Hawaii: Day 7

Our last day in Hawaii was one of the best of the entire week! Brandon was so sweet to let me go on the hike I had been taking about all week, Manoa Falls.

We got there and I was in awe right away at the beauty of the jungle and pretty much couldn't stop talking about it the entire hike.

The pictures don't even do it justice. It was so pretty and such a fun hike! Super easy, a little muddy, and so gorgeous and worth every minute!

These were some stairs that led to another hike after the waterfall. We didn't venture here, but it looked so pretty! Of course. Along with everything else.

Super fun natural archway to take a picture by!

These trees were huge!!

These felt like a scene right out of Jurassic Park.

We went to McDonald's for lunch after the hike and then real quickly we stopped by Pearl Harbor. Next time we will take more time and go on the Ferry and explore a little more here.

Back to the quiet pool for one last swim before we had to go catch our flight.

And then down to put our feet in the ocean one last time.

Sad faces as we were walking away from the best trip ever!

I forgot to mention that on the way to Hawaii we barely made it before they stopped boarding our flight, so on the way home when we had a little extra time at the airport (thanks to a super weird Costco that wasn't actually Costco) I wasn't sad about it. It felt nice to sit and relax and have time to change into our warm clothes.

Got seated together again and had a great flight home, except for the major lack of sleep, ha ha. Our flight home was a red eye and I literally didn't get a wink of sleep. We came home Sunday morning and immediately all 7 of us went to bed, ha ha! Nice to have a Sunday to relax and do laundry and recover from the trip before work/school started the next day.

Hawaii, we'll be back!

Hawaii: Day 5 (Halloween) and Day 6

I kept forgetting all week that it was even going to be Halloween. I feel a little sad that we missed Tyler and Kallie's last Halloween parade, and Jackson's first Halloween parade and Halloween at school, and our ward party and all that, but really, it didn't matter at all and we had such a good week and literally no one is thinking about it after the fact and caring that we missed Halloween.

Anyway, we woke up Thursday morning and went down to feed the fish, Mckinley I think went for a fun on the beach path this day.

The kids were dying to try out the quiet pool. Which we eventually did, and once we did, I think we never went back to the kids pool. Both pools were great though. The resort really is perfect.

So we had talked to come people in the hot tub the night before about how they went to the Disney resort and swam at their pool and did the water slides and stuff. So we went to check it out. This was the big aquarium they have there that you can snorkel in. The kids did a slide, but all in all, we felt stupid being there so didn't stay long.

Went back to our lagoon and had a picnic lunch out by the beach.

Then headed off to Paradise Cove again because we just loved the turtles so much.

I went out and snorkeled all around and didn't see any turtles at first and then eventually they came and there were three of them this day! So fun!

We had signed up for the resort's Halloween activity from 2-4 so the kids went and colored Halloween bags and played some games and got candy.

Then out to the pool.

Tyler had a really good time with the flippers!

Ha ha!

I loved how the doors to the deck opened all the way up and went into the walls. The deck was the best and we spent so much time out there if we were ever home. Including first thing in the morning and late at night. The weather was always good!

Loved the view!

I loved how obsessed Brandon was with the sunsets. We didn't ever want to miss them.

Friday we got up and decided to go try Electric Beach. The guide on our boat tour had told us about it.

On our way out we took a picture by the resort sign.

Electric beach was great. There was lots of snorkeling to be done, and the kids had fun playing in the sand. There wasn't a lot of room to play in the waves, because the rocks/coral started pretty quick, so it was more of a snorkeling beach, but it worked out great and was super close to the resort.

Went back and finally let the kids swim in the quiet pool for the first time. They loved it!

Another sunset at the Lagoon. Part of me wanted to really get ready and do our hair and take cute pictures, but that never happened. It was a beach hair holiday the entire time, and that's just fine! It was so good!

We still got some cute pics! Even without perfect hair.