Our Thanksgiving in Hawaii

We had the amazing opportunity to go to Hawaii again this year! This time we were able to go with all of James' family- a total of 13 people. Watch out, picture overload and long post!

All of the "kids" decided to surprise James' parents with a lei greeting at the airport.


James' parents rented a beach house in Laie for all of us to stay in. We petty much had our own private beach. It was a very spacious house with plenty of room for all of the little kids to run around.

This is the view from the back lanai.

The backyard before the beach (with my niece playing with a broom).

The front of the house.


We were able to spend all the time we wanted at the beach. I am a beach bum at heart. I could spend every waking moment near an ocean and still feel like I haven't spent enough time at the beach.

As soon as we arrived at our house in Hawaii, I rolled up my jeans and took a walk in the waves with my nieces.


I was beyond thrilled to find a boogey board in the garage of our house. As a child, I would boogey board all the time! We had the perfect beach for this. We stayed on the windy side of the island so the waves were larger.

Everyone tried it, even our 8 and 6 year old nieces.



We drove down the road less than a half mile and stopped at the Hukilau Beach.




We also stopped at the Hukilau Cafe, which is supposed to be the cafe from the movie 50 1st dates. We were dissappointed, but we were able to have a hawaiian breakfast here.


For thanksgiving, we had a non traditional feast. I wish I had thought about taking a picture of all the yummy BBQ food, but I was too excited to eat. The men were busy on the BBQ!



James and I hiked diamond head with his sister and brother-in-law. It has changed a lot since we hiked it in 2008 (if you've been in the past, they added pathways up so you don't have to climb the 300 stairs straight up), but it was still a good workout.



The views were amazing!



I thought this picture was adorable. All the little girls love Uncle Jim!


I decided to work on a few projects with my nieces. The first was picture frames. We took frames, sprayed them with adhesive, threw them in the sand and then glued shells to it.

Madison's, Molly's and Megan's frames. I think they turned out really cute!


The second project I did with them was message in bottles.


We had fun hiking to a spot to throw them out into the ocean.


We are excited to see if anyone ever finds our messages and where int he world they are at when they do find them.

Uncle Jim had his own projects with the girls. One night he took all the girls into the kitchen and they made cookies for everyone. It was adorable hearing the whispers and giggles coming from the kitchen!



He also played angry birds with them.


We went to the Dole Plantation! This is one of my favorite touristy places. I just love the dole whip!

We took the train tour of the plantation. It was very neat and relaxing!

An attempt at a family picture.


There were tons of these trees at the plantation. Just like everything in Hawaii, they were very colorful!


Since we were staying right on the beach and I adore the sunrise, I thought I'd take advantage of being stuck on California time and take some pictures of the beautiful Hawaiian sunrises.







We all went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It's always a fun, but long day.

We were actually able to get a family picture with most of the kids looking.

Uncle Jim and Molly making the fishy face while waiting to get in.

The luau. Always my favorite part. I just love the Hawaiian culture!



James and his sister went skydiving. I blogged about this already so if you'd like to see the actual pictures of James falling from an airplane, you can click here.

All the crazy people loading up to get on the airplane.




They made it!



We stayed less than a mile away from the Laie LDS Temple so we went there many times both at night and during the day.






We went to church while we were here. It was an amazing experience!

Afterwards, everyone went into the backyard to take pictures



And finally, we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.




Phew, that was exhausting! I'm sure i've forgotten something.

Thanks for the wonderful trip!!

Comments

Robin said…
I think you got it all except for the Shaved Ice's!!! The sound from the video made me "homesick" again. How soon can we go back?
The Jensens said…
It looks like you had a ton of fun! Ok, random question-where did you get your shorts? They are sooo long! I have a hard time finding shorts for my long legs.

The sunrise pictures were beautiful!!
Anonymous said…
What a wonderful blog, Kresta.
The pictures are beautiful. My heart belongs in Hawaii. I long for the smell & sound of the ocean, the delicious food, the laid back style & the beautiful Hawaiian people. Great pictures!
Anonymous said…
Yo Mama!

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