1st Week of Hawaii Trip

We drove to St. George and stopped for a break. We then

decided to spend the night with Peter, go to church with

his family, and then finish the trip to John's.

Put picture here.

Timmy and Kirsten on the swings in the back yard.

John's grass was growing, and he was havesting a few

things from the garden.

We heard everyone play the piano for their year-end

piano recital. - Kirsten, Danny holding Ruth E., Maren, 

Sam and Timmy

No pictures of the flight over. We left about 3 in the

afternoon on Monday. We arrived at house we had for

the week after getting rental cars about 8:30. We

went to Cosco to get some groceries. 

There was a 3 hour time difference, so when we went

to bed at 10 it was like 1 in the morning (2 Utah time.)

Old ruins in a park close by.

Love these trees, and they are everywhere.

I love these trees. This is the perfect family tree.

The main trunk represent the parents, the branches are

the children. The branches send down vines that

eventually take root in the ground - everything supports each other. 

The castle on Oahu where the kings and queens lived.
It was so fun to learn about the history & culture.

I loved all the flowers and plants

Swinging on the vines. We are at the LDS Tabernacle. I
was concerned the kids shouldn't swing from them, but the
Elders said everyone does.

Kirsten swinging

Sam

LDS Tabernacle that was built when the temple was
build. It is in downtown Honolulu.

More swinging - even by John and Stacey

Next stop was for shaved ice that was amazing.
They put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the
cups and then the shaved ice with amazing flavoring.
Then they drizzled sweetened condensed milk on the top. mmmmmm

Turtle Beach, where large turtles come right up onto the sand.

Fun in the first beach.

There is a large turtle in there.

Back at our Hawaii home to have birthday cake for Timmy!
A fun birthday in Hawaii!

We have a hard time adjusting to Hawaii time. We seem
to stay up late, but we have trouble sleeping in.
Early morning watching of TV in the bedroom.

We are off to another beach the next day. We didn't get in
the beach we wanted too, but went to this one in
Ala Moana beach. We had perfect weather and it
wasn't too hot.

Little Ruth E.- She loved eating the sand. We had
to make sure and give her rocks to suck on. I
think she was trying to get a new tooth.

Proof we really were there.

John did a good job of burying the kids in the sand.
They were all mermaids and mermen.

We then went to a very cool Army museum. We could
have spent way longer, but they closed at 4:30. Just in time to
put us in the thick of Honolulu traffic. It took forever to get home.
I kept thinking we could have stayed at the museum longer.

The next morning we went to the Dole pineapple plantation.

Learning how to choose a good pineapple and how to cut it.
It was sooooo good.

In the afternoon we went to the first day at the
Polynesian Cultural Center. It was amazing.

70 % of the employees are from the different Polynesian
Islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and Figi
and they are students at BYU Hawaii. This is how they pay
for their tuition. Each island has representatives from their island.

He did climb to the top to get the coconut!

Each island has a 30 minute show and then activities
to do after. We are learning to weave in this one.

 Maren with her weaving. It's a fish.

Danny learning to twirl the baton without the
fire on each end.

Dad learning to dance.

 Tahiti

That ends the first week. I'll try and get the rest in the next
few days and then catch up with all that has happened
since we have come home.

I love you.