Hawaii Continued

Creed loving crawling around on the beach chasing after the birds. He also loved eating the sand. YUM
Mike and Steven snorkeled for over an hour and couldn't find a sea turtle. Jolisa and I went out for about 10 minutes and found one right away. It was huge and super cool to see. We came back and explained where it was to the guys and they were able to find it. thanks to us :)
Our little fish! Savannah loved snorkeling and spent an hour just swimming around looking at the fish.



Cole dealing with a sunscreen debacle
Haunama bay
The family - plus a stowaway :)
There was a little plaque that had some of the survivors from the Arizona on it that had chosen to be buried here as well after they passed. It was pretty neat.
So wierd, you can see from this picture that oil is STILL leaking out from the Arizona 60 years later.

Part of the AZ memorial sticking up from the water
We went to the AZ memorial so the kids could learn about Pearl Harbor. Savannah had dozens of questions, all about good vs bad, soldiers, and why it happened. Cole was just happy to watch a movie about guns and planes.

So we were able to spend the last 8 days in Oahu, Hawaii with the whole family and the Grimmers. The Grimmers are some of our best friends, we actually met them when Mike first got hired on with the the police department, 6 1/2 years ago. We were at the orientation meeting and realized that we had both met our spouses in Rexburg, Idaho. We were also both married in 2001 and have birthdays that are only about a month apart. So we immediately bonded and have been friends ever since. Even though we live about an hour apart now we still get together about once a month. And even though we BOTH have been having major issues with the US govenment this year, and recently bought new houses, we found a great deal on a trip and decided that we just couldn't miss the opportunity. And I am so glad we did!
We ended up having a blast. We stayed at the Aston in Waikiki. We went last year at the same time, and it is definitly a tradition that I wouldn't mind keeping.
The DAY before we left I found out the my hours had been cut at work by 50%. Everyone at my work was basically fighting for call so we had to split it evenly between 5 people for the whole month. I don't have any actual scheduled day time shifts and only take call, so this is going to totally affect us. I was panicky and even tried calling to cancel our vacation. Of course I couldn't and I was pretty worried that I would spend the whole time stressing. I prayed really hard the night before and I really felt a calm after. I am a huge worrier when it comes to finances, but I was grateful to have that peace and be able to enjoy the trip (especially since it was already paid for :) I know we will have to really cut back and stick to the basics while we figure stuff out, but I am hoping that neither Mike or I will have to get another job. I really love being able to stay home with the kids and am definitly willing to sacrifice the extras in order to keep doing that. SO anyway, the day before the trip was stressful with a lot of feeling sorry for myself, job searching and number crunching, but by the next day I felt like everything was going to be okay. Hopefully that feeling was right :)
The kids were great for the plane ride there. Even though we only bought 4 tickets, the plane was pretty empty, so we ended up with 2 rows and the grimmers right behind us. The kids kept each other entertained and ALL took naps! It was a miracle. We had 2 hotel rooms there so Mike and I got some privacy. We put all 3 kids in one room to sleep while we took the other. We were doing so much stuff everyday, the kids slept like rocks at night. If you need any advice on eating in Oahu on a budget, call us! Our hotel ended up giving us free breakfast by mistake, so we ate breakfast there every morning and packed up extra food for snacks during the day. Lunch consisted of Costco pizza or hot dogs or taco bell, and dinner was usually a mid range place. We tried to go to dinner at places we couldn't eat at here, my personal favorite being a shrimp truck on the north shore. It was amazing but we only got to go once since Mike is not a fish person. :( I wish they had shrimp trucks here! We had so much fun and did so many things I am having SUCH a hard time narrowing down the pictures! We came home with over 1000 pics on our card! So there will be more to come after this post :)