Hawaiian Vacation - October

Tyring to get back into blogging the events of our life and what better way to start than with our recent vacation we just took to the island of Oahu, Hawaii -- October 15th thru 22nd!

We stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu -- so relaxing just to go to the beach and lay by the pool!  Kelsey wasn't able to come with us this year, as she had to work!  It was sad because it was our first vacation without her.  



     

Around the hotel ... laying and reading by the pool, walks along the rocky shores, lots of tide-pools, turtles, and even an old bunker!



  



Every night we had a special gift -- a beautiful sunset -- looking out from the pool!!!

 Lots of fun at the beach by the hotel and all the fabulous beaches within minutes of where were staying! Jacob loved to use the snorkel mask and look for shells. The waves were pretty big the first couple of days but then calmed down.

Bonzai Beach -- The Pipeline

  

Sunset Beach - Swimming and Searching for Seashells

 

     

Jacob found a friend on the beach -- Pua was the name on her tag ... with a Sunset Beach address so she was a local! She LOVED to go out in the waves and ride them in with him. We gave her a drink of water out of one of our flippers!

Stopped at a local fruit stand on the way home for some ice cold coconut milk and fresh coconut!

We snorkeled at a great place called "Shark Cove" -- it wasn't very crowded at all!  With a name like that, I can see why!  "They" say that you can see little white-tipped sharks there but we didn't see any ... but lots of bright colored fish ... snorkeling is one of our favorite things to do!!!

Swimming makes you sooo hungry and why is it that vacation food tastes so good!!!  Jacob's WHOPPIN' plate of Nachos AND the best "Shave Ice" not ShavED Ice (don't know why the call it that).  It is so sweet, cold and yummy!!!

We decided to go see the "Dole" Plantation one day ... a bit disappointing but fun, none the less.  More of a tourist trap to get you to buy "Dole" stuff!

  

  

   

We have a beautiful LDS Temple located right down the road from where we stayed along with BYU-Idaho, and The Polynesian Cultural Center.  We had fun checking out the temple grounds and then to a day the the Culture Center.  Jacob really thought that was great!

At the Beautiful Temple Grounds

At the Polynesian Cultural Center

  

  

A great "hole in the wall" restaurant that had the best seafood we had eaten the whole trip along with macadamia nut ice cream pie.  If that wasn't enough, we had a fabulous sunset to watch as we enjoyed the evening.

Our Last Night with Dinner By the Pool at Turtle Bay

We really only went into Honolulu the day we left (we have been there before and there is just so much traffic) but it was fun to walk along Waikiki, have lunch with our brother-in-law Tony Sandoval (who lives there), and walk around Diamond Head crater and we saw more beautiful beaches.

  

It was a fantastic, relaxing, fun trip!!! 

We are so blessed to have been able to experience it!

However, we came back to this!!

Ohhhh, golden sands and sunsets

 WHERE ARE YOU!!!