Mother’s Day Hike Kolekole

Connor is such a good sport! When I told him what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day he said he would Go with me. Kolekole is a hike only opened on certain weekends and I knew this was my chance to make it up to the top again or at least try.

Headed up The trail it starts off pretty easy, but then you reach a point where it really is a steep ascent with ropes, scrambling and loose rocks. I kept saying how I wanted to really see if we could make it to the top and Connor continued to express how he was nervous and didn’t want to die especially because it was quite windy that morning.

So we kept stopping at certain landmarks, a little bit further up the trail just to get a better look and honestly, I was hoping that he would change his mind and agree to make it to the top with me. I didn’t want him to feel unsafe, but he really was saying let’s go back. Let’s go back…

Right when I told him we could turn around— but look how close we are… If we didn’t quite make it to the top and so I’m gonna have to come back and do it again. He finally agreed to keep pushing forward and it really we were almost there… we just needed to go a little bit further and higher!

Yay!! We made it!!! Here’s the view going off to the west side and my smile because we got where I wanted to go

Headed back down the mountain… a smile of relief. We really were trying to hustle because we needed to get home and hurry and get ready for church

And here were a few posts that Connor shared on Mother’s Day that really Made me smile! He is a good boy that loves his momma! 
 

Durtschi Dean and Platt OAHU 2025

It is so fun when friends come to visit me! I get to enjoy being on vacation and still going home and sleeping in my own bed! I really do love these ladies that make traveling and adventuring so easy and fun! Every day was filled and the time just flew by!

 we had a great day at the PCC the shows were amazing and The weather was practically perfect!

Snorkeling at electric Beach in the evening no one else was out there but us.

Judd trail and ginger pool. I decided to go down the slide a couple of times and then jump off the far rock. There’s something about being with your buddies that you just start doing crazy things

Our first day sunrise hike because everyone was up early super windy, but also gorgeous way to start the day!

Durtschi  Dean and Platt

Hawaii adventure 2025

Thursday - arrive and pick up rental

Head up to Haleiwa

Dole plantation- dole whip

Beach park

Farmers market dinner sandwich to share 

Eat and walk around 

Jodi crashes at 6

Friday - everyone awake at 4- we leave the house at 5 for 6 am sunrise 

Makapuu Lighthouse sunrise 

Breakfast Over easy yum yum!

Set up at Bellows 10:30-2:30 swim, play, walk & rest

Ho’omaluhia botanical garden to the lake

Byodo-In buddist temple peaceful walk

Paia fish tacos

Double 3 ice cream in Kailua

Saturday- Jodi and Rachelle leave for the day — I was coaching my volleyball team at our end of season tournament. A fun, but emotionally draining day. 

Pearl Harbor

Swap meet

Waikiki 

Leonard’s Malasada brought home 

Monday

Judd trail and swimming hole 1 mile

Lulumahu waterfall 2mi 

Pali lookout - super windy

Guieb lunch- burger, prime rib and purple sauce on French toast 

Electric beach snorkel- out to the pipe hot water and fish all over

Paradise cove beach for sunset 

Tuesday- Haleiwa and Laie

Paddle river Anahula river Haleiwa

Kono’s breakfast with Ben

Aweoweo beach snorkel with turtles

Polynesian cultural center

Meat pie ice cream and cookies for dinner 

Wednesday - west side 

Rise and shine yummy burrito waffle and Kim chee fried rice

Mermaid cave jump swim

Beach and sunshine time

Snorkel with turtles Kalanianaole beach 

Taste buds sushi taco 

Shower, pack, and drop off at the airport 🥲🥹

Big Island spring break trip

For some reason when we landed on big island, we were all super drained, but we knew we didn’t want to waste time just sitting around so we tried to do some driving tours and knock off some of the things on our to do list. We couldn’t last very long without somebody stopping to take a rest. In fact at rainbow files, been laid in the grass for about 20 minutes for a quick cat nap.

The cool lava tubes our driving tour brought us to. It’s a good thing, then packed flashlights and headlamps otherwise we would not have been able to explore as far up this lava tube. The texture inside was quite amazing smooth in some areas and rough and others and just the fact that this particular tunnel could go on for 22 miles was amazing to us I think if Cannon had his way we would’ve gone the entire 22 miles but we knew that we could only go so far before we needed to turn around and head out for daylight.

In fact when we made it here to Akaka Falls, we all fell asleep in the parking lot for about an hour… there was no way that we could function any longer — we were just feeling so tired. It was actually pretty frustrating because they started charging people to visit this particular waterfall by charging $10 for parking for non-residence and there’s two people that were standing right there at the entrance, making sure that you entered your license plate and credit card into the machine. Luckily, our boys have Hawaii drivers licenses so that meant that we could go visit this attraction for free!

Goat therapy… on The way back from Akaka Falls there’s a sign that says free goat therapy and obviously this is one of the busiest roads and tourist attractions on the big island so the location is Primo anything that is drying in customers. Ben purchased some oat caramel which was delicious by the way and Brielle and Cannon enjoyed about 15 minutes petting and brushing short little goats

After our hike out to the green sand beach, we pulled over to the most southern point of big islands to check it out.. my brother had jumped off of this area a few years back and we really thought the kids would have a good time. At first, we were all nervous because we didn’t see anyone else doing it, but then by the end everyone had gone and This was one of our favorite days, jumping and swimming in this amazing water. It was incredibly calm. A guy did jump off with his phone around his neck and when he came up to the water, he said I need some goggles. I lost my phone and Cael was able to just dive down there and save that guy’s phone dropped about 30 feet deep to the bottom. He was so impressed that Cael was able to go that deep without fins on— The guy was super grateful and gave Cael 20 bucks.

One of the kids favorite games was swimming in the water climbing up on the edge or getting close to the edge and seeing if they could get on their feet without using their hands and just allowing the waves to push them up to stand up came out. I’m glad that none of them got banged up or knocked their heads into the rocks, and they were giggling and laughing and having a good time together.

Volcanoes National Park. It is so much cooler than you would think at this park the elevation just as cold you need to wear a sweatshirt walking around. Of course, I like my kids to be able to become junior Rangers at every national park that they visit and so we had a little bit of assignments to complete as we walked around and learned more about the incredible history of Hawaiian myths and legends and volcanologist who have studied the lava in this area

One of my favorite things about being in the national park with all of my kids was watching how they were interacting with each other in playful and fun ways and just how big they have all gotten. I am happy but sad.. happy because they are growing up to be such fun people and they’re pretty good to each other and sad that they aren’t my little kiddos anymore 😢 look how big they have grown up to be!

Thurston Lava tube. Short and fun to explore… but after the other one we went to that wasn’t commercialized …it wasn’t nearly as exciting for Cannon and he sure let us know his disappointment.

Having some fun at the Black Sand Beach this was after our green sand Beach hike and jumping off the southern point so by the time we made it here to the black sand beach, we are all pretty tired and the water is surprisingly ice cold, and the black sand is burning your feet quite the contrast. Cannon had some fun splashing and cuddling around and making piles of the black rough sand Brecken Ben and kill all took naps in the shade.

We got some sandwiches and snacks at this bakery, but the portions were small and the flavor was lacking. But it’s “famous” and we had to stop for their malasadas… which were okay-Lee good. Our favorite restaurant was the Guatemala burritos and nachos from the food truck the night before.

Cael and Brielle are always so funny together! I love watching them talk play, and joke around. Their poses for photos always make me laugh. It is like they are on the same brain wave.

We were sad Brecon and Connor didn’t get to enjoy this fun swimming hole because they had to get back to school… this tunnel was super cool to explore Brielle and Cannon were having so much fun climbing around going from rock to rock and jumping off of the waterfall into the swimming pool. In fact in this spot was where our friend Naomi dove head first and hit her head on her rock splitting open her head and needing to get staples on her Hawaiian vacation with her family… not a good idea to dive and we are glad she os okay.

According to Hawaiian, legend, this heavy stone was the one that King Kamehameha lifted to prove that he would be the great uniter of all the islands. It is located in front of the Hilo public library and across the street from our favorite drive-in cosmic cones… everyone requested that we go back and eat there more than one occasion Especially Cannon😂😂

 

Pinewood Derby and Chili cook off

I was able to put together another successful ward pinewood derby event. I think the kids had a lot of fun and combined with the chili cookoff… It was a rootin’ tootin’ good time!

The kids really did do a great job and we’re so creative this year. We only spent one day working on them together and then they were meant to finish the cars at home.

Our friends — Val and Stephen Wells won a category or two during the chili cook off!

Looks like Petrice won most chill chill!

Grandma Doreen won one of the prizes for her chili that she cooked up.  grandma and grandpa Platt were in town to watch the kids while Ben Cael and myself would be going to New Zealand the next day!

Here is the outlaw race with Ben’s car in the middle the blue toy car with a dumbbell on the top proved to be victorious in the end thanks to inertia and gravity!

These boys were so excited about watching their cars race down on the track!

I told Cael he needed to dress up for the pinewood derby, and he decided to come in his purple Cambodia suit. He was a judge at the finish line for a little while and then all of a sudden he was gone. I think he had some other things to do that night, but came to the church for dinner before heading out.

Someone told us a trick for chili cook off is to bring a muffin tin so that you can sample all the different chilies without getting too much of one of them. It really is a genius idea and Ben loved his dinner that night.

Brielle wanted to make these cute little dessert Teddy Graham Twinkie race cars!! They didn’t last very long

Cute brother Hernaez made some amazing trophies at our first pinewood derby and he really outdid himself this year for our first second and third place categories

Also, another category not pictured was our outlaw races. There wasn’t any rules for these cars. They just needed to go down the track.

Ben took a toy car that I had brought as a decoration and loaded it down with weights in on the inside and he won the outlaw category with his crazy car!

We didn’t mean to, but the Platt family almost had a clean sweep of all the trophies

Brielle won the young women races first place 

Connor won  the young men race

And Ben won the outlaw first place trophy!

And grandma won a prize for the chili cook off!!

It is always a bit stressful hosting such a complicated activity with the races, checking the cars in, making sure that they’re on the right table, making sure that they’re getting announced, making sure the right person gets put in the spreadsheet and that the car is race on different tracks 3 different times…

On top of that to have the chili cook off and have the judges deciding, which one is the best in making those announcements and giving out those prizes!

I learned a lot from the first Pinewood Derby that I needed to delegate out some of the portions and even then when someone told me they were going to be doing the speaker and providing the music, they dropped the ball. Can you believe that? Thankfully, I brought our speaker from home just in case and it’s a good thing I did because music really sets the tone for an activity like this.

I’m really glad that it worked out and everyone seemed to have a great time!