Deven's Week Off

Well it has been a fun week, but also a rainy week here for us. Deven had this week off and we had many plans, but had to postpone some due to some crazy weather. We have been hit hard this week by rain. We got 15 inches in 12 hours. Deven and I were getting worried that our house was going to flood. Many of the roads were closed and the stream behind our house looked like a raging river. The dirt here is red so Gracie thought it looked like a chocolate river. Some parts of the island were hit hard and many people's homes have been destroyed. It is really sad because the parts that were hit the worst, are the more poverty area's and those people lost everything. So we managed to have some fun despite the past few days. Deven is taking up surfing and he wanted to spend as much time as he could trying. Even on this overcast rainy day, Deven wanted to head to the beach to try and catch some waves.
Gracie thought she was pretty good too, but she says she will only surf on the sand not actually in the water.
What looks like a dead seal in the background is actually a molting seal. This seal picked White Plains beach to rest for a few days. Gracie thought it was so cool. We had to stay and watch the seal for what seemed like hours, then when we got home she wanted to play like she was a molting seal.
Deven threw me a surprise birthday party early. I was definitely surprised. He wanted to do it before a lot of our friends left for Christmas. I had no idea and he kept asking me if I wanted to get dressed that day, but I kept saying if were not going anywhere tonight I just want to be comfortable so I ended up in my sweats for the surprise, but it was still a great surprise. So thanks to Deven and all my friends who helped him out, it was a great birthday. (We are not going to mention age)
Me in my sweats, at least I showered that day, but just threw my hair in a bun, cause Deven had told me we, that we should just hunker down that night and play games. I was ready for a lazy night at home.
Deven also managed to get some boogie boarding here. If we timed it right we usually found some sun in the mornings and then the clouds would roll in by the afternoon.
This was the best part of his vacation. We woke up early one morning to hike Diamond Head. It almost felt like a road trip. We wanted to beat traffic through Honolulu and hike to the top and watch the sun rise. So we started our hike off at 6 a.m.
Some of the pictures a long the way. When you get to the top you have a quite a few of the island. It was so perfect in the morning, there weren't a lot of people up there and the ocean seemed to peaceful.
At the top of the crater. Gracie was such a trooper she hiked the whole thing. She thought it was so much fun. She didn't even complain when we had to climb 200 stairs.
A view of Honolulu from the top of the hike.