ALOOOOOOOOHA!

That's right!  I said Hello.  And Goodbye.  And I love you.  And Clark has told me several times "You can't say Aloha anymore.  Just say Hi."

Because we aren't in Hawaii anymore.  *shudder into clenched fist*

But we had a great 10 days there.  I think it was 10 days.  It was a 17 day ordeal, driving to and from Phoenix (thanks Bridgette and family for the awesome accommodations!).  Maybe we were in Hawaii for 12 days.  Maybe 13.  Yeah, I think 13.

Anway, here are some highlights:

 Breaking in our condo in Waikiki.  I'm not sure what kind of animal sleeps on bridges, but that is the kind that Clark is.  Probably a beaver.  (For those of you who don't know Clark well, he is always some kind of animal).

 Myra says "hi" now.  Well, right here, she is saying "aloha".

 The first morning we were up and going at 4:45 (Hawaii is 4 hours earlier than Tejas).  We got to this hike at 6:00 in the morning.  The kids were excited to go up the volcano.  We had studied about volcanos in preschool before we came, which was not necessarily a good idea.  Just made them nervous about the possibilities of lava spewing out of the crater (right where we are standing!). 

 At the end of the hike, there is a giant stairwell of 99 steps going to the top.  Eva walked all of the hike except this part.  I was so proud of her.

 MUSCLES!

 Clark found a tail on the way (for those of you who don't know Clark well, he likes to wear a tail all the time as well--in keeping with his animal imitations).  This was a foxtail reed.

 Under the influence of their minimalist-shoe-loving father, they decided to hike down barefoot. 

 These flowers grow everywhere!  They are literally distributed all over the ground when a gust of wind hits the trees.  I think that was one of my favorite things about Hawaii.  The abundance of beautiful, free, flowers.

 Our first day snorkeling spot.  I was terrified.  I was sure that a shark or barracuda was going to come up from the murky depths and bite me on  my totally vulnerable belly.  Later I learned that we didn't have good visibility and that snorkeling is fun.

 I'm not against taking kids to Hawaii, but you might want to screen the potential applicants more closely than we did.  Had we known that Eva hated the beach and ocean, we might have made other arrangements for her.  However, she discovered that she loved napping on the beach.  So did Myra.  So when we would go, she would just say "I'm tired, I need a nap".  Even if we had just woken up a few hours before.  But I'd wrap her in a towel, put her in the shade, and she was good for an hour.

 "Aloha!"

 We got Clark to go out and snorkel in Haunama Bay.  He loved it.  Obviously, there were sea animals involved.

 Eva got an owie.  Strike three for the beach.  She wanted a picture of it.

 Giant Eucalyptus trees on our Manoa Falls hike the second day.  They were gorgeous.

The second muddiest hike of our trip.  In a beautiful rainforest/mosquito farm.  Seems like paradise shouldn't have mosquitoes.

 The third day we went to the North shore and saw some sea turtles and went snorkeling here, Sharks Cove.  You can imagine my dreams the night before after we had planned our day.  Eviscerated.  But this turned out to be my very favorite spot--it was like snorkeling in my dentist's aquarium.  Totally bright and shallow and tons of fish everywhere. 

 Then we made our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we frantically tried to see things in 2.5 hours.  We didn't plan that part of our trip very well.  It was nice though, nicely landscaped.

And I threw a spear which completed my dream for Hawaii.  Let me tell you:  When I was a Junior in High School, I was on the track team, nominally, and tried throwing javelin once or twice.  One night in the middle of track season, I had a dream that we all went to Hawaii with the Kellys, our cousins.  And I could throw the javelin sooooooooooooooooooooooo far.  Effortlessly, I could just chuck it and it would sail through the air for miles.  So that rocked.  And I also remember waking up and having a sensory memory of how wonderfully fragrant Hawaii was.  All the flowers filled the air up with scent.  Which is why I adore the plumeria trees everywhere just throwing flowers away like they are going out of style.  But they never will, or Hilo Hatties will go out of business with all of their plumeria-inspired shirts.

 Then Eva caught this fish. 

 And we all got tattoos.  Even Myra.

 

And when we came out (because they closed at 5:00!!!), the kids saw this bench and ran over to it and said, "Take our picture" and smiled like they were little models.  It was so cute.

 

Here we are with more sea turtles hanging out on the beach.

The rest of our time in Oahu was spent snorkeling, hiking and eating Mangoes n' Cream ice cream. We also got to visit my dearly beloved piano teacher, Dan Bradshaw and his awesome family; both he and Emily teach at BYU Hawaii.

Its late though, and everyone else is asleep, so I am going to name this part 1 and get the other half posted later. . . hopefully this month.  Also, the home tour.  I haven't forgotten.