Last Hawaii post of random things

One day we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. There was a baby zoo train you could ride around to look at the pineapple fields that we didn't want to spend the money for and heard some reviews after that it wasn't worth it. So, we just walked around the free part, took some pictures, bought some pineapple that was super good, and left.

Jon's mom bought us all polo shirts and sewed "Hawaii 2011" on each of them with a Hawaii picture. They were so cute I had to get a family picture in them.
We went to Matsumoto's for snow cones. Apparently he was one of the first people to come up with shaved ice and brought it to the states. It was pretty good.
Seth noticed a gecko sitting next to him and realized he had one that looked just like him on his shirt and figured that's why he got next to him.
The Kohuku Grill was our favorite place to eat...we went twice because it was 20 minutes away. They had the best coconut shrimp, rice, fries (with fry sauce, it was a mormon family that owned the place) and fish.
Hawaii Temple. The visitors center and grounds were so beautiful.
Pali Lookout. Super windy all the time. This ledge was only a couple of feet from the ground.
On the way out of Pali Lookout the trees and vines were everywhere. We stopped to swing on the vines that didn't really hold our weight.

Polynesian Cultural Center

I really wanted to have a Luau in Hawaii to get the whole Hawaiian experience. The PCC has the best Luau on the island so we did that one day. The only bad part was the show lasted until 9 PM which is 1 AM our time so we were very tired.

The grounds were beautiful!

Right when we got there they had a parade of rafts that floated by and showed different dances from the islands.
We went to visit the "Island of New Zealand" and learned some fun stick games.

Here's a guy climbing a really tall coconut tree.

We all got leis before the luau that smelled great.

This wasn't actually a pineapple drink but it was still a yummy pina colda smoothie. And of course Hawaiian punch to drink.

Trying to make the face of the statue beside them.

Pearl Harbor

We really wanted to take the kids to Pearl Harbor. Jon's mom also went to Hawaii with us, which was so great, and she was very excited to go to Pearl Harbor. PaPa (Marilyn's Dad) spent some time there when he was in the Navy. He was there after the bombing fortunately.

We decided to spend some money on the audio tour and it was worth it. Here we're standing on a giant map to see where Japan was in relation to Hawaii.

We walked through a couple of different buildings that had numbers throughout that you could push into the audio player and hear about whatever had that number on it. Am I explaining this very well?? Anyway, it kept the kids attention. We had to sign up to take a ferry out to the Arizona, so we had a bout 2 1/2 hours to wait before we could get on the ferry.

This anchor was so gigantic. They found it a few hundred feet away from the Arizona when it exploded.

Taking the ferry out to the Arizona Memorial.

This was one of the tall smoke stacks of the Arizona. The memorial was built over the boat so you could look into the water and see a lot of it.
Jon and Grandma Marilyn. The memorial was very open and bright. And because you had to sign up and wait for the the ferry, it wasn't very crowded.

Hawaiian Beaches

Our family just got back from Hawaii. It was so amazing. I loved every minute we were on the island. I know it probably will never happen again so I really tried to enjoy every moment. I feel like we got to do a lot of fun activities and still felt relaxed. I took tons of pictures so I thought I'd do like 3 different blogs on Hawaii, so bear with me. The first blog is on the beaches because that's the real reason we went to Hawaii.

Maddie and Seth sitting on the wall at 5:30am. Waiting for the sun to rise so we could hit the beach for the first time. The time was 4 hours earlier there so we were up early every morning.
In the water by 6am. Not very warm yet.

Beautiful sun rise!

Maddie was in the water the most! She loves the ocean waves!
This is at Hanauma Bay. Maddie is chasing the pigeons away. They were very annoying because they'd try to take food right out of your hand, they weren't afraid of people at all.
We saw a lot of amazing fish at Hanauma Bay. The kids all brought their snorkeling gear.
One day we went to Barb's beach. When Jon and I went on our honeymoon this is the beach we went to. Kailua Beach. The waves were huge!
A friendly old dog decided to stay with us for the day.

Seth and Max really enjoy the sand, they made some great creations.
Max got stung by a jellyfish. Poor guy. I said just put a towel on it because I wasn't really sure what to do for that. Jon got stung on our honeymoon so I think this beach is known for their jellyfish.
Tanner caught some great waves.

Max is 11

For Max's birthday he wanted to do iworlds for his party. Uncle Lincoln also loves space camp so he got to be our designated adult to watch all the kids for two hours. It's not a hard job because they're pretty busy trying to survive and save the world, or something like that.

Then we came back to the house to do cake and presents. Max was pretending to be 2 since I put two candles in the cake but it's actually an "11".

Then the next night we got to do fireworks. I'm not sure how to take pictures in the dark with my new camera, maybe it doesn't have that function. I read the instructions but it still takes me a while to figure things out. Max loves fireworks.
Then on Sunday (his actual birthday) we had a family party at Grandma's.
He always needs some legos to keep him busy. He's a little too fast at putting them together. He's going to take the cash and gift card from his other grandmas to buy the lego monorail train next. That should keep him pretty busy. Jon put shelves in his room just for legos that are helping them to stay together longer.

Trip to Denver

This weekend Jon had a conference in Denver 4 miles from my sister's house. I texted Lyssa to see if we could come visit and she said, "YES!" She loves visitors and is a great host.

On the first day we hung out at Tattered Cover. Love that place.

Lyssa told Max and Seth there was a statue somewhere in the store that they had to find. It is so realistic, that it creeps the kids out a tiny bit.

On Friday night Max and Seth got to join Peter and Thomas at gymnastics. They are doing dive rolls over each other. Seth asked if we could stay until Tuesday so he could go again.

Going to Pei Wei after all that gymnastics.

Elitch Gardens (Thanks Teri, for the passes!) It was the busiest day we have ever seen. The parking lot was so full, they were making people park at the Pepsi Center. And it was the hottest day of the summer so far. But the kids still had a great time.

Thomas does not love the Ferris Wheel. He doesn't love heights. But he loves being with his cousins so he did it.

Seth wasn't too sure about the swings. He ended up loving them after trying them.

Max had no hesitations about this ride!

The kids call this the Sandlot ride because of the movie Sandlot. It is the throw up scene. Happily, no one threw up in our group. Everyone rode this ride four times because it didn't have a long line.

And here is everyone in the wave pool. Hopefully this picture was taken before someone pooped in the pool and it was closed for the rest of the day.

Good times.