Hawaii

There are a ton of posts on here about our amazing trip to O'ahu Hawaii.  We had such a fun time building family bonds and creating memories.  We had a short flight from SLC to Phoenix and a two hour layover there.  We boarded the plane and had a LONG six hour flight to Honolulu.  As we were coming in for a landing, Hayden was looking out the window and he said "look, it's surrounded by water", we all got a good laugh out of that.
Katie loved to sit out on the balcony at the hotel and keep us informed of what was happening down at the pool and everywhere.  She took a wine glass out there one day filled with orange juice.  Hayden was giving her grief about drinking from a "fancy glass" and she said "Hayden, I'm going to be rich some day and I have to get used to it".  These kids are so funny!
We listened to some fun Regae station while we were there and every day except for the last one, the same song was playing when we left the parking garage.  We got pretty good at singing the songs.
The best way to start might be to go along the side tool bar and find the post about Christmas and start there.

HANAUMA BAY-Thurs. Jan. 19

Our final day in Hawaii, we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a fish preserve so the fish are not afraid. You can see some really cool, colorful fish. The water was pretty cold but we all got in and enjoyed snorkeling around the bay. I felt like I mastered it this time and we had packed our own gear that we used when we went scuba diving--that made all the difference and I had a much better experience with snorkeling.

The kids wanted to go back to the North Shore and see if we could swim in the waves again but we didn't have enough time to do that and get back through traffic in time to get ready before our plane left. We ended up going back to the hotel, they had stored our luggage and they let us use the showers by the pool to get ready. The kids swam in the pool one last time and we showered and got ready to head home. We went to dinner at a local favorite "Zippys" and headed to the airport. Our time in Hawaii was wonderful. We had such a great time just spending time with the family and with our kids. This was a once in a lifetime and we counted it as Whitney's late graduation, Landons early graduation and Christmas--it was well worth it. Our memories of Hawaii will last a lifetime.

SUNSET BEACH

The beginning of a beautiful sunset at Sunset Beach.

Landon and Whitney striking a pose.

What a fabulous, fun day.

NORTH SHORE-Wed. Jan. 18

We continued over to the North Shore and exited at Haleiwa town. We went to the famous Matsumoto's shave ice. They have the best shaved ice on the island. They have a lot of pictures of celebrities on the wall. Jace recommended the Hawaiian Rainbow Shave Ice with vanilla ice cream in the center. A few of us tried that and it was really good.
We continued on to various beaches.

Landon wrote me a nice message in the sand. : )

We went to Turtle beach and this turtle was right up on shore just basking in the sun. He actually flipped sand on himself a few times to try to cool off.

Katie with the turtle in the background.

We ventured further on and stopped at Sunset Beach. The kids had a BLAST here. They had just ended a surfing competition, so we were a little late for that, but we also didn't have the crowds which made it nice. The kids played in the ocean for hours. Tracy and I even got in a time or two (Tracy actually dragged me under) The waves can be huge and you have to watch out for the undertow but it is so much fun. We all got knocked to our butts a few times. The kids wanted to hit this beach on Thursday also, but we didn't have enough time.

One more burial in the sand.

Katie getting knocked around in the waves.

DOLE PLANTATION-Wed. Jan 18

For all of you who thought that pineapple grows on trees, you were wrong. Here is a pineapple bush.

Here we are, riding the pineapple express-unfortunately the maze was closed because it had rained and it was too wet and muddy. We were looking forward to that, it is the worlds largest maze-bummer.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious dole whip (ice cream) and bought a bunch of pineapple candy--YUM

MANOA FALLS HIKE-Tues. Jan. 17

These are the fun bathrooms at the beginning of the trailhead.

You hike through the rain forest to get to the falls. At this time of year, it is muddy--the little kids even put on some war-paint and picked up some bamboo to use for hiking.

The falls are up there, somewhere. wonderful scenery for your hike.

After our hike, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up. We went down the street to the Waikiki aquarium and spent a couple hours looking at the colorful fish they have there. We walked back to the beach and topped off the day with a trip to the Cheesecake factory. Whitney and I hit the international marketplace which is across the street from the restaraunt. Whitney felt bad that she didn't get a few things at the swap meet. The marketplace used to be a place to really haggle about pricing, but it seemed like they have just made the prices more comparable t the swap meet prices and you don't need to haggle as much or at all--I like that better. We enjoyed the night life along the beach, they have a lot of street performers and artists that come out to work at night.

PCC-part 7

Our final stop before our buffet dinner and the night program (Ha-Breath of Life) was Samoa. Tracy and I loved Samoa last time. It was they same guy that was there last time. He is very entertaining. He is also an artist and he sells his work there at the PCC. Hayden was called up on the stage to drink some of the coconut milk-he didn't care for it-we learned that the real coconut milk is squeezed out of the coconut meat. We watched them climb the coconut tree with just their bare hands and feet to get the coconuts.

As a final cap-off to the evening, Landon got an air-brushed tatoo that was supposed to last for seven days. It lasted about two.

We had a fabulous time at the PCC, it is always one of the highlights of the trip.