Adventures with Katie: Pineapple Park... Part 1

 I finally made it to Pineapple Park.  I have heard about it ever since we moved in, but the kids all claimed their friends said it was lame, and it IS a made up tourist trap.  But with Katie here, it was time to hit this iconic place. It was everything I had been promised by my friends: hokey and fun!

The coolest part is that you get to go on a cute little train ride when you arrive. 

It takes you around these pineapple fields.  Having never seen how pineapples grow before, I was fascinated!  Look at this baby pineapple growing!!

After the fun train ride, you get to go on a golf cart that drives itself. So fun!  It drove you through a botanical garden. 

nd then they had this photo spot. Katie posed.

And Callie was up for a photo.

Rylee is always ready for a picture!

And we needed a group shot!

That one was so fun, we needed another!

Special photo place to document your visit.

After the driverless drive through the botanical gardens and the photo ops, we got to meander through the gardens ourselves.  So pretty.  And these super-fun figurines were all over.

They made me giggle. 

Love Rylee's pose with this guy! 

 Another photo spot. With some silly girls.

It was a fun day and I very much enjoyed it.

Of course there was ice cream!

And it was delicious!  Pineapple and mango. So good!

Adventures with Katie: Cape Zanpa Lighthouse

On New Year's Day, I tried to get all the kids to go out and do something, but alas, they were tired and lethargic from staying up too late.  So Marian, Katie and I headed out.

We made a stop at Torii Beach to hunt for shells.  We had much success!

Marian got tired, while Katie and I were still finding lots of treasures.

After over an hour of exciting discovery, we finally drove to our final destination, Cape Zanpa.

It has this beautiful Lighthouse on it's little peninsula. 

Of course I needed a selfie.

 We got sidetracked on the way to the lighthouse by the rocky shore and had to climb down a bit.

The girls posed while I tried to get the perfect shot of the waves breaking over that rock out there.  

 It was pretty cool!

The scenery was gorgeous! 

 We wandered around a bit and found other pretty places to see.

 These two girls are the best!

And one last selfie before we called it a day and went home, full of the sights of lovely creations.

Adventures with Katie: Peace Park Memorial

We were already down south and half the kids were already cranky about our outing, so I informed them that we would be heading over to the Peace Park Memorial before going home.  It was met with the expected lack of enthusiasm, but at that point, I did not care.  I dragged them the 10 minutes  over to the Memorial and off we went.

Note the delight on Rylee's face.

Not many photos of the park at all.  I sent those interested into the museum to see the giant Buddha and the rest meandered around.  This was the cool bell you could ring.  

Most of the kids headed to the big park and I took Katie, Dan and Callie to look at the memorial part. Somehow I did not take any pictures of that. But I got a selfie of my hair flying in the wind at the scenic overlook.

And it was a very pretty shoreline.

While getting ready to head back to the car, we saw this split in the cliff wall and had to investigate! It lead to this awesome trail and we had to explore it. 

Off we went down the jungle-ey trail....

....stopping for photo-ops to document the fun. 

The trail took us down to the shoreline, which was pretty cool.

 And we got even closer.  You could walk across the rocks all the way to the water.  I was tempted, but I was getting texts from Josh that the rest of the crew was waiting at the car. (I HAD old them we were heading back to the car!  But we got distracted!)

 Once we reached the end of the trail, we had to go back up it!

It was a very good time!

Adventures with Katie: Okinawa World

Tuesday Dec 31, I made everyone go to Okinawa World.  Initially they all said they did want to go, but Tuesday morning as I was packing snacks, suddenly none of my girls wanted to go.  I couldn't let one stay home without all of them staying home, so I said, tough noogies, we are ALL going!  and then I spent the next 2 hours regretting it.

 Josh and Katie had good attitudes and were glad to be there. 

Rylee shouted that she HATED the cave and why did I make her come?!

I thought it was beautiful and worth seeing. 

And the other kids seemed to enjoy it. 

The reflexology glass walk was fun for them. 

 But not fun enough for anyone to say they were having a good time.

Rylee did enjoy this photo op though.

 And these two made me laugh.

Katie, Callie and Rylee.  Love them!

 Delaney joined for this one.  So it did end mostly okay.  But I don't think anyone wants to go back again.

Adventures with Katie: Sand Dollar Beach

Saturday, Dec 28 the girls wanted to go to Sand Dollar Beach.  So off we went.

Callie wanted to bring Levi, so we did.  He was happy to be included.

The air was lovely and just about 70 degrees. The sun was out and it was a glorious day.  Rylee enjoyed it.

Delaney enjoyed it briefly.  Then she was bored.  Apparently she did not enjoy finding fun shells and looking for sand dollars.

Katie, Marian and Rylee posed for me.  Like them!

Katie is the best!

Katie and Rylee.  Cousins rock! 

The water was about 72, and Marian was all in. 

Levi did have more fun with water than he has before.  We were the only people out that day, so we let him off the leash.

He had a marvelous time! 

 We needed to document Katie's presence.  She was there!

Callie was also willing to get a photo.

And Rylee was happy to pose for me.

We meandered around the rocks searching for treasures.

The sun was so bright it did not make for good photos.  But here are homegirls and a dog on a rocky outcropping!

You may be able to see Marian and Katie's heads in there.  They wanted to swim to a little coral rock island.  They got started and then realized that the water was a little rough, and it was hard to swim while wearing felt bottom booties.  So it was Mission Abort.  But they had a good time.  A chilly good time!