Babymoon to Hawaii: Oahu Part II

Part II of our trip:
The rest of our trip went by very fast!! Video of our trip at end of post!

Day 5: Officer's Beach and Kailua Beach
Steve and I took this day to chill at the beach all day since we didn't have anything planned! It was nice to relax and lay out in the sun. We started out at Officer's Beach. We had already been there a couple of times but it was super close and a less crowded beach so we decided it would be fun. Something different about this beach visit was there were a ton sand crabs that would come up to the surface of the sand and run across the sand until something/someone else came up to it. It was fun to watch and we got up really close to one of them. It is crazy how much they blend in with the sand.

The black hawk helicopters were making touch backs while we were on the beach. It was cool to watch. 

The rest of the day was spent at Kailua Beach. Craig and Cerissa had an appt. in Kailua so we thought it would be perfect. 

Aren't Hawaii beaches beautiful??

Day 6 (Valentine's Day): Laie Hawaii Temple, BYU-Hawaii, North Shore, and Polynesian Cultural Center

This day was filled with a lot of things on the other side of the island! We were busy all day and very tired on our way home! 

Our first stop was to the Laie Hawaii Temple in Laie, Hawaii. It is such a beautiful temple and the grounds were blooming with lots of beautiful flowers. 

The drive up to the temple is so cool, you follow this road and at the end is the temple!

Steve and I in front of the temple

Loved these flowers!

Next stop we made a loop around BYU-Hawaii! Now Steve and I can say that we have visited all 3 BYU's. It is quite small compared to BYU Provo and BYU Idaho.

Next stop for the day: North Shore. It was a pretty good day to see big waves because the weather was kind of gloomy and rainy. 

There was a paddle boarding competition going on that day and they had lots of cameras everywhere. It was kinda fun to watch them compete in those crazy waves. 

Waves started getting bigger and bigger. 

On our way back to Laie to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center we stopped at a fruit stand on the side of the road to get fresh coconut water and fried bananas. We even got to see the lady cut our coconut (see end of post for video). 

And we stopped at Kahuku Grill. 

Such a fun/cute little place! LOVED it!!

Steve had to of course get the coconut/macadamia nut shrimp (best shrimp he has ever had). I got the guacamole bacon burger (messiest burger I have ever eaten).






For the rest of the day we spent our time at the Polynesian Cultural Center! It is one of the top things to do on the island and it was a lot of fun! The PCC is run by the church but you never would have known if you didn't ask. Most, if not all of the employees are BYU-Hawaii students.

Bad picture but this is of the entrance

Koi pond

The shows were probably the best part of the day! They all taught us something unique from their island and most of them were VERY funny! It was a little rainy that day (notice all the rain ponchos). 

Samoan Show :) So funny!!! 

Tongan Show

Tahiti Show

We also saw the Fiji show but I didn't take any pictures. We then headed off to the Island Buffet for dinner! It was pretty good considering the price we got our tickets for.

We got lucky enough and caught the last canoe ride. They closed the rides during the day because of the weather but when we were walking to the movie we noticed they were leaving on one and caught it last minute. 

 After dinner and the canoe ride we went to the show (Ha: Breath of Life). It was so cool especially the part where they were sitting on fire and dancing with fire! If you ever go to Oahu I recommend spending the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

Day 7: Kailua Beach

We were planning on renting a paddle board or kayak for the day but they were too expensive so we ended up just hanging out at the beach for the day. 

It was a windy day so there were lots of kite surfers. 

After the beach we went and got Hawaiian Shave Ice at a place called Island Snow. It was soo good!!!! 

For dinner we went on a double date to IHOP because Craig had a 25% off coupon! 

Craig and Cerissa

Day 8: Church

This day we went to church and relaxed the rest of the day. 

Day 9: Gender Reveal Appt., Pearl Harbor

This was one of the days from our trip that we were looking forward to the most. It was the day we would find out what gender our baby was!! There is this office called Today Tomorrow Ultrasound and they do specialty ultrasounds like 3D and 4D ultrasounds, as well as gender ultrasounds between 15-20 weeks of pregnancy. Cerissa's OB wouldn't let her get her gender ultrasound until she was 18 weeks and mine wouldn't let me get mine until I was 20 weeks. Cerissa made the suggestion of getting ours together at this place since we would both be 17 weeks and it would be fun to find out together since we're due on the same date. With Craig and Cerissa's marine discount it was worth it to get it done a few weeks early. I have my 20 week ultrasound tomorrow so I technically wouldn't know the gender until tomorrow if I didn't find out early. 

Cerissa and Craig had their appt. first and they both thought they were having a boy and surprise they are having a girl!!! They even had hints from their OB that their baby would be a boy at 12 weeks. They were determined it was one and they definitely got a surprise. Our appt. was next and I was hoping it was a girl and Steve was hoping for a boy. We had no previous hints or anything and surprise we found out we were having a boy!!! Steve got our whole appt. on film and shows a little bit of it in our video below!! The best thing about this place was they gave us a CD full of 20 images from our ultrasound. Our OB office only gives us about 3 images from our ultrasound every time we've gotten one so it is nice to have more than 3. Ours was supposed to include snipits of movement as well but it never got added. But we have a lot of pictures to show from that day of our little guy! He was flashing us the whole time :) If you haven't read my blog post from the day we found out click here. 

Our cute little guy! LOVE his profile!

After our ultrasounds we went to Pearl Harbor with Craig since Cerissa wasn't feeling too hot. It was so fun to see this historical landmark! We got free tickets for a 2:30 tour and had to ride a boat over to the USS Arizona Memorial. 

The oil in the water shown is still leaking from the ship. It is crazy to think that is true since the attack on the USS Arizona was over 70 years ago in 1941. 

Walking through the memorial. 

It was such a cool experience. I don't remember learning a lot about Pearl Harbor in school but the 20 min video we got to watch before going over to the memorial was helpful and the Memorial is definitely a must see!! 

On our way home we had to stop at Leonard's Bakery in Honolulu for their famous malasadas. They are basically big puffy donuts. SO GOOD (and messy)! 

Famous Leonard's Bakery! Very popular as the lines were long! 

Sorry part of my finger was in the photo. 

Famous malasadas!! We got cinnamon and sugar coated.

After Pearl Harbor and Leonard's Bakery we headed home and took some gender reveal pictures. It was fun to finally announce to everyone what we were having and 3 weeks earlier than most were expecting. Craig and Cerissa live right next to a golf course so we took a couple of pictures and skyped Steve and Craig's family that night to break the news! It was very fun!! 

Day 10: Leaving Oahu

This was the day we didn't want to come......leaving Hawaii. Our trip with Craig and Cerissa was so much fun and probably would have been the only opportunity we would have gotten in a while! It was so worth it and it is fun to look back at pictures from our trip. We LOVE you Craig and Cerissa and we appreciate being able to visit you guys! Thanks for everything!!!!

Steve put together a video from our trip and it turned out really good. He took so much footage and this is what he put together. I love this video as it will be a good memory to look back at in the future. My husband is pretty talented! 

Babymoon to Hawaii: Oahu Part I

Steve and I decided to take a last minute trip to Hawaii to go and visit his brother Craig and his wife Cerissa. We we're looking into destinations for our "babymoon" (aka the last "big" trip before the baby comes) and everything looked like it was going to be pretty pricey. We wanted to go somewhere we've both never been and somewhere tropical so we decided on Hawaii. We had a small budget because our life will be changing soon with this baby coming and we don't know where we'll be in a few months. This looked like it was going to be the perfect trip because we have family on the island which would help us achieve the low cost of finding somewhere to stay, help us not have to rent a car, not have to eat out everyday, etc. We were originally looking into going around March/April but I didn't want to be a "beached whale" on the beach and we found a last minute deal going out of Portland for the first part of February. Everything literally fell into place perfectly as Steve's brother Craig had a 4 day weekend the week we came.

Steve's brother has been in the Marine Corps since July of 2012. Him and his wife got married in March of 2013 and got "stationed" in Hawaii on the island of Oahu (they are so lucky and it seems like their living a permanent honeymoon). As most of you know, I have a sister-in-law that is due the exact same day as I am and this is the sister-in-law we went to see. It was so much fun to get to know both of them so much better since we really haven't seen much of them since they were engaged. Steve and his brother haven't really seen much of each other for the past 6 years. Their missions overlapped so they didn't see each other for 3 years, then while we were in Rexburg Craig joined the Marines and was at training in Twenty Nine Palms, CA, then Craig and Cerissa got married in March 2013 and moved to Hawaii. Let me just say it was a great reunion for the both of them and they had so much fun spending time together boogie boarding in the ocean!

Now onto the details of the trip:
We left for Portland Saturday morning as our flights were leaving Sunday AM. This was the worst weekend to travel as the Portland area as well as the Boise area were getting slammed with snow! Portland hardly ever gets snow and this was the worst snow/ice storm that they have had in 4-5 years. All of the news stations were saying to stay off the roads and stay home. We would in any other circumstance, but we had to make our flights out of Portland. We left at 9 am or so and didn't get to the Portland area until 5 pm. This should have only been a 6 hour drive but took us 9 hours! The roads were horrible and I'm surprised we didn't get in any accidents or land up in a ditch. We were 5 minutes away from the place we were staying at that night and someone rolled down their window and told us we had a flat tire. This was not the best news we got as we have been driving all day and just wanted to be set somewhere and relaxing. Steve put on a spare and we just figured we would fix it once we got back from our trip. We stayed with my old roommates (Rebekah Brems) parents in Tigard, OR (30 min out of Portland) for the night and her dad took us to the airport Sunday morning. We thought for sure our flight was going to be delayed or cancelled but miraculously it was on-time.

Day 1: Arriving on Oahu
Our flight landed around 3:00 pm on Sunday and Craig and Cerissa picked us up from the airport. When we got off the plane I felt the humidity right away and could tell my hair would probably be up the remainder of the trip haha. We took the first day chill as it was Sunday and they took us to a nearby Marine Base beach called Officer's Beach. Base beaches are the best because they aren't crowded and they have some really good waves. Only those who live on the Marine Base can access these beaches (perk to being in the Marines).

Here is beautiful Officer's Beach! Right Picture: Craig and Steve boogie boarding

Day 2: Lanikai Beach
One of the things we wanted to do most while in Hawaii was spend time at the beach. All of the best beaches are on the same side of the island that Craig and Cerissa live on so it was nice to only have to drive 10-15 minutes for a good beach. Lanikai Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to and for those of you who have been to Hawaii you have probably heard about it or been there. There aren't many waves at this beach so you can stand in the water knee deep and not get knocked over by the waves. We literally spent all day at this beach and we almost managed to not get burnt....1/2 of my leg got burnt and left a pretty good red patch. It was the most perfect day!

Day #3: Judd Trail, Pali Lookout, Ft. Hase Beach

Craig had to work again today so Cerissa dropped Steve and I off at the head of Judd Trail (outside of Honolulu). They've done the hike together before and thought it would be fun to do on a nice hot day. The hike is mostly covered and felt like we were in the jungle so it wasn't a bad way to spend part of our day. The hike took us about 1 hour 15 minutes to finish and it was overall a very good hike. The first part of the hike we were in bamboo shoots, then we were in a jungle next to small waterfalls and creeks, then we were in a forest surrounded by tall trees. It was very cool and probably one of the coolest hikes we've been on. It rained a couple of days before so parts of the trail were very muddy. We even had to cross a creek starting the trail and ending the trail and that was a little scary but we survived haha. 

Steve in the middle of super tall trees on our hike. 

The creek we had to cross. 

Literally felt like we were in the jungle. 

Steve and I

It was kinda fun to walk through this part of the trail. 

After our hike on Judd Trail Cerissa took us to see Pali Lookout which overlooks Kailua and Kaneohe. It was a great place to overlook the Marine Base as well as look at all the beautiful scenery around you. 

 Beautiful panoramic shot

The rest of the day we spent at Fort Hase Beach. It is another Marine Base beach and isn't very easy to swim at because of the volcanic rock it has along the shore. It was fun to just sit along the shore and let the waves come up on us. 

Steve sitting on the ledge getting wet

Ft. Hase Beach

Day 4: Makapu'u Hike, Kalamas Beach, Officer's Beach

Cerissa took us on this hike called Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail. It was a nice 2 mile round-trip hike in which we gained about 500 ft. in elevation. It was very hot as we were fully exposed to the sun throughout the whole trail. This trail is popular for whale watching about 3/4ths up the trial. There is a lookout over the ocean where you can just sit and look for whales. We noticed a lot of action the longer we stayed around and watched. We saw a few big splashes and the rest was just parts of the whale coming up out of the water to breathe. 

You can barely see it in this picture but there is a whale you can see in the distance with his fin or tail just above the water. 

Lookout at the top of the trail

Lookout to watch whales

Makapu'u Lighthouse

After our hike we were very hungry and craving some traditional Hawaiian Food. We went to a place called Ono Steaks and Shrimp in Waimanalo. We got some coconut shrimp and fish tacos. After eating we waited for Craig to get off work and we headed over to Kalama Beach to do some boogie boarding. The waves ended up not being very big so we moved over to Officer's Beach for better waves. 

Craig and Cerissa heading out to the beach 

Kalama Beach

Kalama Beach

Officer's Beach with the bigger waves. They had much more fun here. 

Days 5-9 to be on next post. Stay tuned.