Waimea Weekend

This last weekend we did a lot of "Waimea-ing". It's a beautiful bay on the north shore. The beach in this area is the best and just across the street is Waimea Valley where the falls are. my sister, Jessica, and her Husband, Eric, came for a visit for a little over a week, and we had a ton of fun! Here's a little re-cap of our adventures...

Waimea Beach

Waimea Beach is my favorite beach! We go there pretty often. The day we took these pictures, the water was a little rough and the waves were big! We got some cool shots though. Lily didn't mind, she just stayed ashore. She's a sand monster these days. She does venture in the water sometimes if she's feeling brave!                                            

                                               Beach Baby.

                                                                     Beach babes.

Waimea Falls

 Waimea Falls is in a valley that is very lush and beautiful! We enjoyed the mile walk up to the falls and since they were open for swimming that day, a few of us had a dip! They film parts of LOST here, for those of you that are fans. 

       

                                               

Completely normal

These are every day things you see in Hawaii....A Parrot ordering at the drive-thru at Jack-in-the-box,  "Sawyer" with his wife and baby walking by the zoo. He got all excited when he saw me and told me he loved me, and asked if he could take a picture with me! And, Lily wearing sunglasses while in a fish bowl.

Where the wild things are...

Oh, the Honolulu Zoo! We bought a year family pass for a whopping $25! It was really fun to take Lily because she can identify all the animals, and called the Tiger-- Shear Khan, the Meerkats--Timon, the Bear--Baloo...etc!

Other people got a kick of it too. It's a smaller zoo and not very crowded, so we had a nice and stress free time. 

There will be plenty of other trips there, I'm sure. Also, note the last picture... an Obama head? Looks kind of like it to me. :-) He was in the crocodile exhibit...seems fitting. 

Catching up!

Okay, we've been a teensy bit busy since we got here! Jake has started school and likes it, but feels it's a weird adjustment from going to work everyday instead. I like it because he gets Tuesday and Thursday off, and we can go play together. We have adjusted to the time difference, (3 hrs earlier than Pacific time) which was difficult with the kids, but it seems alright now. We had a little rough patch with some colds, sunburns, and pinkeye, but have recovered...hopefully! It feels good to be back here,(we are living just kittycorner from our old house). Hawaii makes us happy! It is a whole new ball game with children though! Things take a little more preparation than they used to be here. Lily loves the beach and playing in the sand and waves, and Betsy is starting to sit up on her own, so she gets a new view of things. I will try to post more regularly--mostly just for me so I can remember all this! These pics below are just odds and ends of our adventures here. (If you click on the pics you can see them bigger) There is a pic of our house down in the right-hand corner. Let us know if you're headed this way! We would love to see you! Ps...Don't forget to check out all the new posts below.

Sisters

Jaci came to visit!

Jaci, my sister, came to see us. She hadn't been on a real vacation in ages, so it was a real treat for her! She also forgot her camera, so I took lots of pics for her. Now, poor Jaci is depressed back in Utah, and wants to move out here!

Sitting up!

............Almost.

Sunday walk to the Temple

We took a walk to the Temple last Sunday. The Laie Temple is being renovated right now, so we aren't able to go in, but the grounds are still so beautiful!

Cousins

Another fun thing about being Hawaii is that the girls get to play with their Cousin Eliza, as seen here! It's a little unclear if they like each other at this point though...Betsy just might be hungry? But don't believe all the "I am berry sweet" talk that Eliza is advertising--look closely, She's gotten in a few bites here and there...