Hawaii- Part 2

The second half of our trip was just as fantastic as the first. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting at a local ward. It was a good meeting with really great speakers. After church we went to the pool and tried to catch a little sun. After Peyton's nap, we went to the beach by our hotel (Poipu beach). It had great waves for boogie boarding, and a really nice little beach for Peyton to play on. We stayed as long as it was sunny, then headed back home for dinner and games. On our way back, we stopped by this little shack for some shaved ice. It was amazing! It's not chunky like our shaved ice here- it's the same consistency as snow! Yum.

Monday we went to Waimea Canyon, dubbed by Mark Twain as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It's a 14 mile long, 1 mile wide, 3600 feet deep canyon in the middle of Kauai. It was beautiful! We were going to do a little hiking, but it was pretty cold and windy, so we chased the sun back to Poipu beach, where we stayed until dinner. We had dinner at home and rented a movie, then turned in early to rest up for our last day in Hawaii.

Tuesday I left Piper with Jade, and my mom took my sister, brother, Peyton and I on a GREAT excursion- we took a 30ft zodiac raft up and down the Na Pali coast. It was absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to go back and hike it some day. On the way to the coast, we were followed by a pod of spinner dolphins! They were so close, I could have reached out and touched one. It was so cool. If there would have been more pods, we would have been able to get in the water and swim with them. I was more than a little disappointed that there was only 1 pod. I guess we'll just have to do it again sometime [soon]. On the way back, our boat captain spotted a breeching humpback whale, so he slowed down and let the whale (and its "escort" of bottlenose dolphins) come to us. Apparently they are really friendly and playful with the smaller boats, so they came to check us out. The whale kept a bit of a distance from us (about 200 feet), but the dolphins were all around us; jumping and flipping and popping their heads above water to check us out. It was a really cool experience. After the tour was over, we went back to the hotel to let Peyton nap, and then we went over to the beach and pool at the Marriott hotel. It was a great beach- next time we'll spend more time there. A monk seal had decided to go bask on the beach, so we got to check him out. He was so cute! Peyton really wanted to "go pet him", but she was smart enough to keep her distance. She also finally got her long-awaited pina colada, which was probably the highlight of her trip. That night we celebrated our last night in paradise with dinner at a great little local steakhouse.

Wednesday morning came all too soon. The flight was really long, and the girls were less-than-cooperative unfortunately. Somehow we made it through the 6 hour flight, and we were all VERY happy to be home.

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My little bug in her Sunday summer dress

(those sandals used to be my sandals!)

Kauai is known as the chicken island- there are millions of wild chickens all around the island. One of the locals told me that on Kauai they have chickens like on the mainland we have rabbits or squirrels. She was right! They were everywhere. This was a cute mom with her baby chicks.

Peyton loved being buried in the sand, and asked everyone to do it every time we were at the beach.

Peyton and daddy playing in the pool

My girlfriend Twink gave these to Piper- she said all the local babies wear just bloomers all the time. They are ADORABLE!

Her first time swimming!

Peyton did this hilarious game where she would get water from the ocean and pour it on her sand pile. She would get so frustrated when it would disappear, so she would go get more water. This continued for a good 20 minutes before she gave up. Lost cause, sweetie.

Peyton loves her uncle Jimmy

Waimea Canyon

That's me and Peyton on the front-right. There is nothing better than watching your kids seeing something amazing. All those dark blobs are spinner dolphins.

There were even a couple juvenile dolphins- about 3 feet long. I wanted to see a baby SO bad- they're only 12-18". No luck.

Our breeching whale

Bottlenose

On our last day there, Peyton met a friend- Peyton! The girls were only 4 days apart, too. How crazy is that? They were fast friends.

I wanted to kiss his face!

Hawaii- Part 1

It's no secret that my mom is head over heels in love with Peyton. She would absolutely do anything for that little girl. So when Peyton was watching family videos of our trip to Maui in 2008, she decided to ask Noni to take her back again. And my mom, bless her little heart, did. We went to Hawaii for a week with my mom, sister and brother. Jade and I found great tickets to Oahu, and decided to go a day early so we could visit our good friends who moved there this summer. We had a great time. We got in Wednesday afternoon. The weather forecast looked bleak- for the 10-day forecast, every single day was cloudy and rain- not even breaks of sun. Luckily when we landed, the weather was pleasant, so we went to Pearl Harbor, somewhere I've never been before. It really was neat, though I wish I would have been with a group so I

could have gotten a more in-depth history of everything. After Pearl Harbor, we crossed the island to North Shore and Jade showed me all the fun local spots- Haleiwa and all the beaches from the Triple Crown. Then we checked into Turtle Bay and walked around the hotel, but didn't stay outside long because it was freezing and windy. We had dinner at the hotel (Piper was in rare form and had one of her worst evenings ever, ruining our night time plans).

The next day we had sun in the morning, so we played at the pool. Actually, Peyton and Jade played at the pool, and Piper and I watched. Then we left the hotel and drove to the BYU-Hawaii campus and the Laie Temple. Then we went to our friends' house. They have an awesome place with ocean front property. There is a small beach that's private because it's in

an inlet, and it's protected from hard waves because there is a reef about 100 yards. They call it "baby beach" because it's great for the little ones to play in because it's calm, shallow and secluded. Peyton had a field day. She and Kirra instantly clicked due to their adventurous and playful personalities. It was awesome. We weren't even planning on getting in the water at first, but Peyton stripped to her panties and she and Kirra played until we made them come in. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was very cool. We were pretty late getting there, so we didn't get to see much, but we did get to see the guys climb the coconut tree, and Jade even was a good sport when I volunteered him to play the drums with the Tahitian drummers. We had dinner there, and then we went to the show, "Ha". It was spectacular. Truly. It was a really long day, especially for little Peyton, but she really enjoyed every minute of it. She told

me her favorite part was the guys who danced with fire. We drove back to Honolulu and checked into a hotel by the airport and totally crashed.

Friday morning we got up early and went to the airport to meet up with my family. We all flew to Kauai together. We made a [not-so] quick grocery stop, then checked into our hotel. My mom got us a 3 bedroom condo suite at a gorgeous hotel: Koloa Landing. The condos were originally built as real estate, but the builder went under, and Westin bought the place and turned it into a luxury hotel. They are brand new and absolutely fantastic. They have full kitchens with Wolf appliances and a Sub Zero fridge. The kitchen is fully stocked with everything you could possibly need to cook. Each bedroom had its own full bathroom and huge closets as well as a flat screen HD TV. Everything was marble and granite, and the living room had floor to ceiling doors that slid into the walls [I know those have to have a real name], so

you had an indoor/outdoor living space that opened up to the wrap-around lanai. It was luxe! After we napped and got settled and played in the pool a little, we drove to Old Hanapepe Town, which they call "the biggest little town in the west". They have a bunch of art galleries and musicians and a giant swinging bridge. It sounded pretty cool, but ended up being a little bit of a let-down.

Saturday we went to Wailua Falls, which is a gorgeous waterfall that feeds into the Waimea River. It was beautiful. Kauai in general is just very beautiful. After the Falls, we went to a random beach and had a picnic in the rain. Then we went to Wailua Beach and had our first true sun-break. We stayed until the sun disappeared. We played in the sand and the boys and Peyton played in the ocean. We caught sand crabs and buried Peyton in the sand. It was great. We cooked ourselves dinner at home and went to bed early (a running theme this trip). So far, so

good!

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Peyton always decides she wants to hold Piper at the most inconvenient times! We always encourage ANY positive interaction with Piper- she's slowly warming up to the idea of a sister.

On the way to the USS Arizona memorial

Couldn't resist putting this awesome picture of Peyton on here!

Playing in the pool

This is how Piper spent her Hawaii time

Laie Temple

Peyton and Kirra

PCC

We got our own private ride!

The girls were adorable together!

Wailua Falls

Peyton loves her Auntie. She thinks Chey is so cool.

More Hawaii Pictures

I got the rest of our pictures from my mom's camera!