Kolekole to the top

Well it’s Tuesday and all the kids are back into school. Connor was saying last night how fun our fall break was and that he doesn’t want to go back to every day going to school but I told him listen “Hawaii is great we got to enjoy a whole vacation and we didn't even have to pay for the plane ticket to get here for just a week… we LIVE here :)” it is both good and bad to live in a vacation destination :)

our Monday adventure included the big hike of the Kolekole Pass. Not just to the bench like we normally do… all the way up!! I have been telling the kids all week long that I wanted to go on a hike during fall break and dad picked to go up —-up to the top which is rated as a hard hike and with the elevation climb/gain of almost 1,300 feet and about 2.9 miles up.  it was pretty difficult we were scrambling and climbing straight up these rocks. Brielle wasn’t quite sure about how far she wanted to go and then she started to feel emotional and started crying as we’re going up the hill - we were all feeling hot and her legs are shaking and tired because they’ve been not very active watching a lot of Disney show and sitting in class all day— am I right? Dad just talked to her calmly and then she was okay for the rest of the journey. Cannon, Brecon and connor did not complain at all. I did get a little worried about Ben a couple of times he had to stop and sit down he was starting to feel lightheaded from the aerobic exertion that was required to climb straight up this ridge. It made the hike a bit longer to stop so frequently, but nobody complained as long as they were waiting and resting in a shady spot. He said good news- at least he didn’t have any chest pain… that would be very concerning!!
But the views from the top were pretty awesome we could see all the way over to the west side Waianae— down to Waikiki and diamond head—and then the whole middle of
the island from Mililani up to Wahiawa! 

Now the tricky part was coming back down the mountain. Remember it was so steep we were basically climbing straight up these rocks so in order to come down we had to really slide on our butts and use our arms to lower our legs down…and then the rocks were really gravelly and loose so it was pretty precarious coming down that mountain but everyone was way more happy coming down then going back up, even Brielle. Brecon and Connor and Cannon were in the lead and I kept saying  hey slow and steady “ safe and slow is the way to go “ and Brecon turned around and said Cannon is not being safe which makes me think that he was probably flying all over the place and kicking down rocks on his way down!! At least no one tumbled down a steep edge or fell off the mountain, good news right?

So then we made it back to the hotel we were all exhausted and everyone got to take a nice  hot shower but what was so funny was even after everyone was showered and washed if they took the white towel and wiped their legs or their arms there was so much red dirt still on the bodies!!  I don’t think the housekeeper ladies will be too happy with what we did making the white towel turn to red dirt!! We decided we were going to go out as a special treat ( ha ha )we didn’t have any dinner so we needed to go get something! Cannon said he wanted a happy meal so we got that on the way home but we went to Chili’s and had an expensive dinner. The favorite was probably the refills on the strawberry lemonade I think we got at least five or six definitely worth the five dollars per drink— and we were all probably still a little bit dehydrated from our hike so the nice beverage was very much appreciated:)
So it was a good day… and thankfully my knees and legs are not very painful just a little sore! I’m not as young as I used to be 😉

We are also moving out of the hotel in a few days it’s been so crazy to stay here for so long… we will be in that temporary lodging over on Wheeler for couple of weeks and then we will move into our house around the 25th —it will be nice to finally unpack and get our stuff unloaded :) I wonder what got broken on its journey across the ocean?? Oh well. It’s just stuff. 

This was our first big hard hike that we have taken with the kids on since being back on the island.  So fun to check off another one!

Cannon was like a little mountain goat keeping up with Brecon and Connor on the ascent and also he was pretty crazy coming down. I am probably glad I didn’t see his downhill strategy I think it was pretty haphazard and lots of tumbling rocks.