Mele Kalikimaka

This year for Christmas my dad took us all to Hawaii for a family vacation. We rented an awesome beach house on the North Shore and spent nine incredible days exploring Oahu. This is us in our back yard.


When we got home and were looking at our pictures of Hawaii we realized that we had about two hundred pictures of Oliver and around twenty pictures of Hawaii. Of course, as the only grandchild, he was Hawaii's main attraction for his grandparents. He spent most of his time sitting on the beach lathered in sunscreen, but he didn't seem to mind.



We did some snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It was pretty cool until we came across some eels. Yuck!





The purpose of our trip, beside having a good time, was to attend my little sister's graduation from the University of Hawaii. It was Oliver's first time meeting his aunt Whitney. I think he was more interested in her leis than anything else. Of course, we all thought the leis were beautiful, but Ollie was the only one who found them appetizing.
















Of course, no trip to Hawaii could be complete without some surfing. We found a great beach on the North Shore that was just right for beginners and had a blast trying to catch some waves. Everyone did really well. When Sam asked the rental shop owner what we could do to improve our surfing skills the man looked at us and told us to get in shape. Ouch!
















This is us at the Dole Plantation where we stopped off for some of their famous pineapple ice cream. Yum.

Here we are at the beautiful Laie Temple.


Here we are at Sea Life Park. It is Hawaii's version of Sea World. We loved the dolphin show and the Sea Lion Show. Ollie mostly just loved his carrier, I don't think he cared much for the animals.



I think that someone at the rental place thought it would be a funny joke to set us up with these matching, yellow PT Cruisers. Driving around the island together we looked like the motorcade for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. We got a lot of stares and laughs. But, what is the point of being a tourist if you can't look the part. In this picture our cars are parked at a fruit stand. I was excited to try some of the foods that I haven't eaten since my mission, like passion fruit and sugar cane.