hawaii part three.

day five will forever be known as the day we went whale watching. but what we really did on day five was have a great big misadventure.

it started with the intent to go on an early morning whale watching tour. heather, russ, sean, serena & i set out early. we followed russ's GPS all the way into downtown honolulu {with only one trap-you-forever-no-outlets-carpool-lane incindent along the way}. when the directions got kind of confusing, sean got out his google phone, which is way better apparently, and started a navigation. russ's phone said to go one way. sean's said to go another. we followed sean's. and it took us to some random pier that was most certainly not the pier where our whale watching tour was departing from. and that was that. since we missed the tour, and since we were already in honolulu, we decided to go to a breakfast buffet that we had all been to before {heather & russ on a trip with his fam- us on our honeymoon}. after much driving in terrible, terrible traffic, we found the restaurant and parked the car. we walked the block up to the restaurant, only to find out that it is now closed at breakfast!!! bah!!! pregnant heather was about to lose it!!!! so russ got out his trusty smart phone and discovered that we were 300 feet away from a denny's {blech!!!}. we waited forever outside of denny's and waited forever for our food, but eventually dear, hungry heather {and the rest of us} got our breakfast.

four hours after we set out to our whale watching tour, we left denny's and headed back to the house. i didn't want to burden my parents with watching harper all day, but when i called my mom and told her about our morning, she insisted we go do something fun. heather and russ had driven past a beautiful beach the day before but they didn't have their swimsuits on, so we decided to head back to that beach. {luckily we had brougt all of our swim stuff in case!}

the drive along the coast was absolutely beautiful. we stopped at two beaches. the first {makapuu} was literlly the most beautiful place i have ever seen. the waves were huge so we didn't get in the water much, but it was just so so beautiful that we didn't care.







the second beach was just north up the coast, but i don't know what it was called. also beautiful. and with gentler waves. we spent an hour or so playing at this beach. serena played on the sand mostly and we collected seashells & coral & rocks for her.



{some of the things we collected}

later in the day, we had a girls moment- went to dole and haleiwa for dinner. the guys went to ted's bakery for the "best burgers of their lives".

and early to bed again :)

bubble beard.

this photo deserves its own post. the girls had a lot of baths in hawaii because of all of the beach play. i snapped this photo during one bathtime in which dad used waaaay too much soap and the bath was extra bubbly.

kills me with cuteness.

hawaii part two.

on the third day, sean and i went with heather and russ to look for the "secret beach" that the homeowner told us we could find access to. we never found it... but we saw some lovely views along the way :)




then my parents took our girls to the beach and the rest of us went on a little kayaking adventure off of kailua beach. i don't have any pictures of this part because i didn't dare bring my camera or phone on the kayaks with us {good call, it turns out! we got really wet.}. it was a lot of fun, but a LOT more challenging than we thought it would be! we rowed out to some little islands that weren't far off the beach... but had to go around a long way to avoid a big coral reef. let's just say that the waves were kinda big and we almost tipped a few times and i was little bit {a lot} terrified. but we made it safely to the island, enjoyed exploring, and then rowed back. the way back was so beyond exhausting. i hated it at the time, but now i think it was awesome and quite funny :) afterward, we had lunch at buzz's with heather & russ, and then took the scenic way back to the house {jamming out to reggae and "positive alternative" tunes all the way}.

on the fourth day, sean and i took our girls to the hukilau beach in laie. serena had a blast playing in the sand & water and building a sandcastle with her dad. we went really early and there was only one other family on the beach which randomly turned out to be a friend of Sean's who was also visiting from utah! {they were still on utah time too.}







the four of us went into haleiwa for lunch and ate at pizza bob's. and it was gooood :)



later in the day, we all went to the dole plantation... mostly to get a delicious dole whip {amazing pineapple sherbet/ice cream}. harper got to walk around for a while. we spent some time in the gift shop. and then we went back to the house.





after we went back to the house, some of us ventured out to see if we could find the "secret beach" again. and we found it! kind of! mom & i went ahead and found one beach. heather, russ, lindsay & jesse found a different one. so i guess there was more than one secret beach :)

{this is the path that led to the beach from the main road}


after that, we had teryaki burgers at the house for dinner, and our little family went to bed early. like we did every single night. because we knew our kids would be up at 4am.

hawaii part one.

traveling with our kids was... well... interesting. serena was pretty easy. harper was unpredictable. she was perfectly calm and slept on the first flight from SLC to LA. she was whiny and irritable on the long flight to honolulu. on the way home, all heck broke loose. she cried, and i mean BAWLED, for a full hour at the beginning of the flight to san francisco. worst hour of her parents' lives. seriously. i actually was glad that our flight to SLC was cancelled. my kids were DONE with flying. anywho- back to the fun stuff!

{asleep on grandma & heather- a few stress-free moments for us!}

sunset from the balcony on our first night.

on our first morning, my mom, serena & i went to laie and watched the sunrise at the beach {we were still on utah time!}. it was the most beautiful morning!! and it was serena's very first time at the beach. a few more:






then the whole fam ventured to shark's cove where harper had her very first sand experience. she hated it. then she liked it. and then she ate probably a whole pound of it.


also on the second day, we went to the famous giovanni's for lunch and ate lots of yummy garlic shrimp. nothin' like eating shrimp out of truck on a paper plate. gooood stuff.


and THEN we all went to haleiwa for a shave ice.

and THEN played with grandma & grandpa at beach part in haleiwa.

a few pictures of the house: