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!