Better late than never, our Hawaii trip!!

I know I know, it's been forever. I have just been too lazy to take the time and make a post. Not only that, but I had to post about our Hawaii trip before I posted anything else because it was the next big thing that happened in our lives! So for starters, I had over 1000 pictures, so even though I posted a lot of pictures now, it's nothing compared to what I have saved on my laptop. If you want to just scroll through pictures I understand, but every picture is explained in the blog.

Anyhow, we left for Hawaii bright and early on June 20th, a Monday morning. We flew from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City, and than from there to Hawaii. I love flying so I quite enjoyed the flight. Jackson on the other hand, not so much. He told me a long time ago that he did not like to fly, I never believed him until now. I felt bad for Jackson, and really believed him this time, once I saw him doing breathing exercises on the plane. But he did great and we did make it to Hawaii. :)

We landed in Hawaii in the afternoon, we than got our rental car, first thing. Our rental car was a bran new 2011 Ford Fusion with only 300 miles on it. We were quite nervous to drive it out of the parking lot, but luckily never got in a wreck with it on our trip. :)

After that, we made it to Kapolei, the town where my Aunt and Uncle live with there 5 children. They were so welcoming to us with "Aloha's" and flowered lei's! It was great! For the rest of the day we just relaxed and did some catching up with our lives. :)
So for our first full day in Hawaii, Tuesday, we went to the water-park called "Wet n' Wild" where my Uncle works as the Manager. He does an amazing job, he is so dedicated to making the water-park look fantastic and run smoothly. It was a ton of fun, if anyone wants to check out the water-park and the water-slides you can go to http://www.wetnwildhawaii.com/ . We took pictures but they are on our waterproof camera and I haven't had the chance to scan them but it was a ton of fun!! It was nice to have our cousins Erika, Emi, and Mia go on the water-slides and be tall enough to do so. Honestly, having them around with us to go on the slides made our time even better!!
Than Wednesday, we went to Pearl Harbor, which I think was one of Jackson's favorites! Jackson loves history and so it was fun to share that moment with Jackson. We got to walk around the museum and see a short video on what happened at Pearl Harbor. We also got to take a boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial which was amazing to visit and to get a closer, more in depth look at what happened to our Country that day so long ago.
After Pearl Harbor we went to Pali Lookout, which I just love the drive out there and the view. I love the trees and scenery. I don't know very much about Pali Lookout other than it's got a beautiful view of a part of the Oahu island, but it was still great to visit. There was a legend or a myth about how a man once took a step over the wall and the wind was so powerful that it kept him from falling. I don't know if that is true and I could be wrong on the details of that story but it is pretty windy up there as you can tell by my hair flying in the pictures.
For Thursday we went to the temple which was just amazing! I am so glad we took the time to go, such a different style and look in the temple compared to the ones we've been to. It was amazing and I'm glad that Jackson and I were able to spend that time together. Such a beautiful temple!
After that we went to one of my favorite parts of Hawaii. The Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC)! I've been there before so I was way more excited to show Jackson around PCC. We got to see many cultures like Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, and much more. The presentations are just so entertaining to watch and I'm glad Jackson got to see the entertainment I've seen before.

After walking around PCC we got to be a part of a Hawaiian Luau buffet, not only that but got front row seats that helped us get a better view of the entertainment! Special thanks to our Aunt and Uncle Ohki for those front row seats and getting us into PCC. We honestly had the best time anyone could ever have at PCC!
After the great food we had a the Luau, we also got to go to one of the most well known, huge performances on the Island at PCC called "Ha', the breath of life". It was just an amazing performance and it gave me goose bumps multiple times that night! The music and the story behind it is just amazing! And it is such a powerful performance! We also had excellent seats for that as well, we were so blessed! It was a long but amazing day! We didn't get back home to our Aunt and Uncle's house till 10ish.
Onto Friday, we spent the day with our Aunt and her kids and we loved every minute of it. We went to a beautiful beach called Ko'olina and we got to just swim and relax with family! It was way fun and we loved spending that time with our Aunt Sarah and her kids (Uncle Takuya was at work). Jackson and I spent quite a bit of time getting to know Kenji in the ocean. We had so much fun playing with him and Kenji had fun throwing the rocks that Jackson would find back into the ocean. :)
No worries, Jackson did have a swimsuit underneath. I snatched this picture before he could stop me!! :)

Sarah and her kids made Spam musubi for lunch that day, which no one can go to Hawaii and not try the famous Spam musubi that they have in Hawaii!! :) They even sale it in McDonalds! I was excited for Jackson to try it cause I liked it from the previous time I was there. Jackson liked it as well :) While at the beach we saw from a distance the actual real "Black Pearl" from the movie, "The Pirates of the Caribbean"!! It wasn't in the ocean but on land. That was so cool! So after the beach I was determined to get as close as we possibly could get! Jackson was reluctant at first but than pleased me by driving down stray roads to try and get super close to it. Which we did! :) Thanx Jackson!! :)
After the beach and the Black Pearl, we went back to the Ohki's to relax. Later that night we all went out to dinner and a movie! It was way fun!! We saw the movie "Cars 2" which was good and had some humor to it. :) We were happy to spend that time with the Ohki's.

On Saturday Jackson and I went to Diamond Head, a huge famous hike in Hawaii!

It was way fun and we hiked up to the top in about 30 minutes, we were bookin it up that hike. It was so fun to get to the top and see the beautiful view of Hawaii. Someone was nice enough to take our picture for us. :)

After that hike, we decided to drive around the south eastern part of the island because our Uncle recommended it, which indeed it was beautiful! :) We than went on another hike called "The Lighthouse hike" which I didn't think it was a hike, haha. I was told by my Uncle it was a hike but I just thought to myself, "oh it just sounds like a nice walk." After lots of walking it indeed was a hike, which Jackson will never let me forget. :) It was still fun though and we got to see some more gorgeous views!

After that we went back to the Ohki's for dinner. Which, can I just say the food was amazing all week long!! :) I love the kinds of food that the Ohki's eat! Later that night Jackson and I went to a late night movie, "The Green Lantern" in 3D. It was really good too.
As for Sunday, we went to church with the Ohki's. I loved their Ward, they were so welcoming to Jackson and I. That was one thing that Jackson and I talked about, was how amazed we were at how welcoming the ward was and how they took the extra effort to say hi and introduce themselves. It was great!! We both really enjoyed church. After church, Erika our cousin was nice enough to take some pictures of us dressed in our Sunday clothes on the balcony. :)

After church we spent the day just relaxing and taking naps, which we loved cause we've had a fun filled busy week, so the naps and relaxation was perfect. Plus Sarah and I were working on puzzles a lot that week in any spare time we had! Which I loved, it was fun to spend that time with Sarah putting together puzzles! Jackson spent a lot of time playing cards with the girls and even played this other boy game with the boys. Jackson enjoyed it and loves kids, especially the Ohki's!

On Monday we went out to North Shore with Sarah and the kids, it was way fun! We got the famous "Shaved Ice" of the island and stopped by Turtle Bay to get a picture of the Turtles!

We than went to the beach. I love the Beach!! :) I just love the water and the Sand, so different than the California/West Coast beaches. Than Erika found some cool looking crabs! It was a lot of fun! And I climbed a Palm Tree!!

Ok well maybe not, but the picture sure looks like it! ;)

Erika on the other hand really did climb a tree!! She was amazing to watch! After the beach we came home and had dinner and relaxed with the Ohki's.
As for Tuesday, our last full day at Hawaii, we woke up pretty early to go see some more things! I woke up even earlier that day to go try surfing with Erika and Takuya while Jackson slept. Can I just say, oh my gosh, that is hard!! I'm sure I looked entertaining and was fun to watch looking like a whale lay on a surf board to try and surf but it was way fun! Surfing is super hard though! Holy Moly! It's a lot of work to surf, if I ever lived in Hawaii, knowing me, I'd truly keep at it until I could actually do it but for now, I'll just say I tried it once. It was fun! Erika and Takuya look amazing on surf boards!! I was way impressed. Than Jackson and I went snorkeling for a little bit at Sharks Cove, we tried to go to Hanauma Bay but they were closed :( (next time). So we went to Sharks Cove instead, we didn't snorkel very long because Jackson had a hard time breathing through a tube but it was still fun. I enjoyed the little time we had snorkeling! :) After that Jackson and I took Erika, Emi, and Mia to the water-park again! :) We loved it! It was way fun to spend more time with them! :) We got some great pictures of that on the waterproof camera. :) Later that night, Takuya, Sarah, Dave, Tori, Jackson, and I went to Waikiki for a group date! I had a great time! Dave and Tori are friends of the Ohki's from the Ward. We went to the cheesecake factory for dinner and walked around Waikiki. We had a lot of fun and loved having the chance to spend that time with them! The food was great and we got way full but loved every minute of it!

Than Jackson and I stayed up late that whole night packing for our early morning flight. Needless to say we made our flight the next day and made it back to Idaho Falls around 11PM.

It was honestly a great trip! Words can't describe how lucky Jackson and I were to be able to go and spend that time together with family! The Ohki's were wonderful and were so kind to us. I always learn so many great things from them when I go and visit. Jackson and I loved the food they ate too. They always kept us full and well fed. I am now hooked to making banana bread all the time, I've made it more than 20 times now. And I love Avocados now! :) We are also of course hooked to rice still. :) Sarah and I also had some great late nights working puzzles together! As soon as I get my RN license, I'll be pulling out some puzzles again! Jackson and I love the Ohki's and could never thank them enough for all that they've done for us! We had a great time and couldn't of asked for anything more! Love and miss you Ohki's, thanx for everything!