Hawaii- Part 1, Oahu

Our kids call this place "wahoo!" because that's what it sounds like to them... and by the time we had to leave it, Jackson said while looking over the ocean, "When I am a grown up daddy, I am going to live in Hawaii because I love Hawaii."

We had a great time. We arrived late Thursday night, just in time to get to our place and go to bed. The kids traveled well, but were really zonked by the end of the day. One of Jackson's favorite parts of the trip was the plane ride...everything was so new and exciting!  

The next morning, Jackson and Zoey woke up around 5:30 am Hawaii time and decided they were ready for the ocean, so they got dressed in their swim suites and danced around the house singing "We are in Hawaii!" We had to stall them a couple of hours as we waited for the sun to come up so we could go to the beach. After we saw the first glimpses of sun, we headed out for a morning walk on the beach. Brian and Jackson caught a little sand crab. It was fun to see the kids chase them around on the sand. They were amazed the crabs walked sideways and thought it was really funny! 

We stayed in Hau'ula (near the Laie Temple and BYU-Hawaii). Our beach house was right on the ocean. It had a little grassy area for the kids to play on, a stone wall to keep them from heading straight for the water, but then right behind the wall was our own private little beach area and the ocean! We loved every minute we had in the sun and sand. We rarely saw people on this part of the beach. That night, we went to Turtle Bay for dinner. I thought it was delicious but after Jackson told us he didn't like going out to eat and only liked our food at home, we decided that was our last meal out. We actually ate better and cheaper at home anyway. We grilled fresh ahi and steaks for dinner and lots of fresh fruit- and it was cheaper! 

 Jackson and Zoey enjoying an orange soda..... tongues orange and all!

We did visit other beaches (Ko olina had great snorkeling and Ala Mona was calm and warm). But these pictures basically sum up what we did. Beach.

We went on some pretty scenic drives getting from one part of the island to the other. One stop we made was to the Buddhist temple. It was gorgeous and if we didn't have the kids with us we would have taken a tour, but they wanted a beach, so we kept driving.

On Sunday, we went to the local ward and visited the Laie Temple. Jackson and Zoey decided it would be a good idea to wade their feet in the temple pond- crazy kids! They were really tired at this point in the day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging around the house. It happened to be the rainiest day there, but since it was Sunday anyway, we didn't feel like it dampened the trip at all.

 On Monday, we visited the Dole plantation. The kids loved the train ride and the famous "Dole whip" pineapple ice cream. That night we had a delicious meal on the beach and said good-bye to "wahoo!"

Zoey picked out this little yellow sundress and would wear it every day. She called it her "Hawaii dress." It was so soft on comfy!