We were up bright and early on Wednesday morning headed down to the beach to play. I couldn't believe how warm and clear the water was. Neat shades of blues and greens.
The girls in their ruffled swimsuits. I love Ave's swimsuit, I love the colors and wish they had it in my size :) 
Emma's of course looking like it should be worn at ballet class instead of the beach but I think it is adorable. All the hot pink tulle on the butt, so sweet. Watching her toddle along down the beach in it made me smile. 
The kids started digging in the sand right away and trying to make castles, taking turns burying each other and looking for shells and pieces of dried coral. 
I love this pictures of Ave's little sandy bum. 
Then it was into the water. Again I couldn't believe how warm the water was. I also could'nt believe the amount of coral, reefs and rocks in the water. Within the first five minutes we had also seen a small school of fish right in the water with us. Hunter found a stick and was sure that he could manage to spear one. 
Brenn borrowed a paddle board from the Krebs and gave us all a little lesson. It was harder of course than it looked since Brenn makes it look so easy. 
It was not so hard to get up and stand as it was to paddle through the water once you got up. It took alot more strength than I would have expected. It was really fun, I wish I would have had more time to try to get better. Here we are all trying to learn. The pics are tiny so it is hard to see but it is Kimbre, then me, then mom and then Deke.
Then we had the kids each take a turn trying to at least feel what it was like to stand up on the board. 
Of course there was also a ton of creatures to explore on the beach. Tad showed the kids how to dig down in the sand and find sand crabs in their holes. 
It took only about five minutes to find this little guy that they finally coerced out of his hole with this dried palm piece. 
Or how about this guy. A big monk seal that was laying around on the beach right by the water sunning himself. 
Letting everyone come around and get close to him and take some pictures literally right behind him. Hunter said it was "Better than Sea World."
After spending all day playing in the ocean the kids were wiped and we headed back to get cleaned up and meet Grandpa for his birthday dinner. 
The kids started a stock pile in the backyard of all the pieces of dried up coral that they could find.
Then a couple of quick family pics out in the backyard and then we met up with my dad and Lisa at Kahuku's grill and had some delicious coconut macadamia crusted shrimp with sticky rice and a salad with a yummy papaya dressing. It was sooooooo good. What a way to start our trip, it is beautiful here. I can't believe we are in Hawaii! 
I admit it. I have been so excited for this trip pretty much since the moment Brenn told us that she was going to be getting married in Hawaii. At first we debated over the expense of taking the whole family or not and ended up deciding to find a way to make it work. We left last Tuesday and headed for the airport. Hunter is the only one of the kids that had ever been on an airplane and he hadn't been since he was a baby. Deke and I had never been on a plane together. The kids were fascinated by watching the planes take off and land while we waited to board. Emma would see one touching down and start pointing at the glass and mumbling things. Avery wanted to know what we would get to eat on the plane and Hunter was busy checking out all the different machinery surrounding the plane docking area and hypothesizing about the function of each one. 
We took a small "express" plane over to LA and then boarded a much larger plane to head to Honolulu. Upon preparing for our trip I found out that flying had changed quite a bit since I last flew and now a flight was minus a meal unless you wanted to fork out $10 for a tiny turkey sandwich with nothing on the side, no more peanuts of any flavor or variety but you still get that complimentary soda. Needless to say we planned accordingly and brought each kid a lunchable and brought our backpack loaded with goldfish and other yummy snacks. 
The kids were so amazed. Avery kept giggling and telling us over and over again how much she loved the plane. Hunter was busy talking our ears off about being this close to a cloud and how tiny the houses looked and how even though he wanted to touch a cloud it would be dangerous to open the plane window etc. etc. Then there was Emma. I was surprised at how excited she was about the whole process. Since she does not like loud noises I figured she would be afraid of the whole thing but she wasn't, she loved it. Once we got in the air a little ways I pointed out the window to show her the view. She peeked out the window wide eyed and all of a sudden she stopped sucking her binky and just froze as if mesmerized by the sight. Then she leaned down, picked up Ariel and pushed her face against the window and held her there as if saying, "You have to see this." Deke and I laughed so hard until our sides hurt. After a minute she took her down from the window and put her back on her lap and then she looked back out and started pointing and showing me things. I can't believe that she was so impressed that she made sure that Ariel got a chance to see the view. She is so funny and so smart. Is she really only one? 
Finally after six hours of plane including a million trips to the on plane bathroom for one of the three, a boring on plane movie that wasn't kid friendly and every fun "sitting in a chair" game we could think of we arrived in Honolulu. The kids had been amazing on the plane, Emma hadn't made a peep other than a couple of times trying to socialize with the people to the front, back and side of us. They all did awesome. When we arrived at the Honolulu airport it was dark, pouring rain and super humid. We went a picked up our rental car and were excited to be given the option to up grade for only $5 a day to a seven seater versus a five. Not only that but it was brand new with only twenty seven miles on it and had all the bells and whistles. Seriously I really liked this car. Avery loved that the license plate had a rainbow on it. 
Brenn and Kimbre met us and we headed to the north shore of Oahu where we would be staying. Again it was dark so we really couldn't see anything, I was so excited to be able to see things. We got all settled in with everybody at the condo and crashed for the night. The next morning all of us were up early excited to finally get a chance to look around and when I looked out back I realized why. This is the view of our backyard: 
AMAZING!!!! Palm trees, a gazebo, a hammock, boogie boards, and outdoor shower oh and yes right over the fence down a few stairs is the beach.
It is so green there, in fact just so colorful in general. The north shore was definitely more country feeling with only a two lane road going up and down it. 
I had to take a picture of the tiki's on the post at the front of our driveway. I couldn't believe that we were finally here, in Hawaii with our whole family for eight days and to see Brenn get married. 
