Hawai'i

They combined our dessert at the lu'au and wrote congrats. It was really nice!

This was probably the best looking guy up there. Kim was liking his view so we had to get a pic!

This was when we went snorkeling. Kiana would not leave Chris alone. She was trying to put sunscreen on him and he didn't want it on. She ended up slapping his arm so this was the result of the sunburn.

A view from the Trilogy IV, the boat that took us snorkeling. It had these tramps over the water that you could lay on.

All of us, except that guy in the blue (not pictured: Ervin, me)

This was our snorkeling instructor, Orin. The pic was posted because he was cute. Too bad we did not get his face.

Kiana ready to go!

Hello Scuba Steve!

sporting the lifeguard look

one of the beaches just walking distance from our room

Taylor liked the sand, but not the water. He would drop his pacifier in the sand and then put it back in his mouth. Sand was everywhere!

Mmmmmmm....it tastes so gritty!!

The waves were really strong here so we made Kiana wear a life jacket, she didn't really get to swim alot here because she probably would have been washed to sea.

We got to see this awesome rainbow over the ocean right from our room. We had the best views. It was cloudy and rained off and on while we were there. The rain did not interfere with any plans though. The temps were over 80 degrees everyday. It was so nice. (It made it really hard to come back to the snow.)

On Sunday, we went to the Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium, about 20 miles from our room. It was crazy because it was more like a desert down there.

Here is a sting ray swimming by.

The sea turtles are huge. They saw some when we went snorkeling. One even started to chase Terra.

Monday, December 15 we celebrated Kiana's 9th birthday. We went on the Atlantis submarine. This was on the boat out to the submarine. Later that day they went whale watching and she even got to drive the boat. Then everybody sang Happy Birthday to her!

The windows in the submarine are made of acrylic. This is a pic of how thick the window is. I think he said it was 3.5"

This was a sunken boat, that they sunk in 2005. It use to be an exibit, it was built in 1920, but the repairs became too much so they sunk it to the bottom and now it is providing coral to fish.

When we were at the bottom, 130 feet down, you lose a wavelength of light. This is my mom's red purse but while we were at the bottom it was purple.

This is Front Street in Lahaina. It is right on the coast and the shops on the left line the beach. It has alot of cool shops, not to mention souvenir shops (we spent lots of time and money there).

The dirt was really red, you can kind of see the red color coming through on these cliffs.

Kiana trying to look for whales through the binoculars.

My mom made her a barbie hula girl cake. Thanks mom, it turned out really cute. My mom actually made the cake before she left and froze it and wrapped it up and packed it in her luggage to Maui. It tasted really good. Yum, chocolate with coconut and chocolate chips.

(This is the huge pancake that covered my whole plate.) On Tuesday, we drove the Highway to Hana, some might call it the Highway to Hell. We stopped at Charley's for breakfast. I guess it is a favorite of Willie Nelson's. I think he may have a home their, my mom asked the waitress and he was acutally in the day before and she expected him that morning as well. We never saw him.

Not a great pic, but it was cool right here because there was all this bamboo that lined the road.

Here we are at the Lava Rock Beach. It was a really cool thing to see.

Here we are at the black sand beach. It was surrounded by lava rock caves, lava tubes, and awesome views, not to mention blow holes through the lava rock.

Wailua falls

I don't know what kind of tree this is but it has branch like things that grow off the tree branches and goes to the ground. It then roots in the ground so it is secure to the ground and the branch.

The ocean at Oheo Gulch.

The falls at Oheo Gulch

If you continue on past Hana the road is narrow, windy and feels like you are driving in the mountains. The scenery you see is awesome though. This is the mountain created from lava. You can see where the streams of lava ran.

another shot

So the island is shaped somewhat like a figure eight. On our drive back, we were higher up on the island and could see down to the lower areas. This is as the middle of the island (where the 8 would cross) and you could see the ocean on both the north and south side of the island.

The time came to leave, yucky. So, I mailed my dress to a steamer that got it ready for me. On the way back I did not want to ship it. We just rolled it up and put it in the suitcase. I was shocked at how small it was when it was all rolled up. This suitcase carried my dress, Kiana's dress, a roll of material, and a container of nuts back to Utah.

I don't have any pics of the wedding on my camera. (I will have to get someone else's camera to post.) Our flowers from the wedding did so good and they looked good I had to take a pic of them. Mine is on the right. My mom actually brought them home on her luggage and they are sitting on my table in some water.

All the leis we got. The white ones were used in the ceremony, the purple ones were from the lu'au, and the ones in the container Yhostin's mom and step-dad gave us. They did not survive the plane ride home. The smelt really gross when I took them out of the suitcase.

Taylor was pooped. He fell asleep on grandpa. We were trying to keep him awake so that he would sleep the whole time on the plane. He did pretty good, considering it was an overnight flight.

What we learned in Hawai'i was how to say the state fish. Watch the video below and you will hear Kiana pronounce it.

top: Dolphins we saw snorkeling bottom: The lava rock beach

top: Fire Dancer bottom: Hula Girls

The guys at the lu'au