Aloha!

I haven't made any blog entries in over a week because we have been in Hawaii! We are actually still here and have a week more to go, but I figured I would post some pictures and blog a bit about what we have done so far.

My parents are renting an apartment that is literally right on the beach. There are some bushes and on the other side of those bushes is the ocean. One morning, I woke up early and walked out and took a picture of the sunrise. It was my first ocean sunrise. Growing up in California, I have seen many ocean sunsets, but never a sunrise. It was beautiful.



We have been to the beach a few times . . . twice for boogie boarding, once for snorkeling, and once for just bobbing in the waves. Aaron, Mason, and Bailey all enjoyed boogie boarding for a bit.







Lauren is terrified of the ocean and hates the feel of the sand. She just screamed when I set her down to play in the sand with toys. Eventually she got sort of used to it, but she didn't move around at all. She just sat in one place and reached for the toys she wanted.





I thought we had broken her in and she would be okay after that. But I was wrong. It was the very same thing the next day. We both came to grips with the fact that she was perfectly happy sitting in the chair while everyone else played.



Bailey got stung by a jellyfish twice, but she was very brave and only cried for a little bit. Fortunately, we had a bottle of vinegar with us and I poured it over the sting. It helped ease the pain a bit and she was able to calm down within a few minutes.

Another cool thing that I had not seen before was the crabs. There were hundreds of crabs on the beach. Maybe it was the time of day that we went? High tide? Low tide? Something? Anyway . . . they were everywhere. I just sat and took lots of pictures of them.



Polynesian Cultural Center

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a great time. It was amazing. The best thing was the night show "Horizons", but I don't have any pictures of that. The Samoan part of the show was very dramatic, with fire throwing and spinning. The Tahitians are the ones that do the fast hip dancing and they are so good. The Aoteoroans are a little scary! They have their face painted and stick their tongues out and they enlarge their eyes to frighten their enemies. We also attended an authentic "royal" luau. They had a pig buried in the ground that they dug up and "Cousin Benny" played the ukelele and m.c.'d the program. At one point, they invited all the little kids up to do a hula dance. We visited all the little villages and had a great time watching the shows and playing the various games. Bailey did really well with the Poi ball in Aoteoroa.











And I took some miscellaneous pictures of the kids around the grounds with tikis and waterfalls.







Dole Pineapple Plantation

Yesterday, we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and did the "world's largest human maze". It took us just over an hour, but that includes a bathroom break before we actually started and a stop to apply sunscreen mid-way through. I was the chief navigator and the kids all had a great time following me through the maze to find the 8 different stops. We also took the train ride out to see the pineapple fields. Grandma and Grandpa came with us (Grandma did the maze with us!). My boys actually look like they like each other, huh?





In addition, we went to Matsumoto's and got the famous shave ice, but I didn't get a picture of it. It was delicious (and way too much sugar for me!). The boys and I also climbed Diamond Head, but there was no way I was lugging my big SLR camera up on the hike, so I had Aaron take some pictures with his camera . . . I'll post them when I download them to my computer.

Today, we went to the Kuoloa Ranch and took the movie tour in an open-air bus. I'll post more about that later, when I get the pictures uploaded.

We're having a great time and can't believe we have less than a week left!