Oahu Hawaii Trip 2013

Kenny and I were lucky enough to go on an anniversary trip this year to Hawaii! We flew my mom up here to watch the kids and set off for a romantic getaway. We took several hundred pictures, but for your sake I will only pick a few favorites from each day and the main highlights. I wrote a very detailed journal of each day, but that's for us to make into a book, not for the family blog :).  This is extremely long. You don't have to read it. Overall, it was the best vacation I've ever had. It was so nice to focus 100% on each other and just do whatever we wanted to do, whenever we wanted to do it. We normally have a lot of kids and little needs to work around, but we were very free and it was awesome! It was possibly even better than our honeymoon, not because our honeymoon wasn't spectacular, but because we didn't appreciate our time together quite like we do now. Yes I missed the kids like crazy, but I was so grateful we had the opportunity to go and make so many wonderful memories on this gorgeous island. We're definitely contemplating moving to Hawaii :).


April 27th my mom and our kids dropped us off at the airport. It was fun to fly during the day, and see Alaska from above. It's beautiful, but very cold looking.

 Especially when you compare it with what we saw when we reached Honolulu!!

I couldn't get over how easy and fun travelling can be! I honestly felt like I was forgetting something (or rather, everything!) because all I had on the plane with me was a purse. I read, took a nap, and even watched a movie (Lincoln) with Kenny! That alone might have even been a fun enough date, but our vacation was only beginning :). We landed, got our rental car, and drove across the island to the north shore, where we were staying near Sunset Pt. Not very impressed with our rental house, but it was cheap and right by the beach, so we didn't care too much.

Sunday April 28th
We found a ward and went to Sacrament Mtg. Then we drove to Laie to see the beautiful LDS temple there. We also saw the BYU-Hawaii campus, and walked around Rocky Pt. There were tons of crabs! Then we came back home and heated up our frozen P.F. Chang's for dinner and sat on the beach and watched the sunset. We were on sunset beach, so it was only appropriate.

Monday April 29th -- Our 7 year anniversary!

Started off the morning bright and early (it was easy to do every day since we were on a 2 hour ahead schedule) going snorkeling at Turtle Bay. We really wanted to see a turtle the whole week, but we never did. We still had fun though. After playing around on the beach all morning we came back showered, got lunch, and were at the PCC or Polynesian Cultural Center at noon. We were there the rest of the day, until 9 p.m. and it was a really neat place. I learned a lot about all the different islands and their respective cultures/history. The luau was fun, and Kenny and I even went up and danced in front of everyone with all the other couples who were celebrating their anniversary that month. How romantic :). The show, Ha! Breath of Life, was really cool too.

Tuesday April 30th

We drove down to Kailua and rented a kayak, to go out to the Twin Islands. It took a long time, but it was fun to do it. We explored around the island for a while (this is the day we got really sunburned as we neglected to bring the sunscreen with us!!). There were lots of crabs here too, obviously, and some neat birds that had their nests as little holes indented in the side all over the mountain. We also snorkeled for a little while, too. We kayaked back and went to get some lunch! We ate probably the best meal of my life at California Pizza Kitchen. I don't know if it was just because I was so hungry, but seriously it was amazing. Then we wanted to go hiking on the Maunawili Falls Trail while we were down there. It started raining as we drove over to the trail head. WE got out and it was pouring rain! But of course that only made it more fun! It was a crazy jungle of a forest, and pouring rain, and super muddy. We were soaked through, and so muddy, and eaten alive by mosquitos by the time we got back, but we had a great time doing it! The view of all the many waterfalls at one point of the trail was breathtaking!

 

 

Wednesday May 1st

 

Pearl Harbor

Snorkeling at Manauma Bay

Hiking to Makapu'u Lighthouse

Dinner and walking around Waikiki Beach

 

 

Thursday May 2nd

 

Tried to go boogie boarding nice and early, but the surfer dudes pretty much kicked us out. One of them was not very nice and our beach was the hot spot for surfers from all over apparently. So since we didn't want to die, we left. Kenny found a coconut (okay he had been collecting them since we got there) but he finally found a rock and opened it up. He cracked the center, drank the water, and then ate it. All of it. He was very happy with his accomplishment :). We snorkeled, and looked for more seashells to bring to the kids. For lunch we went to Haleiwa Joe's where I ate fish (black and blue ahi)! I didn't even gag so that was my big accomplishment of the day. We were really feeling our sunburns and didn't want to make it much worse by staying out on the beach all day again. So we walked around all the shops, got some souvenirs, ate some shaved ice, found the farmer's market with a random peacock, and just hung out. Went back to the beach to talk, stroll, and of course watch the sun set.

 

 

 

Friday, May 3rd

 

Snorkeled at our beach for most of the morning and found some awesome shells for the kids! Later went to Pounder's Beach in Laie after getting subway for lunch. We tried to do some body surfing like all the cool locals were doing, but really I just got flipped around and dragged along the bottom and inhaled a lot of salt water. So I like diving under the waves better. Stayed till about 3:30, then went home to shower. We went to dinner at the Atkinsons' rental house. They are in our ward here in Anchorage and by chance were both in Hawaii the same week! They made us kabobs, rice, and fresh grilled pineapple. It was delicious food and great company. We brought a chocolate cream pie from the infamous Ted's Bakery. It was a fun evening.

 

 

 

Saturday May 4th

 

Breakfast at Ted's Bakery. Packed up and checked out of our place around 10 a.m. Went to the pineapple plantation. Trying to kill time because our flight wasn't until 9:30 that night!! Went down to Honolulu, went to Costco and got chocolate covered macadamia nuts (in bulk!). Went and saw a movie in the middle of the day, Iron Man 3. It was awesome. Then we turned our rental car back in and got to the airport 6 hours early. It was super lame. I was aching to get back to my kids. A week is way too long to be away from them. We flew all night long and arrived in Anchorage at 5:20 a.m.

Oh here's some advice if any of you are planning a trip. Don't overlap your return flight with your babysitter's flight. It doesn't work so well. My mom was scheduled to leave at 12:30 a.m., and as I already said, we weren't getting in for 5 more hours. Thankfully 2 of the young women who always babysit for us (sisters) came and stayed the night at our house to cover for us. Oh the stupid things. I was so incredibly happy to be home and see and hold and kiss my kids again. We missed them terribly. But I know they had fun with Grandma while we were gone. I couldn't have left them with anyone else. It was a much needed vacation and I'm so glad we went!

 

                                    

 

At the airport. Kenny is standing approximately where we stayed in Oahu