My body is definitely starting to adjust to Hawaii time!  I slept 9 glorious hours last night, waking up at 7; but it felt like the day was half over by the time we picked up the Strawns at 8:30 to head up the mountain toward Waimea.

Saturdays are Farmer’s Market Days in a lot of these small Hawaiian towns and Waimea is no exception.  They have at least two every weekend and Mike and I make a point of visiting this amazing little town every chance we get.  (If we were to ever live here full time, Continue reading →

Day 2 — another epic day — started out with once again, the O’Briens overtaking the Strawn condo early, hoping that Luke would come through on his overnight promise of a big aloha breakfast and, luckily, he did in spades!  Avocado and fried egg on hearty bread, crispy bacon and for the littles, big biscuits with butter.  Oh, and lots of pineapple!  Meanwhile, the kids were all over the place Continue reading →

That’s the only way I can describe the last 24 hours.  Ok, maybe I have a few other words…  whirlwind, party, chaotic blur. Also, wonderful, fulfilling, soul quenching, and happy.

Even though I always want to keep it real here on the blog, I’m not really in the mood to talk about all the things that went wrong yesterday, like the security lines at DFW, the man that threw the contents of his water bottle at us and walked away or,  Continue reading →

Mele Kalikimaka from the O’Brien ‘Ohana!

Oh, by the way, we’re BAAACCCCKKKK!!!!!!!  And this time, we brought reinforcements!  Hopefully, we are in the skies over the great Pacific by the time this post is published.  Yes, somehow, some way, we have finagled our butts back to the state that we love most (sorry, Texas, you’re holding strong in third place after Colorado).  But, for this particular adventure, some of our dearest friends just happen to be tagging along with us!

I am guessing that most of you reading this already know the Strawns; they seem to know EVERYBODY.  If you don’t know them, then you should.  I first met Paige Continue reading →