Mom Visits Oahu

 Hi!

In December I went to Oahu with Aunt Laura to visit Aunt Jen and her family. Dad helped get you out the door to school, reminded you about chores, went to TJ's orchestra concert, and was on carpool duty for sports. Here's a recap of some things I did in Hawaii!

Here we are on our first night. We made it to Jen's after getting a Lyft from the airport. Jen lives about an hour from the airport, in a town called Laie on North Shore.

Jen's house:

Jen took time off to play with us. The first day we snorkeled at a place called Shark's Cove. When Jen told us the name Laura said "Umm, excuse me? Sharks?" and Jen said "I don't know why it's called that. If anywhere on the island is safe from shark's, it's this place." So we were off. See how shallow and protected it is? We got there when there were hardly any people! Here I am about to snorkel:

Here we are after we snorkeled. We saw lots of fish and were following a sea turtle! The waves were coming over the barrier, you can see it in the back a little. They pushed us a little, but the water is super shallow so it was fine:

Next we got pie at Ted's Bakery, and Laura got the breakfast sandwich she had been craving. By the way, did I mention both sisters are pregnant? 

Here's Jen's favorite beach not too far from her house, Kawela Bay. It's kind of a hidden gem because you can't see it from the road and there isn't designated parking:

In the afternoon we toured BYUH with Uncle Brent:

Then before dinner our friends that we knew in Guatemala, who were also visiting Oahu, stopped by for a little bit:

After dinner we went back to BYU for the kids' school Christmas program. The trees are all lit up for Christmas!

The program was a little chaotic because the grinch kept coming out and making all of the kids scream ha ha. Each grade sang a song. Your cousins were excited for us to see it:

More of the pretty trees as we walked back home:

We decided to take a group selfie and as we took it someone set off fireworks behind us:

The next morning we went out for macadamia nut pancakes and ate them at this pretty beach called Kokololio:

We got luck with no wind and beautiful weather.

We spent the rest of the day and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Jen lives about a ten minute walk from the PCC, but we drove because you know, pregnant peeps. Jen had contrations when I was there quite a bit. She was about 8 months pregnant. We had lots of fun watching the shows and taking the boat ride:

One of my favorite parts was a hula to Christmas music. It was super fun:

The boat ride:

Showing off our tatoos:

Because Jen lives so close, we went home for dinner and at sunset walked out to see Laie point:

We went back for the night show, which is really cool. Uncle Brent got us great professor discount tickets.

The next day it was raining. A lot! We had planned to go to the temple, which was a great rainy day activity. We also visited the Visitor Center...

...and took a small hike up the hill behind the temple because the rain had stopped. When we got up there the view of the ocean was gone! It was all foggy and cloudy and then we realized it was another storm blowing in. We had to run back to the car in the pouring rain and got sopping wet:

The good thing is the sun comes back out and that afternoon when the kids were home school we went to get shave ice:

This Mama chicken in the parking lot was protecting 3 babies under her body:

We also went to the local grocery store to buy musubi. This is a common breakfast or snack, which is rice with a piece of spam on top and wrapped in seaweed. It was pretty good!:

Just before dinner we walked down the beach closest to Jen, which took about 6 minutes. Clissold's Beach:

That night was the town's annual Christmas parade. It was fun to see. Families light up their trucks with lights and throw candy. We got a kick out of this van. Can you tell what it is? It's musubi!:

At the end of the parade was more fireworks. A lot of them! I thought I might go deaf, but it was so fun. Here they are at the carnival we went to. We bought a few souvenirs here and tried to buy Otai, a Polynesian drink, but they sold out before we could buy it!

We also watched a Christmas movie on Uncle Brent's massive tv at home. 

The next day, Saturday, we started out by visiting Kualoa Ranch. It's a pretty spot where you can take tours of Hollywood movie sites, but we just went for the good gift shop and the pretty views:

Next we stopped at a macadamia nut outlet spot, where you sample the nuts and can crack them open outside. This festive palm tree caught my attention:

The chickens and roosters were happy to eat the nuts that fall on the ground. They also hop right up when you're trying to crack the nuts. It was a fun place:

Next, we visited a Buddhist temple called Byodo-In. It was so picturesque:

We fed the birds some food and they got right up in our hands. The tickley bird feet was the kids' favorite part of the day I believe:

It's super lush over here. This is a river that runs through the property, and you can't even see it down in there:

Next it was time for shopping and Hawaiian food at the mall. There was a free hula show at the mall too!

And then we went to Kailua beach! It was a full Saturday and birthday outing for Uncle Brent. The beach was a little warmer than the other ones we had been to, so we went swimming for a bit. The waves were really tame and we had a good time. The sun started to set so we knew it was dinner time and it was time to go. We took some pictures as we were leaving:

The sunset through the car window as we drove home:

Sunday was our final day. We went to church and then hurried to Honolulu to make our boat time at Pearl Harbor. On the boat:

The Arizona is sitting on the harbor floor and some parts stick up still:

The people that died on the Arizona:

The names of people who survived the Pearl Harbor attack but chose to be buried here with their shipmates:

The cool part about going on December 8 was that they still had their wreaths out from the day before. Countries and entities from around the world send memorial wreaths and I thought it was really sweet and respectful:

One flag for each person that died in the December 7th attack:

I thought this was cool, in the museum part of Pearl Harbor. This is the real notes that the president read from when he gave his famous "a date which will live in infamy" speech. You can see where he scribbled things out and wrote notes:

We had enough time to go to Costco for souvenirs, and Jen's regular grocery haul, and then they dropped us off at the airport. We didn't sleep well on the redeye because we had terrible scary turbulence and then it's just not comfortable sleeping straight up. But we made it home safe and sound and almost froze to death when we got home. Hawaii was so nice and warm and we had such a fun trip. I'd say I'll take you some day to see your cousins, but I'm not sure I dare to do that flight again. Haha. Give me a little time to recover and we'll see.

Thanks for being so good for Dad while I was gone. Love you lots!

Mom