Just trying to get the Hawaii posts through my system. . . after re-posting problematic photo posts, a few photos still do not show up on my mom's computer. Hmm. . . we came home Monday night on a red-eye that went amazingly well. We are still a little jet-lagged. Our kids were up until about midnight last night but it is now almost 10am and everyone but me is still asleep. Hopefully we all will be fully functional in a few days.

The above collage includes a photo from the Blue Water Shrimp Truck, a favorite of ours in both Waikiki and the North Shore (there was one right next to Ted's Bakery in Sunset Beach, we also LOVED Ted's Bakery). The collage includes a couple photos from the Laie McDonald's. It is a special McDonald's with no play land but a waterfall and lots of Polynesian artifacts. We did go there a few times for the ease of getting a Happy Meal.

The Bradshaws knew a lady who has a vacation rental on this beach. We loved it and typically had the beach to ourselves. (We were usually there in the early mornings before it got too sunny since we are not really genetically cut out for long days on the beach. We have all come home still fairly white, thanks to my over-use of SPF 70.)

Jane loved the beach, but it would wear her out. She happily took a couple of beach naps. Poor Colin, looking at photos last night when we could not go to sleep told me he wants to go back to the beach with his friends. We very much hope to get back to Hawaii whenever possible!

Waimea Falls is one of the Bradshaw's favorite places. They took us there the other day, and it is easy to see why they love it. It is in a beautiful valley at the end of an easy (stroller friendly) walk. The Bradshaws have been great hosts and they know all the kid friendly places.

Peacocks are crazy. One seriously charged us as we were leaving. This one was showing off and shaking his tail feather (which makes me think of the Blues Brothers).

Jane and Jane. The Bradshaws also have a Colin and have other strange naming similarities. We are in some strange naming vortex.

After Hale Iwa, Skipper and the rest of us went to the Dole Plantation. Colin LOVED the old timey hole in the board photo ops.

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but the bark is amazing.

Aren't baby pineapples adorable?

Skipper enjoyed a morning in Hale Iwa, one of the original surf towns.

The Hawaiians are clearly very proud of their native son. He looks very butch as Rosie the riveter.

Colin is obsessed with all things blue presently. We went to a 'fancy' shaved ice place in Waikiki hoping to find a blue treat for him, but they didn't carry unnatural colors. The salesperson kind of scoffed at me when I asked. But Matsumoto is a more inclusive shaved ice establishment.

Luckily we arrived before this line formed.

We had a great time at the Polynesian Cultural Center last week. Our kids did amazingly well at the Luau and the big spectacular. Colin now wants to be a fire dancer. Above is as close to a family picture as we seem to be able to get these days.

Colin had just awoken from his nap right before our arrival.

Jane working it at the Luau.

Ceasing to work it.

Lei to the rescue.

Colin has turned into a great tourist. A few Japanese tourists are also taking the above image home (as they kept stopping to photograph him.) His eyes were irritating him yesterday, which were part of our misadventure. I'll go in order and chronicle the first mishap first.

Mishap #1: Here is Brian at Shark's Cove after some snorkeling time. This only happened after we locked the keys in the trunk of our rental car. We really worked together on it (Brian put the keys in my purse thinking I would take it to the beach but not wanting to take wallets and cell phones to the beach, I asked him to leave it in the trunk, not knowing the keys were in there. As Brian and Colin were walking down to the beach I locked the car, assuming Brian had the keys. Great teamwork!) We were very fortunate that there was a service station across the street where Brian was able to call a tow/lock out guy. This is the first time we have locked ourselves out of a car in nearly 6 years of marriage, so the fee we had to pay averages out to just about $10 a year.

Mishap #2: We went back to the Polynesian Cultural Center to explore the villages since we had just gone to the Luau and big show the evening before. As previously mentioned, Colin's eyes had been bugging him so he wanted to wear my sunglasses. I was wearing contacts so I switched to my glasses so I could use my prescription sunglasses. We went on the boat ride through the PCC (see boat above) and at one point when Jane was a little fussy and I was trying to calm her down, she ripped the only pair of prescription glasses I am traveling with off my face and threw them in the river. Since we use Zenni Optical, the glasses were only worth about $10 and if I had another pair with me on the trip it would not have been a big deal, but I kind of needed my glasses. The lady sitting behind me was very nice to note where we were when they fell in and one of the great PCC workers got in the river and slowly walked around until he found them. I am grateful to have them back so I did not have to watch the IMAX in my prescription sunglasses.

If those are the only mishaps of our trip we are very lucky! Just two days until we head home now.

PS. . . we made it home on a red-eye last night and I slightly question my current level of functioning. I think I will just re-do the posts without photos in the next little while. We really loved Hawaii. I am sure everyone is getting a little sick of the great time we had in Hawaii.

Colin was a little unsure of the other things spending time on the beach. There were three huge tortoises, or I suppose more technically, sea turtles on this beach near the surfer town. We kept telling Colin not to touch them so when I would get close to take photos he would remind me not to touch. When we were out at the beach a few days later we saw a sea turtle swimming very close to us. It was very cool.

We had no idea how intricate leis could be. We were told that the one pictured above is composed of around 2000 flowers.