oahu, 2022.

better (wayyyy) late than never - photos from our special cousins trip to oahu back in february!

i was 7 months pregnant at the time, digging big holes in the sand to be able to lay on my belly, guzzling all the most refreshing n.a. hawaiian beverages, and enjoying some time with peter just the two of us before our bambino would come into the world in early may.

pete’s cousins and aunt coordinated this trip probably 3 years ago…. and we finally got to take it this last february!

as it SNOWS out my windows today for the first time this fall (?!), on november 7th (!!!), i’m loving remembering all the hawaiian warmth, smells, beach time, tasty eats and sitting my pregnant lady arse in the surf while exfoliating my skin with sand. 😆

first stop: L & L BBQ for a huge pile of katsu plate lunch. i remember being super happy & content eating this while we drove in our rental mini van with pete & his siblings and looking out at HAWAII. 🌺

and then to the grocery store for all the hawaiian candies and tropically flavored bevvies for our stay.

pete’s cousins had their kiddos on the trip, too! sooo much fun to see them hang all together being adorable. so happy that our baby abe has a handful of “cousins” close in age!!!

mokulua islands.

baby’s first sunrise hike -pillbox hike in lanikai!

stunning, eh?

i’m weirdly obsessed with this peanut butter chocolate smoothie bowl from lanikai juice…and think about it multiple times per year (per week?).

that’s my cute sister in law!

pete and his brothers and cousins came to lanikai/kailua growing up when their grandparents had a place there…so these beaches are super special and bring back tons of memories for all of them. it’s so great that all the spouses and offspring can experience this special part of the island is when we travel here.

recreating cousin photos from their childhoods. 😊

i cannot find the original, but just imagine these people in a human pyramid but 20+ years younger. 😂

pete’s cousins hired a musician, jeff peterson, to come play for us at one of the big houses that our group rented. he was so awesome and had a lot of good history to tell us about about his hawaiian tunes and slack key. and it was a really nice way to honor their aunt pam who lived in hawaii for quite a while and who had taken all these kids on so many trips throughout their lives. ❤️

catching sunrises almost every morning after a visit to our fave kalapawai market for coffee & pastries.

a neighborhood market like this inspires me to have my own coffee/pastry/cheese/wine/beer/sandwich/ice cream/paper goods/fun trinket market one dayyyyyyy. 💫

whatever this refreshing beverage was was insanely delicious. they accidentally gave us 2 of them, and i was not mad about it!

lots of oceanside lunching pit stops!

hawaiian farmer’s market is a pregnant person’s dream scenario. i ate all the things.

amazing sunrises at kailua beach park.

it was nice to have 2 preggos in hawaii! cousin jenna was 8 months pregnant here. her son was born end of march, and ours beginning of may!

^ most perfect beach snack.

thanks, hawaii, you lovely magical wonderland!!!

qp

colchuck lake & aasgard pass, 2019.

we recently came to my blog to find our backpacking trip photos from last june, and i had never posted the pictures. for shame!

we could all use a dose of pretty nature photos right now since we can’t really get out or be outside very much anymore, so here we go - a belated backpacking trip to the enchantments from last summer!

and here’s a link to our enchantments backpacking trip in 2018.

beautiful colchuck lake!

pete won the enchantments lottery for overnight camping at colchuck, so we ended up staying 3 nights by this gorgeous lake, hiking around to other areas during the daytime.

^ we always take a photo of the trailhead area and a selfie in case we go missing, haha. sounds dark, but i’d hope someone would somehow find these images on the cloud, and crack the case as to where we are, should something happen.

the details are all coming back to me seeing these photos almost a year later. it completely down-poured as soon as we started up the trail, of courseeeeee.

hair soaked with rain and also just sweat, not gun lieeee. i’m always huffing and puffing on big hikes like this.

but wowowowowwww, what an amazing beautiful sight to behold. felt like a magical mermaid lagoon.

you can’t see it here because of the fog rolling in, but we’d later hike up that snowy part of the mountain, aasgard pass.

you can probably guess that it rained A LOT more over the next few days. classic pacific northwest in june. one day we spent probably 6 hours in the middle of the day playing cards & dice games just sitting in our sleeping bags in the tent. we were both totally fine with it and it was fun, just a bummer that we couldn’t go outside in the middle of the day.

just tried hard not to gobble up all the astronaut food and drink up all the boxed wine, haha.

always eating sooo many freeze dried meals. we are connoisseurs of the mountain house brand. love anything you can stick in a tortilla and douse in black pepper. really bulks up the meal while taking up very little space in our backpacks.

^ our cooking spot!

^ haha. re-enacting the goofy people on the front of the mountain house packaging.

that rainy tent day. i love my sleeping bag :)

beauuuutimus maximus.

pete will try and try and try with that tiny fishing pole he insists on packing.

^ has never caught a fish with this teeny pole.

appreciate the enthusiasm, tho.

need a canoe!

one day when the sun was out, we hiked up (and back down) aasgard pass. i would personally say this is a hardcore hike/scramble. poles are a must! great hiking boots are a must! if you have bad knees or hips, stay far far away from this place, lol.

most people hike up aasgard from colchuck lake and just continue onto another area of the enchantments or another lake, but we had to come back down aasgard pass to get back to our campsite at colchuck at the end of the day since that’s the area we had a permit for.

it’s another world up there!!!!!!! so wild and stunning.

just a bunch of mountain goats plunking around.

more astronaut food with my cute dude.

so funny that mountain goats are the majority at the top of aasgard pass. there were very few other humanoids passing through when we were there.

crazy, yah?? looks and feels like another planet.

my face is smiling, but my knees are crying for help.

OOOOOH AAAAAAH.

^ tiny billy goat quinn passing over this snow bank. this was much scarier than it might look.

in fact, now that i’m reviewing these photos, i’d say “scary” would best describe my impression of hiking up aasgard. and “joint pain” would describe my summary of hiking back down.

i woulda been dead in a crevasse without my poles! fully granny-ing it back to camp like “wtf just happened to my body??!”

^ a very accurate portrayal of my poopT feels when we got back down. the very best moment of the trip is when you can rip off your sweaty boots & socks, wiggle your toes and strap on your tevas! and a very well deserved happy hour by the lake to round out the day.

all-around eventful, beautiful, successful & memorable backpacking trip to colchuck & aasgard!

qp