what luck!

Ryan has just informed me that the building our new condo is housed in was built with superstition in mind. Apparently (and this is verified in a huge stack of documents that Ry was very diligent about reading, and I just skimmed), the building has no 13th floor, no units with a triple 6, and no units with a triple 9. Now I feel we shall be as safe as ever!

turtle beach

Today we drove up to Laniakea Beach, located on Oahu's north shore, and also known as Turtle Beach. Named (rightly) for these green sea turtles who come up on the beach for a few hours everyday to sun themselves. It was really a spectacular sight to see them there, and see them swimming around in the water right along the shore. Ryan was actually quite frightened when one swam up behind him and ran into the backs of his knees - sending Ryan flailing.
Lest you think I've taken these pictures from elsewhere and am lying about this...here are Ryan and Ava just a few yards back. These turtles are protected species so you are not allowed to touch them or go within a certain distance, but they are all over the place in the water and on the sand so you can run around right in the middle of it all.
This picture just because it's cute

lanikai

Since we've been here we've heard that Lanikai, located on the east side of the island, is supposed to be the most beautiful beach here. We thought we'd better check it out today and come up with our own opinion.
I'll reserve judgement for now since we haven't seen every beach on the island. However, the sand was perfect and the water was clear. And...had we had the means there are a couple of these off shore islands called Mokuluas (we learned via a very kind women we met on the beach and I confirmed at Hawaiiweb.com) that you can visit and snorkel around.
Plus, it was clean and fairly uncrowded. I'd say this beach is pretty close to perfection.
On the way home we stopped at this ice cream shop. We've been here before, and it's some of the very best ice cream I've ever had. Plus, I love the old school sign.
Ava had to try a bit of every flavor.

living arrangements

I've been fielding a lot of questions about the new condo - so I thought I'd fill you all in on what is going on. We are set to close in a few days, but due to some medical issues the current owners will not be moving out until sometime toward the middle of April. I'll post photos of the interior as soon as we're able, but until then this is the building we'll be in.
We'll be located on the 18th floor. The building has a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, workout facilities, and a convenience store on the main level - so we really won't have a reason to ever leave home.

But...if we should decide to it's also walking distance to the beach, lots of shopping and restaurants, and this very swanky looking place. Score!

The other day while we were taking a walk around the neighborhood, Ava found this bloom that had blown from a tree and took a liking to it.

playing tourist

Tonight we thought we'd do the tourist thing and explore the main drag in Waikiki. It was a good walk and a great people watching journey.

Toward the end, however, Ava decided she could no longer sit in her stroller, but wanted to push it herself...with no help from us...none. You can imagine how thrilled we were.
My favorite thing we found all night was this adorable mural that serves as a map of the area.
That little seal tells us where the aquarium is. Every place requiring a map should have one like this!

easter

Ava enjoyed dyeing her eggs

Our extremely kindly landlady did this basket up for Ava so that she could hunt for those eggs

Hopefully you all had an excellent Easter

A look at the aformentioned haircut

the month in 60 seconds or less

March 8 - Am I crazy? This picture looks like a paparazzi shot. Ava has eschewed current "it" bag in favor of Curious George.

March 8 - Ava is coming around to the beach idea. We are now able to set her down.

March 10 - Ava shocks us all by being able to do this on her own.

March 12 - There was a wave advisory in effect so we drove up to the North Shore to check out the 16 (or so) ft. swells.

March 15 - It's hot.

March 21 - I'm off to get a badly needed haircut.

March 23 - Ava managed to sneak into my eyeliner. Pretty good placement for someone who's not yet two.

upon arrival

Our first full day in town we of course had to hit up the beach. Much to our dismay, Ava refused to let her feet touch either sand or water. She has since come around, but I was pretty worried that an aversion to sand and water would be a huge inhibiting factor in our daily lives.

We had been planning on staying in a hotel for the month or so after we arrived before we were set to close on our condo. Luckily, we were able to find a room for rent in a lovely home in a lovely neighborhood, and were only in the hotel a couple days. Ava spent the entire first day running back and forth across the house because there was so much room. Now we have plenty of space - we'll actually be downsizing when we do move again - and a pool in the backyard to boot!

has not been attempted previously

Since packing up all our worldly possessions and moving away from our family and friends, I've decided to set up shop to keep everyone (i.e. grandparents) abreast of the latest and greatest in our comings and goings.

Since we've been here - I can't believe it's been three weeks already - we've taken many a photo, and since I've finally gotten around to loading the whole lot onto the computer, I thought we'd better get started without delay. There's plenty, so we'll be playing catch-up for a bit. Consider it a March Madness of sorts - but in our own little world.