Hawaii!! Day 2

  We woke up bright and early - thanks to a good 4 hour time zone swing.  We got up and headed to Diamond Head.  This is a dormant volcano, 300,00 years old (!) that has been made into a state park.  It's a .8 mile hike, and a bunch of stairs, to the top.  Definitely got the heart pumping.  But the views were worth it!  It was awesome!

,

View from the top of Diamond Head -

looking at Honolulu

 After we got down from Diamond Head we headed to the beach.  The kids were about to mutiny Derek and I that we had been in Hawaii for almost 24 hours and had yet to get to the beach.  So off we went to beautiful Waikiki.  

Our apartment came with boogie boards

As I sat on the beach, this was my view in both directions.

No wonder Waikiki is so famous!

   After playing in the water for hours we were starving.  Kristie had told me that Cheeseburger in Paradise was a must - and she was right!

I think every person licked their plate clean!

The statue of Duke Kahanamoku - the father of modern surfing

  After we had lunch we headed to Hanauma Bay.  This is a nature preserve that makes for excellent snorkeling.  It took everybody a minute or two to get the hang of it, but by the end of the day we were pros.  It was so fun to see different kinds and colors of fish.

  That night Derek took the 3 big kids to walk around downtown Honolulu.  I stayed in the apartment with Logan - who again laid down on the hardwood floor while I made up his bed.  They all loved walking downtown with thousands of others.  And eating shave ice.  Of course shave ice.

Hawaii!! Day 1

Oh my gosh - the day finally came!!  We waited a long six months for our Hawaiian vacay to come - and it came!!  Our flight was a super early one - leaving our house at 5:30 - but totally worth is when we landed in Honolulu at 1:30 that afternoon!  My mom drove us to the airport - and the kids were 90% excited, 10% tired.

At the airport - Hawaii here we come!

2 parents, 4 kids, 11 carry on's and a partridge in a pear tree

Going through security

Not awesome. I'd stuffed snacks in every available nook and cranny

and apparently food has to be hand inspected.

That poor security guy doesn't get paid enough for what we put him through.

On the flight - and ready to go!
We had a quick layover in LA

2 cute boys had to do homework on the flight -

 but worth it to skip a week of school!

Oh the TV's .... it didn't take long to figure out that 

an endless supply of movies is pretty awesome during a 

5 hour flight.  Didn't mind that 5 hours at all.

  We couldn't check into our apartment (we rented an Airbnb apartment - in downtown Honolulu, just a 2 minute walk from Waikiki) until 4:00 and we landed at 1:30.  So after we picked up our rental car we drove around downtown for a bit.  We stopped for a minute at the state capital (not everyone's first stop in Hawaii I'm sure!) because Logan has a love for state capital buildings.  In every capital we've driven through - we always do a drive by of the capital building.

                                   

Hawaii State Capital

                                    

We quickly fell in love with banyan trees - they are the coolest!

I told the kids about their awesome aerial roots -and we pointed them out for the rest of our trip. 

Banyan trees are the coolest!  I want one!

   After we saw the capital building we realized we had enough time to do Pearl Harbor.  We'd planned on going there the next day, but were excited to get it in a day early.  

The USS Arizona Memorial

On the boat ride out to the memorial

The USS Arizona - still above and below the water

Leaving the memorial

   Visiting Pearl Harbor was awesome.  I learned so much!  I didn't even know that Hawaii was only a US territory when Pearl Harbor got bombed - it wasn't a state for another 10 years!  Am I the only one who didn't know that??  They are also still putting Pearl Harbor survivors' ashes down in the USS Arizona, for those who want to be buried with their fallen shipmates.  I thought that was such a sweet sentiment.  The memorial was so nicely done to honor those men who died there.  Derek could have stayed for hours and hours, and the kids were all thankful that they kicked us out at 5:00!

   After Pearl Harbor we were ready for dinner.  Derek had seen a Lahaina's Chicken restaurant inside the airport and wanted to find one of those for dinner.  Derek is all about local eats - no chain restaurants when we're on vacation! We put it in the GPS and headed off to dinner.  Little did we know that Lahaina's Chicken would be in a mall food court - but there it was!  And we ate our first dinner at the Honolulu mall - jokes abounded about how when we go to Hawaii all we want to see is the capital building and the mall!

Lahaina's Chicken - at a mall food court

   After dinner we headed to our apartment and checked in.  It was fun to be in one of the high rises of downtown Honolulu and the kids loved being on the 8th floor up.  After we checked in, the fatigue started to set in.  Before I could make up the pull out bed for the boys, poor Logan could only lay down on the hard wood floor.  He was so tired!  I put Logan to bed and Derek and the girls ran out to grab some groceries for breakfast.   After they got back we got all settled for the night - and excited to start a full day in Hawaii!

One passed out traveler

The view from our apartment - the homes are built right up the face of the hillside in Honolulu - 

with steep sides that they can't build on so it's all lit up in the middle, 

and pitch black everywhere else.

Emily's New Look!

Emily is the latest and greatest member of the Glasses Club.  This is the third fall we've added members ... Tyler in 2015, Bailey in 2016, and now Emily. 

 I should book Logan's appointment for next fall right now.  

She does look adorable and had "no idea how blind I was!"

Should Not be Surprised

This is what happens when you put a flower pot under a basketball hoop.  

 Poor little mums never even saw it coming.  

When I asked Logan about it he just said, "yeah, sometimes the ball

goes over the backboard."

Horseback Riding

  For Christmas my parents gave us a gift certificate to take the whole family horseback riding.  This is completely new to my kids - everyone but Logan has ridden a horse a few times, but I don't think Logan has ever ridden a horse.  So we were all so looking forward to this. 

   I had scheduled it for a Monday night - and then the rain and cold weather set in.  The gal from the ranch called me and asked me if I wanted to reschedule so we could get better weather.  So we rescheduled for the next Saturday night.  I checked the weather all week long! I was so worried about more rain and more cold temperatures, because I knew we were rapidly running out of season.  

   Saturday came and we had the best weather!  The sun came out all day - drying up the ground so we didn't have mud, but also didn't have any dust.  It was still chilly, but not too cold and definitely dry.  I was so thankful!

   We met our cowboy guide, Bryan, and he got us all set on our horses.  The kids were loving getting on a horse, calling it by name, and looking awesome.

Bailey and Sunny


Emily and Cap (short for Captain)


Logan and Sweetie


Tyler and Britches

In the corral, getting ready to ride!

     Then we took off on the trail.  We rode for 2 1/2 hours up and down hills and through some beautiful scenery.  We quickly realized that Bailey and Logan should have switched horses - Bailey's little Sunny was super lazy, and was always bringing up the rear.  Bryan would yell to her to "kick him!" or to use the little whip attached to her saddle and "smack him in the butt!" - but Bailey just couldn't bring herself to do it.  She'd try, but be so soft about it, Sunny just kept up his very slow pace.  Then there was Logan and Sweetie - Sweetie had no problem keeping up with Bryan.  But Logan was kicking and whipping away!  Now don't worry about Sweetie - Logan's too little to inflict any actual pain.  Logan was always 6 inches away from Bryan's horse.  I'm sure little Sweetie was thinking "where do you want me to go??  I'm as close as it gets!"  Definitely got the wrong kid on the wrong horse.

                                     

                                     

 Here we are the top of an amazing overlook

Derek and Jack, Bailey and Sunny, Logan and Sweetie, me and Kip,

Emily and Cap and Tyler and Britches

   We had a great time - the horses would trot and the kids would laugh and laugh.  We had to keep the horses from eating grass - a not easy task for Derek who quickly named Jack "Hungry Jack".  When we got back to the corral we were all stiff and walked a little funny.  We had the best time - and would love to go back!  

   Thanks mom and dad for a great gift!

Happy Day!

  After 31 long months of braces Tyler is finally done!!  These braces have not been easy - he's had one million appointments and one million canker sores from the dang things.

Check out those straight teeth!

His nice orthodontist rewards every braces survivor

with a carmel apple.

Enjoy the sticky carmel, enjoy biting into an apple.

Tyler has looked forward to this apple for a long time!