Summer Fun

Even with my crazy work schedule and trips out of town, we've tried to have a few fun activities this summer. We created a poster with some ideas on it.

The first one we did was create a giant car race track with masking tape that went through out our whole down stairs. It was fun I'm sad I didn't snag a picture.

Next we created a fort inside the house. My boys had never done this before and were at first confused at what I was doing. Avery loved it too, but started ruining it so the boys spent most of the time trying to keep her out. 

Another activity on our poster was a picnic at the park.  We found a shady spot and ate our lunch on a blanket.

Movie day sounded like a great idea to me, stay in jammies and watch tons of movies on the couch.  But the boys got a little restless after the 2nd movie. 

We also bought a summer pass to the Arizona Science Center and went last week to play.  Dad even go to go with us, and we met up with the Dairmans. The science center is always so much fun, we'll have to find one more day we can make the trek downtown.

Hawaii Day 11

Our last day of vacation we have no pictures.  We got off of our cruise ship and rented a car again, since it cost the same amount as a shuttle ride.  We went out to the Aloha stadium swap meet to finish off our souvenir shopping.  We had already bought Ethan his ukulele and Josh had requested a blow gun.  Well we found a blow gun there, but it was a real weapon definitely not just a toy.  So Josh got a boomerang instead. 
Our trek back home included a plane ride, late night In n out burger, car ride back to st. george, 4 hours of sleep and a car ride with the kids back home.  Our vacation was wonderful and long and in the end it felt great to be back home with our kids. 

Hawaii Day 10

Our second day in Kauai we did a helicopter ride since we heard its the best way to see the island. And we did get to see the whole island, I'm just not a super fan of helicopters. There was a lot of hovering and going down into narrow canyons that had me gripping my seat. Next to me Michael starting getting pale face and so I admired the gorgeous views and counted the minutes until we touched down again.

Hawaii Day 9

This was our first day in Kauai and another one of my favorites. We booked a tour that took us kayaking for a couple of miles and hiking in the gorgeous rain forest and then ziplining!

Getting ready to zipline, yeah!  We did two pretty long ziplines, the second one was tandem so we got to go side by side. It was awesome I even hung upside down for a few seconds.

After our long day of adventures, Michael wanted to try his hand at surfing, again.  The waves weren't great but he was able to catch a few, and I enjoyed sitting on the beach, ahhh.

Hawaii Day 8

Our next port was the other side of the Big Island, Kona. We had no specific plans for this day, especially since we had to tender to go ashore since it is too shallow there for the cruise ship to dock.

We found out that there was a temple in Kona, which we did not know about so we walked up a hill to go see it.  It was a very pretty small temple. 

After that we explored around Kona.  People were swimming and paddleboarding in the bay and Michael thought we should try some paddleboarding.  I knew it was not something my athletic skills (or lack thereof) would be capable of but I let him talk me into lying on the board underneath his feet.  There is a clip in our video from the go pro of us both out on the board and then Michael himself. 

Hawaii Day 7

Our next port was Hilo on the Big Island. This is the only day we booked an excursion through our ship and it was a pretty good tour that we did. In fact this was one of my favorite days. They took us to the Volcanoes National Park.

The national park was gorgeous.  First we stopped to walk through some lava tubes.

Then we were off to our main 4 mile hike that took us up to the top of a volcano crater and across it. 

It was so awesome to be up close to steam vents and feel how hot the rocks were. 

The black rock was really cool to see and we debated about taking a small piece home for Ethan to see, even though it's illegal and supposedly carries a curse with it.

After the volcano hike we were driven to a waterfalls area to also hike around.  I had thought from the description we were going to get to swim around in the water, which is why I wore my bathing suit under my clothes all day, but alas we just got to see the waterfalls from the trail.

That night back on the boat we got dressed up, ate at the tepanyaki restaurant and went to the comedian show. 

Hawaii Day 6

Our second day in Maui we had planned a snorkeling tour that takes you out to Molokini Crater. The snorkeling was pretty fun. We saw some fish in the reef and a couple of big sea turtles. I really enjoyed the boat ride and sat out on the deck most of the time, but Michael ended up getting pretty sick after our first snorkeling stop. One of the guides found a place for him to lay down :( for the second half of the tour.

Here is sick Michael trying to sip on some gingerale and look alive. 

After snorkeling we were able to go parasailing.  The winds were better and so we were able to fit it in still, since it had been cancelled the day before.  I don't have any pics from my camera but Michael has it in is video.  I thought it would be kind of scary but it was actually one of the most peaceful things we did.  It was so quiet and serene up in the air, except for when Michael started looking pale again!  Luckily we made it back down before he got sick. 

Hawaii Day 5

Our first port stop was Maui. We rented a car after getting off of the cruise ship and went to a nearby church building. We stayed for a sacrament meeting and sunday school. It was one of the highlights for Michael because they had a missionary going home and a family moving and they sang a very touching aloha song. While they were singing practically everyone in the congregation came up on the stage to give leis and hug goodbye. This day was extremely windy in Maui. We were supposed to go parasailing but it got cancelled due to excessive winds.

We ended up driving around the coast.  The drive was incredibly scary.  It was a one lane road with a cliff down to the ocean on one side and tons of switchbacks.  It was very foggy as we climbed up into higher elevations.  It took us almost 3 hours to make it around the coast and we vowed to find a different way to drive back to our cruise ship.

That evening we went to Ka'anapali beach to enjoy a luau.  The dinner was delicious and the show was pretty great.  We sat at a table with a couple from Australia and one from Virginia and really enjoyed ourselves.  It was dark and pretty late by the time we made it back to our ship to go to bed.

Hawaii Day 3

Okay Day 4 was Saturday. We started out by waking up early and hiking Diamond Head. It was an awesome hike! We arrived right at 6am when it opens and there were already tons of people there. Luckily with our totally fit bodies :) we were able to charge ahead most of the crowds. The views from the top were great! We were able to make it up and back down in about 45 minutes.

After breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we drove out to Pearl Harbor.  We looked a little through the museums and took the tour boat out to the USS Arizona.  This is a great memorial to see, since you can look down and see the boat still underneath you.  We could even see black spots of oil coming up from the ship still.

That afternoon we finally boarded our cruise ship.  This is a first cruise for both Michael and I.  We were pretty excited and spent the afternoon exploring the ship.  We were in the hot tub during the sail away party and excitement was high.  Michael wanted to get out and dance with everyone but I was in my swim suit and chickened out.

hawaii video

Michael brought a gopro helmet camera with us to Hawaii and made a short video with clips from his camera.  Enjoy!