A Vacation in Paradise

Beau and I loaded up the kids and flew them to Hawaii.  And, oh my, we had a blast!  My parents had their beach house time and invited us, as well as the rest of my siblings and their families, to vacation with them.  We couldn't pass it up this year.  Not everyone in my family came, but we sure had fun with those that did!

Here's a quick run down of all our fun in the Aloha State.

The first thing we always do when we go to Hawaii is throw on our swimsuits and head straight through the beach house's back gate.  We land ourselves right on the beach.

Then, we also pray that the blue belly jelly fish aren't out.  Unfortunately, Evie got stung REAL good within her first 10 minutes of fun.  Oh, it was sad!  After fast research, we eventually got the sting under control and, it wasn't very many hours later that she wanted to jump back in the water.  Brave, brave girl!  Here you can see a picture of a blue belly jelly fish, Evie soaking in her hot bath, the sting marks that the jelly left on her leg, and then we all went out for frozen yogurt once she was feeling better.

We also had dinner from the local food trucks.  Beau chose the famous shrimp truck, while the girls and I had Thai curry.

The next day we hit the famous Swap Meet and then followed that up with a visit to the Honolulu Zoo.

The girls LOVED the zoo.  It was actually the first time we've taken either of the girls to a zoo before.  The monkeys and tigers were our favorites.  There was also a little park inside the zoo that the girls loved.

The next day was filled with some fun sight-seeing.  It was Sunday, so we started the day out by going to a local ward for church.  We then took the girls over to the Laie Temple.  It's our Sunday tradition while we're there.

We then hit an awesome spot where Banyan trees grow.  Evie was SUPER stoked to climb in the trees and swing like Tarzan.  This location is actually where the TV series, "Lost" was filmed.  They actually had a set built around the biggest Banyan tree so we weren't able to climb in that one.

We then went to the Dole Plantation where we ate lunch, rode the train with grandma and grandpa and cousins, and then had a famous Dole Whip.  YUM!

We stopped to see a turtle at the beach on our way home.

And, once we got home, Addie and daddy took naps.  Evie and I played on the beach.  I took Evie on her very first Boogie Boarding ride and she was in heaven.  In fact, after her second wave she excitedly said, "Mom, all I want for my 5th birthday is a boogie board!"  It was SO fun to experience that with her.

The next day was pretty low key.  We played on the beach some more.

Then, that night we went to our favorite restaurant…….Haliewa Joe's.  It's SO pretty there.  It's so tropical and the gardens are so lush.  You can see that in the background of our pics.  And, the food is SUPER awesome!

The next day we took a little family hike to Waimea Falls.  That place is gorgeous!

We followed this up with shave ice from Matsumoto's.

The next day we went to the Polynesian Cultural center with my sister and her family.

The kids loved it.  I think their favorite part was watching a Polynesian man get the coconut meat out of a coconut and then letting the kids feed it to the ducks and fish.  He even caught a fish with his bare hands.  Now, that was impressive!

Our last day was spent relishing our time on the beach and in the sun.  It was SO perfect and SO fun!   Lots of splashing in the waves, lounging in beach chairs, building in the sand, and playing with extended family.

We also got a lot of boogie boarding in.

We LOVED spending time with my mom and dad.  Grandma and Grandpa were good my our two littles.  Evie and Adeline soaked up all the attention from them and loved EVERY minute!  We're so grateful for the invite!

Until next time . . . we'll dream of paradise, the beach, the amazing amount of family time we were able to soak in, and the delicious food (of course).