The White House

WELL - to continue on our Hawaiian adventure: Thursday Nathan and Young flew in to join the party. It was Claudia's birthday that day, so to celebrate we went to the beach for a good chunk of the day. The kids needed naps, so my gorgeous, sweet, kind, amazing husband let me go to my happy place - Waimea - with everyone by myself. HAPPY day. It was so nice to just float in the water and soak in peace. I didn't even take any pictures then - I just ENJOYED. We bought Chocolate Haupia Pie on the way back in place of birthday cake for Claudia and IT WAS INCREDIBLE - another highlight of Hawaii (can you tell I'm a foodie?).

That evening I stayed home with the kiddos while everyone went out for dinner to Kahuku Grill for Claudia's birthday too. Steve got to enjoy some time alone as well. :)

Ross was still battling the random fever that would show up at night so we took him to the doctor the next morning who sent us home with a decongestant, antibiotics, and ibprofin. Poor thing. He actually started doing better after that so thank goodness.

With Ross doing better, and me seriously needing a FULL night's sleep, Don and Claudia let Steve and I sneak away for a night to Waikiki (thanks to his Aunt Robin who let us stay in their condo while we were there!). All you need to know is that place was air conditioned and I practically froze Stephen with how cold I kept it. I slept 11 hours that night and loved every second of it. Also not sweating was a nice perk. We ate at a fabulous restaurant called D.K. Steakhouse and then wandered out to the beach to watch the gorgeous sunset and walk all along the ocean shore. As we walked back to the condo we stopped and watched a lot of the street performers which were all pretty fun. Waikiki is just a whole different part of Hawaii.

Anniversary dessert! Yum :)

A gorgeous Waikiki sunset :)

My handsome 6 year sweetheart :) Happy Anniversary!

The next morning after sleeping in, we decided to meet up with the family at Mokapu Beach. However, we had to meet up with Aunt Robin to give back the key - also get gas. Somehow our never-updated gps could NOT get us to the meeting point at the Swap Meet - it took seven thousand years and TERRIBLE traffic to finally meet at Pearl Harbor to swap it. THEN we couldn't find a gas station. Steve made me turn off the air conditioning, so then we were both dying. AMAZINGLY we found gas, and met up for the Lighthouse hike with the family. It was quite the ordeal though - don't ask Steve about it - it may bring up old road rage feelings. ;)

I insisted I had never been on this hike before, until about a third of the way up, I remembered yes, I HAD in fact done this hike. It was hot, but once we reached around the bend where the wind was, we all cooled off. Ruby slept in the stroller until the top and Ross rode on Steve's shoulders. It was a beautiful lookout and we got some fun pictures up there. We saw a lot of pill boxes where lookouts were during the war. The very top had locks all along the fence which Ruby particularly liked.

Lighthouse hike :)

My cute boys :)

The lighthouse :) We made it!

Ruby loving the locks :)

One of the pill boxes

Heading down.

We stopped at the blow hole on the way back, but the tide was out, and then decided to head back. The rest of the fam went to a family dinner at Haliewa Joe's and we took our grumpy kids home. :) It was Nate's birthday that day as well so we had fun celebrating with him.

Ruby thought the blow hole blowed ;) since it didn't really work. Eating an apple as we counted our losses. ;)

While we were gone, Young had brought his fancy dancy camera and took some breathtaking shots of my children (they are gorgeous kids in case you didn't know). They had gone to a place called Naked Beach (don't worry no naked people there) for the kids to play and hang out.

Grams hunting Ruby down :)

Best picture of Ruby yet :) Can you tell she's happy? :) She's got two sticks and a bunch of sand. Best day EVER. :)

Getting a fun toss from Uncle Michael.

BLISS

So Uncle Young and Rubes have a special little relationship. They adore each other. :) She always wants to know where he is and he's always so nice to play with her. :)

And Young takes some GREAT pics of her.

Playing in the blankets ;0

Cheerio breakfast! Ruby LOVES them.

Family pic at the top of the Lighthouse

Family pic!

That night the boys went out to go crabbing aka digging and catching crabs in a bucket in the sand. They had fun, but on the way back, Thomas got bit by a big centipede. Most of the next day he was NOT very happy. Apparently you just have to wait for the poison to work out of your system. His foot hurt pretty bad - poor guy.

Crabbing!

Swollen centipede foot.

Game night!

Sunday we went to church, had naps, and went to another little missionary fireside where we heard from Young about Taiwan and some more about the family in Hawaii. I think we played games that night too.

Mission fireside

Stick hunting

Wrestling Uncle Thomas

On Monday we - well I have no idea what we did exactly other than get together with the big fam for FHE that night. No one else remembers either. I'm pretty sure we went to Kakala beach - we went there a lot. :)

FHE! Singing some Hawaiian Songs

Ross taking a snooze

Auntie Picture!

Tuesday morning, EARLY, we headed for the long awaited shark tour! We got to the north shore about 6AM and headed out, seeing a gorgeous sunrise and deep blue SUPER clear water. The boat totally looking like something out of Jaws. I decided if I had watched Shark Week before this, I wouldn't have gone, but lucky for me, I was in ignorance.

Ready bright and early for the sharks!

Sunrise :)

We did it!

And we got shirts!

They told us they aren't allowed to chum the water for entertainment purposes, but the area we went is where all the fisherman and crabbers go. They only keep what they can sell, so they pretty much chum the water with the leftovers. The crew on our boat just used a bottle tied to a rope that they would throw out in the water to make the sound like food was getting dropped and lo and behold, the sharks showed up! They were the Galapagos Sharks. We saw about 10 of them, the biggest being probably 12 feet long. They weren't like Great White's that are big all around, theses ones were pretty skinny so they didn't look as huge as the 12 feet long sounded.

Loving the dive!

Sharks!

We learned all the babies stay deep down so they don't get eaten by the bigger sharks (sick that they eat their young!), and other breeds of shark don't mix with each other. They told us that sometimes a tiger shark will show up or once in a while, a great white, but if that happens, the other sharks leave.

The Galapagos sharks only have a seafood diet, so if they threw a bleeding pig or chicken in the water they wouldn't even touch it - also because the water is so clear.

When it was our turn to get in the cage with our snorkels, we all started sucking air pretty hard, but once we got in, it was actually pretty peaceful and GORGEOUS. The sharks just drifted around. It was a little unnerving seeing a shark come straight up from below right under us, but it was so clear and beautiful to watch them gliding around. Definite highlight of our trip.

We came back to get ready to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center, but Michael got his fingers slammed in the car door instead which turned into a big deal, so while he was at the hospital getting sorted, we hung out and then went to Kakala again - seriously a great beach. That night we went and tried to play some tennis after grabbing dinner at the college which was delicious.

Michael getting fixed up!

Wednesday was another Waikiki day. :) Some of the family went early to the Swap meet (I was banned by Stephen after my last spree ;) ) and then we all met up at Pearl Harbor. Our children were pretty grumpy (let's be honest, they were grumpy a lot of the time), but it was still so amazing to see the beautiful memorials to those who died in the attack. At the U.S.S. Arizona memorial, you can see the outline of the ship just under water and there is STILL oil bubbles that come up (this is almost 70 years later). I thought they did a wonderful job in presenting all the information - especially showing respect to the Japanese people while still relaying all the events from the attack. (You'd be surprised how many Japanese people come to this place.)

Pearl Harbor U.S.S. Arizona

All the names of those who died on the Arizona.

Family pic - when Ruby is crazy grumpy only Young can get a smile out of her!

An aircraft carrier pulled in to the harbor as we were finishing.

The Arizona memorial is behind us - the white scooped building.

All the crew came out to salute the memorials as their ship pulled in. It was a beautiful sight. :)

Anchor family pic!

I learned (sorry history lesson) more the reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor - it being more of a tactic in order to overtake other islands west of Hawaii (as they were inspired by Hitler's victories) mainly to take over an island called Midway. They figured if they surprise attacked Hawaii, they would have time to be able to take over Midway and then retreat. This woke a sleeping giant as we all know. Anyway - I'm so grateful to all the veterans everywhere that sacrifice their lives, safety, and time for our freedoms. I'm always so moved by those who serve our country, and pray we always remember those that are keeping us safe every day and free.

After Pearl Harbor, we ate some lunch and then headed to do the classic Diamond Head hike. It was much shorter than I remember it being the last time. Thomas was a champ and carried Ruby up for us in the backpack, and we all enjoyed the gorgeous view. It really is such a fun hike.