Hawaii!!!

For Christmas my parents surprised all the adults in my family with a 9 DAY TRIP TO HAWAII!!!  We stayed at Ewa Beach on Oahu in a GORGEOUS house on the beach!  

My parents went a week before to enjoy some peace and quiet before we got there so the six of us flew together...

My parents rented a HUGE van so we could ride ALL OVER HAWAII TOGETHER!  It was nice being able to drive together but none of us will miss the BUMPY ride it provided!

The house was GORGEOUS!  The neighborhood was a bit sketchy but the homes on either side of us were gorgeous also so it didn't really bother us much.  Having the beach in your backyard was absolutely amazing!

We rarely saw anyone else on the beach so it was nice to have the peace and quiet...

Where's Dana?!  She's under the floatie blowing it up!

Here's the view from my parent's bedroom balcony...

Honolulu...

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was BEAUTIFUL!  It's located at Punchbowl Crater and is a memorial for those who served in the United States Armed Forces.  It was beautiful and humbling!

Dinner at Bubba Gumps!  We were teasing my mom for wearing a bib, eating a salad, AND broccoli...

This little mongoose was very friendly!

Hiking Diamond Head!

The views were breathtaking...

The whole clan!

A refreshing pineapple smoothie after the hike...

Waikiki Beach...

Beautiful rainbow!  We had PERFECT weather every day but this one day it sprinkled just a little cool rain which felt so good...

Breakfast at the Ko Olina was yummy (despite them not having the omelette bar we were expecting) and gorgeous!

Dole Whips!

We spent the day on this beautiful beach...

Walking the beach with my mom and sis...

Benihanas for dinner!  The food was good but the highlight was...THE BIDETS!!!  We each (except my wussy parents) took a turn in the bathrooms and all decided we wanted one for our houses...

Kayaking at Kailua!  

It was really fun until...Parker and I tipped over and lost my shoe.  So we paddled back to look for it and my parents came back to help.  On their way back in they tipped over the lost my dad's VERY expensive prescription sunglasses!  We looked for a while with no luck, poor Pa.  Later on Dana and Tim tipped on some big waves (and Dana lost her sunglasses) and Lindsay and Jason tipped coming in (and Jason lost his sunglasses) SO...everyone had their adventure!

I also got to see my high school bff JAMIE!  They have lived there for a few years but were about to move to California so I'm so glad we were able to see each other!

Oh, and the pig Smash...his owner is an avid vegan and parades him around lecturing people on why they shouldn't eat meat...

Pearl Harbor!

The USS Arizona Memorial is closed due to a crack in the structure so a ferry just took us out to look at it...

Sisters!!!

Parker doesn't think you should smile at memorials...

Love this bunch!

We took a 90 minute tour of the USS Missouri which was hot and very interesting...

This spot is where Japan surrendered in WWII and they signed the peace treaty...

This is also the ship that fired the first missiles for the Iraq War...

We were on Utah time pretty much the whole week so we would wake up pretty early in Hawaii but it was nice because we could just lay in bed and watch tv, read, relax...

Another beautiful day in our backyard...

Being able to see the ocean from the shower?!  SO awesome!

And then, just like that, it was time to go home.  Stupid Delta changed our flight to four hours earlier so we had to get up early and say goodbye to paradise that much sooner...

Love these two, they made all this possible!

Don't we look SO excited to leave Hawaii and get back to real life?!

We came home to this sweet banner from our sweet boys...

This trip was one for the books!  We had perfect weather, yummy food, fun sight seeing, fun relaxing, fun playing games, fun being ADULTS sans kiddos!  It's things like this that keep our family close and I'm so grateful for my awesome parents who made this happen.  Love you mom and dad!!!


HUGE thanks for my amazing mother in law for coming out and taking care of my boys!  It is no easy feat with their busy busy schedules but she rocked it like she does everything else!  I came home to a clean house, laundry done, cheesecake made, and she even decorated for fall/Halloween!  It made my trip so much better knowing I didn't have to worry at all about my boys.  When I talked to them on my way home they were like totally bummed we were coming back already, hahaha.  I told them the feeling was mutual!  I'm glad they love being with their Grandma so much though, it sure is telling of the relationship they have.  Thanks so much mom!!!  Or should I say, Mahalo!!!