Hawaii Saturday - The Wedding

This is why we came...

To see Mark and Esme get married.  It was a gorgeous wedding! I am so glad we got to meet Esme's family, and so incredibly happy we got to spend some time with Mark and Esme. 

But.....the wedding wasn't until that evening so we had time to get some more fun in.

We got up early (of course) and ventured out to Shark's Cove for snorkeling. 

Shark's Cove is very close to our condo.  It's a perfect first time snorkler's paradise.  The cove is enclosed by a rocky outcropping that allows sea water and fish in, but keeps waves out, and you never had to go to where you couldn't touch the bottom if you didn't want to (important for my sense of comfort since the kiddos weren't in life jackets). We were careful never to step on any coral.

I had never been snorkeling in nature before, so I don't know what it's like in other areas, but I was blown away by what we saw! Totally unexpected success in my mind. Near the shore there were tons of these little silver fish, but you didn't have to go very far out to start seeing more colorful and interesting sea life.  We saw Long-Spined Urchins, Mushroom and Cauliflower Corals right away.  Lots of varieties of Butterfly fish, Aha needlefish, Yellow, Convict and Sailfin Tangs, Porcupine fish, Unicorn fish, and most importantly...the Humuhumu Nukunku Apuaa fish (Hawaiian State Fish).  Luckily Byron had purchased a reef creatures guide at Kualoa Ranch so we could identify most of what we had seen....if we could remember, hard to keep track. 

The kids would have stayed on the beach forever making sand creations but the cove started to get crowded and we were getting hungry. We were lucky we had the whole thing to ourselves for a good chunk of the morning.

Another food must for Miriam and I was Ted's Bakery, which is very close to Shark's Cove. 

We stopped by Foodland and picked up sushi (which we thought was amazing) and orange chicken for the boys from the deli.  We bought a whole Haupia cream pie, each had a slice, and then took the rest to our condo for the next day's breakfast. 

We got ourselves gussied up at the condo and then met back at my parents beach house to hang out with Mark while Esme was getting ready in their beach house next door.

Mom and baby Hazel.  So fun to have Hazel around! Babies just bring all families together.

The cousins ran around the beach until it was time to gather.

Wedding Miracle...no one got wet before the ceremony.

When it was time to gather, we enjoyed fruit and lemon aid while listening to a Hawaiian ukulele soloist. Such beautiful music, and he had a huge range of music.

The cutest ring bearer and flower girl started the procession,

then the beautiful couple walked to the song Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Izzy K.
I love that song....

The couple went down the the beach for a sunset photo shoot.

While we ate hors d'oeuvres and had a photo shoot of our own.

Tried out our new selfie stick....a gift from the bride and groom.

 The kids went back to the beach...to "hermit crab city" until it was time for dinner.

 Dinner was prepared by a chef in their beach house and was served on the porch.

We enjoyed good food, and each other till the sun went down.

The End.

Hawaii 2016- Friday

This was our Polynesian Cultural Center day, where we would meet up with my family and meet Esme's family for the first time.  

We had the morning open, but not too much time so we walked to the beach right by our condo, Koilima Cove.

Before heading back to get ready, we walked over to Turtle Bay to watch the outrigger canoes, the birds and wild cats.

We had passed North Shore Taco the day before and I remembered reading it was a local favorite for fish tacos.  I LOVE fish tacos so we headed there for lunch. 

It did not disappoint, we all enjoyed our food choices, fresh raspberry lemon aid, and then shared flan.  Full bellies, anticipation of fun, and a family reunion ahead made us a pretty happy crew.

There is no way I would have the energy to see and explore all there is at PCC in one day, so many museums and villages to see.  We fit in a visit to Samoa, and Tonga before finding a spot for the  Canoe Parade.

We saved a spot for Julia Jared Tatum and Wyler to come watch the canoe parade with us since they had just arrived. Then Mark appeared out of nowhere. I cried and cried when I saw Mark, I didn't realize how much I had missed him. We briefly met Esme's family and communicated everything through smiles and nods since they don't speak english and we don't speak korean.  Mark and Esme translated the important stuff for us.

When we were waiting for a canoe ride of our own we saw Mom, Dad, Madison and Marcus so we yelled out to them to come with us (luckily there was no line).  I was glad we took a canoe trip so that I could hear a little about the other villages we didn't have time to visit.

My little family was hot and tired by that time so we decided to go see the IMAX movie, we knew it would be cool, but mostly just wanted to sit in air conditioning for a moment. After the canoe ride we ran into Mark, Esme and Esme's family so they joined us.  

I loved running into family while we were exploring around.  It would have driven me crazy to go everywhere as a group, waiting for, and making others wait for us.  I loved doing our own thing but just happening upon people I love...it made everything more exciting!

In just our own little family there is a varying degree of museum tolerance. Some of us want to read everything (Darin) and some of us want to run through (the kids) I fall in the middle but mostly as a pleaser just want to make everyone happy.  Miriam and the boys were done with the Ukulele Museum when Darin was obviously enjoying it so I took them out to the market for souvenir shopping.

My kids take souvenir shopping VERY seriously, they put a lot of time and thought into their purchases. They had saved their Christmas and birthday $, and had been saving chore earnings most of the year for this trip.  They not only wanted to find the perfect remembrances for themselves, they each had 1 or 2 (or 6...Miriam) friends they wanted to bring gifts back to. Darin and I are pretty patient with their shopping style but I know it would have driven everyone else crazy.

 Then we headed to the luau.

What an experience! Such fun music, dancing, and food.  I tried poke, oysters and poi for the first time.  I loved everything except for the poi...can't do that texture, reminds me too much play dough. 

Straight after the luau we went to the presentation of HA: Breath of Life.

It was fantastic...all the costumes and music in a beautiful outdoor theatre, so much to take in.  

By this time, our Utah bodies felt like it was midnight and the constant go go go day had worn us all out.  The boys were out cold by intermission so we decided to call it a night. 

Hawaii 2016 - Thursday

We all woke up early because we were on Utah time...4 hours ahead. This was a constant our whole trip, but I loved it because everything is quiet, slow, and empty in the mornings. Thats when the locals are up surfing, diving, and snorkeling...they know the drill. Also, attractions on the North Shore close down pretty early...like 5 pm, and since the beaches are too dark for us to go soon after that it wasn't a problem that we were exhausted and wanted to be home watching the Food and DIY networks by 8.

We had a hard time finding breakfast, ended up stopping at the Kahuku Superette, which Miriam and I had read about having great spam sushi and poke bowls..... that didn't seem appetizing for breakfast so we grabbed some granola bars, Nagaraya cracker nuts and Sky Flakes from the Philippines, and then the kids spied Choco Tacos.  Choco Tacos are a favorite memory from our first night in California last year. I had run to a gas station for a few things and brought them back.  The kids declared them a "vacation must".  So the kids had ice cream for breakfast.  

Soon after we arrived in Laie, and there were way more breakfast options including a Foodland.  So we stopped and bought these super cheap egg, rice, spam, and sausage plates.  Soooo good, and just for the record the spam sushi is fantastic. 

We were early for our appointments at Kualoa Ranch so we pulled over at a random beach along the road to explore and kill some time.

We were amazed to walk through the park onto this beautiful and completely empty beach!

We told the kids just to get their feet in, but of course that's a ridiculous request at a beach, when the weather and water are warm. This was my first lesson in Hawaii....wear you swimming suit every day, because the beach is right there all the time!

We saw these little purple things all over. Later in the week my niece got stung by a Portugese Man-of-War I wondered if these were babies, or pieces of them?  I touched them, but only the balloon part so I didn't really think about them being dangerous.

I ran back to to Foodland to buy beach towels (another part of that lesson, always have beach towels in your car), and then we dried off on the rest of the way to the ranch. 

We started off with a Catamaran Tour to get great views of Chinaman's Hat.

The captain and his fat weiner-dog were great to give us a bumpy splashy ride in the front of the boat, and we saw a sea turtle!

Chinaman's Hat.

  I have never in person seen anything like it.

 

There are lots of TV shows and movies filmed at the ranch so I have seen these views on a screen but didn't know where it was. Our kids haven't seen any of the movies they mentioned, it will be fun to go watch Jurassic World with them to see if we recognize the scenery.

The boys had a little conversation to try out their Chinese with the Chinese guide. He is a BYU-H student, and turns out he might be moving to Bountiful in a few months! How random is that? 

Then my birthday gift! A zip line tour in the Hawaiian jungle.  We had about a 30 min. bus tour in the mountains where our driver pointed out all the remains of past movies...huge dinosaur heads, Godzilla's foot prints, as well as things from the past like pill boxes and other military structures left over from WWII.

7 zip lines through the ranch and 3 little hikes. It was exactly how I wanted to celebrate turning 40; seeing and experiencing something new. It was especially fun to be with Miriam and have a mother/daughter adventure together.  She had earned her own money to go and I couldn't be more proud of her hard work and determination. She was the youngest and the smallest zip liner of our tour so sometimes she needed a good shove to make sure she made it all the way on the longest zips.  

We got to zip side by side every time. Well...we always started side by side but then I usually smoked her to the landing.  Weight helps in these types of activities.

We were gone for 3 hours, so Darin and the boys had ample time to explore the ranch.  The boys had pony rides, they visited the "lazy pets" in the petting zoo, had (according to Darin) the best burgers ever (the ranch has their own cattle and they were famished), and did some souvenir shopping.

They laughed at just how lazy the "lazy pets" were, and enjoyed the little goat they saw in a tree, but the boys favorite part was watching two gecko's fight. Byron found about 28 geckos on the trip (including in our condo)...he kept a count.

By the time our zip line tour was finished the restaurant had closed, and the ranch was shutting down. Miriam and I had missed lunch and dinner, but didn't really notice because of the anticipation and fun until it was all over.  Since the boys were still quite full from their lunch, but M and I were famished we decided to stop by Angels in Laie for ice cream.  I had read about it in a tour book and it is right next to Foodland where we were stopping to get breakfast stuff and snacks for the condo.  M and the boys had dole whip floats and I had a huge Acai bowl with ice cream instead of yogurt.  So, so so good, and probably made better because we were in Hawaii, and hungry from fun.

Driving around from the North Shore side of the island was so much more enjoyable than the traffic of Honolulu/Waikiki.  There are beautiful and interesting things to see all along the highway, and the fastest you go is 45 mph so we could all look around and exclaim at the view.