Hawaii 2011--Days 1, 2, & 3

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:)