Last Day in Hawaii!

Our last day! How did it go so fast....sniff sniff. The boys enjoyed one more swim in the ocean.Mom and Sadie played in the sand. Sadie loved it and loved being buried.

The boys wanted in on the burying so mom obliged. I think it is a rule you have to bury yourself in the sand at least once before you leave the beach so we did.

Dad's goatee was gone but Landon found a way to honor it's memory.....

Dayton found a little sea urchin friend in this rock and wanted to bring it home as a souvenir....we sent it back to it's ocean home.

Some attempts to get a few family photos! Notice I said attempts... and no we are not matching, who do I look like Martha Stewart!

A final ALOHA to our amazing Hawaiian vacation. We had a great time together.

Sea Life Park

Reece had his first kiss with a girl other than his mom. Sure she might weigh more than 500 lbs and have a blowhole in the top of her head but it was love at first sight and you can't stop love! Landon and Dayton did a little dance with our dolphin friend and mom and dad got to interact as well. Sadie had a love hate relationship with the dolphin. She liked the dolphin but hated the lifejacket she had to wear so we opted not to buy the $20 picture of her being less than happy with the dolphin. Still it was a great experience.

Some of the Jensen's showering off after our dolphin encounter.

We spent our second to last day in Oahu at Sea Life Park. It is an interactive park where you get to have a more intimate experience with several sea animals.

These turtles were HUGE! I loved them. The kids were able to feed them some lettuce.

I know I'm her mom but can she be any cuter? Really? I love this little one!

A sea lion show was very cute.

Checking out the underwater version of the dolphins.

Petting a shark..!

My blue eyed girl. (By the way, the pics of me still in my swimsuit was right after I got out of the water with the dolphin, I don't normally walk around in my swimsuit I was just drying off still)

There was a large aquarium where we observed another shark and other ocean animals.

Check out the turtle and Ray! So cool.

It was a fun day and a great experience to be so close to the animals. The kids loved interacting with the dolphins and dancing and exchanging kisses.

Diamond Head State Monument

On Monday in Hawaii we went to see Diamond Head State Monument. About 300,000 years ago a volcano erupted on the Island of Oahu and left a rock called tuff creating the crater. In 1908 the trail to Le'ahi was built as part of Oahu's coastal defense system. We took the trail which is a 0.8 mile hike ascending 560 feet from the crater floor to the summit above. You pass through a tunnel and at the top there is remains of a lighthouse used for navigation.

About 10 steps into the hike the kids needed a water break.

Reece did a great job but needed a lift every now and then. Good thing dad is so buff!

Mom helped out some too.

One of the tunnels you had to walk through.

There were several parts close to the top of the summit that had steep stairs you had to ascend. They were built for military use back in the early 1900's.

View from the top. Amazing.You could see all of Waikiki, you could see from the shoreline of Kokohead all the way to Wai'anae. It was stunning. I love the different colors of blue in the ocean. Truly a beautiful place. You could also see the entire crater but for some reason we didn't take and pictures of that! Oops.

Pearl Harbor

On Sunday of our Hawaii trip we went to see Pearl Harbor. The picture below is of the USS Missouri. We went and visited the USS Arizona memorial. It was a solemn place as you can guess. I enjoyed the movie that gave a good account of what happened December 7, 1941. I remember learning about it in school but of course I wasn't paying close attention. It's always good to remember and pay your respects. The USS Missouri is huge and I would have loved to tour it but after several hours of looking at the other stuff the kids were done so we didn't take the tour.

Below is the USS Arizona memorial.

Trav and the kids standing in front of the USS Bowfin Submarine.

Capital U-G-L-Y

Every now and then Travis does stuff like, shave his head, grow a goatee, you know, basic stuff to torture me........ ugghh. I don't really mind the shaved head but I prefer him clean shaven and I wanted to try to take some family photos in Hawaii and he had his stupid goatee and I finally convinced him to shave it off but not before he tortured me with saying he was keeping the stache....seriously, so gross. I thought I would post some pics for all to see this hideousness.
Now that's the face I fell in love with! My apologies to all those who have or like facial hair, it's just not for me :) (by the way, Travis took these pictures himself, I was busy trying not to gag)

King Kamehameha I Day--June 11th

Yes, June 11th is a official Hawaii state holiday and we just happened to be there on June 11th. King Kamehameha I, was the first ruler of the Hawaiian Islands, he united all the Islands together. There was a parade that was going to be passing right by our hotel so we decided to check it out. We staked our place and took some pictures of the kids.

Well, after being there for about 30 minutes and the parade still wasn't to our street and didn't look as if it was anywhere nearby the kids started getting ansy. Also, two older ladies who were pretty rude came and practically pushed our kids off the rocks they were sitting on and took up residence there for the parade. Annoyed was I you ask?? Yes I was but I just moved them to the lawn and didn't worry about it. Another five minutes go by and the ladies that just stole our sitting rocks asked if we could move because our stroller was blocking their view? Seriously? So I politely told her we couldn't. Gosh I'm nice. You can see a picture of the culprit below.... :) Well, after about another 10 minutes Landon and Dayton voted that we skip the parade and head to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We didn't need much convincing and we were off.

So here we are at the Dole Pineapple Plantation and "The World's Largest Maze"--atleast that is what Landon and Dayton kept reminding us the whole way there.

So the maze sounded like a good idea and it started out fun with our little Dole visors on and our map to find the eight secret stations hidden in the maze. Ugggg. Seriously, after about 10 minutes mom was so sick of running into dead ends and walking, walking, walking etc. Landon and Dayton liked it but this thing was humongous and we were so lost and hot and hot and sweaty and lost. We found our way back to the entrance/exit and told Landon and Dayton we would come back after we saw the other stuff all the while knowing there was no way I was going in there again.

I have never seen a pineapple bush before so I was curious to see one. They are so weird looking and did you know it takes a pineapple 22 months to grow!! Crazy, that is so long. Here is a picture in case like me you don't know what a pineapple bush looks like. They just stick up on this really thick, stiff, leaf thing. Huh. I'm sure I looked like a dumb tourist but it was so weird looking.

Our little pineapples!!

My boys!

After the Dole Plantation we drove around the island to the Oahu temple. It is currently under renovation and is closed but the visitors center was opened so we stopped by. The visitor's center is one of the nicest I have seen aside from the SLC temple visitor centers.

The Polynesian Culture Center is close to the temple and with your PCC ticket you get a "free tour" of the LDS temple visitor center, I thought that was funny because last I checked you get a "free tour" of the visitor center without the ticket too. Sneaky mormons. Okay not really but the sister missionaries said a lot of people do come by from the PCC so it is a good thing. It was a fun day.