We decided to take the kids to Hawaii for Spring Break this year and had a BLAST! Rick's cousin lives there so we rented her guest condo for the week. We were across the street for the Polynesian Cultural Center, half a block from BYUH, a couple blocks away from the temple and 4 houses down from this beautiful beach on the North Shore in Laie...
We got up each morning and played on a beach, snorkeled, boogie boarded, watched the surfers and worked on our tans, then we would grab some lunch and then try out anther beach for the afternoon.
However, many times this was the view I had on the beach...
...the kids were grouchy I wasn't in the water, but I enjoyed relaxing, reading and gettin' my tan on.
There were coconuts everywhere, but most were broken so Ashlyn was pretty excited to eventually find a whole one.
Blake helped her cracked it open only to see it was empty and only good for one thing....
"Check out my coconut bikini Mom!"
One morning we hiked the Maunawili Trail that led back to a waterfall after about 1 1/2 hour hike.
It was a beautiful hike through thick forest along a creek.
There were all kinds of things we had to climb over/under on the trail that made it more entertaining.
This is the Barbie Fort Ashlyn found....there were hot pink flower petals EVERYWHERE under a small canopy of trees!
There were lots of vines growing everywhere, these had grown together and formed a rope like material.
The kids were glad we made them wear their hiking sandals because we had to cross the creek 4 or 5 times.
We were all hot and sweaty when we reached the top, but the view was AMAZING! We were surprised at how thick the top of the canopy was...
Rick and the kids were excited to finally reach the waterfall/swimming hole...I decided the water was too cold for my liking and decided to be the photographer.
Blake and Rick braved climbing the cliff and jumping in.
The best place to go snorkeling on the island that wasn't a touristy mess was Shark's Cove, but every day we tried to go the surf was way too high since it was on the North Shore. Jesse, Rick's cousin's husband, told us to try it Tuesday and it would be perfect. Boy was he right!
It was beautiful! Completely calm, clear water. There were 1000's of fish for us to see. We were a little intimidated by how big some were and the schools of 100's of fish at a time that swam by, but it really was like we were swimming around an aquarium. To top the day off we finally saw a sea turtle! That was the one thing Ashlyn wanted to see...talk about one happy little girl! Rick saw it eating on the reef and called us over, we sat and watched it for a long time and later got to swim around the bay with it.
One of the main things Blake wanted to see was the Marcus Mariota exhibit at the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame...ding ding ding, we found it!
We spent an entire day at the Polynesian Cultural Center watching the canoe pagent, visiting/learning about the different islands in the Pacific, attending a luau and watching the night show.
Everybody had a blast at all the shows watching the performances and are ready to visit the other countries one of these days. (I took WAY too many pictures of the shows to post, but will use them in the scrap book)
Ashlyn got to go fishing at PCC and caught a fish in about 15 seconds...Blake wasn't so lucky, but had a fun time trying.
The luau had YUMMY food and a fun show to watch. Ashlyn was excited to finally get a lei she had been bugging for since we got off the plane.
One evening after a rainstorm chased us off the beach early we walked around the temple grounds one evening after dinner.
Such a pretty temple!
We even checked out the Visitor's Center...
Our last day before heading to the airport we had tickets for Pearl Harbor, only to get there and find out tours were cancelled because of high winds, so this was the closest we got...
It was such a fun and relaxing trip, a perfect beach getaway when we were itching for some fun in the sun after cold winter weather! The kids can't wait to go back....I hate to repeat vacations so we'll have to see.
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