swans

we couldn’t have asked for better travel partners. our kids had playmates, we had playmates, it was perfect.

we loved our 10 days in the A-frame as a big happy family:)

drive down the east side, day 11

for our last day we toured the east side…the whole coast was just one, big, beautiful, amazing beach.

the beach was not the only amazing sight, the mountains were movie perfect

we stumbled upon makapu'u beach on the southwest corner of the island. so.beautiful from above, but once you were down on the beach it didn’t compare to “our beach”:)

our very last sunset in hawaii. this trip was the best vacation we have ever been on.  we had been to hawaii before, but the kids were 1 and 3 and life is just hard with a 1 and 3 year old:) the kids are at the perfect age to travel. we loved every minute.

north shore, days 9-10

for our last day we spend the night in laie near the north shore. it was a brand new hotel with a beautiful swimming pool.

these two had a blast in the pool. even after 10 days they were not waterlogged 

the kids always love snuggling in hotel beds after a nice long swim…

the week before we arrived on oahu there was massive rain and flooding. the forecast called for lots of rain during our trip and i was worried we would get rained out. however, it only rained 3 times, and only for an hour at the most. we had perfect weather the whole 10 days. the only bummer was the north shore was all muddy from mudslide runoff, so banzi pipeline wasn’t quite as beautiful as it could have been:(

we stopped at the fun truck jamboree…

 

the only surfing these two did...

family history

as i mentioned earlier, we have a lot of family history on oahu. my great grandparents and grandma were there when pearl harbor was attacked. my grandma was 7 years old and remembers seeing the planes coming in to attack. years later that grandma got married at kawaiahao church in honolulu. jackie anderson (my grandma) and william (bill) hobb (my grandpa) were wed in november of 1952. the church they were married in was a hawaiian church, and usually white people were not allowed to get married there. but my great grandparents had friends they had made when they were there in the 40’s who pulled some strings. it is a beautiful church. gosh, i wish i could time travel back and see them. they were a stunning couple. almost 65 years later they have 3 children, 8 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren. so thankful we got to visit.

the church was absolutely beautiful inside...

11 months later on october 18, 1953 my mom was born at tripler hospital in honolulu. the funny thing is, just a few years after my mom was born there, adam’s dad was born there too. what are the chances?!?

such a fun stop

snorkel date

we did a babysitting swap with the swans so we each could have a fun date. we went snorkeling, of course!

our first stop was kahe beach. it has a tube running from the power plant that blows out warm water. this attracts fish apparently, little jellyfish. all those little white dots are teeny-tiny jellies. they didn’t hurt, so we just kept swimming…

blurry baby jellyfish 

you could swim down in front of the pipe and the water would push you up, pretty fun

adam wanted to try our spear fishing and we heard keawaula beach was good place to give it a shot. he didn’t get anything, but we saw the cutest teenage sea turtle.

not a bad spot for a date:)

hanauma bay, day 8

the very best snorkeling we had on oahu was hanauma bay.

lyla did an amazing job swimming with some very big fish over pretty shallow coral. so proud of this girl!

i love snorkeling

eli is such a fish

these guys were very busy swimming in a circle

toward the end of the day they ordered everyone out of the water. turns out someone got stung by a box jelly and had to be take to the hospital. after a while they said you could swim at your own risk. the crazy thing? PEOPLE WENT BACK IN! NO thank you.  crazy tourists.

dinner after a long day of snorkeling tastes sooooo goooood…

parasailing, day 7

i had high hopes (hardy har har) for parasailing. i love heights, love water, love boats, so parasailing sounded like a ton fun. but wow, it exceeded my expectations. it.was.awesome.

adam and i each took a turn with the kids. i got to go first:)

i will never forget this view, it was breathtaking

she was timid at first, but once she got up there she loved it

the best part was when they slowed down and let you dip in the water. lyla was a little scared to do it, so with me he only dipped our feet in. but by the time it was Adam’s turn, she was having fun and not scared anymore, so he dipped them up to their waist. i CAN’T WAIT to go again someday.