A L O H A !

HAWAII

!!!!

💗After all these years, we were able to make this happen💗

It is a strange thing to raise a family but never get to show your kids

where you grew up...

especially if it is in Hawaii!

I have had a strong desire to bring them to the place that brought me joy growing up and at times brought me pain.

I will be honest...for years I did not want to go back.

I didn't want the memories to come back.

Those memories seemed stressful to me once I started our family...and I couldn't seem to remember the good in those days.

Going back was therapeutic for me.

A chance to make new memories with my own kids.

Show them my favorite beaches and views.

Tell them funny stories!

Remembering all the good times I had buried with the bad times.

It was time to excavate that part of my life:)

It was worth the wait...

I made new memories.

With my favorite people.

I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to make this trip!

Shout out to Clay for getting to use his points and stay at my dream hotel,

The Royal Hawaiian💟

Partial view from my room...and window to open up and hear the luau a couple of nights while we were there!

the ocean lapping up through the night was like a lullaby.

I couldn't have had a better place to lay down each night and feel safe:)

The nerds got their own room :)

Chester claimed his bed!

DAY ONE

Within minutes of getting up to our rooms, we got changed and

headed down to the beach.

The Royal Hawaiian sits right on the best spot in Waikiki!

I know, I know...Waikiki?!?

But you need to know...I grew up going there on days I wanted to get out of Hawaii Kai, or with my mom on a Saturday, or with Marcie when she was little and needed a safe beach to let her play at during the summer.

I don't mind the hustle of it...plus the Royal is tucked in between some bigger hotels. And being in it and on the grounds, you wouldn't know you were in a city.

Got out on the sand for swimming and sunset watching:)

Diamond head in the background:)

gorgeous first sunset!

the hotel looking iconic

went out on Kalakaua Avenue in the evening!

finding animal prints for Audrey...

(she hates animal prints haha)

Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center Aloha sign :)

Beginning our 2 meal / 1 dessert a day diet properly :)

Day one complete!

Day 2

Surf Waikiki...the spot is called Canoes

Paddling out to the break!

My friend Christina gave me the perfect book to read on a vacation :)

Apparently you can order umbrellas and chairs on the beach from the hotel and so I did it for our first day...sunburns were going to happen

and I really wanted the resort experience:)

Henry :)

I ordered him to not get burned.

Not sure it worked...haha.

we grabbed a tube float at one of the ABC stores :)

I broke with the kids and signed myself up for a haku bracelet making class :)

It was fun and they liked me being gone...haha.

Some girls were selling

butter mochi bread for a church fundraiser...

so we happily ate it all up sitting under the umbrellas after the surfing was done :)

Audrey walking through the gardens of the Royal

Lauhala tree 💛

Freshly made udon for dinner on Kuhio

slurp slurp

Walking around the International Marketplace.

It once was a total tourist trap with fake leis and shell necklaces, tiki statues

...now it's all stores and more stores with a Tesla showroom.

It was crazy back in the 80's!

But the Banyan tree still is the highlight :)

The building wraps around all three floors

and the limbs hang through the different floors!

Chester taking a pic for his friend on cars...middle school boy jokes :)

The Royal Hawaiian lit up at night :)

Day 2 felt just right💗

Day 3

Before we left for the day, we toured around the hotel.

They don't call it the Pink Palace for nothing!

waiting for the car and for breakfast

We headed to Hawaii Kai to start our day.

Cafe Moena in Koko Marina shopping center did not disappoint.

My dear friend Meredith gave me this spot to go to.

Loved it!

A long wait but worth it.

We fueled up for a hike and sightseeing with acai bowls, coconut and fruit topped pancakes, omelets and fresh papaya!

the "from here to eternity" beach.

What's funny is noone used to go down there when I lived there. I remember going once or twice!

And on a Wednesday morning in 2022...there were lots of people.

I surmise, social media ruins all the secret spots.

It's not the 80's anymore haha :)

Also, the weather was windy and water was choppy so the blow hole wasn't as dramatic...but the whale watching was!

We hiked up to the Makapuu Lighthouse and got some great humpback whale watching in.

Like breaching whales!

Chester spotted them all.

It was really cool :)

At the top overlooking my two favorite beaches... Makapu'u and Waimanalo :)

The colors are so vivid and pure...it was gorgeous!

These places bring back such happy and content memories.

After our hike we stopped at Waimanalo Beach.

The sand is like sugar, the water was a warm invitation to come and play.

We thought about staying only for a bit but realized it was just too fun to leave.

And luckily it has shady spots for me and Henry:)

Rabbit and Bird Island in the background :)

One of the biggest things for us was to ditch the wetsuits!

Trading 51 degree water in Half Moon Bay for 77 degree water in Hawaii was heaven!

me and Henry

We missed out on going to a botanical garden so we decided to

drive up the windward coast.

We stopped at Kualoa Beach Park which is near the sight of a private ranch made famous by movies like Jurassic Park. When I was a kid, it was just a horse ranch...now it has tours and ziplining etc.

If we go back, we'll have to hit it!

snack stop

Mokoli'i Island

it used to be called Chinaman's Hat

If you looked at it long enough it seemed like an optical illusion...it would get smaller and smaller the more you looked directly at it....something I did as a kid anyway :)

Kahana Bay Beach Park

I forgot to say...the chickens are everywhere here.

I don't remember seeing them as much growing up. Maybe because people ate them! haha

anyway, a lot of chicks too

We ended our night at Fatboys for dinner back at Koko Marina.

It's like the same from high school days!

but just a little different.

a soft sunset sky over Koko Head Crater in Hawaii Kai

Looking down on where I grew up...to the right there is a large white apartment building!

That was where we lived.

I showed the kids my old high school, Sandys, Hanauma Bay and our beautiful church building where I went every morning for seminary and church on Sundays :)

I don't know how much they cared

(ahem...teenagers!)

but I did!

It felt nice to show them and say...

this is where I cut school from hahaha

I am a truthful mom :)

Day 4

The number one request from Chester was to go to Pearl Harbor while we were here.

He is a serious World War II buff. Like he knows so much, stuff I hadn't even known! We had a neighbor in Santa Clarita who gave him old war magazines during the pandemic when he had zoom school.

Since his name is Chester and then he found out about Chester Nimitz...our 10 year old boy found a whole new world to immerse himself in.

At 12 he wanted to see it all:)

We headed over and I was defeated in getting tickets to the actual memorial which includes a film and shuttle boat over to it.

But there is much to do and see.

It is a special and reverent place.

We did the Bowfin Submarine tour.

It was awesome!

The guides taught us how to get through the doors without hitting our heads:)

It amazes me how this was all engineered.

We found it all so inspiring

Henry at a little over 6'3" is barely walking upright haha

This might be one of my favorite pictures of Chester and I :)

I took pictures of all these sewn flags for submarines from the war.

All the names, symbols and accomplishments embellished on these were so cool!

As it turned out, the standby line was nearly empty so an employee told us to get in it and for sure we'd be able to get to the memorial.

My silent prayer for my son was answered!

As we approached we were asked to not take any pictures on the memorial and no social media challenges. We were taught that the USS Arizona is a water grave for over 1,100 souls who were attacked. The guide in full uniform told us a story of heroism performed by a naval officer who was informed the day before the attack, that he was being sent home for not being committed and not taking his duties seriously.

He in turn did not go home and miraculously aided 6 soldiers from dying while burned on half of his body.

I also didn't know that men who were on the USS Arizona and lived through the attacks, could be laid to rest with there brothers when they passed away.

My stake relief society president let me know her Dad was buried there.

Henry commented to me that it felt like the temple.

It truly was a sacred place.

We drove up through the agriculture part of the island to Dole Plantation :)

Henry asked to get a Dole Whip and so off we went!

Audrey also got a huge cup of pineapple slices.

Pineapple is seriously better in Hawaii.

I was sort of sad though to find out the sugar cane fields were all gone. Driving though them and smelling the burning cane was a childhood memory of mine:)

got there right before closing time... I swear everything closes at 4 o'clock

in Hawaii!

plantation cat

plumerias

we used to pick these off trees and make birthday leis for friends :)

from there we headed up to the North Shore for dinner and sunset watching at Sunset Beach :)

Nice sets coming in and watching the 10-12 foot waves get carved up by the local surfers...Chester and Audrey were impressed!

sunset almost gone

sunset selfie :)

To end the day just right, we picked up Clay at the airport!

(not pictured)

Day 5

Our last morning at the Royal and I had breakfast with Clay while the kids surfed:)

I ordered the Pink Palace pancakes...they were excellent.

it isn't just a gimmick!

Clay loves catamarans...who knew?

So I booked us a Friday morning ride!

We were all pretty excited about this :)

I asked the captain where we were going to go and he said...

where the wind takes us :)

We headed around Diamond Head and it was magnificent.

The water color and temps were unbelievable!

I could only keep my camera out a little bit before the waves started to douse us!

On our way back to shore a pod of dolphins were spotted. So the captain turned around and all of a sudden we had a dozen dolphins swimming and jumping right under, across, alongside...it was crazy!

What a memory to have :)