Hawaii - part 2

 Crazy how quickly I can get behind on this blog.  So, let's finish up Hawaii this post.  

March 18 - Played at Aulani.  This days was spent mainly at the hotel playing in the lazy river, on the slides and snorkeling at the beach by the hotel.  Ava spotted this rock fish and I couldn't believe she saw it.  She told me to come look at this rock she swore had eyes.  When I finally went over there, sure enough it was a rock fish. 

 We got him to move and you could see him better, but man, he was camouflaged in those rocks. 

 Noah playing with a gross sea cucumber.

 Adam took his mom out snorkeling.  The snorkeling wasn't too great, but still saw a few cool fish. 

 The freezer was stalked with ice cream treats, so cute little Luce enjoyed a yummy treat. 

 Inside the tunnel of the lazy river. 

 Lots of fun with these Gubler's. 

 Signed the kids up for an activity with Stitch to make slime at Aunties Beach house.  They went back and forth there during our stay.  We took turns watching the kids so the adults could go out for dinner.  The kids just wanted corn dogs and mac and cheese, so they didn't care to go out.  The first time Adam and Joe watched the kids while Beth and I went with Con and Rob to a Mexican place near the hotel.  Really good fish tacos.  This night (Saturday), Adam and I went to dinner with our friend Mike (our friend from Guam) and his family to a Thai place.  Later we went to their house and visited with them for awhile. 

The next morning Con, Rob, Noah, Joe and Adam woke up early to try and get Pearl Harbor tickets (they only hand out so many tickets each day on a first come first serve basis).  They got in and spent a few hours there. 

 While they were at Pearl Harbor Beth and I took the girls.....and Grant (Ava's usually the only girl, so this was a fun change for her) to do a scavenger hunt around Aulnai.  It was a neat scavenger hunt.  They give you an ipad and it tells you where to go. Once you get there you push a button and something happens.  The rocks will start moving, water will squirt, a video will play, etc.  Pretty cool.  They had a couple different hunts to do.  The kids got bored though and ended up at Aunties Beach house.  I wanted to keep doing it, but ended up going back to the room for some quiet time. :)

 That night we went on a walk down by the beach and to the different resorts to watch the waves and sunset.  

 Monday, March 20 - rented a big van and went to the Lyon Arboretum.  We were headed to some waterfalls, but Mike told us about this Arboretum so we decided to give it a try.  It was free and the kids could run and hike, so it was perfect. 

 I took about 100 pictures of flowers and trees.  So many cool looking plants!! I'll just post a few.

 At the end was this little waterfall where some of us dunked ourselves to cool off (the weather was actually perfect for hiking, overcast and slightly breezy). 

 Afterward we found this slightly questionable food joint and stopped for lunch.  It was actually really good - Serg's Kitchen.  Amelia enjoying her enormous hot dog.  

 This night Adam and I watched the kids while Beth, Joe and Con and Rob went to dinner.  They went to some Hawaiian place that was really bad. :)

 March 21 - went to Paradise Cove (I think that's what it's called) in the morning to snorkel.  Mike (he was a good resource) told us about this place.  It was only a 10 minutes walk from our hotel.  Within about 5 minutes of getting in the water Grant spotted the first sea turtle.  It was so fun to be so close to these cool animals.  We all got to snorkel right next to them all morning. 

 Noah spent most of the time getting lost and exploring.

 It was a fun place to spend a few hours.  Afterward the Gubler's went to Chuckee Cheeses (Joe really likes that place :)) and we went back to the hotel to play in the pools and relax.  This night Beth and Joe watched the kids while Adam and I went with Con and Rob to a restaurant called the Monkey Kitchen.  The food was amazing!  One of the nights, I think Friday (all my vacation notes were on my old phone which was deleted, so I can't remember when we did some things.  My memory is failing me, so I take notes), we went to the outdoor movie showing of Dori.  Our rooms overlooked the banquet lawn, so twice while we were there we got to watch their Luau (free!) from our balcony.  So glad we didn't fork over the $150/person for the Luau.  

 March 22 - Time to come home. :(  Con, Rob and the Gubler's left in the morning, so we had to say our goodbyes to them.  Finished up some laundry (our room had a washer/dryer in it - so convenient) and then we went swimming one last time before we had to head to the airport.  It was a really fun trip.  So glad we got to spend this time with grandma and grandpa and the Gubes.