Waimea Falls

Mom came out to visit us before we head out! I'm so glad she's been able to come out so often! We packed up a lunch and headed up to BYU-Hawaii to get Ivan, and go hiking. We "hiked" up to Waimea Falls. : ) I say "hiked" cause the trail was paved and Ive mostly carried the hikers. : )

The foilage is really amazing!

There was a crack in a bridge that Ava couldn't bring herself to cross.

She tried to scoot on her bum along the side of it.


She had a car she was holding and finally tossed it over the crack first.

Then she gathered up her courage and sunshine and crossed hands first then feet. : )

She was so proud!! : )

The Happy Hikers : )

Ivan came prepared to swim out to the falls. I wish I were more adventurous like him!

It was a pretty fun hike. : )

Our Birthday Boy

James turned 7 this year! Can you believe it??

We partied with friends from school and our neighborhood ... : )

...it was kind of wild! : )

And we had a family party on his birth-date day.: )



Our family parties can sometimes get a little wild too. : )




Happy Birthday James! Our boy is 7! : )

Surfs Up

My favorite place on the island is Ko Olina. What can I say. I have kids and it's close! It's like the safest -and my favorite- beach around! : )

















In the winter the waves on the South shores are big but I've never seen them this big at Ko Olina!

They kind of churned things up a bit.







But that didn't stop the kiddos.





We went on a morning that wasn't sure it was going to be sunny or not! The shade was kind of refreshing! --I LOVE Hawaiian winters! : )



Oh and while we were there the kids found this buoy...



... with mystery creatures attached to it! They were like ... one arm with 2 shells and inside the shells these tentacles would uncurl and stick out and wiggle! -They looked like aliens! : ) --They gave me the willies!! The kids thought they were really interesting. Eeek!



Other than our (ok, MY) run in with the bouy creatures, our time at the beach was great!

Zoo

I had started this post way back in January and never got around to finishing and posting it... so here's a little bit of us on the island at the Honolulu Zoo.


(Isn't this tree incredible?)

Today we decided to go down to the zoo. It's been a long time since we've been there for a visit and the kids were stoked.

With Ava being older it was really fun to see her point out the animals. She was especially amazed at the giraffes.