Hawaii 2011--Days 4 & 5

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:)