so Chad hung the hammock we enjoyed the tide pools and quite pond just off the beach.
Eve found some girl friends, she is such a social butterfly we have to watch her pretty close.
It was good to see Ricki’s beautiful smiling face and meet her family. It took the kids a little while to warm up and start playing together. By the time it was time to go they were playing really well together.
There were sea turtles everywhere and as many times as we have been to Punalu’u beach I have never seen them out like they were today! Five of them were resting on the beach.
The kids are now crashed out in the car!
Categories: Family Time, Travel Nursing
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Blog Out of Storage
A year and a month into our journey and we have officially had to upgrade our blog because we have used all available storage, could be the overdose of pictures. It is totally worth the added cost. The upgrade in storage allows us to also post videos. I am kind of looking forward to using that feature. Thank you for all of your love and support and for coming along with us via this blog.
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Sunday Funday
Up bright and early, I have been trying to make a habit of waking up and 5 AM everyday not just the days that I work. Got some reading done and everyone showered way early for the 10 AM service. It is so nice not to be rushed! The message on righteousness was encouraging and of course we enjoyed the fellowship. Our planned picnic turned into lunch at Lucy’s Taqueria then hanging out at the beach.
Hannah and Isabel explored all the islands at the Onekahakaha park while Eve and I checked out the more northern pool. The main pool is way better I’m guessing that is why most of the time that is where all of the people are at. The boys dried some spear fishing but there really wasn’t many fish at all. It was windy and kind of cold so we changed and headed early to Walmart to pick up snacks for the couples game night. We were responsible for bringing “Ore” (York peppermint patties). Jesse and Isabel had lumber and wheat (broccoli and wheat thins). We punched in the address and headed out, I love GPS! I mostly like to support Chad in his love of Settlers of Catan, but game night with a bunch of young couples is an opportunity I could not pass up.
The full on Cities and Knights ended up being a long but good game, we got home at 10:30pm good thing it is a holiday weekend. I tuned off my 5:00 AM alarm…the ambitious getting up at 5 every morning was going to have to take a day off.
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Natural Energy Lab tidepools
With no real plan and only one main objective today turned out perfect. The goal was to get out of the house and do something we have not yet done. We had driven by the Natural Energy Lab tidepools before on a really hot day in the middle of the afternoon when we were looking for waves and it didn’t really fit the bill. Today we got out early so a quiet place where the kids could explore sounded best so we set our GPS. As we pulled onto the road with the tidepools we noticed a seahorse farm sign….hmm that looks fun. We checked it out, bummer, it was only open Monday-Friday we will have to come back.
Chad must have picked the best parking lot there. We were right in front of a good sized pond fed by the spray of the waves hitting the rocks that formed the pools edge.
The kids got their swim suits on and we started exploring!
Look at the salt in the rocks where the sun’s heat has evaporated the water and only left salt.
I hope the kids don’t get sick, they tasted the salt. We found lots of shells too. It was also fun to watch the black crabs skuttle around on the rocks.
A close look at the sand and you can see dozens of tiny shells!
The kids entertained themselves for quite a wile jumping off the rocks into this little pool.
Eve thinks she is showing you her finds, but she is showing you her awesome pair is shoes. She keeps leaving her shoes places like the bathroom at the beach or the play ground and when it is time to go and she looks for them they have dissapeared. So today she had no shoes left to wear even though Chad has bought her two pairs of flip flops this week. So she has found two flip flops in the tide pools. One my size one is her size.
We loved the bottle top art work showing the islands at Ultimate Burger. And this Lehua flower was or table decoration. 
Hannah is trying to lick ice cream off her nose. 
Tables in the shape of the islands at this park on the way home. 
The kids played in the rain at Punalu’u beach a busy but fun day!
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HMC first week on days
I did get put on call one of my three shifts so my first day shift week picture is based only on two days. So far I love it! It is way more busy than most of the nights. It starts in a wirlwind of activity as all the nights inductions are delivered, and scheduled c-sections come in and are delivered, then the NSTs (a non stress tests is where we monitor the baby and look for signs of wellbeing for a short time usually less than an hour) get sent in from their providers offices as they are needed. With all the commotion and busyness slowing down about 4:00pm in just enough time to get the unit all cleaned up restocked, and looking like we did nothing all day by the time night shift arives. The busyness passes the time quickly and the nurses have all been so helpful and friendly. There is nothing that makes me love nursing more than the times where teamwork shines. It is like that feeling, in basketball, when you have practiced all the plays and know them like the back of your hand. The opposing team tries to pull a full court press and your team (including you) pass and moves the ball down the court scoring effortlessly like the opposing team is not even there.
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Owens Endeavors 