Welcome to Hawaii - Day 1

Our time clocks were pretty out of wack on our first morning. The girls did really well on the flight over and but they were anxious to get going on our first day. Abby is showing Jerry her picture of the beach. Below is a picture of the girls on the balcony at our condo. We were on the 34th floor so we had an excellent view of the beach. We had to go grocery shopping and get tickets to the attraction we wanted to visit throughout the week. We also went to the flee market and got lost our first day on the island. All in all it was a good day.

Welcome to Waikiki Beach

Day 2

Breakfast in bed and a lazy morning...that what these girls LOVE!

Koolina - Lagoon 3

Bright Light and COLD water

Well we loved how quite and clean the beaches are at Koolina but the water is really cold.

North Shore

We explored the North Shore after going to Koolina Beach. We had some shaved ice and ice cream. We stopped at one of the beaches so the girls could enjoy their treat and swim a little.

Waimanalo Beach - Day 3

Pictures at the beach

We had a professional photographer take our pictures at the beach. After he left we took several pictures of the girls.

Jer and Bran

Hannah took several pictures of Jer and Bran after the photographer left. She did a really good job. It was nice to have our own personal photographer this trip. Thanks Han.
This was on Bellows Air Force Base...there were some beach cottages near by. I guess this is were people who are stationed in Hawaii must vacation. It's really beautiful here!

Ruth's Chris for dinner

Since we were all dressed up we decided to go out to dinner. We were able to go to the newest Ruths' Chris in Oahu. The food was fabulous and the service was fantastic. The picture below is Hannah wrapped up in a table cloth. The waitress noticed Hannah was really cold and got her a table cloth to cover up with.

Day 4

We started off at the flea market today and Olivia was very tired. She had asked us for about the last 30 minutes to please take her to the beach so she could cool off. Abby just wanted a shaved ice and Hannah wanted to shop until her entire family dropped. We almost did but I think we left just in time. We did make it to the beach later and watched the sunset.

Beach Bums

Olivia (above) let us partially bury her in the sand while Abby (below) thought it was quite comfortable to be buried in the sand.

Where did daddy go?

There goes another day!

We had spent the afternoon at the beach, I know hard to believe, and knew we wanted to stay to watch the sunset. I had taken some pictures of a couple on the beach for them and they offered to take our picture. This was Jerry's idea and I think it came out rather cute.

Sunset at Waikiki Beach

I could never get tired of watching the beauty of the sun setting on the horizon over the ocean.

Day 5

Olivia turns 5 on Thursday, April 24. This trip was planned for her and we hope she will have this wonderful memory for life!
Olivia really loved the beach and when we asked what she wanted to do for her day she said, "the beach," and I said, "that's my girl!"
Abby looked so cool and cute with this hat, not suppose to be a swim hat but we used it as such and it kept her from nasty sunburn on the head.
Scary! I figured it wasn't fair to post everyone else being lazy on the beach and not myself.
Jer and Han, they were so happy to have these beach umbrellas to protect and create and nice shade from the sun.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY OLIVIA

I drove around town trying to find Safeway but instead found a bakery where I got this cake. It was rather pricey (like most things in HI) and none of us liked it. Olivia instisted on having cake on her birthday so here it is. I still owe her a decent chocolate cake since this one didn't exactly meet her demands :-)

I know you can't see her but I like this picture becuase you can see the candle burning and the scenerey in the background is nice, I know I'm strange.

Luau at the Hale Koa

We went to the Hale Koa Luau for Olivia's birthday. We enjoyed it and met some very nice people. They announced Olivia celebrating her 5th birthday and she was so afraid they were going to make her come up on the stage. They didn't but everyone at our table did tell her how special it was that she got to turn 5 in Hawaii.

Day 6

Hannah and Jerry went on a submarine tour Friday morning. I opted out and Abby and Olivia didn't want to go either. We went enjoy the morning at the Hale Koa (military only hotel in Waikiki) pool. What a life for people who live there. It is a really great pool and they allow all military to use the pool even if you are not staying at the hotel. We had shaved ice from the snack bar but it was not the same at AOKI on the North Shore.

Hannah and Jerry took these pictures on the sub tour. They saw lots of fish, a sunken ship and a sunken airplane. They do this on purpose to make a reef for the fish to swim around. They even spotted some sea turtles.

Waikiki Beach

These are the rocks that separate the lagoon below from the ocean waves. I was trying to catch a picture of the girls with a wave crashing behind them but of course I was not successful.
That is diamond head behind us, the scenery here is just remarkable (minus the flag pole to the left)! Look all the way to the right at the wave crashing on the rocks, that is the scene I was trying to catch with the girls, oh well.
This was the beach we went to the most. It was one block from our condo and the girls really enjoyed it. The water was nice and warm and the entire area was only about 2.5 to 3 feet deep. Hannah is certainly entering a new phase of not wanting to be near her family all the time. Most of the time Hannah met a friend and would have someone to play and talk with. She had some interesting stories to tell us. The girls brought these rafts and just floated around the water.

Day 7

Scenic View

This was a beautiful drive from Waikiki toward Makapu'u lighthouse. The part of the island is very rocky with many cliffs that meet the ocean.

Hiking

The girls were excited when we first got started but I don't think they new just how tough it will be to hike two miles up hill in the heat.

We were really happy at this point we could see the lighthouse and new we were almost there.
Jerry was a little upset with me for going to the edge to take this picture. He does not like to see how high up he is and he did not like when we got to close to look at the view.

WE MADE IT!!

It was a little challenging for the girls to make this two mike hike (one way) because of the heat and going up hill and Jerry is not real fond of going to higher altitudes, however, we persevered and we made it!

Makapu'u Lighthouse

Trolley to Hilo Hattie

We were pretty wiped out from our hike so after a break in the condo we took a trolley ride through Waikiki to Hilo Hattie. It is a popular store that runs a free trolley. Here the girls pose for a picture in front of the biggest aloha shirt we have ever seen.

Day 8

We went to church Sunday morning and then back to the condo to rest. Abby and Jerry wanted to hang out in the condo so I took Hannah and Olivia to the pool. We had a nice afternoon relaxing around the pool. When we went back up Jerry suggested we take a drive to the north shore to get shaved ice and watch the sunset. Well that was one of my favorite things to do so we packed up. On the way I took this picture of the VOG. That is not a typo it is volcanic fog...vog.

Sunset

I took about thirty pictures of the sun setting. I thought it was so cool that the colors in the sky kept changing. All three of these pictures were taken the same evening on the same beach.

North Shore

Wow! The pictures are not even close to just how beautiful this beach is. Watching the sunset was something we really enjoyed.

Day 9

The view was so nice. Watching a dolphin show with the ocean as the background was really cool.
On Monday we went to Sea Life Park. It is like a mini Seaworld but way smaller. We saw lots of dolphin shows and others sea animals. Abigail and Brandy got in the water to swim with the dolphins. The picture above is Abigail shaking hands/fins with the dolphin. The other girls were not interested in doing this activity so they watched. The pool water was very cold!