HAWAII DAY ONE: Arrival in Honolulu

ALOHA Friends and family! 

 We just got back from an AMAZING 9 days in Hawaii! March 14-23, 2009. We are glad to say we all made it back healthy and alive! Over the next few days I will post as much as I can about our trip starting back at the beginning and working to the present. This is mostly journaling for my own family so forgive me if I am obnoxious but I want to record every moment of this huge event in our lives!!!

Our first picture in Oahu, Hawaii! 

We are at the Royal Shopping Center or something like that in Waikiki. We are starving after a six hour flight with yucky food. Tess was in the first picture I took but her eyes were closed and I couldn't get her to come back for another. 

Waiting at the Cheesecake Factory for our lunch. They took FOREVER to get my Salmon to the table cuz someone really screwed up in the kitchen. They didn't even bring out my bread or salad while I waited and watched everyone else eat!!! I was so hungry. Once they figured it out they tried to make it right. Free salmon and cheesecake too! YUM!

We walked down to check out famous Waikiki beach after dinner and thought about getting our feet wet.

Going for it.

Not going for it.

Brrr! But fun!

Olivia went all the way to Hawaii to take pictures of birds. Here is the first of many. 

Ah, a pigeon!

Just dipping our toes in just wasn't enough. We HAD to go back to the car in the parking garage and change into our suits. Yes, right there in the parking garage. What fun that was~

This is as wet as Tess got. She was more into laying out when it's this cold.

The view of the bazillion hotels from the beach.

Rustin doesn't mind a few hotels, a beach is a beach and this is Hawaii!

We had lots of sand fights on this trip and Rustin started them ALL but everyone usually joined in! My hair and my suit were holding buckets of sand by the time we were done!

The view of Diamond Head that we ended up hiking on our LAST day of vacation.

Liv is eating it up. 

We started our collection of sand with this super fine golden stuff you see here.

Testing out our new waterproof/underwater camera. Cool.

Rustin is in there somewhere

Chloe, upper right corner!

Ahhhh. 

After the beach we drove along the Pali Highway to get to our condo on the other side of the island because we heard that it had a spectacular view from this lookout. They were right!!!

Not exactly the best clothes for the windy lookout but we didn't want to take the time to change, besides, isn't this Hawaii?

Coolness.

A rainbow just for us! What an amazing sight!!! So glad to be here!!!

c-c-c-cold but smiling!

Rustin still needing a tan but got the cool glasses thing covered 

(well, that depends who you ask!) 

I love this guy!

Awesome view up and to the right of the lookout.

Another great view. Love those green ripples in the mountain side!

The killer view.

Sprinting back to the warm car! Only Arizonans are cold in Hawaii!

We LOVED these big trees! I couldn't stop taking pictures of them. Each one was so unique!

Another favorite!

The view of the Northeast tip of the Island! Just AMAZING!!! We also saw some cool wild life...

A wild pig! Rustin and Russ saw it on the side of the road coming out of the jungle. We laughed so hard. In the next few days we saw LOTS of wild chickens and roosters too. Rustin commented on how hobos here could really eat well with these wild animals everywhere, not to mention the fruit!

Yes, ANOTHER RAINBOW! They weren't kidding when they deemed it the Rainbow State. That's two in less than 4 hours!

We were amazed how close the ocean was to the road! Here you get a good idea and see the gravel and debris that were washed over the road from the storm surge the day before we got there. They had actually closed this stretch of road for a few hours because it was too dangerous!

A beautiful sunset while sitting in the car at the Foodland Grocery store close by. Got Subway for dinner and enjoyed our cheesecake that night and for the next few days.

Finally, we made it to our cozy Tiki Moon Villa. We LOVED it! It was right across the street from the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a beach right out back that we had all to ourselves!

Chloe and Liv getting cleaned up in the whirlpool in the master bedroom.

This place had just been remodeled and we loved all the amenities!

Chloe and Liv's bedroom. Complete with luggage thrown on floor.

Walking in the front door. Hi Russ! Here is Rustin's bed on the left. An Indonesian day bed apparently. He liked it.

Russ working hard getting us all cleaned up and ready for our next day of adventure!

Dining table we didn't eat at much.

Tess's day bed, full size and comfy! Night Night!

 

Rustin had so much fun in the waves. He would jump over them, through them or sit and let them crash on him and knock him over. It was like he was experimenting with the force of the waves. My little scientist did this at every beach! It was fun to watch!