Happy 2nd Birthday to Cameron!

Monday, September 8, was CC's 2nd birthday! We kept things simple this year and had a small cookout party at our house the day before with only a few friends.  The theme for her party this year was her favorite television show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with simple red and yellow decorations and supplies.

I made CC's birthday party invitation myself using Photoshop and images I purchased in a digital set on Etsy (here).  I also used the same images from that set to create the cupcake toppers using card stock paper, double-sided tape, and toothpicks.

I made the cupcakes for the party myself.  We are a clean eating family so I wanted something yummy but natural.  I have a dairy allergy so I also wanted something I could enjoy as well, besides the fact that we actually don't have any dairy in our house, other than cheese, to use in a recipe.

I used a dairy-free white cupcake recipe from the blog Veronica's Cornucopia (here) and the cupcakes were AMAZING! They were rich, moist, and delicious. This is seriously going to be my go-to cupcake recipe from now on.

I found some all-natural, dairy-free vanilla icing (Cherrybrook Kitchen Vanilla Frosting) and all-natural sugar sprinkles at our local Whole Foods. I was pleasantly surprised with both! I put the icing into a large ziplock bag, cut off a small piece of one corner, and piped it onto the cupcakes in a circular motion. 

CC doesn't actually like very sweet things, mostly because she hasn't been exposed to them much, so she wasn't a fan of the sweet icing but she did enjoy the cupcake.  She loved hearing everyone sing the birthday song to her and has been singing "happy to me" ever since then :)

CC needed all of the characters on her cupcake :)

We gave CC a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood themed present that included:
     Book - Goodnight Daniel Tiger
     Book - Meet the Neighbors
     Book - A Ride Through the Neighborhood
     Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Trolley
     Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Friends Figures Set
     Tabletop Hardwood Blocks

On Monday morning, CC's actual birthday, we woke early and went to the Aulani Disney Resort for the Disney Character Breakfast.  This is a gorgeous resort on the south-western side of the island. You do not have to be a guest at the resort in order to go to the restaurants there. Reservations are recommended.

There was a huge buffet with a wide variety of food options that should appease even the pickiest eaters.  There were three characters (Minnie, Mickey, and Goofy) that walked around the entire time we were there, stopping at all the tables multiple times for photos, autographs, and laughs.  Goofy was CC's favorite, he made her giggle every time he came near.

Our waitress brought out a tiny birthday cake with a candle for CC and we all sang to her.

CC was slightly overwhelmed with all the people and noise - she was quiet and observant but we could tell she enjoyed it and had a great time.  The breakfast crowd was full of tourists, primarily all Asian. Although the breakfast is geared toward children, there were many couples without kids and quite a few honeymooners.  Disney is HUGE in Japan, seemingly more so for adults than for kids.

There was an ukulele musician who walked around strumming and singing the entire time. She led multiple songs and activities that children were invited to participate in.  CC volunteered to participate in a few of the activities.

We walked around the resort for a while after breakfast and met a couple more Disney characters. I don't know if CC will remember this day at all but it was a fun one and great way to celebrate her 2nd birthday!

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"Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever."

~Walt Disney

Big Island Day Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Johnnie traveled to the Big Island (the island that is officially named "Hawaii") for a two-week work trip.  If we could drive on water, it would have only been a 2.5 hour drive to get to him.  Since we don't have an awesome car-boat, we flew on Hawaiian Airlines from the Honolulu Airport instead to spend Father's Day with him.  The plane was large and comfortable, and the flight only took 40 minutes.  This was a fun day-trip adventure; we were gone for about 10 hours.

I honestly feel that life with a toddler is exponentially easier than life with a baby.  Take this day trip for example: I took Cameron and a lightweight backpack - that was it!  No need for a carseat, stroller, baby carrier, bottles, baby food, blankets, burp rags, baby toys, or the billion other things that babies need.  This was a very simple, easy, and enjoyable trip off the island!

Our day trip backpack contained: diapers, wipes, one outfit change for CC (just in case), a straw cup, snacks, a pacifier, sunglasses, my wallet, my phone, and CC's Barney doll.

CC walked herself through the airport and onto the plane... actually, she was skipping and hopping at times :)  She LOVED seeing airplanes up close and seeing all the little carts speeding around outside.

CC is under two years of age so we got an "infant in arms" ticket for her.  The plane was not very full on our trip to the island and the two seats next to mine were empty so CC sat there for most of the flight.  She sat down and buckled herself in and waited patiently with her pacifier and Barney the entire time we were taxiing.  She moved over to my lap for the actual takeoff.  She whimpered a bit as we were climbing in altitude, unsure of what was happening but once we leveled out, she returned to her seat and looked at the in-flight magazines for the remainder of the trip.

Johnnie picked us up from the airport in a rental car with a carseat.  CC's carseat is still rear-facing in our car but we put the rental carseat facing forward.  This was a new experience for her and she was pretty amazed by all that she could see out of the side and front windows!

Our first stop was a coffee shop for some lattes and then we headed to the Historic Kailua Village to explore for a while before lunch.

We had a delicious and enjoyable Father's Day lunch at The Fish Hopper restaurant with a great table overlooking Kailua Bay.

After lunch we went to the Kamakana Playground at the Harold H. Higashihara Park located at 78-7300 Kuakini Hwy.  This playground is HUGE!  Johnnie and I were just as excited as CC to play on it!

This playground is at about 1,300 feet in elevation.  Since we spend most of our time at sea level, the altitude made me feel short of breath after being there for a while.  CC seemed to be fine with it but then again, she can't really speak to let us know!  I felt better once we returned to a lower elevation.

We left the playground in time for CC's nap.  She was so tired from running around and climbing that she fell asleep soon after the car started moving.

We took a long scenic drive to let CC nap.  We relished in the vastness of the landscape and the open road with virtually no traffic... it was such a welcome sight after living on a crowded island for the past 2+ years now!

Some of the land was practically glowing with bright and vivid color...

while other areas were rough, volcanic wasteland.

When CC woke up, we stopped to browse at a Crocs store in the Queen's Marketplace in the Waikoloa area.  CC tried on a few pairs of shoes and fell in love with these pink ones.  Once they were on her feet, they weren't coming off.  The sales clerk cut off the tag so she could ring them up and CC wore them for the rest of the day (and every day since then).

Johnnie flew home with us at the end of the day!  This flight was more crowded so CC sat on Johnnie's lap the whole time.  She did fine on this trip but was more unsettled since she couldn't move around as much and she got angry when she couldn't put the tray table down until after take off.

We may take a trip to another island this year but that will be as far as CC will fly until we move from Hawaii.  It's at least a 5 hour flight to the west coast of the mainland and we don't care to go through that with a toddler until we absolutely have to.

*******

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind."

~Seneca

Family Friday: March 28

If you follow us on Instagram, you'll know that we had guests this past week!  Our house is a small furnished rental with three bedrooms and two full bathrooms.  The guest room is the smallest of the three bedrooms and there wasn't much that I could do to it.  I got all new bedding for the two twin beds and added some of our own items to maximize the usefulness of the small space.

My brother and his wife were the first guests in our beach house and flew all the way from Pennsylvania to be here.  Cameron last saw her aunt and uncle almost a year ago when we visited my family in PA.  She had such a good time with them all week and it was an incredible opportunity for her to get to know them (and them to get to know her)!

We have been living in this house for two months now but I have never gotten in the water yet.  To be honest, I'm really not a water person - I'd much rather look at it from land than be in it.  I've been building up the courage to go snorkeling but didn't want to do it alone.  Luckily, my brother was excited to join me and his wife was more than happy to relax with Cameron on the beach.

We were thrilled to discover that the best snorkeling in the immediate area was directly in front of our house!  The coral isn't very colorful but we did see a lot of colorful fish.  We also saw many giant Green Sea Turtles and swam right alongside them.  It was the most amazing and tranquil experience!  I took photos and video with my waterproof Olympus Tough TG-2 camera.  My next blog post will be all about swimming with the turtles to showcase the photos and video that I took.

We took a family hike to Kaena Point, which is the westernmost point of Oahu.  This is a five mile round-trip hike on a dirt road along the coast.  Many people try to travel this road with their four-wheel-drive vehicles but it is rough, muddy, and can be dangerous.  At the end is a fenced bird sanctuary that you can walk through to get to the point (no dogs allowed).  We saw a lot of whales and the scenery was gorgeous!

We took a trip to Waimea Valley which is on the North Shore across from Waimea Bay.  This is a scenic area with a gift shop, cultural events, and a farmer's market held every Thursday.  For a fee, you can hike the 1.5 mile round-trip paved walking path to Waimea Falls.  It is a beautiful walk through lush botanical gardens to the waterfall at the end.  Swimming is allowed with a lifejacket (provided for free) and there are life guards on duty.  My brother and his wife jumped in and swam to the falls.  Johnnie and I will do it next time :)

We live on a beach but it's still nice to go to other beaches from time to time for a different view, different sand, and different weather.  My brother and his wife had a couple beach days to themselves, going to Waimea Bay and to Magic Island, and we took one family trip to Bellows AFB Beach.  Bellows has the most gorgeous turquoise water, beautiful scenery, and the softest baby powder sand.  Cameron had a blast playing in the sand and knocking down the sand castles.

On our last day together we took them on a tour of Ford Island to see the Pearl Harbor memorials (USS Utah, USS Oklahoma, USS Missouri, and USS Arizona) and then drove through Hickam AFB to have an oceanside dinner with a view of Diamond Head.  It was a lovely day that ended with a sad good-bye at the airport.  We are thankful that they were able to make the trip to visit us while we are stationed here.

We had such a fantastic week with them and wish they could've stayed longer!  We have plenty of photos to help Cameron remember this time with them.

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"'Ohana means family - no one gets left behind, and no one is ever forgotten."

~Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, Lilo & Stitch