Hawaii-Day 4

By Friday, I was getting really sad.  My time in Hawaii was going way too fast.  I started getting up each morning early and running out to the beach to watch the sunrise.  Most days, the clouds blocked the sunrise, but how can I complain.  The days were filled with sunshine and beautiful skies.

We had a plan to meet the Shumway family up on the North Shore to go snorkeling.  It was Eric's chance to see Ben Shumway before he got married.  They were good friends our first year here in Papillion.  As an added bonus, we got to see his other friends, Serena Moore, Katy McGuffin, and Kayla Cordon.  Apparently Nathan has never snorkeling because his excitement over seeing those first few fish underwater was so adorable.  The spot is called Shark's Cove.  Of course Nate wanted a lot of reassurance that we wouldn't see any sharks.  I am so grateful that I got Mario that underwater camera in Spain.  Although I'm horrible at taking pictures, I love the pictures underwater, especially of the kids.  

When we were at Kobe the night before, a couple told us about a great place to go cliff jumping up on the North Shore.  He said it was safe and all the locals do it.  Zach begged to go.  We talked all the girls from snorkeling into going with us, especially because Serena is from Hawaii and had done it before.  We headed to Waimea Beach just a short walk away. Mario and I were way behind them when the boys climbed to the top of the cliff (huge rock.)  I was shocked to see Nathan follow all the kids up.  

Zach and Eric jumped pretty quickly from the tallest part.  Nate and I went the spot that was about 20-24 feet up and just stared down at the water for a LONG time.  Everyone had already jumped at least once and were begging us to jump down and join them in the water.  We finally jumped when we saw a large sea turtle swimming down below us and we wanted to get a closer look.  Besides, it looked more dangerous to climb down than to jump.  It was awesome but so scary!  I only did it once, but Nate did it twice and loved it.

I think the cliff jumping was the boys' very favorite thing we did that week.  After cliff jumping, we rushed to get back to Bellows to return our snorkeling gear before we incurred another day's charge.  But we made a short detour on the way home at the Dole Plantation to get some Dole Whip.  We had never stopped before but everyone said we had to try it.  Good thing we didn't discover that stuff 12 years ago.  We would have wanted it everyday.  It is a pineapple flavored soft-serve frozen dessert that is only sold at Disney and in Hawaii.

The rest of the day was spent at Bellows and again, we had BBQ.  I wish we could BBQ every night on the beach for the rest of my life.  I'd be one happy camper.

Hawaii-My Birthday

Day 3 was my birthday so it was my pass to do whatever I wanted with no complaints from anyone.  I had thought about spending the entire day at Bellows but quickly changed my mind.  I wanted to do another hike.  This one I had done many times before.  Erin practically ran up and down this when she was 3 and 4.  I had pushed the boys up the trail in a stroller countless times.  I even remember taking Buzz several times.    We'd often see whales when it was the right season.  Unfortunately we didn't see any this time but it was still fun.  This hike is called the Makapuu Lighthouse Trail.

After our hike, we stopped at the tide pools and beach that Eric learned to surf. Then we headed back to Bellows with the plan to bbq for lunch and dinner and just play at the beach the rest of the day.

We did go back and bbq for lunch but then I decided I wanted to go down to Waikiki to watch the sun go down.  Mario decided that we should go to dinner at Kobe Steakhouse for my birthday especially since kids haven't been and it is right next to the Hale Koa military hotel that I had planned to swim and watch sunset.  The boys were very excited about Kobe and it didn't disappoint.  It's amazing how they ate food that they normally wouldn't eat because it as so cool to watch.  Nate loved his chopsticks.  Someone needs to teach Zach how to smile for pictures though.

On the way to the Hale Koa, we stopped to get a picture by the Hilton hotel that we lived in for a couple weeks when we first moved to Hawaii.  It was a cool hotel with penguins.  We wanted to get pictures of the penguins to prove that they really do exist but unfortunately were told that they all recently died.

The following are pictures at the Hale Koa by the pool.

It was a wonderful birthday.  I don't know how Mario and the kids can ever top that one.