Monday, March 22

Back to routine today. Well, kind of. It is Monday…

I “slept in” until my regular 5:30am wake-up time this morning. My body is finally adjusting to the local time. Andi was awake soon afterwards, followed by Aden around 7:00am and finally Tory at 8:30am. Girlfriend must be growing because she needs a LOT of sleep lately.

It was a pretty typical morning for us. Andi sat on the outdoor patio with his computer while Tory and Aden ate breakfast and I did my workout at the gym. Mid-morning, the kids and I did school on the outdoor patio. Neither Tory or Aden are particularly happy about doing schoolwork while we’re in Hawaii. Aden keeps asking me when it’s going to be Spring Break. I don’t think he even knows what that means; he’s just heard other kids talking about it. I told him his Spring Break was traveling to Hawaii.

Maybe it’s because it’s our first week here, or maybe it’s the feel of the condo resort property we’re staying at this week, but this trip feels more like a vacation and less like real life. Traveling in our RV truly feels like “home on wheels.” The location outside our window might change, but we’re still surrounded by the comforts of our own place. So far, this week in Hawaii has all of us feeling more disconnected from the world (in a good way!). More time spent outdoors playing and exploring, and a much needed break from electronics … though we still have to do school. Sorry, kids.

Andi made sloppy joes and tator tots for lunch. He had to get creative since the oven door in our condo doesn’t shut properly (therefore rendering it useless because it won’t bake). Andi wedged a kitchen knife in the side of the door and it worked! That’s safe, right?

After lunch, the four of us headed to the resort pool. Really, all Tory and Aden want to do while we’re visiting Hawaii is swim, so Andi and I try to balance pool days with adventure days. Yesterday, I made the kids leave their iPads at home while we explored the north side of the Big Island. “What are we suppose to do back here (in the car)?” Tory asked. “Look out the window! Take in all the beauty of Hawaii,” Andi and I responded. Both Tory and Aden seemed less than thrilled about that idea.

So, this afternoon was a pool day. It was a busy place at 1:00pm. Andi and I found the last two lounge chairs available — well actually, they were more like banana leaves. These chairs are neat because they’re literally positioned in the shallow part of the pool, but the downside is that they’re directly in the kids splash zone.

About a dozen kids played games together in the pool all afternoon. It was cute listening to them play Marco Polo and a water tag game called Colors, but it was also noisy! That’s a lot of kids splashing, jumping and shouting together. Tory and Aden were having a blast.

Andi gets a little stir-crazy after laying by the pool for too long, so he offered to go to the market to get fresh fish for dinner and some more veggies. Tory, Aden and I remained at the pool until about 3:30pm and then the three of us headed back to the condo for a snack and a sun break.

The sky started to cloud over and looked like rain. Technically the Kohala Resort area of the Big Island on the northwest side of the island is a desert climate so it only gets about 10 inches of rain per year. Definitely looked like we’d get a little precipitation this afternoon.

Andi returned from the fish market around 4:00pm. We decided to cut open the chocolate sapote fruit we purchased a few days ago in Hawi. The employee at the produce market said black sapote fruit are ripe and ready to eat when they’re brown and mushy — this one was definitely that! Andi sliced it in half and we all grabbed a spoon to try it. The fruit has a creamy mousse-like texture and it’s a little bit sweet. Nothing at all like chocolate, but I liked it! Tory and Aden weren’t big fans.

For dinner, Andi pan-fried fresh, local ahi tuna and mahi mahi filets for us. They were delicious! Buttery-smooth and so flavorful. The kids ate the fish, but weren’t the biggest fans. I told Andi next time we’re save ourselves a few bucks and make them chicken nuggets for dinner instead.