Farewell, Hawaii

You're probably heaving a sigh of relief. This is the last of the Hawaii posts.

We'll start off with one random picture (taken by Shelby at some point in the trip) of each of my loves.

Sunday, June 5

We went to church one last time in the morning. Then we went to the beach to have Shelby take some family pictures for us.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids. If you're wondering why there are so many more of the little girl, keep in mind that she is by far the most cooperative subject (and even then, I'm using the term cooperative quite loosely). Exhibit A: This is the first picture taken, right when we arrived at the beach.

Really? Tired of this already? Come on, give me a little smile.


Here's the willing subject. Yes, that's a much more accurate description than cooperative. Willing. Always very willing.

"Girls in white dresses. . ." (Had Fraulein Maria lived near an ocean I'm sure "Frolicking on beaches" would have made it into the song somewhere).




I really love that both her top and bottom teeth show when she smiles big.


Too bright for little brother too (maybe it's a boy thing?).
Now the family pictures. I have learned from previous experience that beach pictures tend to have wind problems and a sun in the eyes problems. (In fact, outdoor pictures in general have proven to have wind problems and sun in the eyes problems for us).
So we made some sacrifices. Sacrifice #1) Michelle opted for a side pony instead of lots of frustration with hair in the face. Sacrifice #2) Harrison's smile. As soon as we moved out of the shade, it was trying to smile through tears for this little guy.

To borrow an analogy from Cher in Clueless -- These pictures are a bit of a Monet. From far away they're OK, but up close they're a big old mess.

Actually from far away, I love them. And the mess part, well, that's just reality. So I love them anyway.

That afternoon Rachael & Shelby made us a full on luau for dinner. Kahlua Pig, Chicken Long Rice, Somen Salad, Pineapple, and Butter Mochi for dessert. It was a delicious way to end our trip.

We were very sad to say goodbye to the Colmans. Did I already say that staying with them made the trip so much more meaningful (and less expensive)? We are so, so grateful.

We took a red eye back home. The kids did great again. They slept on the plane, but were awake during the lay over in the middle of the night. We were all exhausted the day we got back. Harrison was very unhappy to be back in Colorado. He never adjusts well to coming home from vacation. I pointed out how pretty the mountains are and that they don't have mountains in Hawaii. He said, "Ya, but they have beaches, and geckos, and trampolines. And they do have mountains, Mom." Tu chet. But not mountains with snow. And lots of people here have trampolines. And we have air conditioning. And dry air. And an affordable house. And great public schools. I guess when you're little, none of those things matter. I'm just saying -- I LOVED visiting Hawaii, but I'm happy to live in Colorado!

Kailua Beach

Saturday, June 5

We were all getting sad that the end of our trip was approaching. This was our last full day. The kids played in the morning. Throughout the trip they loved playing with their cousins -- jumping on the trampoline, playing Sorry, basketball, baseball, and dress-up.

For our last beach trip, we decided to go to Kailua Beach, their local beach. I loved Kailua town. It's a fun little downtown with shopping and restaurants. The beach was nice too. Except, we saw a rat climbing in the bushes and that about did me in. (Intense fear of rats. I'd kill endless amounts of spiders and hold multiple snakes over being anywhere near a rat.)

Boogie boards make great baby shades.
Sleepy girl. We were all getting up around 6 AM everyday (jet lag + sleeping with the windows open = no sleeping in). She usually sleeps until 8 or 9, so I figured by this point she had lost almost two whole night's worth of sleep.
We decided we better let Johnny get in the ocean at least once on our trip. He seemed a little overstimulated.
But he sure was cute in his swimsuit.

Nate, Harrison and Maya swam out to that island in the background.

Brothers

Sissie

This one hand in the air pose was a favorite of hers on this trip!

Gecko! I love geckos. They are so cute and they eat bugs!

In all my trips to Hawaii I had never tried Shave Ice. So we finally got some on the last day. We went to the shop that President Obama always goes to when he visits. It did not disappoint.

That night our niece, Shelby, who is staying with the Colmans while she's on summer break from BYU, watched all the kids while Rachael, Christian, Nate and I went out. We got yummy "plate lunch" (plate dinner?) to go. We considered taking it to eat on the beach, but it was pitch dark and the idea of eating on a pitch dark beach that I knew a rat lived at was too much for me. So we took it to eat at by a fountain in downtown Kailua. It was fun and a nice way to spend our last night there. We came home and had our nightly ritual of eating Melona Bars (for the last three nights at least -- why did we not discover these earlier in the trip??!!) and playing Bananagrams.

Waimea

Friday, June 4

In the morning we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. The kids loved watching the koi fish.

Did you know it takes a pineapple over a year to grow? Makes me cherish it a little more before I devour it.
Speaking of cherishing. . .
The pineapple we had in Hawaii was the sweetest ever.
Speaking of the sweetest ever. . .
Thankfully it wasn't too hot that day.
Speaking of hot. . .
I need to say something about precious.
Because, speaking of precious. . .

Alright, enough of that.

Here we are about to board the Pineapple Express. The train takes you out into the fields. It was a nice relaxing ride and I was seriously struggling to stay awake (this train ride cost $14, don't you dare fall asleep), and then we literally derailed and that woke me right up. We all had to get off the train and wait for the guys to come put it back on track. I thought they should give us all a free pineapple for our inconvenience. They thought one small piece of CANNED pineapple would suffice. (What??!! I know it's the Dole plantation and all, but canned is so inferior to fresh and why waste all that canning effort when you could just bust open a fresh one?) It really wasn't an inconvenience though, it actually made it one of the more exciting and memorable train rides I've ever taken with my kids. Probably still not worth $14. (I'm noticing some patterns in these posts. I was tired a lot in a Hawaii, and I'm cheap!)

Later that day we met the Colman's at Waimea Bay. Which could also be called Mormon Bay. We saw so many members there (it is close to the PCC, BYU-H, and the Temple, so no wonder). Lots of BYU shirts, modest swim suits, clean cut hair do's, no tatoos, and just that happy glow. I always have really good Mormon radar and it was going off like crazy.

Maya just loved Johnny the whole trip.

Mermaid tails.

Daddy/Uncle No No (somehow Uncle Nay Nay morphed into Uncle No No on this trip) provides endless entertainment.

Granty and Harrison

Nice muscles!

The Little Mermaid

Nanny McPhee

Sleeping Beauty

The most accurate pictures of what I did on the beach. Nate, on the other hand, does stuff like this.

Then he talked Harrison into climbing up the rocks to jump off.

He commented later that on this trip he really enjoyed that Harrison is finally at an age where they can do things that are really fun together.

I was impressed he was brave enough to do this. I know it doesn't look that high, but it took me years to jump off the low dive at the pool. I would have never even considered doing this when I was 5. Didn't even consider doing it at 31. I mean, someone had to watch the babies.

Speaking of mothering duties. . . look at this mother leading her line of ducklings off the beach.

This was not planned. But it is the perfect snapshot of what the end of each beach day was like. Come on kiddos, time to go home.

Not without stopping for dinner first. Garlic shrimp from the shrimp trucks for those whose pallets can appreciate such fine dining. McDonald's for the rest of you fools. Whoa baby, I could use some more of that garlic shrimp right about now.