DAY SEVEN:

I thought it would be a little longer until I posted these, but Mark was so excited about the session, that he edited some right away. Here are some from our photo session. Mark Holladay was our photog and I love his work. Click here to see more from this photo shoot. Click here to go to his website.

from left to right: megan & kris, kameron & katie, mish & parker, zane, abi, heidi & dad, dane, ashley & ryan, peter & heather

I love the use of negative space here. And I love the colors we chose.

I love the reflections in the water in the pics below.

this is why we hired him in the first place. I love the half above and half under water.

kind of wish we went first underwater when the water was this clear. We went last when the sand had moved around more. So crisp. Mish and Parker.

abi and zane.

DAY EIGHT:

we woke up, packed and checked out at 11am. My family all headed to the airport to return to SLC. Ryan wanted to be in HI as long as possible, so we had a 'red eye' flight home later.  We drove to Laie, and walked the campus in which we met at 8.5 years ago. We visited with Ryan's Chinese teacher Dr. Han for an hour, than ate lunch at the Seasiders Cafe. Brings back memories. Then we went to Kailua Beach, a beach we had never even been to when we lived here. We got a kayak and went out to the little island for about an hour.  Then we headed to Waikiki for dinner and onto the airport for a 10pm flight.

goodbye Oahu! view of island from the plane

Honestly such a GREAT vacation, loved every second of it. I have the best family. We vacation often and this one sure topped the charts. It better not be too long until I am back here again. Thanks to everyone for making this happen.........I love you sooo much.

Hawaii 2012

DAY ONE:

we left wed. 18th and arrived at HNL around noon. We stayed on the North Shore of Oahu in Hale'iwa. We couldn't have asked for a better place to stay..........away from town, right by the incredible beaches.  Here is a pick of our beach house from the back. Photo of Kam, Kris and Peter. There were 15 people total: Mom, Dad, all 8 kids (including me), 3 spouses, and hopefully 2 soon to be sister in laws. (wink wink)

 the beach behind our house: dane, katie, abi, heidi, mish, and parker

 back of our beach house: zane

zane and kam

dane, kam, kris 

DAY TWO:

we went into town to Waikiki and went shopping at Ala Moana, ate at "the Yard House", then rented a couple long boards. We all took turns having Ryan teach everyone to surf at Queen's Beach.

mish, abi, my dad, katie, kam, peter and his girlfriend, heather.

then we finished the night with dinner at PF Changs and a birthday wish to my sister Katie, turning 32 in a couple days.

DAY THREE:

we went to the Hale'iwa harbor to "swim with the sharks". The boat takes you out about 3 miles. We saw whales on the ride out. Then we got in a cage and they detach it from the boat.

view of a shark from the boat.

inside the cage

view of shark from in the cage, under the water

My bro Parker and his girlfriend, Mish on the boat. My sis Katie and Kameron.

Then I did a lot of this........................................nothing.....................just relaxing.

 Waimea Bay was the big hit of the trip, with lots of boogie boarding and body surfing. My dad is the guy on the yellow boogie board.

 I love how steep the shore is down to the water, it makes for some very fun waves. View from the water looking up at the beach. Kam, abi, megan, katie, and my dad.

 the TWO who made this trip possible. XOXOXOXOXO

DAY FOUR:

we drove down to Kawela Bay, near Turtle Bay, and went swinging from the trees.

dane, katie...............................................and my dad.



 dane

 and then we continued on to Kailua to Manawili's, which is an hour hike up to a waterfall. Here are the views on the hike.  mish, ryan and heidi.

 at the falls: dane, heather, abi, me, katie, peter

my brothers all jumped from a high point, into this tiny pool of water.

DAY FIVE:

we started the day early going into honolulu to Peal Harbor.  We first did a tour of the submarine and then took a boat out to the USS Arizona.

then we drove east to Hanauma Bay. Here is the view from above.

mish and parker under water.

me and parker by the bay

DAY SIX:

we decided not to have any set plans on monday, so we slept in, went to Waimea Bay and ate lots and lots of MELONA bars and Matsumoto's shave ice.

We saw several sea turtles on the beach right behind the house.

 ryan surfer soooooo much, I think as much as 6 hours one day, to the point of his arms hurting. He'd wake up at 6am and come back in by 10 for breakfast and quite often he went out for a second session in the afternoon.

 and for the rest of us non-surfers............we did a whole bunch of this. (zane)

 and a whole bunch of this. (peter and heather)

I will post Day 7 and Day 8 in a few weeks, when I get the rest of our photos from Mark Holladay, our photographer.  Click here to see his work, amazing stuff.