Hawaii!

We've been married for a decade! We celebrated the milestone by splurging on a trip to Hawaii, both of our first time there. Needless to say, it was AMAZING. Many thanks to my parents for taking the kids so we could go!

None of the pictures we took did the island much justice, but we did the best we could with two cameras!

We only had 4 days there, including travel time, so we packed a lot in a short time. We arrived Thursday afternoon and explored Waikiki Beach, a district of Honolulu where our hotel was. Here's a view of the main strip just a few blocks from our hotel:

Our hotel wasn't much, but we were on the 20th floor with a cool view, and we didn't spend much time there anyway, so it was okay!
Beautiful shot of a sailboat off Waikiki taken by JR:
This was the view of the ocean from our hotel room. There were always plenty of surfers out there.
The next morning we headed out on a 45-min helicopter tour of the island. It was my first time on a helicopter--so cool!
The views, of course, were unbelievable.



Pearl Harbor:Sacred Falls, only accessible by helicopter:
After the helicopter tour, we headed to Hanauma Bay, which is one of the best snorkeling spots in the world. You have to watch a short video about preserving and respecting the wildlife before you can even enter the beach. As soon as you step foot in the water, you're practically surrounded by many varieties of tropical fish, coral, and other wildlife. It was amazing.
Saturday we spent the morning exploring the North Shore (Waikiki is on the southern tip of the island).
We had a cool experience at a totally hidden and remote beach that a friend Leah, who used to live there, told us about. Before the beach there's a really cool jungle area that looked EXACTLY like the show Lost. I kept saying I felt like Jack and Sawyer were just going to pop out from behind the huge banyan trees. We explored the beach for bit, and on our way back up to the jungle area, we ran into a horseback tour from a neighboring resort and overheard the tour guide say it was where Lost was filmed. We also heard from someone else who was also there that Terry O'Quinn who plays Locke on the show now lives in a huge house not far from here. So cool!!!! Here are a few pix from that area:
Another great spot we got to see on the North Shore was Waimea Bay:

Too bad we didn't have time to get out and play at this beach, that cliff would have been a blast (if I ever would have built up the courage to jump that is).

Next stop was the Laie Hawaii Temple. We'd seen pictures, but it was breathtaking to see in person. This was built in 1915, after missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived as early as 1865. There is some amazing LDS history in this area of the island.
We couldn't go inside as it was closed for renovation, but we went in the Visitors' Center and walked the grounds. What a beautiful spirit. Near the temple is BYU-Hawaii:
And of course, the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is owned by the Church and is Hawaii's #1 paid attraction. It's huge, with villages representing each of the main South Pacific Island nations (Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Fiji, etc.). There are authentic dancers, activities, exhibits, and demonstrations, with a fun luau in the evening and an awesome night show.

The fire dancers at the night show were unbelievable. They had torch batons that they were throwing around and spinning super fast. Here's a sweet action shot JR took:
The next day we hung around Waikiki a little bit in the morning, then we were on our way home from an awesome vacation!