We started our Saturday morning early with a catamaran ride. I was nervous about this part of our trip because I was worried about getting seasick, but I was excited to go on a boat and say that we did it. Taking a boat onto the ocean and looking for ocean life is a must when you're in Hawaii, so I was glad it was on the agenda. While we waited for our start time, we took some pictures on the dock.
You can see the catamaran that we took behind the kids in these pictures. It's not the one right behind them, but the one a little to the right with the blue and yellow markings. The kids were all excited for the ride.
Tony's parents, Popeye and Day, didn't take the catamaran ride with us, so they took pictures as we left the dock.
Abby took a selfie of all of us while we sat on the back of the boat and got ready to set sail. I thought it was a great picture considering she had to get 12 people in the shot. The front of the catamaran had net sitting areas so you could see the water below you as you sailed. I didn't give that a try, but the kids thought it was awesome.
We sailed out to a cove to look for sea turtles, so the first picture shows another boat that was also looking for the turtles; but if you look right in the middle of the picture, you can see the head of a turtle that we saw swimming right around all of the boats. The catamaran whipped through the water pretty fast that you sometimes got splashed as it hit the waves if you were standing in the front corners of the boat. Tyler and I were standing on one side, so I took a picture of all the kids that were standing on the other side and squealing whenever they got splashed with the cold ocean water.
Abby and AJ stayed near the back where they thought it was safe and quiet, so I grabbed a picture of them when I went back to check on them. The kids took turns getting to drive the catamaran with the captain. They got to sit up on his ledge and turn the big wheel. They thought it was awesome.
Audrey took over taking pictures of the kids taking their turns at the captain's wheel because Tyler, Abby, and I started feeling really sick. One of the crew gave us ice to chew on, but we sat in the shade for half of the ride to keep our stomachs from getting too queasy. We Gibbons definitely aren't seamen.
As we docked, we took one last picture of the kids with the captain. At least all the kids thought it was a great adventure.
After the catamaran ride, we spent the rest of the day at Wet N Wild. We took some pictures as we checked in, but once we were settled and going on rides, the phones were left safely in our bags for the majority of the day to not get wet, so we didn't have many pictures of this adventure.
Audrey did grab a picture of the teenagers in front of the wave pool where she held the fort down with all of our stuff. I really like this picture because you can tell they're having a great time.
I stayed with the littler kids during their rides and grabbed a picture of Sam, Tessa, and Aubrey riding out of this raft ride. They thought it was the best thing ever because they were able to ride all the rides, while Taryn and Teagan were still limited on a few rides because of their height.
As we left Wet N Wild, we took a little detour to visit the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This was one of the Tyler's highlights from when he came to Hawaii with his family before we were married, so he really wanted to take us there.
We made it right before they closed, but it was long enough to walk around the store, watch a pineapple cutting presentation, and to get their famous Dole Whip which is like a pineapple flavored ice cream smoothie. It was delicious. We also bought a pineapple to be able to eat with our Sunday dinner. Yum!
On Sunday, we found a church building near our hotel and the kids walked to church. It was the first Sunday of the year and with the new changes, it was the first Sunday of 2 hour church instead of 3 hours. The kids went to their classes and the kids in primary got shell leis for being visitors. The families in that ward were very nice.
We took a picture of all of us in front of the church before starting our walk.
But instead of walking back to our homes, we walked past BYU Hawaii again and grabbed a few more pictures. I love this one by the main entrance. We found another family taking pictures, so they took our picture so we could all be in it. It was funny because this same family that took our picture, we kept running into the rest of our trip. At the temple and at the PCC the following day. We just kept waving and saying hi. They became our new friends from Hawaii.
Then we walked to the temple to visit the temple grounds and visitor center. We took pictures there too by the entrance sign with the temple in the background. There was a long walkway to get up to the temple, but it's straight up from the main road and ocean, so you can see it when you drive by and there's a great view when you're up by the temple and looking back towards the ocean. We took pictures of just our family and also one with all of us.
The visitor center was awesome and there were friendly sister missionaries in matching mumus who answered our questions and told us about the history of the temple. We even watched a video of how the early saints of Hawaii raised money to begin construction on their church meetinghouses and the temple. We also learned that the Hukilau Beach where we spent out Friday is owned by the church, and that was where they held their fundraiser dinners to earn money way back when as they started saving money to rebuild a church that had burned down.
We walked up towards the temple and took pictures of each of the girls. I was learning how to use my portrait setting on my phone which fades the background behind the main focal point of the picture. They turned out really good I thought.
We were sad that the temple was closed for its annual maintenance the entire time we were in Hawaii. We were originally hoping to be able to do some temple work and even have the kids do some baptisms. With the other new changes of girls becoming beehives at the beginning of the year they turn 12 instead of waiting until their actual birthday meant that Tessa could do baptisms too. But with the temple closed we weren't able to do that. We thought it would have been so cool if Tessa could have said that the first time she did temple work as a youth was in the Laie HI temple, but alas, it was not meant to be. We took awesome pictures of the outside instead.
Here's a view from the temple like I was talking about before. We're facing the temple in this first picture and you can see all the way to the ocean behind us with the sidewalks and reflecting pools leading all the way down. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the trip with all four girls. I love it!
We had our usual Kasibbons dinner at the Kasallis's rental house. We took pictures of everyone eating the yummy dessert we got from a famous bakery that our friends told us about. They said the chocolate haupia (coconut) pie was to die for, so we got that for our dessert and took pictures to send to them showing that we all agreed with them on its deliciousness. It was so good!
After dinner we took a trip out to Turtle Bay on the North Shore where they say turtles are always hanging out on the beaches. All turtles in Hawaii are protected by law so you are not allowed to touch them or get too close. When we got to the beach, there was only one turtle sunbathing and the animal conservationist worker had roped off the area but answered any questions that we had about turtles in general. We were able to take pictures. Tessa was in heaven. It was cool to see the turtle up close. We took a picture of the entire group with the sun setting behind us. It was beautiful.
Another of my favorite pictures, I grabbed this picture of me and Taryn with the sun behind us as well. Even with her tongue and peace sign, it's a pretty awesome picture. After we left the beach, we tried making one more stop to a famous store for shave ice, but we didn't make it before they closed. Again, we were thwarted by the end of day coming too quickly because everything closes as soon as the sun goes down. It was still a great Sunday spent at church and with family and friends.
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