Hawaii 1-0

We made a last minute decision this summer to take the whole family to Hawaii instead of going to Utah for Education Week. While our minds and spirits missed out on the spiritual feast at BYU, our bodies were enjoying a much needed time of relaxation in Hawaii. We rented a house in Hanalei. It was right across the street from the Hanalei Bay beach but close enough to walk in to town for a shave ice. The house was beautiful and had plenty of room for us all. The kids favorite thing was finding Geiko's inside the house. Geiko's in the house is supposed to mean Good Luck.

We got to our rental home around dinner time but that didn't stop the kids from going straight to the beach. We got there just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful. The kids swam and Scott and I read in between trying to get the kids to stop screaming for joy.




Scott was good to keep up his running while we were there. He still had to run Hood to Coast soon after our trip was over. He ran from one point of the bay to the other. This is the opposite point of the bay where he would turn around and run back to where we were staying.
Hanalei Bay is not far from Princeville, on the North Shore of Hawaii. Princeville has one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world. We kept trying to talk Scott into golfing one day but he showed forth great will power! He said it was a family trip and he wanted to spend all of it with us! We were able to convince him however to go look at the course.

We spent our first full day at Lydgate Beach. This was a nice beach because it offered two different experiences all at the same beach. We spent the first half of the day in the open waves where the kids did some boogie boarding and body surfing. Then we moved to the protected swimming area of the beach where there was some grass to lay on and the kids could practice using their snorkeling gear.
Kennedy had to make good use of her free time studying for her ACT exam she would be taking just after getting back in town. Nothing like a little light reading for the beach!


We found a local LDS Chapel right near our rental home. We went to sacrament meeting there and then headed off to see and hike Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon has been called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It is 10 miles long and 1 mile wide. Even though the kids all groan and moan where they hear the word "hike", we had a very enjoyable day!

Every now and then the kids would complain that they were tired, but not Scott. He kept on going, and he had Karsyn on his back most the time. She sprained her ankle at gymnastics but didn't want her to miss out on anything.


For every picture like this, I have 5 more! I think Will single-handedly is responsible for all the natural waterfalls in Hawaii!

Monday we took a boat tour...yes, a 3-hour tour! The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed...wait, that is another story. Our day was beautiful. We took a boat trip where we got to see spinning dolfins, snorkle and see the amazing Na Pali coastline. The Na'Pali coastline is not accessible by car so this is one of the few ways to see it's beauty.



The next beach on list to try was Tunnels Beach. We did get with some rain that morning leaving all 7 of us trying to squeeze under our little sun umbrella. But it did clear up and the kids had fun snorkeling. This beach is known for its wonderful reefs for snorkeling. I didn't care for the sand at this beach. It was big sand pebbles that stuck to everything and was very hard to walk in, but the kids loved the snorkeling.

After another day at the beach, we were ready for something exciting! So we went on a Adventure Tour that took us hiking, kayaking and zip-lining.






After all the big adventures, we stopped at this little water hole and had lunch while the brave of heart jumped off the cliff.
After our grand adventure that morning, we were ready for our big Luau dinner at Smith's Family Luau. The grounds were absolutely beautiful, the dinner was amazing and the show was spectacular!







The next day brought surfing lessons! This included about 90 minutes of instruction and then you could keep the surf boards for the rest of the day. I was quick to volunteer to be the photographer. Danger and cold, salt water is not my favorite mix! I was surprised how easy everyone got up. They made it look so easy I was just about to try it myself, when Cassidy and Karsyn ended up injured soon after.

This is Cassidy and Karsyn sitting out with the surfing injuries.

This is Cassidy at her own private little pity party. She put on a good show for the rest of the beach after her wipe-out.

Our neighbor's son lives in Kaua'i and was hoping to get us in to to see this lighthouse after hours. After several attempts, we realized that was not going to work so Scott took the boys one afternoon while the girls soaked up some more sun at the beach.
Will and Layton wanted one thing while they were in Hawaii...they wanted to cut open a coconut and drink the coconut milk. We found a man selling some along side the road so we stopped and bought a coconut. I think everyone was a little disappointed after such a big build-up!
Our favorite thing to eat while there was the Shaved Ice. What makes their shaved ice different is they put ice cream at the bottom of the shaved ice. We tried daily to get some from this Wishing Well stand. It was near our house and came highly recommended but they were never open when they said they would be. Oh well, sounds like a good enough reason to need to come back again some day!