Visiting Friends

 The day I got home back from California, our GREAT friends the Boettichers came to visit Hawaii and stayed with us at Hotel Endecott! We had so much fun having them here (hopefully they did) :-) Haans and I realized after the fact, we were glad they brought their little boy because we have kids. So when we had to deal with temper tantrums or waking up in the night, they completely understood! We sure love them and are so glad they came to visit us, ok well maybe it was to celebrate their anniversary, but we will just say they came to Hawaii because they couldn't live without seeing us any longer! :-)

We did a lot of the the tourist things which is always fun because sometimes Haans and I just wait to do some of them because we live here and we will do it another day, but with friends visiting we cross things off our list.

Pregnant Debra found an easy hike (so says the tour book) at Manoa Falls so off we went. Curly is into these crazy faces right now!

 Daddy found her a walking stick! Super cute!

 It was so lush and green. But sadly that means LOTS of mosquito bites even though we sprayed ourselves. Darn sugar blood of mine! My bites turn into big ol' itchy welts.

Lots of fun things to explore!

There were cool bamboo forests along the way!

We have concluded that whomever decided that Manoa Falls was an easy hike didn't bring along 3 toddlers. The Boettichers and us ended up caring our 1 year olds for the last half mile because there were a lot of boulders/big rocks and mud steps to climb. 

 But we succeeded and enjoyed this beauty!

 Curly was being a nice big helper (sometimes a little too protective) of her friend!

 We also went to the North Shore to watch the big waves! They did not disappoint!

Remember Curly is into these crazy face pictures right now, so Debra went along!

 Got a good one!

Since he knew he couldn't go swimming in these waters, I guess he did the next best thing - put sand in every single place so mommy would have lots of fun cleaning him off!

We enjoyed the beauty of the LDS temple! Well shushing screaming toddlers and chasing them down so they didn't fall in the reflecting pool was not quite the calm, relaxing environment we thought, but luckily the temple grounds are family-centered and so very understanding!

 These two were born 2 weeks apart, and since we are such good friends, we have already decided they are betrothed!

We hit up the Polynesian Cultural Center and enjoyed their luau, dinner and show.

Here is Silly Curly at it again!

  

Well Loo Who isn't quite enjoying it!

 Another day, we went whale watching on this big ship. 

 Poor Haans had to be the responsible one and work so he missed out. Luckily all three kids were free because we had three paying adults, but in retrospect I don't think I'd take the girls again. When all you see of a MASSIVE animal is some water spouting, for my 2 little toddlers that can get boring pretty quickly! If you look closely you can see the water spray from the whale!

 And for me, the mommy, I got to follow/chase them all over the ship! At least it was a BEAUTIFUL day and I love being on boats! It was also fun watching tourists who have never been whale watching get so excited! I have been fortunate to have been whale watching many times before, and I still get excited! I was even the one to spot the first whale and got to yell out "whale!"

 And this was our sad good-bye! We sure love you Boettichers! Thank you for coming to visit us, we have missed you tons! Can't wait to see pictures of your new little one in a few months!