Hawaii!

We decided to book a last hurrah trip before Lizzie moved out to Hawaii right after graduation. Marsha ended up coming with us. It was an awesome trip! I'm so glad we did it. The flight out was ROUGH though. Eve was wired and not wanting to settle down and even watch anything on the ipad. It felt like constantly entertaining her and she was constantly moving around. She wasn't really upset or crying, just difficult. There was a mom with a baby and a toddler near us, though, so it was hard to complain. She finally fell asleep when we basically forced her to lay down and she slept for the end of the flight, luckily. 

The other kids all did great on their devices so we didn't have to worry about them much. We landed to a beautiful rainbow!

We made it to Honolulu and drove to Waikiki. We were so hungry and found a restaurant with an open table for us. It was our most expensive meal of the trip but at least it was quite delicious. It was right on the beach and Eli and I had fun putting our feet in for a second while we waited for a table.

 After that, we decided to go to Lappert's for ice cream, which was probably a mistake since the line was so long and we got into our place really late. Of course the ice cream was amazing though. 

Then we drove the hour to North Shore where we stayed in a condo at Turtle Bay. Arriving at our place was one of the worst moments of our trip. I was following directions from Vrbo and they seemed to be outdated since there wasn't a gate code like they said there was so we didn't know if we were in the right place. I kept trying the door code on the wrong door. Everyone was exhausted. We finally figured out where the right place was and got in but the place was so hot. Also, there wasn't air conditioning like they said there was--just some window units and fans. The kids were all miserable and hot but once we slept, things looked much better. 

The next day, we went to a beach at Turtle Bay near us and then decided to go a better beach instead. Joe found a mini gecko:

 We went to Sunset Beach which I had loved the last time I was in Oahu. 

We had a lot of fun snorkeling around and playing in the water. Joe found a dead octopus. 

I didn't realize that the waves are much smaller in the summer so the kids were a little disappointed in that but we had fun. That afternoon we had tickets to the Polynesian cultural center. We got cleaned up but I couldn't convince everyone to go early so we'd have lots of time. I guess I didn't sell it well enough. So, it ended up that we didn't have enough time there to see all the exhibits but we saw some and we went on the little boat tour. Nate managed to catch a little fish and spear a coconut so I guess he should be an islander :). 

Then we went to the luau there, which was super fun. The food was all delicious (especially the pina coladas!) and the entertainment was awesome too. We all loved that. Our kids always love a buffet.

Natalie went up with Eve to do a little dance demonstration and it was so cute:

Some more pics from that night:

I always love going for morning walks in Hawaii:

The next day we went snorkeling at Shark's Cove. Everyone LOVED that. We weren't very nice to Marsha, though, and should have had her snorkel for the first time in a sandy place. She got scraped up on some rocks coming in, unfortunately. It was so cool seeing a turtle super up close and all the cool fish.

We went to Matsumoto's after that for shave ice, which was delicious. I actually tried it with the beans this time and I liked it, surprisingly enough.

Joe wanted to drive around the island that day but the girls were done and Eve needed a nap. The boys wanted to stop at a beach so Joe dropped me and them off and the girls at home and then he and Marsha went on the drive. 

The boys ended up staying in the ocean the entire time they were gone! We were all tired that night.

The next day we went to Waimea Falls. I'd never been there before and that was really fun. We all loved swimming in the pool and going under the waterfall.

I love this series:

Eve decided she was done on the walk back to the car:

On Sunday we went to church in the morning. We happened to see our good friends the Childs from Fremont there! It was super fun catching up with them. It was a great testimony meeting with some powerful testimonies from 3 different grandmothers, one of whom just lost her daughter suddenly only a few days before. We'd planned on going to Pearl Harbor that day but I wasn't able to get tickets the day before. We still decided to go to Honolulu anyway and went to the swap meet. It was hot!

Eli picked out that ukulele.

We also got malasadas at Leonard's (just as good as I remembered). This was waiting for them with Nate in the hat he bought at the swap meet: 

We stopped at a beach with big waves on our way home. It was Sandy Beach and it had some intense waves that were really shallow so it was kind of dangerous. There were lots of warnings about swimming and that beginners shouldn't be out there but there were also tons of people out there. The girls couldn't pass up the chance to actually play in some waves. I was worried at first but Joe went out with them and they were being safe. Then a lady came up and told me about how people break their necks and backs there all the time. That made me more nervous. I made Eve hold my hand the whole time we played in the surf. Joe came home and I went out with the girls. It was super fun but I did get rocked when there was a double wave and I didn't go under both of them. Soon after that a lifeguard came out on a jetski and I thought he was going to make everyone come in but he was just warning us again. I decided I was done and started coming in but then I was right in the wave zone and got rocked again. I think it was my fault that at that point the lifeguard said through his bull horn--"you 3 girls right there need to come in". We went in but started to feel kind of bugged about getting called out like that since we were the only women out there. The girls were both doing fine so it was probably my fault. Oh well, it was better that way and we were glad we were all fine. It was nice getting some good wave time in.

I loved these ones back at the condo:

The next day we met the Childs at the Waimea Beach. That was calm like a bath but perfect for Eve. It was fun catching up with them and it wasn't awkward at all. They also had some fun cliffs you could jump off there. We were all impressed with Nate who was jumping off like it was nothing. He used to be so scared of that but not anymore. This time it was Eli who got up there and waited forever but couldn't do it. Maybe next time :).

One thing I loved was getting food at Seven Brothers. Eli and I had it like 3 times!

We definitely got some sun!

Joe took this picture one morning:

I took a last morning walk:

We were finally able to get Pearl Harbor tickets for our last day so we took it easy in the morning and then did that. That was very sobering but neat to be there and see it. 

After we got home, all of us (except Lizzie and Marsha) wanted to have one last time swimming in the ocean so we went to turtle bay to swim. It was a beautiful night and I loved playing in the surf with Eve while everyone else snorkeled. For some reason she started yelling "Suck it all up baby girl" at the ocean and was cracking me up. Joe ended up finding a spear fishing stick on the ocean floor and actually speared a fish with it! We thought that was probably illegal but found out later that it wasn't thankfully :). It was a great way to end our trip. He actually went back the next morning to go snorkeling one last time before we left.

All too soon it was time to go home. We were pretty exhausted by the end but they went pretty smoothly. We made it home at 4am and tried to get some sleep.

Still wanting to play in the middle of the night:

It was a wonderful trip!