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 2 (Part1)

Hi girls!

It's not even lunch time, but I wanted to tell you what we've done already today.  We got up early because the birds were singing so loudly and the sun was already up.  It was beautiful!  After breakfast, it started to rain again.  We are staying only 10 minutes from Heidi and I called her, and she said it wasn't raining where she lives.  In fact, it's supposed to rain every day here at our little house, but its not supposed to rain at all where Heidi lives.  It's strange how we can be so close to her but the weather can be so different.

Daddy and a bunch of people had to go back to the airport and grocery stores, so Grandma, Laurie, Ben, Stacey, and I stayed behind.  We decided to go for a drive down the coast in Ben's convertible (you know, the car that doesn't have a roof). 

It was BEAUTIFUL!  Do you know that Hawaii is called the Rainbow State?  There were more rainbows this morning, which we knew you would love to see. 

Sure enough, as soon as we were about 5 minutes from our little house, the rain stopped and it got about 5 degrees warmer.  We pulled over by the side of the road to get in the water.

We didn't realize it, but we had stopped at Turtle Beach.  What do you think we saw in the water? 

TURTLES!  Sea turtles!  BIG turtles!  They were as big as our table in the kitchen, if not bigger.  There were some small ones too.  So cute!  (No underwater pictures yet...but just wait for Day 4!)  We got our masks and snorkles on and got in the water with them. 

There were a lot of big waves, but under the water, we couldn't really tell.  It was so beautiful and relaxing.  We saw a few more fish, but mostly there were just turtles.  We probably saw 12 of them.  One came so close to me, I could have touched it.  But we were told it is against the law to touch them, so I made sure I didn't.  They can swim for a long time under water, but they do need to breathe air, so they have to come up to the surface to breathe.  It was fun to see their little heads popping up out of the water every once in a while. 

We stayed in the water for a long time.  But finally, we needed to go home.  I just took a shower and got my church clothes on, because we're heading over to the temple.  After that, we're going to a really cool place called the Polynesian Cultural Center where we'll see dances, men climbing coconut trees, and people throwing around sticks that are on fire.  We'll hear cool music and eat a big special dinner called a Luau.  We're really excited!  I'll tell you all about it later.

I hope you're having a FANTASTIC day!  I'm so grateful that you are my daughters and I love you so much.  Remember to wash your hair so you can be all ready for church in the morning.  Remember to wear unders under your dresses, too!  And smile!  You're such beautiful girls.  Take care of each other.  There's no better friends in your life than your sisters.  I love you!

Mom, you're the best!  I love you too!

Mommy