videos from Wednesday

Day 6 -Kevin's birthday May 7th

Wednesday May 7th was Kevin's birthday and our best day yet in Hawaii. Randy didn't have a game today so we decided to tour the island. Our first stop was Hanauma Bay. This is a protected ecological area that is a great place to snorkel. We saw a lot of bright coloured fish, anywhere from 6 inches in length up to a couple of feet long. The best was the sea turtle that we saw. He was swimming in the coral amoungst all of the people and other fish! We tried to take pictures of him with the under water film camera that we bought so we are looking forward to getting those pictures developed when we return to Canada. Next we countinued driving around the east shore of Oahu. The coast hiway takes you right along the shore for most of the time. It was really beautiful and a lot nicer than being in the big city. We stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant on the Northeast shore. It had no windows and was a great place to stop as the boys got to look at the exotic birds they had, as well as pet a little white pony named Spirit. Next stop was Sunset Beach on the North shore. In the winter there are supposed to be huge waves here, and people come from all over the world to go surfing. The boys played in the waves for a little before we carried on to Waimea Valley and Falls. This is a beautiful garden area and the boys got to swim under the water falls. They were really upset that they all had to wear life jackets as they think they are too big for that! Finally we got back in the car and headed down the middle of the island back to Honolulu. We drove past the Dole Pineapple Plantation, but it was too late to go in. The last thing on our list was to go out to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Everyone was really tired and we ended up making a deal that we would buy an ice cream cake on Thursday for Kevin!

I actually included pictures of myself this time, so that we know that I went on the trip too (always the photographer!)

Tuesday May 6

I finally convinced the gang that we had to do something touristy today and we hiked Diamond Head Crater in the morning. It gave us a great view of the ocean and helped me forget that we were in the middle of the big city. I included the picture of Braden in the tree, because as soon as I finished taking the picture he actually fell out of the tree!

Randy played soccer again and this time it was against the Hawaiin team - a 1-1 tie. Randy had a chance to score a awesome goal and hit the post. Once again, we hit the ocean for the boys to ride the waves and then to the pool for some more water fun.

Game 1

Monday was Randy's first soccer game. They played against the German team and the game ended in a 0 - 0 tie. In the morning we once again went to the beach and the boys worked on their boogie boarding skills. Kevin and Aaron are starting to actually get it and are able to ride some waves in. We spent some time in the late afternoon at the pool and I played basketball with Braden which he has been begging all day for me to do! Finally we walked down along the popular shops and found a place to eat out as our mini kitchenette was getting a little boring. We ended up going to a place called Atlantis seafood (but as crab cost $34.99 they boys were not allowed to order crab and Randy ordered one order and shared it with them).

May 5

Sunday was the opening ceremonies for Randy's soccer tournament. We drove for 40 minutes to the stadium and all the teams got to march into the stadium (with basically no one in the stands). After that there was a "All star" game with 2 players from each team on one team against an Hawaiin team. I wish that I had thought to bring Canada outfits for the boys! Someone else brought tattoos! We only stayed for half the game and then went to the beach so the boys could boogie board some more. They love it! We bought some extra boogie boards because Kevin wanted his Dad to quit being a sissy and get in the water too!

Day 2 Honolulu

Today we had breakfast at an outdoor Italian breakfast buffet 1 block from the beach. The food was good and the kids want to go their everyday! We went and played at the beach which is 2 blocks from our condo. Kevin and Aaron promptly got on their boogie boards and went way too far out and I had to send Randy out to give them crap (we could barely see them). They went way out to where the surfers where waiting in the line to catch the big waves. The weather is warm and we could get sunburned easily if we don't keep up on the sunscreen. We then went to Safeway to get some groceries. Randy went to practice soccer and the boys and I went down to the pool to swim and to play some basketball. Later we went to a team BBQ down in the common area. Randy stayed and I put the boys to bed at 8:00 Hawaii time (which is 12:00 Calgary time). I am surprised that they actually did as well as they did given the lack of sleep last night with flying in and them insisting that they function on local time.

Honolulu

We have survived our trip to Honolulu. After the short 1 hour flight to Vancouver we got to spend about 5.5 hours in the airport (note to self - next time go out and find a real restaurant). We ending up eating fast food because we couldn't find a decent place to eat. The boys were pretty good and played a lot on a little playground there so they actually burned off some energy. The flight was long and Kevin was actually the first to fall asleep on the plane. Braden fell asleep second at about 11:30 our time and then later Aaron. We arrived in Honolulu at about 2:00 and then by the time we got our luggage and were on our way it was late and then we had to get a rental car. Signage is very poor here and following the directions to the condo was a little crazy. We stopped to try and read the map at a McDonalds and had hamburgers and french fries at 3:00 in the morning our time (yuck, but when your hungry and lost what else do you do!). Finally got to the condo and couldn't find the parking pass that was supposed to be on the kitchen counter so called the contact name at 11:00 Honolulu time and he told us to buy one. Kids were finally in bed at about midnight local time. Kevin was up by 9:00 Calgary time...he will be a joy later!