lapule

/Sunday/
After our own Church service (as a temporary Hawaiian Branch),

 

we hopped on the bus that Grandpa rented for us

and headed to Laie.

We spent our time on the Temple grounds and at the Visitor's Center. 

 Except for a quick drive through BYU Hawaii campus, that was about it.

 Beautiful.

Not too bad for a Hawaiian Sabbath.

 

 'ohana kau a kau

families are forever

one (OH-NEH)

/sand/

Although Jake is not a huge fan of sand (thanks to a week-long river trip with the Scouts this past summer!), he played in it plenty.

 

He made sure to get a shave ice every day (usually with some french fries, too),

 

 he loved being with cousins,

 

he went snorkeling,

 

and spent plenty of time just playing around.

Yep, pretty much paradise.

wai (WIE)

/water/

 

This girl loved the water!

She was in the water All. Day. Long.

The infinity pool was her favorite.

 The only part she didn't love in the water was snorkeling, but kudos to her for giving it a try!

She loved being with these 2 cousins as much as she loved being in the water.  They were pretty much inseparable!

Ali wants to get back in the water.  And soon!!

nalu (NAH-LOO)

/wave/

Emmy loved the water, but she wanted action!

 She splashed in the fountains,

 and she could not get enough of the waterslides!

She loved floating down or wading through the lazy river,

 playing in the pool games,

 and gettin' down with Goofy.

Pretty much wherever Emmy was, she played to the fullest!

la (LAH)

/sun/

Drew loved being with people in the sun.

He loved the water, too...

but he really loved going from person to person.

Sometimes he was okay to hang out with mom & dad,

but he had plenty of other favorites, too!

Like this group of cool cats.

Hang loose, dudes.

kamali'i

/children/

21 to be exact.  

From Drew's age to 18.  Being with cousins was so much fun...

we may never want to go on another vacation by ourselves.

ka huaka'i

/the journey/

We left for our highly anticipated trip to Hawai'i on Christmas night, just 2 days after Emmy got an ear infection, one day after Ali threw up, and 2 hours after Emmy nearly broke her arm (ended up spraining it--phew!)  After a quick stop at Urgent Care to check Emmy's arm, we were off!  We stayed in the hotel near the airport with Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Gary and the kids, and Lon.  Let the vacation begin!!

 Most of the gang at the Seattle Airport on the morning of the 26th.

To Honolulu, please.

How did Drew do?  With a little bit of this:

 some of this:

and very little of this,

he did pretty well!  And soon (5.5 hours later) we saw this:

 Beautiful.

Ahhhh, feel that Hawaiian sunshine in the Honolulu airport.

All 17 of us got on a bus and headed to the hotel.

Aloha!

We soon met up with the other 17 family members from Colorado and went to dinner and the hula show at the hotel.  So fun!

 It was all pretty exciting.  Especially when the kids went up to hula dance, these 3 dads tried to capture the moment.

Yes, there would be many moments to capture

 in a place like this.

12.26.13-01.01.14