Patrick Carroll: Can't Stay Put: March 2022

How could I possibly catch up on all that has happened in the past few years? I suppose I should start a whole new blog about my family and our adventures. Since last writing, we have had another baby boy, I have graduated from BYU-Hawaii, and we are still living on the North Shore of Oahu.

This is one of those places that I heard about but never really wanted to go to because it was so cliche, and far too expensive for me. Once I started looking at pictures though, I found that I really did want to visit. I never believed that I would one day live here. I suppose good things happen if you just take a leap and make it work.

I won't lie, it is very expensive to live here. A small two bedroom apartment will easily run north of $2,000 a month, gas is $5.00/gallon, and we can rarely leave the grocery store for under $100.

In exchange for all of the green leaving my wallet, we get to experience lush green forests all year round, pristine turquoise waters, beautiful hiking trails, world class surfing, whale watching, and so much more. Having been to Costa Rica, I would say that that has a much more natural vibe to it, and you don't have to deal with as much crowding and pollution as you do on Oahu, but it's still amazing.

I'll try to sum up some of the highlights over the past years we have lived here. Let's see, last time, Kenzie broke her arm on Christmas, and Finn was a little baby. Finn is now 2 years and 9 months old, and his baby brother, Fjord, is almost 9 months old. Finn started life as a baldy, weighing in at 10 lb. 2oz. BIG BABY. Fjord had a full head of black, black hair, and was 9 lbs. even. We thought they'd be Thor and Loki, but Fjord's hair has since fallen out and is growing back in blonde.

What a stud!

We have been blessed to explore quite a lot of what this island has to offer. We have done a lot of the hikes that you can take kids on. We want them to be with us because it's hard to find a babysitter, and we want our kids to be adventurous. As Finn is getting more independent, we wonder if maybe we didn't raise him a little too gung ho. The other day we took our inflatable SUP paddle boards out to this island called 'Chinaman's hat'. (I have a small airbnb experience business where I take people paddle boarding up a serene river a few times a week to make ends meet)

Sleepy Beeb

The kids love the boards. Finn can easily sleep on them, and now loves to jump off. Fjord will usually be in a front back or back pack, but he loves to have his little feet drag in the water; or, barring that, grab the paddle out of my hands so he can do it. Anyway, we paddled out to this island, pulled the boards up on the rocky beach. There was a huge sea turtle that had puled up on shore. The poor thing is so covered in sores and tumors, I almost can't stand to look at her. We began our ascent of this steep and dusty trail. I elected to leave Finn in his lifejacket because it comes with a convenient grab handle. I never let it out of my grip. It was a long way down.

We got to the crux of the climb where we needed to go up some ropes. He bawled because I wouldn't let him do it all on his own. Normally I'd say "go for it", but the risk of death was a tad too high for my tolerance level. The view from the top was amazing. Other hikers had drones out flying. One the one hand, I agree with my bride that they are very loud and annoying, on the other hand, I really wish I could find that footage, because I bet it is amazing.