We have been home from Hawaii for almost a week now, and I just finished unpacking our last two suitcases yesterday(both of which were full of unused clothes...note to self-next time pack more swim suits and cover ups, and less clothes for the kids). After going through our almost 2,000 pictures that we took, I am also finally blogging our vacation. Rob had to go to the Philippines on business, and when he found out he had a layover in Oahu, he suggested that the kids and I meet him there. We of course didn't hesitate, because the kids and I have never been to Hawaii. Rob seems to luck out by having me travel alone with our 4 kids. I am always most stressed out about making our early morning flights and having to park the car and get all of the kids and our luggage into the airport. At least this time we started out at the right terminal:) It was a breeze this time...not one of the kids had to be wanded or have their bags ransacked at security (this is the first time). The 7 hour flight was great, I can't believe how good the kids were! As we were getting off the plane, Brooklyn looked at me with the biggest grin and said, "Mom, Hawaii is my favorite place ever!!!" How she knew this before we were off the plane, is beyond me. My girls could not stop smiling! Alyssa told me that she likes Hawaii even better than Utah...for those of you who know Alyssa, that must mean Hawaii is pretty incredible! Question: What was the biggest clue to all of those nice Hawaiians that Rob and I were from the southwest??? Answer: When they would say Aloha!, our first response was often Hola! I caught on after the first day...Rob, however, never really caught on:)
Rob took a few pictures of his trip to the Philippines...He went from one tropical place to another. 
Sitting in the lobby waiting for Rob to check in, the girls sat in awe! Ashley took this opportunity to have a photo shoot:)
After getting settled into our room, we walked down the street and found LuLu's Surf Club. Alyssa (a.k.a. Lulu), had to eat here. The girls were all in love the the server that keep spraying the birds with water to get them to fly away. For the record...he wasn't very cute:)
This is Hunter when he wanted to go into the ocean...
Sitting in the lobby waiting for Rob to check in, the girls sat in awe! Ashley took this opportunity to have a photo shoot:)After getting settled into our room, we walked down the street and found LuLu's Surf Club. Alyssa (a.k.a. Lulu), had to eat here. The girls were all in love the the server that keep spraying the birds with water to get them to fly away. For the record...he wasn't very cute:)This is Hunter when he wanted to go into the ocean...This is Hunter after getting knocked over by a wave seconds later:( He didn't want to go in the ocean for the rest of the trip. This was Day One:(
Sorry dude...I don't think you're tough enough to be a surfer!:)
We spent a day snorkeling and playing at Hanama Bay. This place is gorgeous and the sea life was incredible! 
Does anyone look good with a mask on???
I'd like to refer to these girls as "my two snorkelers", but that would be misleading. Alyssa did last longer than Ashley, but not by much. As soon as we saw our first fish, Ashley demanded I take her back to the shore. Alyssa lasted for maybe 10 fish and then she wanted out.
Hunter did a lot of burying on the beaches of Oahu. At Hanama Bay he buried his Crocs...one of which we never found:(
Good thing he's so good looking!
Since our underwater camera is floating around somewhere in the Sea of Cortez, Rob and Ashley bought this one from the gift shop at Hanama Bay. Ashley took pictures of everything with this (above water pictures only of course :)...even when it didn't have any film. Yes, I said film. When my kids saw us have to load the camera, they said, "What is that?". They didn't understand why they couldn't take endless amounts of pictures and review them afterwards. Digital cameras are awesome!!!
Some of the fish that Rob and Brooklyn saw
The biggest fish that they saw
Rob in his snorkeling gear
Brooklyn in hers
We saw a lot of these strange looking trees. Ashley and Alyssa decided to play Tarzan and try swinging from the branches.
Alyssa got the highest
Brooklyn- just looking pretty:)
The girls playing in the waves. Hunter...take note!
This is the "Checkered Robot" that we found on the street. He had a cup that said he would dance for money. Rob put a handful of change in the cup...no dance. After realizing he had been a cheap skate, Rob put some dollar bills in his cup, and wallah...we saw the "Checkered Robot" dance.
The weather in Hawaii is crazy...either that or I have gotten used to 365 days of sunshine and blue skies. It rained every day while we were there, but usually only for a few minutes. Then there was almost always a rainbow. See the one over Ashley's head?
Bryan Jones, Rob had Brooklyn take this picture for you. What is a beach vacation without sipping virgin pina coladas by the pool?
The view from our hotel balcony...Diamond Head on one side...Waikiki Beach on the other. I didn't go out on this balcony too many times because we were on the 21st floor. I'm not very afraid of heights, but this made me woozy!
Just a cute picture of Hunter and Ash
One of our favorite things was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This place is so pretty! We took a train around the plantation and it was interesting to see how pineapples grow. I'm ashamed to admit it, but everyone in my family,except for Rob, thought pineapples grew on trees.
The girls on the train
We did the "2001 World's Largest Maze" at the Dole plantation. Throughout the maze there were 6 stations that we needed to find and then stencil the clue on a piece of paper. It took us about 20 minutes before we found the first one.
We only ended up finding 3. We learned to just listen for someone to yell "I found one", and then try to follow their voices. Brooklyn decided to be funny and yelled that she had found one when she didn't. She laughed so hard when she heard some boys say that they heard someone say they had found a station:) She is definitely Rob's daughter!!!
We had the BEST pineapple ice cream and fresh pineapple.
One of my favorite parts of our trip was hiking through Waimea Valley up to Waimea Falls. We saw the most incredible plants and trees! It was a mix between Jurassic Park and the beginning of Arachnophobia where the scientist find the spiders.
The kids all had to wear life jackets in order to swim in the water. Hunter is smiling only because he has no idea why we are putting a life jacket on him.
The kids and I went out first so that Rob could get a picture. The water was soooo cold! Hunter and some of the girls floated out on boogie boards, but Brooklyn and I jumped all the way in. I have always wanted to do something like this!
Rob actually stood under the waterfall. That is him with his arms up in the air. He said it was so hard to stand and the water hurt coming down on his back.
Love this place!!!
Hunter was happy to be out of the freezing cold water and on our way back down to the car.
We ate at this cute place on the North Shore...We were fooled by it's cuteness.
Would you eat this? I couldn't. I ordered the chicken and shrimp plate, and this is what I got...I'm not sure that was even chicken.
Rob and I quickly learned that when in doubt...order a hot dog. The kids never had a bad meal!
This is the Holana Blow Hole. It was very cool to see. The lady at the Dole Plantation told us that years ago her husband's friend was sucked down the hole while trying to get close...YIKES!
The wind was blowing so hard it almost knocked us over:)
Brooklyn dressed Choncho up with her clothes and sungasses while keeping him warm at the pool...this is better than the pink nail polish that she put on him yesterday:)...Poor kid!
Since Sunday was a "no swim" day, we went to Pearl Harbor. This is us on the boat over to the memorial.
This is a picture of the "Tears of the Arizona". You can still see the oil dripping out of the ship. There is such a reverent feeling at the war sights we've visited. What an amazing sacrifice men and women make by serving in our armed forces. I'm so proud to have my brother in the military!!!
After Pearl Harbor we went to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. This is the best place to get souvenirs! We bought a coconut for the girls to try. First they had to drink all of the coconut juice, and then the guy that sold it to us scraped out the flesh for them to taste. Brooklyn drank the most, but we ended up dumping quite a bit out on the grass. I feel sick even thinking about how bad it tasted!
Our girls have been earning and saving their money to spend on souvenirs. This is the best way to take kids shopping. They really only bought things that they couldn't live without. Alyssa even came home with $40 left. She tried this hat on, but didn't buy it...thank goodness!
After the swap meet we drove up to the Punchbowl. I had never even heard of this place. It is a memorial and cemetery for the men that died in wars in the Pacific Ocean. It was kind of like a mini-Arlington.
We always run into so many nice tourist that offer to take pictures for us. Thank you tourist lady!
Isn't the view incredible?!!!
Why are elevators so much fun, and why do kids love to be the one that gets to push the button?
Hunter burying his cars...we never recovered these either:)
Our Sunday "no swim" day ended by being the only fully dressed people playing in the sand...except for Rob, he just couldn't keep his shirt on:)
The girls decided to give Hunter a taste of his own medicine by burying him. We did however recover him:)
A Hawaiian "almost" sunset
This is the visitor's center of the Laie Temple. We saw the neatest presentation there and Brooklyn told us how much she felt the Spirit.:)
We met the cutest sister missionary from Hong Kong that took this picture for us. It was so fun to see the sister missionaries wearing traditional Hawaiian dresses instead of regular clothing.
The Laie Temple
This McDonalds may not look like the ones on the mainland, but the food tastes the same:) Ashley had been begging to go here ever since she found out they were giving Pet Shops with their Happy Meals. My poor deprived kids only get McDonalds when we are on vacation.
Our next stop was the Polynesian Cultural Center. This place is unbelievable! We spent all day here and could've spent another day. The landscaping is incredible and the people are so much fun! This is the kids playing with some balls from some polynesian island (I obviously didn't pay attention to the details). This place has a village with an activity that is native to each island. Great place to take kids!!!
Here are the kids playing a stick game...Poor Brooklyn got stuck having Chonch as her partner. He didn't follow the directions very well:)
Hunter is a pretty shy boy, but he LOVED this guy!
He was nice enough to give us our tattoos.
The kids showing off their first...and last tattoos that they will ever have...Hopefully!
In the village of Tonga we learned how to weave fish with leaves
In Samoa we saw a man climb a cocount tree. The girls thought he must be crazy.
The kids were able to go on stage and do a dance with coconut shells. Hunter even played along. Meanwhile...Rob was chosen to go across the village to learn how to be a cook. Apparently in Samoa, all the men do the cooking.
Rob racing to beat another guy by making fire. I see smoke!!! I see smoke!!!
Can any man really look tough when he is wearing a skirt?!!!...
Or, dancing with flowers in his hair? ...I guess they can!
At the luau we got fresh flower leis...all of us were excited except for Hunter. He couldn't wait to get his off...Ryan Clark, I think he deserves a "man point"!
I'm afraid my girls may never eat pork again. Once they saw these guys take a whole cooked pig out of the ground, they decided they no longer eat pork. They missed out because the pork that was served at this luau was delicious!!!
More pina coladas! The girls couldn't get over being able to drink one out of a real pineapple:)
Half way through dinner, Hunter's head dropped as he fell asleep. This poor boy was such a trooper to go the whole week without a nap.
All of the elementary aged kids were invited to dance on stage at the luau. There was no way Brooklyn was going to go all the way down there, but Alyssa and Ash did.
Our favorite part of the night time show was definitely the fire dancers! Ashley thought it was so funny when they sat down on the fires and caught their grass skirts on fire. Sorry about the dark picture...no flash photography:(
Finally...a beach day! The girls were so excited to use their $2 beach mats that they bought. These were among the few things that did not make it home on the plane with us.
Ashley, trying to get a tan
Our hotel was just down the street from the Honolulu Zoo. We had so much fun seeing animals that we don't get to see at our zoo.
This zoo has a great area for the kids.
On our way to the airport, we stopped at the USS Bowfin and the USS Missouri.
From the USS Missouri we were able to get a better picture of the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
It was really fun to go on the USS Missouri not only because this is where the peace treaty for World War II was signed, but also because my Grandpa Smith was on this ship during the war. It is soooo big...yet the inside seems so small. I can't imagine living on this for months at a time.
Heights don't seem to bother these two
This is the spot where the peace treaty was signed. So cool!
Sadly this trip came to an end. Our only regret was that we couldn't stay longer!
Does anyone look good with a mask on???
I'd like to refer to these girls as "my two snorkelers", but that would be misleading. Alyssa did last longer than Ashley, but not by much. As soon as we saw our first fish, Ashley demanded I take her back to the shore. Alyssa lasted for maybe 10 fish and then she wanted out.
Hunter did a lot of burying on the beaches of Oahu. At Hanama Bay he buried his Crocs...one of which we never found:(
Good thing he's so good looking!
Since our underwater camera is floating around somewhere in the Sea of Cortez, Rob and Ashley bought this one from the gift shop at Hanama Bay. Ashley took pictures of everything with this (above water pictures only of course :)...even when it didn't have any film. Yes, I said film. When my kids saw us have to load the camera, they said, "What is that?". They didn't understand why they couldn't take endless amounts of pictures and review them afterwards. Digital cameras are awesome!!! 
Some of the fish that Rob and Brooklyn saw
The biggest fish that they saw
Rob in his snorkeling gear
Brooklyn in hers
We saw a lot of these strange looking trees. Ashley and Alyssa decided to play Tarzan and try swinging from the branches.
Alyssa got the highest
Brooklyn- just looking pretty:)
The girls playing in the waves. Hunter...take note!
This is the "Checkered Robot" that we found on the street. He had a cup that said he would dance for money. Rob put a handful of change in the cup...no dance. After realizing he had been a cheap skate, Rob put some dollar bills in his cup, and wallah...we saw the "Checkered Robot" dance.
The weather in Hawaii is crazy...either that or I have gotten used to 365 days of sunshine and blue skies. It rained every day while we were there, but usually only for a few minutes. Then there was almost always a rainbow. See the one over Ashley's head?
Bryan Jones, Rob had Brooklyn take this picture for you. What is a beach vacation without sipping virgin pina coladas by the pool?
The view from our hotel balcony...Diamond Head on one side...Waikiki Beach on the other. I didn't go out on this balcony too many times because we were on the 21st floor. I'm not very afraid of heights, but this made me woozy!
Just a cute picture of Hunter and Ash
One of our favorite things was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This place is so pretty! We took a train around the plantation and it was interesting to see how pineapples grow. I'm ashamed to admit it, but everyone in my family,except for Rob, thought pineapples grew on trees.
The girls on the train
We did the "2001 World's Largest Maze" at the Dole plantation. Throughout the maze there were 6 stations that we needed to find and then stencil the clue on a piece of paper. It took us about 20 minutes before we found the first one.
We only ended up finding 3. We learned to just listen for someone to yell "I found one", and then try to follow their voices. Brooklyn decided to be funny and yelled that she had found one when she didn't. She laughed so hard when she heard some boys say that they heard someone say they had found a station:) She is definitely Rob's daughter!!!
We had the BEST pineapple ice cream and fresh pineapple.
One of my favorite parts of our trip was hiking through Waimea Valley up to Waimea Falls. We saw the most incredible plants and trees! It was a mix between Jurassic Park and the beginning of Arachnophobia where the scientist find the spiders.
The kids all had to wear life jackets in order to swim in the water. Hunter is smiling only because he has no idea why we are putting a life jacket on him.
The kids and I went out first so that Rob could get a picture. The water was soooo cold! Hunter and some of the girls floated out on boogie boards, but Brooklyn and I jumped all the way in. I have always wanted to do something like this!
Rob actually stood under the waterfall. That is him with his arms up in the air. He said it was so hard to stand and the water hurt coming down on his back.
Love this place!!!
Hunter was happy to be out of the freezing cold water and on our way back down to the car.
We ate at this cute place on the North Shore...We were fooled by it's cuteness.
Would you eat this? I couldn't. I ordered the chicken and shrimp plate, and this is what I got...I'm not sure that was even chicken.
Rob and I quickly learned that when in doubt...order a hot dog. The kids never had a bad meal!
This is the Holana Blow Hole. It was very cool to see. The lady at the Dole Plantation told us that years ago her husband's friend was sucked down the hole while trying to get close...YIKES!
The wind was blowing so hard it almost knocked us over:)
Brooklyn dressed Choncho up with her clothes and sungasses while keeping him warm at the pool...this is better than the pink nail polish that she put on him yesterday:)...Poor kid!
Since Sunday was a "no swim" day, we went to Pearl Harbor. This is us on the boat over to the memorial. This is a picture of the "Tears of the Arizona". You can still see the oil dripping out of the ship. There is such a reverent feeling at the war sights we've visited. What an amazing sacrifice men and women make by serving in our armed forces. I'm so proud to have my brother in the military!!! 
After Pearl Harbor we went to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. This is the best place to get souvenirs! We bought a coconut for the girls to try. First they had to drink all of the coconut juice, and then the guy that sold it to us scraped out the flesh for them to taste. Brooklyn drank the most, but we ended up dumping quite a bit out on the grass. I feel sick even thinking about how bad it tasted!
Our girls have been earning and saving their money to spend on souvenirs. This is the best way to take kids shopping. They really only bought things that they couldn't live without. Alyssa even came home with $40 left. She tried this hat on, but didn't buy it...thank goodness!
After the swap meet we drove up to the Punchbowl. I had never even heard of this place. It is a memorial and cemetery for the men that died in wars in the Pacific Ocean. It was kind of like a mini-Arlington. 
We always run into so many nice tourist that offer to take pictures for us. Thank you tourist lady!
Isn't the view incredible?!!!
Why are elevators so much fun, and why do kids love to be the one that gets to push the button? 
Hunter burying his cars...we never recovered these either:)
Our Sunday "no swim" day ended by being the only fully dressed people playing in the sand...except for Rob, he just couldn't keep his shirt on:)
The girls decided to give Hunter a taste of his own medicine by burying him. We did however recover him:)
A Hawaiian "almost" sunset
This is the visitor's center of the Laie Temple. We saw the neatest presentation there and Brooklyn told us how much she felt the Spirit.:)
We met the cutest sister missionary from Hong Kong that took this picture for us. It was so fun to see the sister missionaries wearing traditional Hawaiian dresses instead of regular clothing.
The Laie Temple
This McDonalds may not look like the ones on the mainland, but the food tastes the same:) Ashley had been begging to go here ever since she found out they were giving Pet Shops with their Happy Meals. My poor deprived kids only get McDonalds when we are on vacation.
Our next stop was the Polynesian Cultural Center. This place is unbelievable! We spent all day here and could've spent another day. The landscaping is incredible and the people are so much fun! This is the kids playing with some balls from some polynesian island (I obviously didn't pay attention to the details). This place has a village with an activity that is native to each island. Great place to take kids!!!
Here are the kids playing a stick game...Poor Brooklyn got stuck having Chonch as her partner. He didn't follow the directions very well:)
Hunter is a pretty shy boy, but he LOVED this guy!
He was nice enough to give us our tattoos.
The kids showing off their first...and last tattoos that they will ever have...Hopefully!
In the village of Tonga we learned how to weave fish with leaves
In Samoa we saw a man climb a cocount tree. The girls thought he must be crazy.
The kids were able to go on stage and do a dance with coconut shells. Hunter even played along. Meanwhile...Rob was chosen to go across the village to learn how to be a cook. Apparently in Samoa, all the men do the cooking.
Rob racing to beat another guy by making fire. I see smoke!!! I see smoke!!!
Can any man really look tough when he is wearing a skirt?!!!...
Or, dancing with flowers in his hair? ...I guess they can!
At the luau we got fresh flower leis...all of us were excited except for Hunter. He couldn't wait to get his off...Ryan Clark, I think he deserves a "man point"!
I'm afraid my girls may never eat pork again. Once they saw these guys take a whole cooked pig out of the ground, they decided they no longer eat pork. They missed out because the pork that was served at this luau was delicious!!!
More pina coladas! The girls couldn't get over being able to drink one out of a real pineapple:)
Half way through dinner, Hunter's head dropped as he fell asleep. This poor boy was such a trooper to go the whole week without a nap.
All of the elementary aged kids were invited to dance on stage at the luau. There was no way Brooklyn was going to go all the way down there, but Alyssa and Ash did.
Our favorite part of the night time show was definitely the fire dancers! Ashley thought it was so funny when they sat down on the fires and caught their grass skirts on fire. Sorry about the dark picture...no flash photography:(
Finally...a beach day! The girls were so excited to use their $2 beach mats that they bought. These were among the few things that did not make it home on the plane with us.
Ashley, trying to get a tanOur hotel was just down the street from the Honolulu Zoo. We had so much fun seeing animals that we don't get to see at our zoo.
This zoo has a great area for the kids.
On our way to the airport, we stopped at the USS Bowfin and the USS Missouri.
From the USS Missouri we were able to get a better picture of the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
It was really fun to go on the USS Missouri not only because this is where the peace treaty for World War II was signed, but also because my Grandpa Smith was on this ship during the war. It is soooo big...yet the inside seems so small. I can't imagine living on this for months at a time.
Heights don't seem to bother these two
This is the spot where the peace treaty was signed. So cool!
Sadly this trip came to an end. Our only regret was that we couldn't stay longer! 
11 comments:
What an AMAZING trip. I'm pretty much moving there!! You guys all look so cute. Isn't it just incredible over there? I love it! I've been waiting to hear how it went. You guys are so lucky you were able to do that. It's beautiful!
What a fun trip! We really want to go back to Hawaii, but it is so difficult to get there from here. (Most people do the Caribbean.) I'm totally impressed that Hunter did so well all week...my kids would have fallen apart by day 2! =)
All the pictures look amazing! I'm glad you guys had so much fun... and now I see what you were talking about the food not being that great! :) I'm like your girls when it comes to snorkeling... I'm impressed they liked it!
I AM SO JEALOUS!! Your trip looks AMAZING!!!
Looke like you had a fabulous time!!! It brought back so many memories! I am excited to go in October!!! See you guys on Sat.
FUN! Isn't Hawaii the best? I'm so glad you got to go to the PCC and the war sites; they are the best, huh? I also love Waimea...okay, fine. I love the whole place! Your pictures are the best and I love all of your cute cover-ups. Let's all go sometime soon!
I am glad you had such a fun trip...I want to go! Maybe someday. Cute pics.
AWW what a great trip!!
Next time you'll have to try Maui..It is the best..:)
Aleck's favorite thing was the fire dancers too...
Glad you had such a good time!
You guys are so lucky! You take the best vacations. The girls looks so cute!!
Fantastic pics! We are very envious....we are supposed to be there right now... but ohh ACS... you know how it goes!! Your family is darling! Loved looking over the pictures!
Hi my name is Mary Ann Housel I am Natalie's Aunt. I was just looking at Natalie's blog when I saw that yours said Aloha Hawaii. My family and I are planning a trip next year to go to Hawaii, I am having a hard time finding a hotel that is good for the kids. What hotel did you stay at? I know this is really weird
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