We LOVE the Beach!

We had so much fun our last week in Hawaii. We could not get enough of the ocean and the sand. We spent time at Waimea Beach and Sunset Beach a lot.

Waimea's famous jumping rock.

the view from Waimea Bay, you'll also see this view in the movie Soul Surfer.

We spent a lot of time finding the best Hawaiian Shaved Ice. This was at Aloha General Store on the North Shore, good but not the best in our opinion. Here is Caleb and I in the sign.

Kailua

If I were to move anywhere in Hawaii it would probably be to Kailua. It is the cutest little town with amazing beaches. The sand was like powdered sugar. We loved the water and the beach here. Caleb had so much fun swimming and playing in the little river on the other side of the beach. He even made friends with a little local boy who kept calling Cory and I "Uncle and Auntie". He was about 6 or so and was catching fish and crabs. It was so much fun. When I go back to Hawaii, I am definitely going to this beach again. (Funny little side note, this just happens to be the town that Remy's Grandma lives in).

More Lost

If anyone is familiar with Lost then they will recognize this as Sun's home, and also the bridge where Sun and Jin got engaged and also where they got married. This is on the Windward side of the island near Kaneohe in the Valley of the Temples. It was so fun to see.

Hitting the gong.

More scenes from Lost.

A rare Buddah in the temple.

This little girl was trying to get Caleb to feed the birds. You could also feed the koi too.

(The bridge where Sun and Jin got engaged.)

Our Lost Search

We had a great last week in Hawaii doing the things we didn't get to do the before. Cory and I knew that the one thing we needed to do in Hawaii was go on a Lost tour. We decided to check out the places that were on the North Shore. We drove down Farrington Highway all the way to the end in Mokule'ia. That is where we found "the Other's camp, the Dharma village". It was pretty cool to see. We were a little embarrassed to take a picture so we took one pretty quickly. It is actually the YMCA Camp Erdman there.

Dharma Village in Mokule'ia, Hawaii.

After seeing the Other's camp, we headed to Mokule'ia Beach where more scenes were taped from Lost. The beach was beautiful. It was pretty deserted and only had locals there. Kinda cool to picture the film crews and actors there.

Mokule'ia Beach.

Dillingham Airfield

The Old Waialua Sugar Mill (they filmed Nigeria here)

in front of the North Shore Soap Factory at the Old Sugar Mill

After our search for Lost scenes we headed into town (Haleiwa) for some lunch and shopping. We decided to check out Kua Aina which is famous for their burgers. They claim to have the best in Hawaii and even the best in the world. Cory and I would definitely agree with that. They were amazing. I had a grilled pineapple burger and Cory had an avocado one. Mmm, I'm craving one just thinking about it.

Kua Aina on the North Shore

Easter Sunday

Well our Easter this year was a little different. We started our day off at church in Waialua. It was a good sacrament meeting with some funny talks and they sang Aloha Oi to a family that was moving at the end. It was nice to get the time to go to church and remember what the day was really about.

We then headed home and ate lunch. We needed to head to the airport to exchange our rental car so we all go ready then drove to Honolulu to do that. We spent some time in China Town and Cory got his chinese drink he had been craving. Most people there spoke Cantonese so Cory didn't get to use much of his Mandarin. A lot of it was closed since we were there a little later in the day. We headed back to the North Shore and I put a roast in the oven for dinner. We spent the rest of the day at the beach while the roast cooked. We had a great dinner with pot roast, carrots and potatoes with a special dessert of haupia pie from Ted's Bakery. Overall, it was a really fun and different Easter.

Us in front of the chapel.

Baby Beiber

We had some fun with Caleb's hair and took a Beiber picture just for Julia.

A weekend on Kauai.

Sorry this is all so delayed. While we were in Hawaii we met up with some family on another island (Kauai) for the weekend. They were there for a week, but we only 3 days with them because of Cory's work. We had so much fun!

Day One (Friday):

We spent time on the South side of the island. We first headed to Poipu Beach which was a lot of fun to explore. Everyone had fun swimming and the kids loved playing on the rocks and finding the crabs and seeing the fish. We even saw a beached monk seal and a sea turtle washed up on the beach as well.

Here we are with the cool turtle.

We all had fun at the beach and it started to rain on and off. We decided to check out this short hike to Kipu Falls. It took some time to find the hidden trail and walk down the muddy path. We found the falls and the water was rushing so quickly that it wasn't safe to jump in. We were all a little bummed, but wanted to play it on the safe side, especially with kids. The boys climbed down to get better views of the falls and saw some huge spiders.

Kipu Falls.

After being covered in mud we headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the day swimming and enjoying the great pool, which had a long lazy river and 2 slides. We also had a BBQ poolside. We all had so much fun eating and playing. Caleb loved having his cousins to play with. He swam around the pool with Ashlyn and finished off her drink when she wasn't looking.

We all spent way too much time in the amazing hot tubs. They had sand on the bottom and always seemed the perfect temperature. This was us at the end of everyday.

Day Two (Saturday):

The boys got up early Saturday morning to kayak around the Napali Coast. I believe it was a 17 mile trip. They weren't sure if they were going to be able to do it because the waves were going to be too rough but it turned out to be perfect conditions.

So the women and children had a fun relaxing day together. We decided to head to the North Shore and check out the beaches there. We ended up at Anini Beach which was perfect. The ocean was so calm it felt as though we were at a lake. It was nice to be able to relax and let Caleb run around without worrying every time he got near the water. We spent the day here and we all got burnt. After the beach we stopped by a local farmers market. The kids got drinks and Jen got a coconut. We swam in the pool for a little while because that seemed to be the only thing the kids wanted to do.

The boys before the kayaking trip.

Caleb, Ashlyn, Cole (and Jayden in the background)

The girls (Jen, Me, Sara), nice and pink.

Day Three (Sunday):

On our third and last day on Kauai we were going to do Waimea Canyon but decided to take advantage of the great weather and spend time at another beach. I am a little bummed we didn't go to Waimea Canyon but it would have been a 3 hour drive round trip. We headed back to the North Shore and went to Tunnels Beach. It was a fun beach to be at. I was so burnt from the day I didn't even want to be in the sun. Everyone had fun though, snorkeling, swimming, eating and napping. Our good weather was interrupted with rain so we gathered everything up then headed back towards the hotel. We stopped in Hanalei and got some yummy Hawaiian shaved ice and checked out the little shops. It was a lot of fun. We spent some more time swimming and then Cory and I needed to get ready for the airport. We showered and got everything together. We were ready pretty quick and very sad to go.

Cory and Caleb at Tunnels Beach.

Caleb and I at Tunnels Beach.

Our shaved ice in Hanalei.

My boys. Caleb loved having a towel like a big boy.

We had so much fun and were glad they could all come out. We also loved our quick 30 minute flight back to Oahu. It really felt like we were back home when we landed and drove back to our house. We loved living in Hawaii and miss it so much.