Paradise

Weekly Rewind

The month of June marked our one third of the way point in the deployment and brought us our first opportunity to connect with Joe since March. We had decided to schedule a family vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii about a year ago and included my entire family in the plans. I figured this way if Joe couldn't make it for some reason we'd still have a nice family vacation and there was the added bonus of six built in babysitters. Left LAX on Wednesday evening with my parents, two sisters and their husbands. When we arrived in Hilo that night Joe was waiting for us after arriving in Kona that afternoon and driving across the island in the rental van. Joe, the kids and I stayed one night in Hilo and then struck out on our own to explore the area a bit and then drive on to Kona to the condo we had rented near Keauhou Bay. The reunion with Joe was wonderful and the kids adjusted well to be being with him.

The next day the rest of the family drove over to join us and we all settled in to the multiple units we rented at the Kanaloa at Kona. After seven wonderful days we sadly had to say goodbye to Joe once again and return to California. Rather than give you the blow by blow of the trip I'll just share a few of the highlights through pictures.

View from our hotel in HIlo of the Bay.

Akaka Falls, north of Hilo.

Volcanoes National Park. Reminded us a lot of our time in Sicily.

We found a great beach at Kukio thanks to a tip from the Dillons, old family friends of Joe's that now live on the Big Island. Wish we could afford the $16 million house that was next to this spot!

We took a submarine ride on the Atlantis. Got a great discount through Pearl Harbor ITT.

Another great beach day next to the Four Seasons. Hawaii has great beach public access laws and since there is no such thing as a private beach the resorts have to allow through their property to the ocean.

Sea turtles also love the Four Season's beach. We saw at least six of them here including this one that came up to rest on the sand. Hope he didn't have to pay them $600/night.

 

 

Took a nice snorkel cruise to Kealakekua Bay.

 

 

Everyone together for the family photo at the Sheraton Island Breeze Luau. A photo op that almost didn't happen since the one taken by the luau photographer got deleted. We managed to get a photo on Shahab's camera thanks to a friendly stranger.

More luau photos

The orange dress was a consignment shop find too! It was cut open on the sides as a tunic so I stitched it up to wear as a dress.

Me and my sisters.

The Project

• Fabric: Vintage dress with the label Tori Richard, Honolulu: $27
• Pattern: For Audrey's dress, Simplicity 2193, $7
• Notions: snaps $1.50, buttons $1.50
• Time to complete: dress alterations, 3 hours; baby dress 4 hours
• Total cost: $37 + $25 for sewing machine rental in Kona. 

A few months before departing for Hawaii my mom got the idea that everyone needed to have matching Hawaiian print shirts for a family portrait on our vacation. After trying to persuade her that it might be a tad bit corny she charged ahead with the idea and made Grayden and Joe matching shirts out of a print with classic cars on it. She then went on a quest to find another print for the rest of the guys' shirts and another for the women. She successfully completed blouses for herself, Susan and Emily but when I arrived in Ojai she still had to make shirts for the other guys as well as Audrey and me. Seeing as time was running out, and she didn't even have fabric for my shirt, she asked if I would make matching shirts for both me and Audrey.

A few days before departing I was lucky to find a great vintage Hawaiian print dress in a fabric complementary to the color scheme. It was a 1960's style in a size 12, which is probably equivalent to a modern day 4 or 6.  It was a bit snug but I decided we could let it out since it had lots of pleats and darts. It was also intended to be floor length, but on me came to above my ankles so I thought I'd shorten it and use the extra fabric for Audrey's dress. The alterations on the dress went pretty well with most of the effort going into deconstructing it by removing the bodice from the skirt, picking out part of the zipper and letting out the pleats and darts. I had to make new pipping out of some of the fabric cut from the bottom and then reassemble everything.  Unfortunately after getting it all back together it is still a bit tight, but wearable.

Audrey's dress turned out to be one disaster after another. My mom and I cut it out the night before we left on the trip. Wednesday morning it was still in pieces, so once my bags were packed I decided to try and tackle it. Of course, since I was so rushed, I kept making stupid mistakes and ended up ripping stitches and resewing repeatedly. I was still sewing when it was time to leave so I stuffed the unfinished dress into my suitcase with the idea I'd be able to hand stitch the inside yoke facing, hem and button closures. On the Monday of our week in Hawaii we were planning on attending a luau and taking our family portrait that evening. I still hadn't finished the dress and couldn't find the thread I thought I'd brought along. My mom and I decided we'd check out a local fabric shop and happened upon a tiny little shop where, in addition to selling  fabric, the owner did alterations and custom clothing. She agreed to rent me a machine and so my mom and I sat down and finished the dress there. I ran into a couple of additional problems, the first being I cut into the back yoke while trimming a seam and we had to make a patch to fix it. I also had to use bias tape to finish the yoke facing seams since I think I trimmed the seams twice in all the rush and confusion and it was too small to turn under the seam allowance. After a couple of hours we had an acceptable facsimile of a Hawaiian dress for Audrey.

That night we call got dressed up in our special outfits and headed to the luau, just in time for a large downpour of rain. The hotel canceled the feast so we missed out on our ten person photo op. We ended up all having dinner together at a nice ocean side restaurant and managed to get a few sunset photos thanks to Shahab. Unfortunately I didn't get a good full length shot of either dress but think the group shot turned out lovely.