Okay....so technically this post should have gone BEFORE my Hawaii post. I did my marathon of piano recitals on Dec. 3rd--4 back-to-back recitals--and then loaded my family onto a plane on Sunday Dec. 4th at 5:30 a.m. I was just TOO excited about my Hawaii posts however this is an important event too:) I actually feel really bad about my kids in this recital. My attention was in soo many other places that this was definitely not their best recital:( Sorry guys!!! Mom's fault totally:) We're gonna be ULTRA-prepared for our May recital:) So here are my kids in their 2011 Christmas recital:
Max: "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Forest"
Ethan: "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Overture"
The Boys Duet: Silent Night (My personal favorite:)
Carlie: "Go Tell It On the Mountain" (She and I did not do a duet this year:( It was just one more thing that I could NOT do this year:)
Day 6: Our trip was quickly winding down:( But we HAD to hit the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial (this was on Lori's bucket list:) We went first thing in the morning as this was the Pearl Harbor anniversary week and the place was super busy! But we made it and got our tickets!!! As I said earlier, there was 35 Pearl Harbor survivors on O'ahu this week and so many of them were at the memorial to tell their stories, take pictures, sign autographs, etc. Here are my kids with some of the cutest old men I have ever met:
The kids were SUPER excited to be in Pearl Harbor as they have learned about it in school. We watched a very informative documentary before boarding the ferry to go out to the memorial. I did not know that the footage on this documentary is exclusive to this memorial and cannot be seen ANYWHERE else. I sure learned a ton. After the video, we hopped on the ferry to go out to the memorial:
The boys (especially Max) were fascinated to know that this memorial is actually a burial ground for many of the men on the U.S.S. Arizona. As the ship has been left exactly where it sank, so have the men who were entombed inside the ship. (Of course Max was looking for body parts floating the water but was disappointed.) It is amazing to be standing over this sunken ship:
And after 70 years, the ship is STILL leaking oil. No swimming is allowed in this harbor as it is considered toxic however, we saw fish swimming everywhere--must be mutant fish to live in water like this:
Another retired battleship--the U.S.S. Missouri--can be seen docked from the U.S.S. Arizona site.
After a fun and inspiring morning, we headed over to Haunamu Bay for some SERIOUS snorkeling.
Max was just SURE that he was NOT going to snorkel and that seeing all those fish would freak him out. I seriously spent 5 minutes teaching him what to do and he took RIGHT to it--seriously....it's like this boy was born to snorkel:) Of course Carlie and Ethan were all over the snorkeling thing too. We saw some AMAZING fish including the Hawaiian state fish: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Yes...I can say it!!! Lori had an underwater camera so I can't wait to see what she got!
All over this nature preserve are mongoose--or is it mongooses??? Anyways, the story goes that the Hawaiians wanted to get rid of the snakes so someone brought over a couple of mongoose to rid the island of snakes. Well...the snakes are now gone but mongoose are EVERYWHERE!!! They are like the Hawaiian raccoon and can be found in any trash can on the beach. So this is NOT a picture of a trash can--look at the weasel-like creatures all around it:
Day 7: Yes, sadly this day had to come:( Honestly, every time we go on a vacation, after a few days I think, "Yep..this has been fun but it's time to get back home." Well every time I'm in Hawaii, I could honestly stay another week. We just had such an amazing time and sure packed in a whole lot this week. The kids will remember this forever and that's what matters most to Chris and I. We've got to make these memories while they're young and still like to hang out with their families:) We spent our last morning on the beach of course before heading over to the airport. Flights were smooth and perfect both ways. Here are some of my favorite landscape pics of the week: Hawaiian Raibow:
Day Four: Today was the BIG day!!! December 7, 2011 marked the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Chris was INSANELY busy this day so we made sure to stay out of his way:)
We of course started the day at the beach:
Then my mom's MOST favorite event of the week....THE HAWAIIAN SWAP MEET!!! We bought plenty of great things and a few things that maybe I should have thought twice about:) (But this is SOOO Max right?! We have it hanging above his bedroom door now:)
Poor Tatum was DONE after walking for about 3 hours:)
We then had a nice relaxing lunch before heading over to the Honolulu Zoo--where I rented my poor little girl a stroller:) One of my MOST favorite trees in all of O'ahu is at the Honolulu Zoo. I have to take a picture of it every time I'm here! This is one of the oldest Banyan Trees on the island. The roots of these trees grown DOWN from the branches so these trees have the most interesting look to them as they have several "fingers" reaching back down to the ground from above.
The peacocks run wild in this zoo and they have NO respect for your personal space--YES! I have issues with fowls of ALL kinds stemming back from my childhood!!! Hate these things!
I'm not sure if everyone has this problem but my kids are NEVER tired of animals or petting zoos! Doesn't matter where we are or what animals are there, my kids WILL find them and pet them and name them:)
They had this awesome fish tank in the middle of the petting zoo. I did NOT see the tunnel that the kids were allowed to climb through as I was busy looking at the fish. All I knew was that suddenly my kids popped up right in the MIDDLE of the water!!! It seriously caught me off guard and for a second there, I thought they were IN the tank. Everyone laughed at me--good times:)
I really enjoy this zoo. It is smaller and more intimate and never very crowded. Here are some of the other animals we saw:
Then the MAIN EVENT!!! This was the FIRST annual Pearl Harbor Parade. Chris headed up all the events of this day. They had in attendance 35 Pearl Harbor survivors! All of these cute little old men were loaded into super fancy classic cars--which was quite a task in and of itself as many are wheel-chair bound--and driven down the main street of Waikiki--Ala Moana. There was even one 96 year old man that WALKED the ENTIRE parade route!!! It was an honor to be in the presence of these military men. (REALLY hard to get good pictures of moving things in the dark!)
The parade of course included many other entries such as Ms. Hawaii, 13 marching bands from all over the U.S., and my personal favorite...the Hawaiian State Champion Football team--Kahuku. The polynesians are very spirited people and this team was no exception. We got to see them up close and personal as they performed their own "Haka." My boys were FASCINATED by this and a little bit freaked out too:) I explained that they did this "war dance" before a game to scare their opponents. Well, my boys definitely agreed that the football team's "Haka" would do that. I found a recording of their 2011 Haka on youtube: (this is the exact "Haka"/players we saw:) (Max now makes up his own "Hakas" every day:)
There was another group of polynesians there from Fiji in the parade. One of the men was running around with a spear in his hand when he spotted Max and ran over to him to give Max a high five. Well, the only thing Max saw was the spear in the man's other hand. Freaked him out for a second. We had a good laugh about that AFTER Max gave him a high five:)
We had sent my dad home early with my mom, Carlie, and Tatum. There girls were DONE for the day so they went home. Max, Ethan, Lori, and I stayed until all the festivities were done for the evening so that Chris could ride back home with us. We were out until 2 am Arizona time (11 pm Hawaiian time). My poor boys crashed hard that night! That's the latest they've ever been up:) We skipped the beach this night:)
Day Five: We slept in a little this morning as we all needed some serious recovery! We then got dressed and headed over to Waimea Falls. This was something that neither Chris or I had ever done. HOLY MOLY!!! One of the most BEAUTIFUL places I have ever been. Absolutely stunning! We had a hike in front of us before we hit the actual waterfall:
My mom only made it about 1/4 mile and then parked herself on a bench to crochet:)
The kids were SUPER troopers:)
Once we reached the top, we were ready to jump in. The lake we swam in was about 30 feet deep so the kids all wore life jackets. We all used pool noodles too:) Tatum was the FIRST to jump in. That girl has NO fear of water (and she should cause she's NOT a proficient swimmer:)
Seriously...have you ever seen any landscape more beautiful?!
After Waimea, we went back to the house to get cleaned up and got ready to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC)!!! This was also a major highlight for us. Chris and I had been before but they had a new show that we had not yet seen--"Ha--The Breath of Life." A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!
We first watched the "Pagaent of the Long Canoe" with all of the different islands: (Hakas on several boats!!! Max was in heaven!)
The kids LOVED all of the different islands and their demonstrations. My favorite is still Somoa: (Someday, I'm going to climb a coconut tree too--it's just looks FUN:)
Look at these two Polynesian beauties:
Max's favorite...the Tahitians!!! Max shocked us all by volunteering himself out of the audience to go on stage and dance with a beautiful Tahitian dancer!!! I did not know if he was going to go through with it as he walked out on stage in a dress (a lave-lave) but he had NO hesitations whatsoever!!! SOOO proud of my little Makaweli!!! Here's the video:
Max won HANDS down on the cheering competition--okay...I was the loudest cheerleader but he still was the cutest:) He got a super cute headband--that he let me wear the rest of the day:)
TONS of good food+TONS of laughter+an AWESOME show=one AMAZING evening. Such an amazing place to visit and learn about the different Polynesian cultures. I sure left there feeling boring and white:)
Okay....we've been home for almost a week now so it's time I finally got to this post!!! We just had the most amazing trip to Hawaii. My hubby was head hauncho on all the Pearl Harbor festivities happening this year on O'ahu so we've known for a couple years now that he was going to be in Hawaii many times in 2011. So I told him about a year ago that I was going to fly out to Hawaii with the kids and that he could come and visit us if he wanted to:) But he of course arranged everything for us and found us the most amazing beach house to rent for the week. I invited my whole family but only my mom, dad, and a dear family friend, Lori Eighmey, could come--more room in the beach house for us:) Everyone else missed out for sure:)
Saturday night, the girls HAD to get pedis:)
So on Saturday, December 3rd, I had my marathon of piano recitals--4 back to back:) Then on Sunday, Dec. 4th, I woke up at 4:30 am to have all of my kids dressed and ready to head to the airport by 5:30 am--Chris left on Saturday so it was all up to me to get everyone moving in the right direction. Made it to the plane no problem and the 6 hour flight went wonderfully well. Here's my excited passengers:
We arrived in Hawaii and Chris met us at the airport with leis of course:) We drove right to our beach house on the northeast side of the island-- in the town of Laie which is right down the street from the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). The house was in an awesome location. The beach was right out our backyard. Here's the house:
This was the view from our backyard--the ocean is right behind the tree:
We had the FUNNEST rope swing that the kids (and my dad) had the best time on--again...right in our backyard:)
We arrived on Sunday morning around 11:30 am. Chris stayed the day with us before he actually had to go back to work--yes, he did actually have a lot to do from Sunday-Wednesday:) There were several coconut trees right around the house. The kids were SOO excited to see REAL coconuts. Chris had to show off his coconut opening skills--he's been to the PCC a few too many times. It took him a little longer than the Samoans but he did it! He got the coconut open:)
Day One: (Monday, Dec. 5th) So on our first morning in Hawaii, we hit the beach around 5:30 am (3 hour time difference between HI and AZ:) I thought the water would be too cold for the kids to get in but boy was I WRONG!!! Gorgeous beach and perfect water temps even at 5:30 am.
Funny story. Lori thought she was soo cool finding a big tangle of rope. She drug it out onto the beach to show us but apparently this rope hadn't been out of the ocean in a while because several fish and many crabs had adopted this rope as their reef. So as she was dragging it out, fish and crab we're falling out EVERYWHERE on the beach! We were all screaming and freaking out because we didn't want to TOUCH any of the sea creatures but they were now beached!!! So they we all were on our hands and knees swatting fish BACK into the water!!! We had a good laugh afterwards:) Way to go Lori!!! You almost wiped out an entire mini-ecosystem:)
After the beach, we drove over to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. In this picture, we are actually getting rained on--but it was one of those tropical rains that lasts for less than a minute:)
It was here that we learned all of the kid's Hawaiian names (and bought bracelets with their "new names") Carlie--Kalie (which means gracious and with great poise) Ethan--Ekana (which means strong and steadfast) Maxwell--Makaweli (which means the greatest of all--yep...Max NEVER lets us forget now:) Tatum--Kakumo (which means cheerful and full of spirit)
From here on Max decided that he wanted to permanently change his name to the Hawaiian form and refused to answer to "Max."
We rode the "Pineapple Express" which was a 20 minute train tour of the plantation.
The kids also loved feeding the humungo gold fish there:
We then spent the rest of the day shopping and then relaxing at our house:)
Day Two: My parents and I went a did a session at the Laie temple down the street. Lori and the kids had a great time at the beach while we were away:
Ethan was walking a little ways down the beach. He came to a little place called "Alligator Cove" when he stopped suddenly because he said he felt something BREATHING on his leg!!! He looked down and right in front of him was a sunbathing sea lion!!! Probably good that I wasn't there because I might have FREAKED OUT!!! It didn't do anything to him. I guess he just picked up his head and barked at Ethan. The sea lion stayed there ALL day! I came out to look at him several times. I was beginning to worry about him until I saw a native man walking by and I asked him if he thought the sea lion was okay or if we should call someone. He said, "Oh! That guy is there ALL the time!!! That's his favorite spot! He's completely fine." I felt much better after that. The kids then decided to name the sea lion "Dagger."
Later that afternoon we headed over to Kualoa Ranch which was an old sugar mill. The most BREATH-TAKING views there! We enjoyed walking around the area with plenty of room for the kids to run wild. They even had a little petting zoo there and just when we thought we had seen it all, the man at the petting zoo tells us to "Look up above your heads." And what would be there??? Well a goat OF COURSE!!! Apparently these are extreme mountain climbing goats as this goat was seriously about 15 ft in the air!!! He was just as happy as could be:)
We of course hit the beach again one more time before bed. So basically our schedule for the first three days: Wake up BEACH TIME! Breakfast BEACH TIME! Do some touristy things BEACH TIME! Eat dinner BEACH TIME! Fall asleep 100% happy and EXHAUSTED:)
This is the Meeker family residing in beautiful, sunny Chandler, AZ. Chris and I have 4 beautiful kids: Carlie (23), Ethan (21), Maxwell (18), and Tatum (16). Thanks for stopping by:)
