Hawaii trip part 1 - Oahu

For anyone who hasn't heard the story, Tom went to trial at the beginning of June with the expectation that he would be gone for the rest of the month.  Three days later he was home because the case had unexpectedly settled.  We had planned to take a vacation in July, but that got pushed up once he got home so we decided to go to Hawaii.  Neither of us have ever been there and we didn't really know much about it, but we wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center so we thought we would start out our trip in Oahu.

Five and a half hours was a long time on the plane for Jonah.  He enjoyed some freedom once we got to the hotel.

 We had some friends from BYU who were also in Hawaii, so we got together with them for dinner the first night we were there.  They had a little koi pond at their hotel that the kids thought was neat.

 By the time we got back to our hotel (around 8pm) these guys were exhausted (that's 11pm California time).

 The next morning we were up bright and early thanks to the time difference.  We thought we would get to see the sunrise, but it was too cloudy.

 Here is Tom with Harper watching the sunrise.

 One thing I wanted to do was hike Diamond Head.  It was about 1.6 miles roundtrip and even though it was a little hot, these two did great!  They both hiked about 90% of the trail on their own.

 We did have to take lots of water breaks.  Anything over 75 is hot for us, we are spoiled.

 Jonah actually probably would have walked the entire thing by himself if the ground had been more level. His little feet had problems with all of the rocks.

 Harper turns bright red when she is hot.

 So does Jonah.

 The hike was TOTALLY worth it.  The view was amazing.

 The next day we drove up to Laie to go to the PCC.  We left a little early to have some breakfast and look around.

 The temple is gorgeous.

 And we spent some time in the visitor's center with some nice sisters from the Philippines.

 We also visited BYU Hawaii and then went to the PCC where it was VERY HOT.  Tom is trying to make fire here.

 Jonah gave it a try.

 The kids playing with sticks in the New Zealand section.

 We made little fish and they gave all of the kids these little cubes.  Jonah called his a cupcake and carried it around for the rest of the day.

 The day we were at the PCC was actually Jonah's birthday.  What a spoiled kid!

 Harper tried fishing.

 Tom and Harper in their Hawaiian gear.

 Tom and Harper took a submarine tour.  Jonah was too short to go and I get horribly seasick, so we explored a nearby hotel while they were gone.  The hotel had lots of outdoor animal exhibits (fish, penguins, turtles, etc.) and Jonah had a great time with that.

 On Monday before we left to go to Maui we spent some time at the Honolulu Zoo.

 I loved the giant turtles.

 We saw several of these giant trees while we were there.

Stay tune for Hawaii trip part 2 - Maui . . .