Hawaii Part One

June 2015.  Oahu, North Shore.  

Our first morning we woke up to this beautiful sunrise.  I tried to take the picture to really show what the colors were, I didn't want to make it look more rich in color that it was.  I was a little shocked in the morning on the beach when the little crabs came out to say hello.  We also saw a lady riding her horse in the waves of the ocean.  It was so beautiful to see someone riding her horse, it's a dream of mine to ride a horse on the beach.  

                                     

                                     

 Willie and I found a great condo on the beach on the east side of the island.  We didn't stay much there but when we did it was fantastic.

 After getting ourselves ready on day one we traveled on over to the temple.  I must say that it was a great experience to visit one of the first temples built in this dispensation.  I loved seeing the architecture and the celestial room where everything was such a brilliant white.  I enjoyed spending time in the temple making sure I took part in the most important thing on the Hawaiian Islands.

Another walk on the beach in the evening.  A little chilly most of the time we were on the beach, it was really windy and the water seemed cold to me but the company was great.

My review of this place.  We ate chicken, because that's pretty much all they had.  The sides were all the same.  It was good but not a place I would return to.  

 Now this joint, AMAZING!  Willie and I ordered two different meals and enjoyed both of them very much sharing halves.

 Coconut, Macademia nut shrimp.  Yum!

 The cowboy burger, Yum!

The chickens and roosters walking around the place were fun company.  Honestly, they are everywhere on the islands.  I'm surprised we never hit one while driving.  We had the afternoon to go to a beach so we hit up Turtle Bay Beach which really wasn't all that awesome.  Good for what we wanted, but the sun set came to soon.  We read a lot while on the beach.  As the sun was defending we took off to find Sunset Beach to enjoy, well, the sunset of course.  And here it was.  I laughed when I saw so many people on the beach with their cameras out.  The selfie stick was ridiculous, I can't believe how many people were buying and using them.  What ever happened to asking someone for some help to get a nice shot of you with an awesome scenery?

A visit to the USS Arizona and the Missouri as well as the air museum.  I would like to say this was nice to see again and it was good for Willie to experience it for the first time.  If we come back though, I think I will be okay to not see it again.  It was interesting to see the Missouri this time around and learn more of the Japanese with their kamikaze strikes and to see how kind the U.S. was.  Willie is standing next to the spot where a Japanese plane hit the ship, you can kind of see the dent on the side near his thumb.

 Some friends of our went to Hawaii recently and took a photo like this, so we did likewise.  Not many folks were walking around when I was setting this up but hey that's what random benches are for because seriously how effective would the selfie stick be?

 After visiting WWII we visited the dethroning of Hawaii.  It was a beautiful palace and I'm amazed at the Hawaiian Royalty's advancement in technology.  Pretty cool.  Sad that the U.S. just came and took it.

 Dinner was divine.  I have been craving Duke's for over 10 years.  It did not disappoint.  For future purposes we ordered these items..."Baked Duke's Style", the fresh fish of the day baked in a garlic, lemon and sweet basil glaze.  Also, another fresh fish of the day Suateed Mac and Nut and Herb Crusted, lightly dusted in parmesan cheese and bread crumbs topped with lemon and caper butter.  Oh man capers, I never knew were so good.

 Yummy. Yummy. Yummy.  So pricey but worth it.

PCC - Polynesian Cultural Center.  Review.  It was nice to visit for the first time for Willie.  Once again since I have now done it again I can move on to see other things.  Wonderful show and the food at the luau was good.  Somehow we got a smaller luau to eat at and that was nice.

 So long Oahu.  You will be missed.

The rest of February.

I love Caroline dressed up like Sophia.  I had originally purchased this dress to give to her for her birthday, but when her costume became lost she enlisted the help of daddy.  He found her 'costume' in the closet and wondered why there were tags on it.  Well happy early birthday to Caroline.  

 Photo bombed by Hens.

 Lincoln's growing up pictures.  I love all of his facial expressions, he had so many I couldn't post all of them.

 The other kids wanted their pictures taken too.

 Caroline likes to dress up like Anna and grab her Olaf then turn up the Frozen soundtrack.  She is so cute when she dances around.

 I remember that inside of this sink was a load of toilet paper and the whole container of soap.  At least she was having fun.

 Valentines day box.  We used an old 'goldfish' box and made it look like the 'UP' house. We needed more suckers but man two bags was a lot already.  I should have found a super small ball.  Anyway, the idea was there we just didn't get it finished, no worries though, kids loved it.

Winter Fun.

July 29, 2015

In the heat of summer I am posting about winter.  I know it's kind of backwards but it was fun to post these photos.  The kids were so happy during our best snow storm to go in our front yard to sled. It was a bit too cold for Henry so there aren't many photos of him.  He chose to play indoors.  The kids has so much fun and we had our neighbors playing with us for a little while.  The snow was powder soft.  Great for skiing, but not great for building a snowman.  We waited a few days for the sun to melt the snow a bit and then it was perfect for building a snowman which we did with delight and the weather was very warm for the building process so we put our snowman in the shade.

 I love how happy this little one is with her dad.

 I love this photo  because it seems as if Linc is really getting some air, but really you can't get that much in our yard.

What a great brother, going down with Caroline.

 There weren't many options for our snowman's face.  Lemons and chocolate chips.