Hawaii - Day Five: Church and Zoo 7/24/2011

On Sunday we went to church.  This church was just beautiful!  It had an amazing temple-like fountain in front with all these flowers.

And an Amazing Jesus Fresco at the front!  I never would have believed this was on an LDS chuch, but here it is!

Cady and I, of course, picked flowers for behind our ears... and then noticed the signs asking not to pick the flowers.  Oops!

We then went home, changed, and started walking to the Zoo.  We walked through this cool park that had the trees with the vines, and the kids had a grand time climbing them.

Randy of the Jungle!

We eventually got to the zoo, and the first thing we saw were the flamingos.  Scott had apparently never seen flamingos before, and he was just flabbergasted that they actually look like the lawn art flamingos!  

Apparently Cady understands that she should be on the other side of the fence, and kept climibing it.

This zoo was pretty cool because you could get very close to the animals.  Of course it was all safe, but they were all just right there!

I liked this picture a lot.  It wasn't on purpose, but Scott and Randy matched today!  Like father, like son.  Randy sure does love Scott and looks up to him in every way.  Scott's such a wonderful dad for him.

You can't tell what this is very well, but you can see the tiger tail in the glass on the right.  Our little "Tony the Tiger" when he saw the tiger went right up to it and said:  "Hey!  I'm Tony the Tiger!  You think you're gonna get me?  Well I'm gonna get you first!  I'm Tony the Tiger, so take that!"  Just the cutest thing in the world!  You can't tell, but he's yelling at the tiger right now.  It must have just been after feeding time, 'cause the tiger looked at him, yawned, and went to sleep.  We were hard pressed to pull Tony away from this display, though.  He loved them.

Right here we're at the monkey cage, and the monkeys are shrieking and screaming and peeing all over each other and having a regular ol' fight, and what's Tony looking at and begging me to see?  The ants!

There were peacocks all over the place just wandring around.  The kids had a kick out of being so close to them and their big long feathers.

Hawaii - Day Four: Hanauma Bay 7/23/2011

Saturday was the day we had decided to go to Hanauma Bay.  We had heard a lot about it, and were very eager to spend some time there, but Saturday was the best day for our schedule.  With that in mind, we decided to get there as early as we possibly could.  We were somewhere around car number five in line when the gates opened, so the beach was pretty well deserted.

Hanauma Bay is a natural bay with a coral reef in it that is famous for its snorkeling.  It's pretty well protected from crazy currents and predators, and it's just phenomenal.  We got there early enough that we got to see the sunrise at the beach!

Unfortunately, we got our times mixed up a bit, and we ended up having to wait around for an hour or so until they started renting out the scuba gear.  Lucky for us, Tony has got right into comedy act and entertained us for the duration.

This kids is a born comedian!

I didn't take any pictures of us snorkeling, 'cause, well, my camera's not waterproof.  But it was amazing!!  Even Tony was able to get over his fear and learned to just float and let the water take him where it would and see the cool fish!  He's certain he saw Nemo.  Some other highlights were the sightings of huge parrot fish, eels, and an octopus! We also make the discovery that Scott is afraid of octopus.

We left around 11 just as the beach was beginning to pick up. 

After cleaning up and resting a big, we walked to the mall and went to Bubba Gump's restauruant!  It was a cute Forrest Gump-themed restaurant

The kids fell in love with the hang loose sign.

Look at Cady's tan after a day of laying her stomach in the water!

We started the day on the beach, and that night, we walked across the street to the beach and did a sunset swim.

 

This is the panorama of our beach.  When we told people we were staying in Waikiki, they said the beaches there were crazy, and they'll be no fun.  We obviously were not in the main part of Waikiki, and we were not daunted by the crowds at all.

A pose like this is the reason why we showered three times a day, and each shower we lost half our weight in sand.  But isn't he a handsome boy?

Hawaii - Day Three: Relaxing and the temple 07/22/11

After our long day at the PCC, we planned to sleep in and just relax.  We went across the street and found out the joys of waves.  The kids just had so much fun being chased and knocked down by them.  For myself it was just so dang relaxing to be in the warm water has it ebbed and swelled.  I could stay in it forever.

The minute we got to the beach, before we'd even gotten into the water, the kids were pestering us to be able to build a sand castle.  They were so excited about it!  They didn't always completely understand that if they built it too close to the water, it was going to be washed away, so there was a lot of re-building, but there were absolutely no complaining.  As for Randy, we couldn't pry those goggles off of him to save our lives.  Too funny.

There was sand everywhere!  And this is Tony after we washed him off.

The boys had fun doing sand wars.  I was a little concerned that it would hurt when it hit them hard, but nope.  They had tons of fun tackling and sneak attacking each other.

Here is Tony after one of the many sand fights.

And look at our boy!  He's spelling his name all on his own!

 This was one of my very favorite times of the trip watching Tony use his imagination to play with the little army men while we were waiting for Scott to get our rental car.  I love it when the kids use their imaginations!

After we relaxed on the beach, Scott and I headed up to the temple.  One of Scott's buddies from the mission who lives next door to the temple offered to watch the kids while we went through a session.  Of course we got there and hadn't checked the schedule and there wasn't starting for another two hours.  Curses!  Isn't that always how it goes???  We ended up doing some sealings and initiatories, though, so it was totally worth it.  After, we walked around the temple and tried to take some pictures.  By this time, the kids were good 'n' fed up with the incessant clicking, so it was tough to get any good ones.

But they were very enthusiastic about the crazy face pictures!

I don't know about your kids, but my kids can't pass up a pool of water that they can reach in and touch. It was tough getting them not to just jump right in and splash around!

After the temple, we went to get some traditional Hawaiian shaved ice with Elder Ormsby (maybe I should know his first name.  Their mission was nearly a decade ago, but I have no idea).  We got one for the kids, and one for me and Scott.  Next thing we know there are screams from the booth behind us and above is what we saw.  I was very proud that instead of yelling, I just took a picture.

Another one of those times I was so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost came later that night.  We got home and decided to go swimming in the pool at our condo.  The kids changed into their bathing suits and ran downstairs to jump in the pool.  Pretty quickly they realized they forgot Tony's life vest and their goggles.  Scott went back up to get them, but got sidetracked and it was taking him ages to get back down to the pool.  After lots of begging from Tony for his life vest and Randy and Cady for their goggles, I got my keys to go upstairs.  I had gotten all the way to the door to go upstairs when I suddenly felt strongly like I should stay and just wait for Scott.  I went back to my bench and started clicking away with my camera the kids playing.  Within 30 seconds, above is what I saw.  Initially I thought it was just Randy being a nice older brother and playing with his brother.  What you don't see is that he's in the middle off the pool bobbing further down the slope as it gets deeper and he is freaking out because he has lost control of the situation and can't keep himself, and therefore his brother, afloat.  Thank goodness I was there.  Even just a quick run up to the condo would have been absolutely disasterous.  And thank goodness I listened to the promptings of the Spirit when I was told not to go upstairs - even if it was just for a quick minute.

Had I not, my two boys' lives could have been very, very different.  I love you, Randy and Tony!

We would like to give a special shout-out to Uncle Chuck.  Two years ago he gave us High School Musical 1 and 2.  High School Musical 2 has a beach theme, and all week long we were hearing the kids sing the songs.  Here Cady is being Sharpay and singing "Fabulous!"  Even as I'm typing it, I'm singing that dang song.

Our plan for tomorrow is to go to Hanauma bay and go snorkling.  We got the kids a snorkle suit so they could practice in the pool.  Stay tuned for the highlights of our fun day at Hanauma Bay!

Hawaii - Day two: The PCC 07/21/11

A lot of people asked us if we were excited about all the yummy food we were going to eat now that we were out of isolated Juneau, and boy oh boy were we!  But not so much the food that is native to Hawaii, but more about the Chili's, and Outbacks and Dairy Queens!  So here we all are, so happy for our first meal at IHOP!  Oh so good!

After breakfast, we had a little time to wander around before we had to meet the tour bus to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC).  We rented a condo in Malibu right across from the Hawaiian Hilton Village.  The kids were just amazed at the beauty of it!  There were fish ponds and fountains all around, and we were hard pressed to convince the kids they shouldn't catch the fish.

I mean look at that!  Isn't it a beauty?  The Hilton had a little wading pool that wasn't connected to the ocean that was a nice warm up for the ocean the first day.  I think it was just for the Hilton guests, but whatever.  What I liked is that they raked the sand first thing in the morning!  Can you imagine being a sand raker as a profession?  

 The flowers were awesome!  These were just flowers that were just laying on the floor.  These were junk flowers!

The kids love their papa!  Either that or they love their papa's phone.  Whatever.

We're so happy we went to the PCC first, and as part of the package, they bussed us around the entire island and showed us the hot tourist spots.  It was great because some of the spots we were planning on visiting we visited and said meh, and other places we were iffy on we got excited about.  Here we are overlooking the beach from Diamondhead.

Some things never change.  Tony Parkours in Juneau, and Tony Parkours in Hawaii.

Here we are at the Dole Plantation.  You know, we had heard that pineapple in Hawaii was like nothing you've ever had before.  Whatever... but they were right!  The pineapple itself was enough to make us want to come back a second day!  But isn't this tree cool?  It's a Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree.

We finally got to the PCC, and while it was cool, we had a TERRIBLE tour guide!  We saw all these cool things that all the other people were doing, and he would just walk right by them.  We did a LOT of sitting around waiting for this show or that.  The shows were good, but it would've been nice to do some activities.  But this guy was freakin' hilarious!

There was a fun show that had all of the Polynesian dancers from all of islands.  

The one activity we did get to participate in is the Tongan spear toss.  Apparently when there are disagreements in Tonga, one way they're settled is by tossing a spear to a certain spot, and whomever is closest wins the argument!  None of our kids won the argument.  :-(

We were excited to get out of Juneau so we would get out of the rain.  Of course, Hawaii has just as much rain as Juneau!  It was nice that it felt like a warm shower, though.  And very cool that it absolutely downpoured for 10 minutes, and then it was sunny for the next few hours.  But people were looking at us like we were crazy as we were just walking around like nothing in the pouring down rain.

The food was AMAZING at the PCC!!  They did a traditional Hawaiian boar roasting where they bury the boar underground and cook it.  So tasty!  And the men carrying the boar weren't too bad, either!

 Isn't our family lovely?  There was a program in the evening in the outdoor, and here we are waiting for the show to begin in the evening.

The show was fantastic (six months later Tony's still talking about the guy who got hit by the spear and did he die for real?).  And there was another one of those fun torrential rains to run through to the bus!  These are the faces of some very happy people at the end of the night!