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.