Wednesday on the island

We had tried to get tickets to Hanama Bay.  They become available two days ahead at 7am.  Joey and I were both on our computers ready to go at 7am.  By 7:02 all of the tickets were sold out.  We were bummed but decided to try to get stand by tickets.  We woke up super early and arrived at Hanama Bay right after 7:30am.  We were able to get stand by tickets for 9:10am.  We were told to wait on the grassy hill until our time was called.  We were so lucky that some people did not show up and we were able to go in at 8:40am.  It was so worth it.  All of Hawaii is beautiful but this took it to a whole new level.  The water was so clear.  The snorkeling was great.  We did not see as many fish but I loved that there was not as much coral.  After we snorkeled a bit we just hung out in the water.  The waves were mild and it was so much fun.  After a few hours we decided to leave.  We went and bought malasadas which were so delicious.  They are a Hawaiian donut.  If I lived here I would have to have these everyday.  We made our way home to relax a bit.  After some relaxing, I took the kids to our beach to relax for the afternoon.  Seriously my favorite!  We ordered Dominos pizza for dinner and spent the rest of the night relaxing.  I am loving this vacation and all of the family time.

Tuesday in paradise

Today was another day that I thought we had no plans but again Joey surprised us.  We went to Waimea Falls and did a hike.  Everyone except for Tag was excited about this activity.  It was such a beautiful hike.  I could not believe all of the beautiful flowers.  There was one spot that was so beautiful- it was green grass surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers.  I told Joey that I would love to get my book and just read in this serene spot.  Minus the griping from Tag, it was a pretty perfect hike.  After the hike we went over to Waimea beach so the boys could jump off the "jumping rock". They started at the lower level and took turns jumping off into the water.  After they mastered that level, they moved up and jumped off the highest point.  I was so impressed.  They all had a great time.  After a bit we left that beach and returned to the condo.  Gray and Luke just wanted to rest so I took Nash, Tag, and Har to Turtle Bay Beach.  I laid there and read my book while they swam in the water.  It really could not be more perfect and more relaxing.  I seriously love this place.

Monday on Oahu

Today we woke up thinking that we had no plans.  I thought we would just spend the day at our beach but Joey had other plans. I love this about Joey.  He is not one to sit around and he always gets us out and seeing new things.  So we dressed in our swimsuits and made our way to Shark's Cove.  I was determined to conquer my fear of snorkeling.  I am so glad that I did.  We saw some of the most amazing fish.  Harlee and I also saw a turtle.  It was so beautiful.  After some time at Shark's Cove Joey took us to "Pounders" beach.  This was a beach that Joey had gone to while he was in Hawaii after he lived in Korea.  The waves were crazy.  I have such a fear of being in the ocean since when I was younger and got pulled under by a wave in California.  But I decided to conquer this fear also.  I am so glad that I did.  It was so fun.  I jumped the waves with Tag and we all had the best time.  The waves just kept coming.  If you got knocked down by the waves it was almost impossible to get up before the next one came. We will definitely need to come back to this beach.    After we went home and rested a bit, we went and picked up dinner for a picnic on the beach to watch the sunset.  It seriously felt like a dream.  Relaxing on the beach, watching the sun go down, surrounded by my favorite people.  It really doesn't get better than this.

Sunday in Hawaii

We woke up early this morning and got on the road to Pearl Harbor.  We could not get tickets for the boat ride to the US Arizona but we hoped that there would be a way to find tickets while we were there.  We got to Pearl Harbor, checked in our bag, and made our way in.  We went through a couple of museums.  It was so humbling to read the stories of some of the people involved in the bombing.  Some of us were a little more into it than others.  We found out that we could wait in a standby line to get tickets to ride the ferry over to the US Arizona.  We had to wait about an hour but we were able to take the ferry.  It was a a sacred experience to see the long list of names of lives lost.  Tag was really struggling and thought this activity was so boring.  We knew that after the boat it was time to go.  We left Pearl Harbor and made our way to Costco to grab lunch and a few more things to get us through the week.  When we left Pearl Harbor we drove to the condo by going around the other way.  We drove through Waikiki and it was so crazy how many people were there.  It made me so grateful that we stayed on the North Shore.  We tried to go to Hanama Bay but they closed at 3pm.  So we drove around the rest of the island.  When we got home we changed and made our way back to our beach. The weather was perfect and it was so relaxing.  When we got home we picked up dinner and then I braided Luke's hair at his request. It was another perfect day.  Cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.

First full day in paradise

As I woke up this morning I could not believe that I was waking up in Hawaii.  What a dream!  Before we could even change out of our pajamas, Joey suggested we walked to the beach.  In less than 5 minutes we were on a beautiful private beach.  This was one of the perks of staying in a condo on the Turtle Bay resort.  It was so beautiful and I could not wait to spend every day of our vacation here.  We went home and got Luke and Gray, changed into our swimsuits and we were back at the beach.  We brought some snorkel gear and there were some big fish that the kids saw.  The beach was more like a cove so there were not many waves.  This was so nice for the kids just getting use to being at the beach.  After a few hours at the beach, we went home for lunch.  We showered and got ready to go explore a little more of the island.  We were to Matsumoto's shaved ice and it totally lived up to it's hype.  We all enjoyed shaved ice over vanilla ice cream.  Then we drove to see the Hawaiian Temple.  It was so beautiful and all of the missionaries were so kind.  We then drove to see BYU Hawaii.  I still cannot believe we are here.  We grabbed some dinner on the way home.  We were all exhausted so we went to bed early.  Tomorrow we are planning on going to Pearl Harbor.  When we planned this vacation, Pearl Harbor was one place that they all wanted to go so it should be a great experience.