Hawaii Day 4 (Monday)

On Monday, my parents went back to work at the PCC. We decided to get breakfast, go snorkeling, then later spend the rest of the day at the PCC. This place was AWESOME!!! It is pricey, but in my opinion well worth it!!

 Snorkeling was fun but Aimslee was the only kid to really enjoy it. It started sprinkling on us and Rusty and Ashlyn got too cold. They did see some fish, but 5 minutes in the water was good enough!

 The food was terrific! We ate lunch with my parents at the PCC before seeing the rest of the place. Dar tried their fish and chips and I had a meat pie. The kids had their 'corn dog' but it was really a polish sausage in batter. Ashlyn was starting to fever so nothing really seamed to satisfy her much!

 Pictures of the PCC.








.Ashlyn did wake up and enjoy watching the 'hip-shakers' from Tahiti. That was her favorite dance.





We watched some of the shows before finding a place to sit for the canoe parade.






Each canoe has dancers from that island and somehow they dance, while the boat is moving, without falling off.... AND with a smile. Talk about multi-tasking!!!

These are just a few of the canoes I got, but I don't remember where they were all from.

 These dancers were our favorites, they are the ones who do the real Hakka. It was amazing to hear them sing in harmony and dance.

 The person who was pushing this boat got a little excited and fell off while they were dancing. I thought it was funny, but found out later he does that for every show!

 This guy was playing the flute for the island of Hawaii. We noticed he was playing it kind of funny then realized he was blowing air out of his nose! We asked him about it and it is indeed a nose flute that they play because they believe the air that comes out of the nose is the purest air because it does not get mixed up with the words that make our air from our mouths unpure.





This guy was pretty funny. He mostly talked the entire time but showed us how to break open a coconut, get the coconut milk and starting a fire with wood. Darwin liked him so much he asked if he would come home with us and teach our scouts!!! Sadly, he did not make the trip home with us.

 We stayed there until the shows were over then met my parents at the buffet for dinner. We mostly just watched the shows and the parade this day then had plans to go back the next day for the activities. Overall, it was a great day!

Hawaii Day 3 (Sunday)

On Sunday, we went to church with my parents. Actually, since they attend the college ward, we only went to Sacrament meeting for the lack of primary. We made up for it though and spend the next few hours at the Visitor's Center (open 7 days a week) and temple grounds.

 






The Temple grounds were beautiful and the center had fun things for the kids to see also!

As we got home, it rained the rest of the day. The rain falls so magically, kind of like snow; soft and lightly. We decided to stay indoors the rest of the day and Nana and Papa helped the kids make their own lei's. Aimslee chose to do a rainbow one because Hawaii was the rainbow state. Rusty did red because it was his Aunt's favorite color. Ashlyn chose pink because.... well.... she loves pink and it was sparkly!

I absolutely love my crazy kids!!!!

Hawaii Day 2 (Saturday)

Saturday was filled with swimming, hiking, rock-climbing, and another waterfall.

We were able to go to a place called "China-man hat" where you walk in the water (during low-tide) all the way the the little island behind us. When we reached the little island, we hiked and in some places rock-climbed to the top. It was a beautiful view, but we were unable to get a picture because the camera would have gotten wet. When it was time to go down, it was very difficult. They paths were steep, and even muddy in parts, and it was very hard and scary for my kids. I was proud of them for doing conquering the mountain.

Some of the view around us. We even got to see a turtle wondering around in the grass.

 After that, we changed into regular clothes left to Waimea Falls and saw a lot of beautiful plants, a peacock, and another waterfall. Here are some of my favorites.

 This was a game they played, it's a mixture of chinese checkers and regular checkers only it's not about who has the most stones left over on the board but who made the last move.

 The waterfall was beautiful and COLD!!! They made everybody wear life jackets but it was worth it! My dad was there also, but was taking the picture.

 These plants look like our typical house plants, but they grew on the branches inside the trees. They were so pretty!

 This one was my favorite tree by far! At first, I thought they glued little leaves on the tree trunk, but quickly realized this is how they grow. It went from the bottom of the tree to the top in a perfect spiral. It is amazing at some of the plants God has created!!!



I'm not sure what these were but they looked like coconuts hanging on a vine.

Hawaii Day 1 (Friday)

We finally made it to Hawaii!!!! My parents have been living in Oahu for a year and a half on a mission to the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) and we were lucky enough (with the help of tax returns) to visit them. We got there late at night and was wide awake at 5 a.m. (8 a.m. Az time). We had planned on having a nice relaxing first day but that was not my parents plans!! They took the day off to be with us and right away we were busy. We went to a few beaches, hikes, visit to the banyan trees and had a picnic!

I knew she was half monkey!!!

This was the first time actually swimming in the ocean. They loved it!!! Boogie boarding was fun, but it took the kids a while to get the hang of it!

 One of the things that the kids desperately wanted to do was bury Dar in the sand.
They did a great job!!

Our hike was a fun one and we had to cross the river 13 times to get to the waterfall at the end. It was beautiful!! It wasn't too deep, but deep enough to swim in and play on the rope swing. I even jumped off of the top of the waterfall. I touched the ground, but it was still fun!


These things were awesome!!! We called them sleepers, although I'm not sure if that is the real name!

We decided to eat at the buffet at the PCC for dinner and it was beautiful!!!! I was so amazed at how big and open it was and all of the woodwork and paintings. These are just a few of the pictures, but honestly, they don't do justice!!!

The murals were beautiful!!

 This was the entryway, the doors were HUGE!!!!







I thought the food was amazing!! My kids.... not so much. They settled on spaghetti! We ended up eating there again on Monday night.