Hawaiian Paradise: Day 4

Here's the trouble.  All the pictures are on Braden's computer.  Most of the time, he has his computer with him at school.  So I don't get many opportunities to update this blog.  Hence, it is taking me a couple weeks to finish up our trip to Hawaii.  We'll see how many I can get scheduled this time around...

Hi girls!

Sorry I didn't write yesterday.  We were so tired I couldn't stay up to write.  I'll try to catch up today.

Yesterday morning, we headed back to Turtle Beach and swam with the turtles again.  This time, Ben and Robb took waterproof cameras so we could take pictures of the turtles under the water.  I can't wait to show those to you. 

This one looks like he's just walking along

SMILE!!

As you can see, we were super close to them.  Probably too close...

Coming up for air

Braden swimming behind the turtle

Then, we headed back to Shark's Cove and snorkled with all the fish. There was another big turtle over there. Daddy bought a waterproof camera for Shark's Cove and got some great pictures, too. 

Can you see all those shiny fish?

Braden's favorite

My favorite

That night, we had a stand up paddle surfing lesson which was SO cool!  We paddled up a river, and there were turtles swimming up the river to go to sleep.  It was a lot of fun to be on the boards on a beautiful night, paddling into the sunset.  It was awesome.  Even grandma, with arthritis and bad hips, did awesome!

Heidi and Nate told us that about 20% of their students fall in the river.  We decided to prove them wrong and go for a grand 100%.  I had the easiest board, so I didn't fall in until I was pushed in.  Braden had a really hard board, so he fell off every couple minutes.  Poor guy.  I hope he had fun anyway.  Nicho, Stace, and Laurie, of course were troublemakers and were the cause of a lot of wet people. 

We had the best time.  If any of you are ever in Oahu, you HAVE TO take a Stand Up Paddle Surfing lesson with my sister's school.  It is called Rainbow Watersports and you will have the time of your life.  It was so fun!

Hawaiian Paradise: Day 1

We just got home from 8 days in Hawaii.  It was incredible.  Braden's parents decided to take all 4 kids and their spouses to Hawaii.  All we had to pay for was food and experiences.  Unbelievable!  My mom came out here to watch Keara, Taryn, and Avery while Mazie spent the week in Phoenix with my cousin.  Everyone had a great time!  Thank you to Mom and Dad M, Mom and Dad H, and Kami & co. for making this possible!

I want to document our trip, so I'll try to post each day.  Unfortunately, the first day is the most boring, as far as pictures are concerned.  But at least it gets us started!

It was fun flying together as a group (minus one sister and brother-in-law).  When we arrived, we knew we were in paradise.  However, the first thing that greeted us was a restaurant in the airport whose logo sure looked more like "Hicken Company" than "Chicken Company".  We just had to take a picture.

Every day we were there, I wrote the girls an email, so they'd know what we were doing while we were away.  I'm just going to use those emails as my post:

Hi girls!

I wanted to tell you all about our day!  We've sure had a great one.  First, we woke up SUPER early so we could go to the airport.  Grandma, Grandpa, Laurie, and Ben picked us up and we met up with Robb and Amanda, then went to the airport.  It was a big airplane.  We got drinks, some snacks, and even an egg burrito and a muffin.  We could see lots of clouds out the windows, and when we got closer to Hawaii, we could see the ocean, waves, boats, and the islands.  It was cool!

After we landed in Hawaii, we went grocery shopping.  Did you know they have a Sam's Club and a Walmart here?  It was just like home!  They even had samples.  Then we came to the house we're staying at.  It is BEAUTIFUL! 

We can see the ocean right out our windows!  And we could just walk to the beach. 

We went to the water at a place called Shark's Cove (but there were no sharks there).  It was right down the street from our house.  We went snorkeling, which is where you put on a mask (like big goggles) and a breathing tube so you can swim under water, see what's under the water, AND breath at the same time.  We saw tons of fish and coral and sea urchins and a sea snail.  Daddy saw an eel!  Robb and Ben saw a Nemo fish (a clown fish) and we also saw a Hawaii Angel Fish which is like Gill in Finding Nemo.  It was beautiful down there and really fun!   It rained a lot while we were in the water and then there was a beautiful rainbow!

We played out there in the ocean for a long time and then came back to the house, took a shower, and had dinner.  Then, we went to a moonlight walk in a beautiful botanical garden called Waimea Valley.  We walked in the pitch black dark of the night because the moon was behind the clouds.  It was raining a lot and we got totally soaked.  We got to see a lot of flowers that bloom at night time instead of during the day.  We walked along the path until we came to a beautiful waterfall!  The moon came out from behind the clouds and lit up the whole waterfall!  It was so wonderful. 

Uncle Ben rented a convertible car, which is a car that has no roof.  That was really fun to drive in, though we got really wet when it was raining.  Now we need to go to bed because it is SO late!

We love you so much and hope you're having a great day!  We'll write you more about our day tomorrow!!

Have a wonderful time with grandma!

Mommy and Daddy

(mom...I lost my cell phone on the plane. Too bad!!)