The Rest of Hawaii!!

The rest of our adventures in Hawaii included......

My most favorite place, the Waikiki Beach Cheesecake Factory!

We also hit the Ala Moana mall (huge, love it) & the awesome stores up and down Waikiki!

We decided to try a new adventure this year, thanks to my wonderful sister, Kara, for hooking us up. We went to a ranch on the East side of the island for an ATV ride, that takes you through a couple film locations. Lucky for us, it poured rain that afternoon! But being the adventuresome crew that we are, we decided to brave it! After buying poncho's, getting our helmets on, watching a safety video, and convincing mom that it was going to be so fun.....we were off! The rain at times was a downpour, we could do nothing but laugh! It was great!

The boys went golfing at Turtle Bay in the morning, so us girls drove out to the ranch to meet them. We went through some really cool tunnels blown-out right through the mountains, and of course thought it would be very cool to photograph ourselves while in the tunnel!

Getting ready for the ATV ride....

The ride!

This was the only time we opted to get off the ATV's for a picture, our tour guide had to remove his helmet to hold the camera under it to keep dry while taking the pics for us. I can't stop laughing every time I look at these 3 pictures!

Notice our Japanese friends who were on the tour with us, we didn't realize they wanted to be in our family picture.....but we were cool with it, the more the merrier!

And then, for some strange reason, our tour guide wanted us to all jump. Why you ask....I have no idea! So this was our 'pre-jump' picture.

Drum roll please.....the awesome JUMP!!

Our 'after' shot.....soaking wet! But great memories!!

We did manage to dry off and clean up for a nice dinner. And after mom & I blew a fuse drying our hair, the service man came up, fixed the fuse, and took this nice family shot for us.

Our favorite pass time while enjoying the view.....UNO!

The rest of our trip was filled with pool time, beach time, movies, golf, more shopping, more sno-cones, non stop laughing, great food, and the best company ever......FAMILY!!

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To my mom & dad: Thank you so much for such a wonderful trip. There is nobody else we would rather be with than you guys! You are too good, too generous, and simply the best parents EVER! I love you! Can't wait for Hawaii 2012!

Hawaii cont...

Saturday was a beautiful day.....there's just something special about the first day of a vacation, for me, it's knowing we have so many more days ahead of us still, which makes me oh so happy. So we all 'bagged some rays' as we like to call it, had a little lunch, boys headed out for some golfing (of which I have no pictures, because the boys are too cool to take a camera & way to busy focusing on birdies(hee hee))! Anyway....us girls bagged some more rays until late into the evening, with a few smoothies and 'to die for' sno-cones in between the bagging!

When the boys returned we headed to the beach for dinner, no Caiser and I did not plan our 'Sadie Hawkins outfits'....it just happened! And no my parents will not be serving in Tokyo, but in Fukuoka, I just thought it was a fun Japanese shirt in their honor!

Here We Come Hawaii!!

Here we come sun, golf, sun, relaxation, sun, beaches, sun, pool, sun....and so much more!!

Tradition is Dinner at Chili's after we arrive, usually we go check into the resort and then go eat.....this time we couldn't wait & headed straight for Chili's from the airport. We were all starving thanks to Delta and their 'no food' service on the airplane, the peanuts just don't cut it.

We then divide and conquer with food, Cais & I with mom & dad hit Costco.....Phil, Alaina, Kurt, & Kara hit the grocery store. Then we crash hard.....with the 4 hour time difference, we were all dead tired, most of us going to bed at 9pm, which is 1AM at home. Great start to a great trip!!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Today was miss Ellie's birthday......I cannot believe she is 7, the time has flown by! She is a wonderful daughter, and our family would not be complete without her! I don't have all of my pictures with me in Hawaii, but will update soon Ellie's last 7 years! Happy Birthday Ellie, I love you so much!

Reasons why I love Ellie......

She is a hugger/snuggler/smoocher.

She is a girlie girl, always wants her hair done just right & would wear make-up every day if I let her.

She has the softest voice.

She reminds me all the time that she is 'brown' like her dad & obviously got more Brazilian genes than Jack and Paige.

Ellie likes to eat out all of the time (wonder where she gets that).

She 'talks back' all of the time, but usually has a good point.

She is a 2nd mom to all of her younger cousins, loves to take care of them.

She is an excellent student & can read great.

She loves to help me clean the house, and does a wonderful job.

She could sleep until noon every day if she didn't have school.

She is beautiful & a wonderful blessing to our family!

Ellie's Birthday Celebration!

Last night we celebrated Ellie's birthday with our families @ where else.....Chick-fil-A, along with the rest of the valley! It was very fun, Caiser and I have wonderful parents & siblings who are always there for us! We sure love you all! Ellie was very excited to be with her cousins!

Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs!

Monday night we had an Easter celebration with my side of the family.....we started with a great egg hunt for the kids.

Of course Jack was upset because 'everybody else got a lots of eggs'!

Then we headed to Francesco's for some good grubbin'......

It's too bad we didn't get any pictures of the 'adult' egg hunt, would have been scary to see the 6 of us running around like idiots for eggs! You're never too old for an egg hunt! Such a great night!