Happy Thanksgiving!

We started the morning off the a .8 mile hike up Diamond Head.

It was a little overcast so the weather was nice to hike.

Avery and Kendall

They was a lot of stairs and stretches to get up but the scenery up was great.

View from the top

My little mountain goats

Family Pic

There is an observation deck up at the top and some old bunkers that were used to look out along time ago.  

One of the look outs

Grams made it to the top!!!

Taylor and I in the bunker

All three of us

After climbing down we chilled out with another shaved ice.  They are everywhere and so good! We headed back to the hotel to spend some time on the beach.

We rented a paddle board for the girls and just chilled.

For Thanksgiving dinner we had reservations to go to a luau.

We headed to Paradise Cove early for all the festivities.

Like watching a man climb a SUPER tall coconut tree bare foot.

Listen to the pretty music

Make some bracelets out of leaves and flowers.

Take lots of pictures with all the beautiful backgrounds.

The goofy girls with their shell leis

We got arm paintings

Sweet girls

And more pictures

Look at Miss Allison cute little face

Love this picture of Jenn and her girls

Then it was time for the luau to start.

The dark spot in the middle of the picture is where the real dead pig was cooking!  They told us how they do it and then took it out and show everyone.  YUCK!

Did a few songs and dance for us.

Then it was time to eat.

After all 1,100 people got food (which didn't take long, it was super organized) the rest of the show started.

The ladies costumes were amazing and they changed a ton.  Then they taught them a hula lesson and all three of the girls went up.  I was super amazed.  They did a great job.

The girls up on stage, front and center

Mom and I

And this cutie was a trooper the whole night, it was a late one!

It was a Thanksgiving to remember!  Even though Kendall was really disappointment that they didn't have pumpkin pie.  We heard about pumpkin pie ALL week.  That girl loves her some pumpkin pie!

After the show with some of the performers

Kendall and the hula girls

We headed back to the hotel for bed and packing.  Tomorrow is a long day of traveling.  

Thanks Hawaii and Mom it was a fabulous week!

Hawaii Day 5

Today we were off to Haunama Bay

The water was so beautiful

It is this little protected cove with huge coral reef 

It is a nature preserve, you have to watch a video of the do's and don'ts before you are allowed to go down.

We found a spot and starting gearing up to snorkel 

Avery and Kendall ready to go

The whole gang

Taylor and Kendall

I was the only one who had ever snorkeled so I tried taking all the girls out at once and to give them a little lesson in the shallow water but that didn't work out so well so

I just took one out at a time which worked out much better.  The water was so cold!

My sister even went out with me.  I was so proud of her!

Giving Taylor some tips, the girl just takes off.

Taylor and I ended up going out a few times, she really enjoyed it.  We saw some beautiful, strange, small, and really big fish.

 Kendall, she did good but never got really comfortable with the waves moving you around while your floating so she didn't stay out long.  But she tried.

We spent the good part of the morning/afternoon there and then headed back up the huge hill!

Tay and I

After we dropped Jennifer and her girls off at the hotel.  We went and picked Alysha up from her school.  Then we drove out to another part of the island.

You turn onto one highway and all of a sudden its like you are in a whole different place.  The mountains just shot straight up all around you, it was beautiful.

This is where parts of Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed.

We made a pit stop at Island Snow for some more shaved ice.  This is the area where Barack Obama grew up.  There were pictures of his family and him eating shaved ice.

Then we went to a small beach in a town called Kailua.  The water was crystal clear and sand was white and very fine.  It was amazing. 

The girls jumped right in and had a great time playing together.

Mom, Alysha, and I sat and visit.

They wrote in the sand

Check out the water!

The girls playing in the sand

We had dinner that night at Bob's a small Boston style pizzeria.  It was yummy.