August Birthdays in Ephraim

In August we headed to Ephraim for a quick weekend get-away before the start of school.  We also wanted to celebrate Collin's birthday with the other August birthdays (mine and Papa's).

Lazy dogs sleeping all day.

 Jay's favorite picture of Collin (not really).  He is trying to look like a punk.

 Everything was going well until Tayler was stung by a hornet.  There are tons of hornets around 

Grandma's house but they usually don't bother anyone.  Tayler was really unlucky that day because, 

in a different spot of the yard, she was stung by another one a few minutes later!  Poor thing!  

I think she thought there were after her.

 Papa reading a birthday card (and showing off for the kids).

 Fishing pole from Nana and Papa.

Collin's 11th Birthday

Collin wanted to invite his friends to play flag football for his birthday this year.  Jay took the boys to XSI Factory and they used the football field there.

 Collin as quarterback:

 Cake, ice cream and presents afterwards at our house.

Last Couple Of Hours and Thoughts In Hawaii

While we still had a few minutes left in Hawaii, we took the opportunity to take some last pictures of the kids in the Banyan Trees. This is one of the smaller ones in Honolulu.

 Natalie finally found her Hawaiian rainbow after 10 days in the Islands. The last and final picture of Hawaii is the rainbow crowning Sydney. ALO-HA, Cousins!

Hanauma Bay and Kicking Around Waikiki

 We got tired of hanging around ABC stores and decided to venture out to the International Market Place.

Sydney and Collin almost fell into the Koi Fish Pond. They were actually just playing around but a couple of older women thought they were going to get drenched!

 Hanauma Bay was certainly beautiful, but was disappointing considering the price we paid for what we saw. At least the beach was good and the bay was protected.  There were just too many people.

Sydney was getting tired of hiking up and down trails to beaches, volcanoes, and rain forests

 Sydney is enjoying her sand treatment that Collin decided to give her.

 This is what Jay saw after taking a quick power nap on the grass. Gotta love palm trees!

 Best place to people-watch is at the beach, and Hanauma Bay provided plenty of people to watch.

Driving the H-2 and H-3

Because of the high winds cancellation of most of our fun activities such as surfing and para-sailing we decided to load the kids up in the Mustang and take a drive around the island. This is what we encountered.

Collin and Sydney both decided that BYU-Hawaii was much better than BYU-Utah or for that matter BYU-Idaho.

 Right next to BYU-Hawaii was the Temple. Although, we were in swimming suits we took a peak in the Temple grounds.

 The highlight of the trip for Jay was seeing his long time friend, the Hawaiian Monk Seal.  He was very disappointed not see one on dive in Kauai, but this made up for it. The Monk Seals are an endangered species and very rare, especially on Oahu. The seals just hang on the beach and sun themselves. They are very large and have great personalities. This was on the North Shore at Sunset Beach, and Jay didn't even want to stop because of all the people and congestion.  But he was glad he did.

The last stop on our trip around the island was at the Dole Plantation. Although we didn't take any tours or go through the maze, the Dole gift shop was an hour long stop. They had a nice little market place where we picked up a couple of cool trinket and souvenirs. 

The Beach at Waikiki

Due to high winds, our intentions to do some paddle boarding and surfing didn't work out. The kids decided to make the most of the sand and bury Collin up to his ears. 

 Sydney is giving Collin the final touches on his sand person by adding a couple of nipples. Just glad she didn't add anything else.

 If you look close you will see some Bone Fish, Talapia, and an eel. This was just off of the man-made pier on the east end of Waikiki. We saw more fish in this area than we did diving in Kauai.

 This was taken at a Hula show on the beach. The kids were soaking up the music and the sunset.

 This was the great view of the beach from our room on the 21st floor.  Jay did a great job finding this gem.