Hawaii day 4

Thursday, May 28

We drove South to Hanauma Bay

This is what we had for breakfast, so yummy. I loved the coconut custard filled one.

(if you don't know what a Malasada is , it's a hot fresh donut without a hole)

This is a view of the beach before you go around the Southern tip of the Island

(When I look it up and remember, I'll post the name of the beach)

Hanauma Bay

Snorkel Faces! Last picture at the water of the bay
The top of the big hill

After Hanauma, we drove up to Waikiki, and went to the International Marketplace. We had lunch there at Choi's Kitchen, that was recommended by some friends of ours.

Until we got there and saw the sign, I thought we were going to Choice Kitchen

(the person who took a picture of us together in front of the marketplace sign did a terrible job, and didn't even get the sign in the pic.)
(Also please keep in mind that we had snorkeled, drove to Waikiki, & changed in the car(no shower). I hated what I took to wear, and slicked back hair is not good for me! I'm not sure about this shirt either, but Justin likes it for some reason?)

Walking down Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head in the background.

Dinner at the Shorebird, in the Outrigger Reef Hotel. It was good, but you cook your own meat on a giant grill, it was HOT! I like to go to restaurants to have someone cook for me. Justin bought me this Lei, from some kids who were selling them on the beach, I loved it! Also our camera ran out of juice right after this picture, so we have no pictures of the awesome view, beautiful restaurant, or the two of us here.

After this we walked to the car, on the street, past all the shops and stores. Then drove back to our place at Punalu'u

Hawaii-day 3

Wednesday, May 27

We woke up and headed to Honolulu, to the Aloha Stadium swap meet.

(trying on lei's)

(watching the man make our Van Dorn sign)

After the swap meet we drove over to Pearl Harbor, and went to the USS Arizona memorial. It was an interesting and humbling experience. The grounds around the museum are also under construction so it wasn't quite the experience it could have been. We didn't stay there long.

(at the harbor with the memorial in the background)

(on the boat ride over to the memorial)
(at the memorial)
After Pearl Harbor we took a drive called the Tantalus loop. It is a steep, narrow, winding road above Honolulu with amazing views, and a fun drive in the jungle!
(Diamond Head, Honolulu, and Waikiki)
(view of the road) After the EXCITING ride, we headed back over to the East side of the Island and went to a great restaurant, called Haleiwa Joe's@ Haiku Gardens(a view looking at the garden and mountains from the restaurant)(some flowers in the garden) (a view from the gardens looking up at the restaurant)

(We also ate here on Sunday morning, and got some better pictures, I will post them later, so sorry if there's some of the same view)

I'm sorry if this seems to be dragging on forever. I have to post about each day we were there, or there would be one ginormous post, and I don't want to just do a slide show. Also I'm posting these for my future (journaling) reference, so sorry, there are just too many pictures to leave out (and I'm actually leaving out quite a bit as it is).

Hawaii- day 2

Tuesday, May 26

This is a picture of me waking up, just before Justin surprised me with "real" diamond earrings on our first morning there. Isn't that an awesome place to wake up?

For breakfast that morning we walked about 100 yards up the road to a little store, called Kaya's store and kitchen, where we got breakfast. Here is Justin with his spam musubi (fried spam, rice, egg, wrapped in seaweed) a local breakfast treat. I had all those ingredients, except the seaweed, served on a styrofoam tray (like the one we buy meat on). It was good, I was sceptical, but pleasantly surprised, and we didn't contract any weird diseases that we know of. I love this little church across the street from the store, right behind that is the beach!

After breakfast we went to "our beach" and hung out for the morning. I mostly waded around, and sat on the beach chair. Justin snorkeled and explored all morning.

In this picture you can see how far out the waves break on the reef. About 200 yards out from the beach the water is shallow, and clear. I loved it, no waves knocking you over, or with "scary" things hiding in them. That's Justin waving!

We ate at a place in La'ie called Papa Ole's, very local food, and it ended up being our favorite place for a mix plate (usually terryaki beef, rice, and mac salad). I think we ate there 4 or 5 times. We were looking at some flowers they had there in a bowl of water and they gave me one, so I stuck it behind my ear. I wish we could have brought some smells and sounds back with us!

We went to the famous La'ie point to the hole in the rock. It was rainy and overcast, but we watched some locals jump from the rock, which was very entertaining!

That afternoon we drove up North to Haleiwa and went to the famous Surf and Sea store, and got our first shave ice, we were so excited about it that we took lots of pics of it.

Justin eating his shave ice, with "Surf and Sea" behind him, across the street.

Sitting by the sign.

In front of the surf shop boards.

"Sandy feet" at sunset at Haleiwa beach.

Beautiful sunset! We had to have more shave ice!

This is a sweet shot of a guy on his paddle board in the sunset.

This conlcudes our second day there, stay tuned for more!!!

Hawaii day 1- the first day there- arrival

Just a bit of advice before I get started, if you ever go to Hawaii and can help it, don't come back!

Actually I could have done at least 3 more days(a month would have been good, two weeks of the trip without our kids, and two weeks with them, would have been perfect). But I'm VERY happy about the time we got to have in Hawai'i, and the kids somehow got a little cuter while we were gone. It was a very rewarding and renewing trip. We need to book the next trip there soon!!! Other than seeing my kids, it was hard to come back!

There are SO many pictures, I know it'll take quite a few posts so sorry. I'm going to have to try to categorize them by day.

Monday, May 25, 2009

The first time on the beach, just after we arrived, at our condo.

Justin showing off the lovely place we got to spend the week, from our lanai.

The yummy Shrimp Shack down the road where we had our first dinner-YUM-O!!

(I had coconut shrimp, Justin had garlic shrimp, and we shared the last corn on the cob they had that day)

We drove in style in a convertible, and with the top down if possible. I couldn't believe how close we drove to the ocean, or how amazingly beautiful it was, I took TONS of pictures while we were driving, they'll get better as the trip goes on!

There is a huge tree at a major intersection coming over to the East side of the island, next to a place called the Hygienic Store. There are people on the weekend selling tons of tropical flowers, so we stopped and bought some. There were also some trucks selling some island food there.

This was only the first few hours here, many more of our days we did so much more, but here's a good beginning. Most posts will probably have a lot more pictures!

We stayed in a town called Punalu'u, and it's near Laie, the BYU Hawaii and PCC town. We loved it on that side of the island. The night we went to Waikiki, and Honolulu I was glad we were staying where we did. Waikiki was like being in Vegas, but on the beach. It was so tropical, quiet, and peaceful, and we felt like we were getting some culture where we stayed.

MIA no more

Here is a glimpse of where we have been lost for the last 6 days! It's hard to leave, although I'm anxious to see the kids.

Here's where we've woken up the past 6 days.

(this is the sunrise, not the sunset, we stayed on the East side of the island)

This picture is taken from the lanai that our bed is in front of.

Rough huh?

Typical breakfast.

(Fried spam, breakfast sandwich, and macadamia pancakes with cream, butter and syrup)
We have had to eat one or two of these a day!

(This was a specialty shave ice with pineapple ice cream in the bottom, then pineapple all around it,pineapple syrup, sweet cream, and whipped cream and a cherry on top)
We've had an AMAZING week!!!!!

Stay tuned, there's about 300 more pictures to come!

The unthinkable

This weekend most of my family was here for my cousin's farewell. Sunday morning my Dad shocked us all by "surprising" us when he came downstairs from the shower with his "huffy puffy" mustache all shaved off. While you may think, "so whats the big deal?" Well my dad hasn't had a bald upper lip since I was 3, thats right folks, for 27 years.

While we were all in shock, and trying not to stare too hard, my sister had a fake mustache in her bag (from a Cinco de Mustache party, I know weird). So Izac and my dad had their picture together, Izac with mustache, my dad without. It'll take some getting used to(especially for my mom, I think she may have peeed her pants) but it's a nice change, and he'll probably be cooler this summer in the 100 degree weather.

The PARTY!!!

Here's Izac first thing in the morning with the loot we gave him!

All the friends at the party in their "cowboy wear"

The Cake

The Decorations

Making Cowboy Vests

Pin the Tail on the Horse

Izac wanted to do lassoing as one of the activities, Justin rigged this steer head with some wire hangers and made it work. A real practice steer head cost $30. (too much for this event) Then Justin had to help them all swing the rope, he was such a good sport, and pretty good for a "city" boy.

Opening gifts. He has some of the most generous friends! Thanks everyone!!!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Birthday Cake Eating

Piniata, we had to do something Cinco de Mayo, good thing they had a horse.

The "Proud" Cowboy

Alex and Kate, so cute sitting on the straw.

It was a success!!! It took a long time to recover, but we had a good ol' time!!!!