We had a great Thanksgiving! We went with the entire Millett crowd to Hawaii, it was beautiful. We spent the whole week on O'ahu close to the North Shore and right next door to BYU-Hawaii, the La'ie Hi Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Kris, Taylor's Mom, found a great beach house that was able to sleep all 10 of us! Lucky for us married folks we all got our own bedroom and the 4 boys shared the bunk room.
Hrm...It uploaded all the photos in reverse. So, I guess you'll have to see the trip from end to beginning.
All the boys, can't get a serious photo.
Our last night we headed to Waikiki, I was thrilled to lay on the beach and get as much sun as possible (the north side was a little cloudy). To our very not great surprise the boys were bored in about 5 minutes. Sweet Taylor stayed with me for a good hour, but when he got the text they were playing football, I had to kiss my serene moment goodbye and go watch him join the game. It was so fun to have them all together, they are one funny crowd.
Setting up the plays, this is serious.
Haha, Taylor being Taylor... Making fun of the tourists, when little did he realize he was standing right in the middle of a narrow dock completely oblivious to someone trying to get around him :)
This was the story of our Vacation, Boggie Boards.
The USS Arizona. It's hard to see, but a group had come and dropped a bunch of flowers into the water. Also, I had no idea, the ship is still leaking oil, about 2 gallons a day. It's expected to leak for another 50 years. You can see small button sized drops float up from the ship and disperse when they hit the water surface.
Snorkeling at Hanauma bay.
We went for a hike, about 5 mins up the walk Taylor decided he was done. So we turned around and let the rest go on without us. I had already gotten about 20 bug bites, so I was fine to not go any further.
View from the Hike
November-March (?) is when Hawaii has all the big surf competitions on the North Shore. Just down the beach from us they were setting up a huge seating area for the competition that took place the week after Thanksgiving. The waves were HUGE! You can't really tell in this photo, but the waves were apparently about 10-15 ft, and these were "small". It was awesome to watch the surfers, every time I thought for sure they were gonners, but they always seemed to pop back up and hit another one.
Both Matt, in the grey, Lindsay's husband, and Brad served in Brazil. And they are obsessed with Acai. Apparently they eat it all the time there. Well, they found a stand that serves it right by the beach, sweetened condensed milk and everything. This is them enjoying their spoils.
Ben wanted to be buried and turned into a merman. Thanks to Lindsay creative genius we got ourselves an excellent merman costume.
The Lu'au at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to the dance performance/show after called Ha, the breath of life. It was incredible! And of course the fire eater/twirlers and the large Tongans who sat right on the fire were the highlights.
One morning we were able to do a session at the Temple. It is beautiful inside!
The Dole Pineapple Plantation. Brad, was shocked to learn pineapple grows in the ground. It's true, there is no such thing as a pineapple tree :) The fresh pineapple ice cream is to die for!
Turtle Bay, we headed there our first day. Yea sunshine!
This is just outside the house, you can't see the beach in this photo, but it's right there, I promise. Also inspired from Brazil Matt and Brad love fresh coconut. Here Matt is scaling the tree like a native Samoan to grab the fresh fruit. Delicious :) I had never had fresh coconut before. The nut is full of water, then you scrape out the white meat and ring it to get the milk, then dry the meat for the dry coconut we are accustomed to eating. Yum
Now that's a GREAT way to celebrate Thanksgiving! Looks like you guys had a blast, it must have been a nice break from the Seattle weather.
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