Oahu

We had the most wonderful trip! We visited Oahu for the first time as a family and absolutely loved it. We were gone 9 days.

Violet had to bring her camera, of course. We had the direct flight to Oahu and it was a dream. I sat next to Davis who switched what he was watching about every 5 minutes haha.

We landed about noon Hawaii time and still had the whole day to enjoy. We had the most magical first night at the resort. We stayed at the Marriott Ko Olina and loved it. They had this big field where the kids loved playing football and soccer.

Our first day we headed to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. Getting reservations was intense but it ended up working out great. The snorkeling was awesome.

Davis was too scared to snorkel last year, but I could hardly keep up with him this year. It was like he thought we were playing tag and was trying to lose me constantly. He was ready to swim out deep into the ocean at one point lol. He was mostly disappointed that the fish wouldn't let him touch them.

Violet was the only one who would go out for a second time with me. We had such a fun time and saw the coolest fish.

Every teenager has to learn their own sunburn lesson, and this trip it was Andy's turn haha. He had the weirdest, spottiest sunburn. Even his eyelids were all burned and puffy. It took almost the whole trip to recover, poor guy.

Cameron and I went to Monkey Pod for our Valentine's Day dinner. The coconut pie is my favorite with the strawberry as a close second. I think we went to Monkey Pod three times while we were there?

Violet made a cute friend, Sadie. They loved hanging out at the resort together and played a lot! They loved making hats one day.

Davis's cute hat he designed

The awesome field the kids played on constantly

It wouldn't be a trip to a Marriott resort without Max ordering a strawberry frappuccino.

Oahu ended up being a bit windy, but we made the most of it. We love hanging out at a resort.

Davis says his favorite part of the whole trip was feeding the koi fish at the resort. He loved it and asked to do it constantly. He loved "bopping" them at the end (touching their heads).

We headed to Kualoa Ranch on Monday for a tour. They filmed some of the Jurassic Park movies there. It was gorgeous! The mountains on the east side of the island were absolutely stunning.

Violet loved the tour and says it was one of her favorite parts of the whole trip.

This was their "silly face" picture.

Always finding a big stick

My parents flew in that day and joined us for a hike! We loved the hike. Davis spent literally the whole hike finding sticks and throwing them. The videos are insane--he's manic about it. I think he'd find and throw a new stick every 10 seconds the whole hour long hike. He told me he's pretty confident he's one of the best stick throwers in the world. :) I actually think we've got to find an outlet for throwing for him--he's always loved it and has a very good arm.

Lots of pictures of this girl cause she's always ready to strike a pose for a pic. The boys are not a fan of taking pictures.

The next morning we explored Ko Olina and found this super cool tide pool area just past the Four Seasons. You could see all sorts of cool fish.

We went to Pearl Harbor for the afternoon. We went to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was a cool experience.  

We ended up not nailing the timing so we missed doing the USS Missouri. But, we saw the submarine that was there instead, which the kids actually loved. They all say it was their favorite part.

We loved playing this new game with my parents at night. It's called Hitster and is so fun!

I think this is from the full day we spent at the resort just enjoying it. Our family loves a resort! It was so fun. The kids love the shave ice. Swimming, hot tubs, snorkeling in the cove, etc.

Another Davis/Koi picture. We named the big yellow guy "Big Gus."

Violet loved swimming at the resort and had little loops she liked to do.

The next day we headed up to the north shore and visited the Waimea Gardens and Waterfall.

It was cold. But some were brave and swam to the waterfall (Me, Violet, Cameron, Davis)! It was magical.

After lunch we visited Sunset Beach to try to see awesome waves and surfers, but the waves were very small for this time of year. Still fun to explore!

Love this beach boy.

We explored the super cute beach town Haleiwa and had to get shave ice.

Of course Cameron had to order the weirdest thing on the menu and got black beans in our shave ice?

Max really wanted a henna tattoo of "47" behind his ear like the soccer player Foden.

And Violet got a cute Aloha and flower design.

We left Ko Olina after a week and then stayed in the North Share for a couple of nights. On our way up, we had so much fun snorkeling at Sharks Cove. (Except for when we were exploring the tide pools and Grandma Jean fell and broke her wrist!)

Fun food trucks in Sharks Cove

We visisted the Laie Temple and Visitors Center

Laie Point was so pretty

Dinner at Seven Brothers

We had an extremely rainy day our last full day. We woke up to flood warnings and had to stay in the condo we were renting til noon. But then we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center and it ended up being a great place to go on a rainy day.

We all loved weaving these fish.

Davis got called to the front to try coconut milk in the Samoa Show.

Cameron got called to the front in the Tonga Show and got to drum for us all. He was also supposed to dance but he got stage fright in that part. My parents' missionary was the leader of the show, so that was really fun.

A picture with my parents' missionary. It was so fun--we kept running into their missionaries and people they knew.

It stopped raining later in the afternoon and we got to ride around on the river.

My parents' missionary was in the night show and he invited us to come to their company meeting before the performance. It was so cool to see them practice and to chat with them!

So fun to watch their missionary in the night show! He's explaining to Davis here how he learned to be a fire dancer and even showed him his burns he got when he was learning.

Violet wanted a picture with a girl performer. Overall, this was a fantastic trip for our family. Our kids bonded and played better than usual. And even fought a bit less! I was so sad to leave. I'm half-way considering moving there. :) So grateful we got to have this wonderful trip all together!