The Thelins: 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!

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.