Trip down Memory Lane

I'm a military brat.

I've moved a few times and home seems to be wherever we are for the moment. That being said, Florida truly is my home, however, the actual House that is the home I constantly reflect on is located on a little island named Oahu.

Our house on Wheeler AAF is the last home where my entire family lived, before the boys went off to college, before everything changed. Even now, when I have dreams of my family it is in this house.

So during my one day in Hawaii I made sure to check out the House and the old neighborhood, it brought up so many memories I nearly got a little choked up.

Funny how sentimental we can be.

The Box.

During my last year in Hawaii, I was friends with Rachel, Elizabeth and Shelley. We all lived within seconds of each other-literally. However, we met at this box which was pretty much smack dab in the middle of our houses. We spent many an afternoon chatting on this thing.

The only thing that would have made this moment better, were if all 4 of us were there. Someday.

My Street.
The Mango Tree beside our house.
I remember it being huge and it still is!
The reason I cannot eat mangoes to this day...once you've had to pick up a million smashed ones in your yard, they somehow lose their appeal.
The alley behind our house.
This shed wasn't there when we lived there, a basketball hoop was instead.
A basketball hoop where my brother Nathan taught me to play and where we girls spent hours shooting around and sitting on a stool (I almost thought we'd find that stool still there) shooting the breeze.
Our street.

619 Sperry Loop.

Our House.

I took a million other pictures, which I'll just keep to myself, but it really was so wonderful to be able to touch this place.

As silly as it sounds, I heard this Country song by Miranda Lambert on the way and it was absolutely speaking to me.

As I was standing here for this picture I remembered there was a picture nearly exactly like this with me and my new purple bike.

I gotta find that photo.

Madonna sang it best... This Used to be My Playground.

Quite literally, it used to be.

There were swings here that my friend Crystal and I would swing on and sing...yeah, we sang. We called ourselves "The Babettes".

Aww...such memories.

My Elementary School. I went to 4th-6th grades here. I loved this school.

The Bowling Alley!

The best curly fries around.

No doubt.

And yes I totally made my colleagues eat lunch in a Bowling Alley :)

The Shoppette where my infatuation with ice cream began.

Once you're 10 years old in the military you get an ID and you needed an ID in order to purchase anything in the Shoppette. As soon as I got my ID, I wrote my bike down here and bought a quart of ice cream...and sat on those benches and ate it all by myself.

Some things never change.

Mililani Town Center.

This would be the closest mall where we would sometimes hang out. It is completely changed. I was hoping the shaved ice shop "Island Snow" would be around, but it wasn't.

Before we were able to move on base (Wheeler) we rented a house in Mililani for a year.

And here it is.

95-693 Lewanu'u Street.

Kipapa Elementary School.

Where I finished off 2nd grade and then 3rd grade.

I'm sure this post isn't of much interest to anyone else, except maybe my friends from Wheeler...Crystal, Rachael, Susan, Bethany, Elizabeth, Rachel and Shelley...all of whom I've kept in touch with. Yet, writing this all out and sharing these pictures has just filled my heart to the brim. It really is wonderful to be able to see your childhood again. I had a great childhood, too many happy memories to count and walking these streets just made my heart happy.

Thanks for the memories Hawaii.