tis the season

summer dance recital, 2018

ballet and contemporary

love note

Inside my lunch

to my surprise

a perfect heart-shaped

love note lies.

The outside says,

“Will you be mine?”

and, “Will you be

my valentine?”

I take it out

and wonder who

would want to tell me

“I love you.”

Perhaps a girl

who’s much too shy

to hand it to me

eye to eye.

Or maybe it

was sweetly penned

in private by

a secret friend

Who found my lunchbox

sitting by

and slid the note in

on the sly.

Oh, I’d be thrilled

if it were Jo,

the cute one in

the second row.

Or could it be

from Jennifer?

Has she found out

I’m sweet on her?

My mind’s abuzz,

my shoulders tense.

I need no more

of this suspense.

My stomach lurching

in my throat,

I open up

my little note.

Then wham! as if

it were a bomb,

inside it reads,

“I love you—Mom.”

"Lunchbox Love Note" by Kenn Nesbitt

the north shore

i'm sure many of you thought this day might never come, but we have finally made it to the end of our hawaiian vacation summation, en revue.

huzzah!

we'll end this party how we started it: at the beach.

welcome to waimea bay on the north shore. sadly, no cliff jumping for us this go round. 

waimea river drains into the ocean at the bay, and there is a quiet stream of water separated from the feisty ocean waves and surf breaks by a sand bank. this is where caleb and dallin mostly played. it's not the clear, beautiful blue ocean water, but the boys had a blast.

as much as they enjoyed getting knocked down by the big waves and dragged out to sea (legit. they LOVED that part), i loved it not-so-much, and the gentle stream was a much better situation for my little mama heart to handle.

a hui hou kākou, hawai'i!

hawaiian eats (pt. 2 of 2)

leonard's bakery, honolulu

we stopped here for their famous malasadas in the wee dark hours of the morning on our way to hanama bay. these were good. i mean, fried buttery dough served warm and sprinkled in sugar? how could they not be.

steak shack, waikiki

food stands and food trucks are the preferred dining options for the wheeler family, and this little stand was YUMMY. given the chance (and/or more enthusiasm from the children), we would have stopped in again. they serve three things: a steak, rice, and greens plate; a chicken, rice, and greens plate; or a combo of both. eat it all, people. EAT IT ALL.

uncle clay's house of pure aloha, honolulu
another deceptively humble strip mall location packing a punch of deliciousness. homemade, natural, fruit-derived syrups and homemade tahitian vanilla ice cream give this place flavors unlike any other shave ice flavors on the island.

caleb's birthday dessert.

haleiwa bowls, haleiwa

the brazilian açaí bowl has a huge presence in hawaii. it was the first thing i ate when we got here (courtesy of island vintage coffee), and the last thing i ate before we left. all up, i ate five açaí bowls during our trip--even one from costco! 

haleiwa bowls was the crème de la crème. my love at first bite. my raison d'être. see that giant bowl i'm holding in my hand? i ate it all myself. twice. 

so, read up on that couple who made it a goal to visit every cracker barrel in the nation, cause i have a sneaking suspicion that's gearing up to be me and açaí bowls on oahu in the not-too-distant future. 

bonus track: one more time around for matsumoto's. 

le gecko. la fin.

hawaiian eats (pt. 1 of 2)

so in my real-life life, i'm definitely not a foodie. 

i eat the exact same thing for breakfast every day. and the exact same thing for lunch every day. and modest, mostly from scratch dinners (that tend to lean towards the "less-than-mature" palate) every night.

i almost never go out to restaurants. my idea of a culinary adventure involves the greatest bagel place of all time, and that's pretty much as wild and crazy as i get around here. well, i suppose that's not entirely true: i *have* been known to stop at a jamba juice or two. but only when i'm feeling real cray. 

HOWEVER, send me away on vacation, and i start obsessing over great places to eat. like my taste buds suddenly wake up and spend all their free time deep-diving on yelp. no meal left behind! 

what we've pictured here in our two part food series is by no means an exhaustive list of all the deliciousness we experienced in hawaii (e.g., one stop not pictured is our trip to ted's bakery for bryan's birthday where we ordered and devoured nearly a dozen different slices of pie; the runaway winner was the macadamia nut cream), but it's a decent sample.

surf and salsa, haleiwa

a delightful mexican food truck on the north shore. mexican sodas served out of coolers at the back made all the kids' beverage dreams come true.

matsumoto shave ice, haleiwa

iconic. delicious. the ultimate fave of the little wheelers.

seven brother's burgers, laie

this little strip mall joint doesn't look like much from the outside, but a hole-in-the-wall burger, fries, and shake is my death row meal, and seven brother's did not disappoint. worth the drive. one of the best burgers bryan and i have had. 

bonus track: can you really say you've been to hawaii if you haven't sipped fresh coconut water by the side of the road? to the utter disappointment of the children, who thought mother nature's coconut tasted nothing like other coconut-flavored goods they've enjoyed.

surf's up

monday morning in hawaii, bright and early, the north shore surf girls took the wheelers out for our first time ever surfing.

really proud of summer and afton for working outside their comfort zones on this one.

not pictured: bryan managed some quality time on the board, and i rode a couple of waves at the end, but, of course, the kids are the real stars of this show.

dallin fell asleep on my surfboard while he waited for his turn to ride tandem. he slept there for two hours as the waves gently rocked him back and forth, and mama paddled constantly to keep out of the way of the surfers (and rocks!) 

he still thinks he nailed surfing.