Parents Visiting

My first few weeks in Hawaii were quite the adjustment and I may have cried a little :-) The day after we arrived though, my mom called to ask if they could come visit us already! So I cried tears of joy and and had something exciting to look forward to. They came on Sept 27 and we had such a FUN week with them. As my sister said, when visitors come, Haans and I really get to feel like vacationers too. Everything goes on hold and we get to act like tourists.

Our welcome signs

Haans was laughing at me as we drove to the airport to meet them. I was so giddy to have them come!

Waikiki beach their first day!

The girls made sure they got up early every morning, no sleeping in while on vacation!

This beach was in Kailua and it was pretty windy, which made some fun waves to jump over.

We laughed how we spent some of our late evenings together. We each had our own computer!

 Our beautiful Honolulu tabernacle, where we get to attend church (Elder Hallstrom talked about the tabernacle in his April conference talk).

 My dad is reenacting Tarzon on the big Banyan tree in the front of the tabernacle!

One day we headed over to the West side and swam at Ko Olina which was super pleasant. My girls had so much fun playing in the water with Gramps

Then we drove up the West side till the road ends. Fun fact: on the maps it says there is 5 more miles of road, when in reality it's not there. Someone might want to tell the state government.

 Shark's cove is up on the north side and is supposedly the best snorkeling place. It was really low tide for us, so we have seen better snorkeling, but it was still fun! Curly even got to use her snorkel and is getting pretty good.

I love Lou Who's muscles!

We went to Punchbowl cemetery, a veteran cemetery in a huge old crater. It was really neat and felt very sacred. In ancient times it was where the Hawaiians buried their royalty and also a place for human sacrifice. In 1949 it became a cemetery. It seems fitting that it is now a place for those who sacrificed their lives in the military.

Our last day together we were going to go to Hanauma Bay, but it was full, so dad decided on a plan B and took us to Sea Life Park. A scaled down Sea World, but still really enjoyable. And because we now have our state IDs, we got a good discount.

 Three month old sea turtle!

 I loved seeing the dolphins! My FAVORITE animal!

 These sea turtles were huge! 

After Sea Life Park we went to this beach on the east side of the island (it's just down from Magnum P.I.'s estate) and miraculously saw three sea turtles in the wild. It was so fun, Curly even got to see them.

 We took mom and dad to our neighborhood park a few times to watch the sunset.

 My girls were troopers and took several naps like this while we had fun seeing more of the island.

But they weren't the only ones apparently! Mom and Dad rented a mini-van so it was fun to be all together.

The last night, my parents treated us to our favorite restaurant, PF Changs!

 Needless to say, we had so much fun having my parents here and they sure spoiled us! We are going through withdrawals. Curly asked the other day when we were headed to the beach, if Gramma and Gramps were coming with us. I wish too! Please come again!