Water time in Hawaii

Yes it was 80-85 degrees on just about every day we were in Hawaii, but that didnt keep us from the hot tub!

After our snorkel trips I let the boys play in the pool with the camera to finish off the film. I was a little dissapointed in the quality of some of the pictures, but what more can you expect from a disposable? The pictures dont give the snorkeling much justice, real life was way more exciting.

Here is a baby whale playing around, just getting ready to jump up out of the water and show off for us.

Here is Zach after we made him snorkel in the ocean. He said he didnt want to do it, but we made him anyways. He clung to us and almost drown Mommy a few times, but had a few good moments he'll never forget and he'll thank us someday for making him get in. A few times I fibbed to him and said we'd swim back to the boat if he just looked at the fishies. So he did, and got very excited to see them and then quickly remembered he was in the ocean and tried to drown me again. I was able to fib a few times to get him to see more, but eventually had to quit fibbing and take him back to the boat. He was a little mad at us for a while, but then got to feed the fish and got happy again. Isnt he adorable in his little wet suit? (that we returned to the rental and got our money back because Hawaii water is NOT cold)

Eli snorkeling in the ocean.

Eli (and some random guy) swimming along in the ocean with the sea life.

This picture is the only one I got of Zach in the ocean on our snorkel trip. (Its of Jake and Zachs legs, you can see that Jake is holding him)

Before this trip I was deathly afraid of the ocean and wasnt sure that Jake could get me out there to snorkel. After talking myself down from a few panic attacks as fish got close, I quickly realized that the oceans all over the world are not all like they are here in Oregon. Hawaii is so calm and warm (not the cold unpredictable monster we have here), I quickly fell in love with the ocean there and those who know me well would have been impressed not only that I chased fish to capture them in pictures...but also that I let my kids do it too without hovering them. I sat on the beach and watched them laugh till they were out of breath as the ocean swept them 10 feet out and flung them back up on the shore. They had so much fun, and I didnt freak once. Gosh forbid they wash out 4 more feet and end up in calm waters where they could snorkel with some of the most beautiful fish Id ever seen. Hawaii makes me a little less of a helicopter parent, I enjoyed that more than I can ever put into words. I love Hawaii, I want to live there.

Hawaii

These pictures are not in order of how our days on our trip went. Blogger is frustrating me today and having so many pictures to organize is taking forever...so just enjoy our trip in random order.

We took a family trip, just the 4 of us, to Hawaii for 8 beautiful days. Right now Im going through sunshine withdrawls and wishing we were back in Hawaii as I type this. We stayed ina beautiful hotel in downtown Lahaina and drove around to see lots of beautiful sights. This first picture was at our hotels pool. We spent lots of time in the water and soaking up vitamin D.

These cute little guys were all over the place!

My 3 favorite men on a boat for a sunset dinner cruise.

Eli says thumbs up to Hawaii.

What a beautiful sunset! I could handle seeing these every night.

Family picture on the sunset cruise. Poor Zach slept for the first hour, so he's not so photogenic in this shot.

See the little black sticking up? That was a baby and mamma whale, they kept waving to us on the boat. We went on both a dinner cruise and a snorkel trip, and on both we saw so many whales. A few were so close to the boat, it was breath taking.

My sleepy baby.

We attended a Luau in Kaanapali. We all tried poi (Eli spit it out, I thought it had no taste but felt wierd) and Zach took a fondness to the female dancers whoooting at them throughout the show. When we tell people the story now though, he gets rather embarrased and denies doing so.

Eli having a starring contest with his coconut drink. The two couples next to us found Eli very funny.

Zach enjoying a tasty beverage at the luau.

Family shot at the Luau

At Bubba Gumps Shrimp resturaunt they had a bench with Forests shoes briefcase and box of chocolates. The shoes were so big on Zach, there was no running involved.

But when Daddy sat down, he was a runnin'

The shrimp at the resturaunt was testing my patients when taking a picture. This is one of about 20 shots I took. The kids kept yelling SHRIMP as I snapped the shot, and the darn shrimp would cover their eyes. This is the ONLY shot where their faces were not covered. Crazy shrimp.

Another beautiful sunset.

So on a little hike to the blowhole, THIS is the path we should have taken. Beautiful and easy going right?

Well leave it up to us...we took THIS route on accident instead and billy goated it for a good hour longer than neccesary. We were exhausted.

A beautiful scenery shot.

Turtles!!!

Dragons teeth. We had to cross a major golf course to get here and were afraid we were going to get hit in the head by a ball. But it was well worth the risk.

This is one of my favorite shots of the trip. Eli made this in the sand and I thought it was so cute.

I was so proud of both the boys. They were both snorkel freaks by the end of the week. They both got out in the ocean and saw some amazing fish. They cracked us up in their gear though. Eli made this really odd sound all the time, and Zach talked through his tube.

By the end of the trip they had both mastered swimming and were little fish.

Shaved ice at the Banyon tree. Yum yum

Portions of long ago forts.

The Banyon tree.

We love you Hawaii, and are already looking foward to seeing you again someday!

(I have some snorkeling pictures also that I will add in later to a new post. I havent downloaded them just yet. Fun, although they didnt turn out as great as I had hoped.)

Newport Oregon with the Waibels

We spent some time at the beach with Jakes family for the holidays. With all his siblings moving all over the place, its nice to gather together for fun visits like this. We spent a few days in Newport, unfortunatley Jake was only to join the fun for one night.

The boys watching the boats from our balcony to our room.

Hector and Rita flying airplanes. Hector has mad skills, no one could fly like he was doing.

Eli and Josep playing in the sand together. Its so fun to watch them grow up and become such great buddies. Every time we get together Kristi and I laugh about when they were 2 they used to fight like cats and dogs.

The weather was amazing while we were there. Its not often that you get to spend a sunny afternoon on the beach in Oregon in December.

Some holiday fun... in very random order

Christmas with the Waibels at Charlie and Karens house. There are so many kids these days for the boys to play with, they just love it. Cousins are so much fun!

Zach and Claudia playing with the marbles.

Jake opening the biggest gift he could pick at the white elephant....it was a big stuffed dino!

Eli showing off his new watch, and playing with Antonio and Josep.

We have a zoo membership and go alot to see the animals, but we hadnt been to the zoo lights since Jake and I were dating. So we bundled up and headed to the zoo with some great friends. It was as fun as I remember it from years back.

Im not sure what Eli is doing in this picture? We've given up on getting any "normal" smiles in pictures from him anymore these days. Everyone blames me, I guess I take too many pictures of the boys? Nonsense! I blame it on Jakes genes. hehe

You cant take Jake and his buddies anywhere, seriously, poor dinosaur...

The beautiful lights!

Look!...Eli's smiling and not being a goof.

On the train!

Poor Hannah always gets stuck with crazy Eli.

Eli posing with the new statues at the new lion exibits.

Are they not just the most amazing creatures at the zoo?

Ive been taking a picture of the boys on this statue every time we go to the zoo since they were teeny tiny little guys. I dont think they'll both fit sitting on it much longer. Someday I'll have to line up all the pictures of the past years together and see how they've grown.

Christmas morning.

Eli showing his new watch Santa brought him. He's been telling us the time every 3 minutes since.

This has to be one of the worst pictures of me ever, but I had to show what Santa brought me....Twilight candies! Yes, Im a nerd.

What Santa and the reindeer couldnt finish.

Zachs preschool Christmas program.

Yes that is Jake on Santas lap. Embarrasing our poor little boy already in preschool. Zach said this wasnt the real Santa, that it was someones Dad. I thought it was pretty funny, because his beard was real and he was more authentic than 90% of the Santas we see. I guess the more real they look, the less believable they are?

Zach (far left) and his class singing some Christmas songs for the parents.

Our handsome little dude.

Eli's class Christmas party.

I volunteered to help at the party that day, so Zach was one lucky fella and got to celebrate and eat some snacks also.

Eli and some of his classmates eating up the yummy snacks.