Oahu, Days 1 and 2...

We arrived in Oahu on the Fourth of July this past summer and quickly fell in love with this beautiful island. We grabbed our rental car and headed up to the North Shore to get settled in the condo we rented at Turtle Bay. We changed into our swimsuits and went exploring.

The kids thought that they were starving, so we stopped on the side of the road at a little fruit stand. Man, I wish they had these all over the place in AZ like they do in Hawaii....at least like they do on the North Shore. Yum.

 Jarom loved eating these tasty fruits...

Then we headed back over by Turtle Bay to dip our toes in the ocean, walk around all of the booths set up for the festivities that night...

 We changed into our "Fourth of July" outfits and grabbed dinner at the delicious Kahuku Grill...

Yah...he thinks I'm funny!

We headed back to the condo and decided to watch the fireworks from the parking lot right in front of the condo. We could not believe the crowd that had gathered down at Turtle Bay and decided staying at the condo was a better idea than forging through the crowds. We stood there, huddled up under a tree, as the rain began to pour down and watched the fireworks display just light up the sky.

The next day we decided to grab some breakfast at a local diner (already forgot the name....dang) and then headed over to the temple to explore the beautiful gardens...

We stopped to visit La'ie Point to see the big hole in the rock that was made during a tsunami back in the 1940's. Pretty cool!

I seriously love looking over and finding these boys snuggled up together...so glad that they still really like being together (at least most of the time!)

 And then we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center to spend the rest of our day there. It was AMAZING! We got the Ambassador package and loved having a tour guide to teach us so many fun and interesting facts.

First, we visited Samoa, which I was really excited about. My mom lived in Samoa when she was a little girl. The whole presentation was very entertaining!

 Cracking open a coconut. So cool!

 Loved listening to the giggles coming out of these monkeys!

 Yah, I'll maybe need to blow this picture up big. Ha ha!

 Weaving our own "fishies" out of long grass strips...

Learning to do the hula...

 The boys got in on the action, too...

Then we got the best seats in the house for the Polynesian Parade. Our tour guide had told us about a little island that stuck out into the river. We were the first ones there and literally sat on the edge of the water right in the grass. It was perfect!

 We visited Tonga....

And Aotearoa, where we tried our hand at learning how to swing these balls around...

 Jarom kept whacking himself in the face...

 A little stick tossing...

And then one last picture with Haley, our tour guide, before heading off to dinner. So sad I didn't notice she blinked during the one picture I took. Sad.

Then it was off to the dinner buffet that they served, a backstage tour of the evening show, and then the evening show "Ha: Breath of Life". Amazing does not even come close to describing the show. We LOVED it!

*2 days of Hawaii pictures edited and posted....19 more days to go*