Hawaii- Oahu

We went on a "company" trip with Danny and Leslie to Oahu. The past several months were stressful, so the trip came at a very needed time. My parents were so nice to take our kids for a week so we could have a little get away. We had a blast and packed in so many fun adventures and Danny and Leslie were great travel buddies. This was a first of many annual company trips!
We flew out on a Saturday and got to Hawaii around 10. It was a long travel day for us. We flew from SLC to Pheonix, Phoenix to Kaui, and then finally to Oahu. We were exhausted, and the time change threw us all off. We got there late. Danny and Leslie had taken a different flight and arrived a little before we did so they got our rental car and then picked us up at the airport and we headed to our hotel. We went to bed, but unfortunately were up around 5 that morning, so Dayton and I went on Sunday morning walk before church.
It just happened to be my birthday. Doesn't get better than starting a week in Hawaii on your birthday.

This was the sunrise from the beach at our hotel. We stayed at the Ko Olina Marriot. It was beautiful.

 We found lots of crabs on our walks.

 We went to a local church and were happy to find an English speaking ward. We then came back to the hotel and had lunch. Afterwards, we hiked Diamond Crater and looked over the beautiful views of Oahu.

After the hike, we drove around some of the neighborhoods and found this beautiful view of the diamond head crater! We hopped out of the car and quickly ran onto someone's yard for a quick picture. It was too perfect. So beautiful.

 By this time of the day, the jet lag was hitting hard. We went back to the hotel for a quick dinner and watched the sunset. It was stunning and pictures just don't do it justice.

 The next day, we got up and headed to the North Shore. We started the morning off by zip lining at Climb Works at Keana Farms. We had a blast! We drove the ATVs up the mountain, tasted produce from the gardens, and zip lined for hours. The views were absolutely amazing! We also enjoyed learning more about Hawaiian history and culture along the tour.

 Afterwards, we went snorkeling at Shark's Cove. It was the perfect spot. Dayton and I were literally swimming though schools of fish. There were thousands of them surrounding us. It was so neat. I really wanted to see a turtle, but no such luck. Then we ate at Seven Brothers and then to the classic Matsumoto Shaved Ice. It was yummy. 

The next day we took it easy at the hotel. We swam in oceans, pools, and ate lunch. I loved the pools!

Then we headed to Pearl Harbor. There was a special, reverent spirit there. I've also loved learning about world war II. I knew my Grandpa Hunter was happy we were there.

Unfortunately, the Arizona is under construction because there is a crack in the foundation so we wren't able to get off and go on it, but we did take a boat tour around it.

 Then we took a tour of the submarines.

 Wednesday we went our different ways. Danny and Leslie hung out at the hotel and then rented a Jeep and drove around the island. Dayton and I went back to the North shore to Waimea Falls. It was a beautiful walk to the waterfall. 

 We loved the trees and all of the green jungle vegetation.

 Dayton playing Tarzan.

 I spy Dayton jumping into the waterfall. 

I got an awesome shot of Dayton. I then asked him to get one of me. I was not impressed and was honestly annoyed he didn't get a good picture. If I had known before hand, I would have had him do it again. Oh well, kind of funny. We just need to work on his photography skills. HAH.

We really enjoyed swimming and playing in the waterfall and were so glad we wore our water shoes!

After the hike, went to Turtle Bay to do some more snorkeling. We weren't really impressed with Turtle Bay and didn't stay long. We definitely enjoyed Shark's cove more. I was disappointed not to see any turtles.

We stopped to get shrimp at Giovanni's. It was super delicious. We ate so much seafood while we were there and I was in heaven. 

On our way out we stopped and got a few groceries. We got dried mangos and visited a nut farm. 

The produce was awesome- My avocado was giant! It doesn't look as big in the picture, but I was blown away. I loooove avocados. 

 Thursday, we went stopped at the Dole Plantation.

Dayton had never seen how bananas grow- cool that the grow upside down. We thought the kids would find it interesting. 

So crazy to see pineapples growing on little bushes!

Then we went to the temple. We weren't able to do a session as Dayton's recommend had expired- which he left in Mapleton. The Hawaii temple is pretty strict about not letting people (tourist) come without a recommend. Bummer, but we walked around the temple ground and visitor center. It was beautiful and peaceful.

After the temple, we hit the Polynesian Culture center. The village displays and demonstrations were educational and we enjoyed learning about each culture. 

We learned how to make coconut oil and how they utilize every part of the coconut tree.

We were especially impressed to see them climb up the trees. 

Moana's boat.

The buffet dinner and show was... meh, but the after show was really neat and we loved it.

On our first day we saw spotted the beloved pineapple drink at the bottom of the diamond head trail. We weren't hungry, but wanted one so bad. We didn't have any cash on hand and they wouldn't take a card. We were so sad! The rest of the trip, we talked about that yummy pineapple drink. Well on our last night, we found outside the PCC. It was of course expensive, but SOO worth it. Dayton and I still talk about it to this day and think it was one of the best things we ate in Hawaii. Delicious. 

Friday was our last day in paradise. Leslie and Danny flew out early that morning. Our flight was a red eye, so we had another day to enjoy. We soaked up the morning at the hotel. We enjoyed swimming in the pools and ocean and soaking up the sun. It was a beautiful day. 

Staying in a nice hotel was not my first choice. I would have rather Airbnb a beach house on the ocean, but by the end of the stay, I was kind of in love with that place and didn't want to go. It was sooo nice and just perfect. 

We ate lunch and checked out of the hotel. Then we went for a real adventure. We wanted to do a hike, but not just a touristy hike. We wanted the local experience. I found a hike on all trails and we gave it a shot. It was called Luluahe falls. The trail was really hard to find at first. We had to cut through a small opening in a fence to go through a small bamboo forest before we found it. 

Then we found the trail and it started pouring!

We were drenched, but it was worth it. Such beautiful scenery and so unlike Utah.

We were grateful for the small ribbons tied to trees to keep us on the path. It was hard to know if we were going the right way, but then we found the beautiful waterfall.

We were cold, wet, and eaten alive from mosquitoes

since all our bug spray and worn off. We got into our car and cranked the heat as we drove along the infamous highway 3. It was the most expensive highway built at the time so of course Engineer Dayton wanted to drive the whole thing. It was absolutely stunning. Some of the prettiest sites we had seen in Hawaii. A lot of it was where Jurassic Park was filmed. The pictures again are just a sad representation. 

We found a grocery store and bought a bunch of wipes and tried to "clean" up since we couldn't shower before our overnight flight. Oops. Sorry to everyone who had to sit by us. We then grabbed a bite to eat at a little local place and tried authentic Hawaiian food. IT was fun. We had time to kill before we needed to be at the airport, so we went bowling. We were horrible and so tired, but it was still fun. 

We were excited to see the boys after being gone for a week. We brought them home "lava" rocks- because they are obsessed with volcanoes these days. They loved it! We found them on our hike. We also brought them home little drums. 

The boys also like cracking nuts, so we brought home bunch of academia nuts from a nut farm we visited. They had fun beating them with hammers! haha.

It was a much needed trip. We loved being able to get away and spend exclusive time together. It is so nice to get away, but we sure miss our kiddos! Can't imagine life without those three musketeers.