Hawaii - Part 1 - The Beach

Our family took an amazing trip to Hawaii last month to celebrate my brother-in-law's wedding. He's a student at BYU-Hawaii and it was so awesome to get to travel there for his big day. We decided to take the whole family and all I can say is THANK GOODNESS for our Alaska Airlines credit card that gives us all the miles and that $99 companion ticket! Yes, we completely wiped out years of saving up those miles, but it was completely worth it! 

There's so much to tell about this trip I'm going to break it up into a few different posts. The first place we went when we got settled into the vacation house was the BEACH! Not the "coast" as we call it up here in the northwest. "The coast" is cold, windy and almost always requires a sweatshirt and a blanket. The water at "the coast" is frigid, makes you unable to feel your extremities within seconds, and requires a wetsuit and a hardy disposition to play in. "The beach" on the other hand requires nothing more than sunscreen and swimsuits. And maybe a cover up or sarong for when you start getting burned from the strong sun....

The house we stayed in was on the north shore of Oahu, near Laie, where Tyler lives. It was right on the beach. I couldn't believe how beautiful and private it was. Most days we were the only ones there and had the entire place all to ourselves. Occasionally we'd see a local jogging, but only a couple times in the 6 days we were there. It was like our own little piece of paradise. The boys couldn't get over how warm the water in the ocean was. After a few minutes of playing in the waves Mister gleefully blurted out this understatement: "Mommy, being in Hawaii is so much better than being at home!" Why yes, yes it is Sweetie. :)

One of the best things about this beach was how shallow it was. You could go out super far and still have it only come up to your thighs. Mister had the time of his life riding those perfect boogie boarding waves. And once boogie boarding got to be too tame for him, he had his daddy give him some surfing lessons. And guess what? He surfed and actually STOOD UP! I was quite the proud mamma and was so happy to catch it on my camera. I was starting to think he might grow gills from how much time he spent out there. Pumpkin has always been more cautious around the water and it took him a little longer to warm up to it, but once he did, he was just like Mister. I had to practically bribe them to get them to come inside. Pumpkin liked sitting at the edge of the water and having the little waves splash up over his lap. Or he'd get on his tummy and prop himself up on his hands and let the waves wash over his back. It was so fun to see them enjoying themselves so thoroughly.

Baby Bear was NOT a fan of the water. We tried multiple times and he never liked it. Oh well. That just meant that one of us stayed on the beach with him while the other went out to play with the kids. Or sometimes one of my sisters-in-law or my mother-in-law would hold him for a while so we could be out there together.

And, I'm extremely proud of the fact that none of us got sunburned the entire week we were there. Mister came home brown as a nut and equally as tan as me, if you can believe that! :) Here are some beach pictures.