Reese's Pieces of Summer

All you need here is a bathing suit, sunscreen and a surf board! Hawaii is such a beautiful place! For the first five days of our stay, we stayed at a place in Oahu called Hale’iwa. We stayed at an AirBnB. The place we stayed at had a tree house, and not just any tree house, this one overlooked the ocean! On the back lawn of the place we stayed at, there is a staircase that leads right to the beach! Also, underneath the tree house, there are two kayaks, a swing and a hammock. The beach was so close to us. Every day we spent ten hours swimming and playing in the sand. This place is truly magical!

We have eaten at some amazingly good places here! We ate at an Indian restaurant, a Thai food truck, and we cooked some of the best meals at the Tree House House. (That is what we call the AirBnB.) At the Indian place, we had Chicken Tikka Masala, rice pudding, Lamb Curry, and Yellow Lentil Dal. It was so yummy! At the Thai food truck, we had Pad Thai,  Thai Fried Rice, Ono fish, and Garlic Stir Fry. It was soooo good! For breakfast at the Tree House House, we made pancakes with strawberries and bananas. We also cooked avocado toast with spinach, an egg and bacon. That was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten! We also went to a place called Hale’iwa Bowls. They have the best acai bowls ever! Acai bowls are a layer of acai, (which is like a berry ice cream) a lot of fruit, granola, coconut, peanut butter and sometimes honey. They are soooo good!

For the rest of our vacation in Hawaii, we will stay at the college dorms in Honolulu. My dad has a teaching job here, so we get to hang out and go to the beach while he teaches. The dorms are very nice. They have air-conditioning, which is awesome! 

At the bottom of this page, there are a ton of pictures and a few links. Enjoy!

Links:

-Acai bowls!

-Thai food truck

Click here- Banana pancakes!

Indian food!

Thai!

Me and my mom got matching rings!

Peanut butter, banana and maple syrup rolls

We saw about thirty sea turtles while we stayed at the AirBnB. We got to swim with a few of them too.

In the swing

I found an empty clam shell at the bottom of the ocean, and my ring fit in it perfectly!

Me getting in the hammock

Waiting for rental car at the airport

We went snorkeling every day at low tide, it was so cool!

The Tree House House

In the ocean

We meditated at the dorms!

After a week in the mountains unplugged, I finally get to share my adventures with you! We rented the coolest van to stay in! It was named Submarine. It has a seat that turns into a bed, a kitchen (in the trunk), and a rooftop tent where me and my brother slept. It was fun, but after nine days, we all needed a little space!

The rest of the week, we went to multiple hikes, had campfires, made dinner, played games, read, and explored! We also went on a boat tour, which was awesome. There was a hike that you could go on after the boat ride, and my younger cousins didn’t go, but my family and my other aunt and uncle did go. As we were walking down the trail, there was a fork where you could go the longer route. There were some people gathered at the trail, and they kept saying, “..bear...” “...down the trail...” So we decided to go check it out to see the bear. We were assuming it was a small black bear that was sleeping way off in the woods, but still, it’s bear country, so you never know. After we had walked a short ways into the woods, we saw two cubs climbing the trees. They were less than 30 feet away from us! So, if you know anything about bears, you know that if there is cubs, the mama bear isn’t far away! We saw her back come up and then we bolted! It was an amazing experience!

My favorite things were:

My little cousin reading to us

Campfires

The fox that we saw

BEARS!!!

Trail of the Ceders hike (look below to see link)

The art/talent show my cousins and my brother put on!

Links for you:

-Trail of the Cedars!

-Go to Glacier National Park!

Us doing dishes!

Our van!

Awesome rooftop tent!!!

I love my family

Boat tour meetup

My little cousins

All of our vans!!!

Today was a beautiful day in Wisconsin! The sun was shining and there were only a few clouds. First, we went to Panera for breakfast. It was very yummy. While my dad was doing his workshop, my mom, my brother and I decided to go swimming. We tried a beach that was close to the city, and it was not very nice. It had grass and a play structure. So, we went to Dolphin’s Cove instead. Dolphins Cove is more than a pool, it is like a mini outdoor water park! We spent the whole day there. We went in the lazy river, water slide and the basketball pool. At four o’clock, we had to leave to go eat dinner with my dad. We walked a mile and a half to a place called Naples 15. It had Italian food. My parents got pizza and my brother and I got buttered noodles. It was pretty good. Then walked through the park. We walked by the water and through the woods. Then we walked back to hotel room and took showers. Now, I’m blogging! We are driving through the night to Colorado tomorrow, so there will not be a new post tomorrow. I will post on Saturday!

This is my family by the water

Rocky waters!

This is a large old fashioned house that we passed on our walk.

So much sunscreen!

BABY DUCKS!!!

Lovely lake Mendota!

Water slides!

That was fun!

Breakfast at Panera!

Margarita pizza for Mom and Dad!

YUMMMMM!!!

If you want to find out more about Dolphins Cove, click on the link below:

Today was a very dreary, rainy day in Madison. All of the fun activities here are outside, so there wasn’t much to do today. In the morning, we went to breakfast at Mickie's Dairy Bar. It was so good! They have huge portions though, so bring your appetite! We also watched a lot of the food network and read books. At noon, we went down to the lobby to eat a light lunch then go bowling in the basement. (I won the first game and my brother won the second game.) After bowling, we just lied low in the hotel room until my dad was done with his teaching job. Once he finished, we walked to dinner. We went to Dotty Dumpling Dowry. It was pretty good. Then we walked through the city. We saw the water, the capital, and the busy streets. When we were on the capital lawn, there was a gay pride event going on. It was interesting to watch. 

It was a very long walk! We finally made it back to the hotel room. Now we are just watching Chopped and chilling. It was a fun night!

Click below to see the restaurant websites:

Dotty’s

Mickie’s

This was a building I saw on our walk, so cool!

Over sized chairs are my favorite!

Go Badgers!

Old fashioned book store 

Bucky! 

WI capital!

Oooohhh PIZZA!!!

My Caesar salad dinner

Yummy spicy burger!

Vegan burger for Mom!

Beautiful stained glass! (This was at Dotty’s.)

My brothers chicken tenders.

Yay Badgers! Today was our first day in Wisconsin. Well, first full day. We drove here yesterday from the east side of Michigan, so it was a six hour drive. Today, my dad taught his classes while my mom, my brother and I explored Madison. First, we ate breakfast at a place called the Original Pancake House. (Five star restaurant by the way! It’s so yummy!) Then we figured out our parking situation. In Madison, it is so difficult to find a parking spot, especially when you have a rocket box on your car! After we sorted that out, we got my dad a fathers day present and we came back to our hotel room and worked in our summer workbooks. (We also watched the Food Network!) 

My dad finished up his workshop in the afternoon, so we went to pick him up to go to dinner. We walked through the city to a place called Paul’s Pel’meni. It was sooooooo delicious! You can look below to see photos of it. All they serve there is little things that look like pierogi's. They have meat and potato ones and that is it. They only have two things on their menu. Scrumptious! 

After we went to dinner, we walked down to the water. We took pictures with all of the statue badgers. (The badgers name is Bucky.) We went to get ice cream at a shop by the lake. It was great! Then we walked on a nature trail through the woods. There were a lot of gnats and mosquitoes! Once we walked for about twenty minutes, we decided to go get the car and move it to a new spot, because we did NOT want to get towed! On the way to the parking garage, we saw a bunch of plants and flowers in what looked like a huge garden. We peeked inside the gates, and it turned out that it was a public botanical garden! We walked through all the succulents, trees, and ferns. We saw plants in all different sizes, shapes and colors! We even walked by little waterfalls! There was a large pond right in the middle of the gardens with many different koi fish. Unfortunately, we had to keep walking and couldn’t stay for too long. But I will always remember the quiet peacefulness of the Madison, Wisconsin Botanical Gardens!

This was the adorable baby bunny that we saw, eating his dinner.

This was the walkway to the little pavilion with the aloe plant in it.

This is my brother by the aloe plant.

Some of the bricks in the path had little quotes on them!

This was the succulent section of the gardens.

I love my family! 

Bumblebees were drinking the nectar out of the lilacs for dinner!

So pretty!

Magnificent!

Stupendous sundial!

Yum, yum!

Bucky the badger!

More magical plants!

To find out more about the gardens, click below:

Click Here

To find out more about Paul’s Pel’meni, click below:

Traveling is super fun! Well, it is when my brother is sleeping in the car. Today, we drove to my mom’s friends house.  Their house is out on the east side of Michigan. So, it was a pretty far drive for us. I hung out with their little girl. We played on the wiggle bikes, play-dough, and we ate at Mod Pizza. (Which is really good by the way!)  They also have two little boys, and I have one little brother, so they had tons of fun today. When the three boys went to bed, (they had a sleepover) my mother went to check on them and she overheard them saying this: “Wouldn’t it be weird if cats ruled the world?” At least they were having fun! (: 

When life gives you lemons! That’s what we’re called. Our company name for the lemonade stand was WLGYL. (When Life Gives You Lemons) So, today Trey, me and our neighbor made a lemonade stand again. Today we made it fancier, more fun and festive. We had music, scones, two kinds of lemonade, and a tablecloth. We got out on the block at 9:30 this morning, and stayed out until 3:30 this afternoon! We decided to donate all of the money we made to the DeVos Children's Hospital in downtown GR. In total, we made $150! Exactly! We sold the lemonade at 0.50 cents per cup, but the people who bought the drinks were very generous and gave us tips.  

We went to the Night lights event at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital tonight and gave all of our money to the front desk people. If you want to go participate in this event, here’s the link to more information:

Check it out

The event is every other Wednesday, so I would go check it out!

This is the hospital. If you look close, you can see the flashlights!

An awesome helicopter flew over the building with all of its lights on.

I’m back! Today, me and my little brother, Trey, and our neighbor had a lemonade stand. We told my little brother that if he could sell this random picture that I drew, we could have a lemonade stand. Surprisingly, he actually sold it! We were so shocked! So we set up a table and two chairs. Trey was our sign waver. I thought we weren't going to sell anything, but actually, we had fourteen sales! We are going to donate all the money we made to the Children’s Hospital downtown. Our stand was very plain today, and so was our sign, so we decided to do it again on Wednesday. We are going to have balloons, streamers, music, cookies, and fun! We are going to have it be way more decorated. We learned a lot today about business. We learned that we should have a big sign, so the other customers can see it from the road. There will be a hopping lemonade stand on the block on Wednesday! Get yer’ ice cold lemonade here!

Today was the first day of summer! It was so awesome. First of all, I got to sleep in (my favorite thing to do) until 9! Usually I have to get up at 6:45. Then, one of my besties, Lily, came to my house this morning and we went up to our cabin by the lake. We call it the A Frame. We swam, cleaned, fished, and kayaked all day. We even accomplished our lake goal, to swim all the way to the other side of the lake! At the end of the day, we went to the lake convenience store, the East Bay General Store, or as we call it, Bozos. (See picture at the bottom) They have an ice cream counter at the back, so we all got ice cream. When we went out to the back deck by the lake, we ate our ice cream, fed the fish (Blue gill) and saw the coolest thing, a boat-plane!

It looked like an airplane on the top, but it had floater things on the bottom. The coolest part was watching it take off! Sadly, we had to go home after that. But we always remind ourselves at the end, there’s always next time!

Boat-plane!

Blue gill!

SO COOL!!!

Bozos!

Up, up, and away!

Fun Fact #1: The Wilcox 2019 Song of the Summer is... Horizon by Pigeons playing Ping-pong!

Wow! Fifth grade is over. At 11:45 am today, I officially became a sixth grader! Even though fifth grade was fun, I’m super exited for summer. We are traveling for a month straight this year! (We have to bring a lot of suitcases!)  We are first going to Wisconsin, where my dad has a teacher workshop, then, we are driving from there to Denver, CO. From there, we meet up with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins, and we drive in a van to Glacier National Park. (Bear central! My whole family will be wearing bear whistles!) After that, we drive back to Denver and get on a plane to Oahu, Hawaii! Finally, we fly back to Denver and stay there for a week. Then we finally return back to our home town, Grand Rapids, Michigan. So stay posted on all these cool cities!