50th Anniversary in Hawaii

Yesterday was my parents' 50 wedding anniversary!  They're such great examples of how to be happily married! I am incredibly blessed to have them as my parents!!

We had the opportunity to go to Hawaii with all my brothers and sisters back in April to help them celebrate. All but two of the spouses were able to go, and the best part was that we left all our kids home! Except for 2 month old Juniper, that is. This made it a true vacation for everyone. 

On our first day, we divided into two groups for boating excursions. Half of us wanted to go on a snorkeling trip to Molikini, and the other half wanted to do a whale-watching trip. The water was very choppy that day, and some of us got seasick. 

This was a different company than Dave and I went with a few years ago, but it was pretty similar. It went to the same two places - Molokini and Turtle Town.

When we first started out, it was breezy and chilly; I was glad we packed jackets. We also opted to rent the wet suit tops. The other two times we'd been to Hawaii were in the fall, and we found that the water was definitely cooler this time. It's still way warmer than what we're used to in California, though!

There's Molokini! One thing we didn't like quite as much about this company was that they were more restrictive in where they would let us snorkel. Trilogy didn't care, but these guys wouldn't let us go right up next to the island. 

I felt seasick, but I got in plenty of good snorkeling before that set it. I think next time I'll try using a motion sickness patch.

The GoPro battery was dead at Molokini, but Dave changed the battery and got some video from turtle town. Here are some snapshots from that.

Our snorkeling pictures and videos never do it justice.
Here is the Hawaiian state fish: humuhumunukunukuapua. 

We stayed in three 2-bedroom condos at a timeshare resort that my parents' friend works at. Her name is Kathy, and she was extremely generous and allowed us all to stay for free! It was great to be together plus have multiple kitchens and living rooms. My parents plus one other couple stayed at Kathy's house, which was very nice! They were close friends when we lived back East (her oldest daughter was one of my best friends), and I hadn't seen Kathy in over 30 years!

We loved the food trucks parked next to the condos, and we ate there twice. Really good mahi mahi!

We got shave ice at three different places! Good stuff. Another great thing about this condo was that it was within walking distance of lots of shops and restaurants. 

Kathy recommended some great restaurants for our big group. The places all had good food, reasonable prices, and casual atmospheres. Instead of going to a pricey luau, we hit a free luau show at a Marriott and ate really good luau food at a restaurant close to the condo. It really helps to know a local.

We all took lots of pictures and shared them on the Moments app. It was fun to see all the new pictures pop up throughout the week.

Our second morning we did a kayak snorkeling trip with 2 other couples - Aaron and Marrisse and Josh and Megan. We had a guide who took us out into a big bay and showed us all the great spots to see sea animals.

We saw a turtle cleaning station where the turtles always go to get cleaned. You can't see it in the picture, but there were little fish nibbling on them, like a little spa!

I thought it would be hard to get in and out of the kayak, since I have no upper body strength, but it wasn't. Having flippers really helped.

The coolest thing we saw were two sleeping white tip reef sharks. Dave dove down to get a closer look.

 They were huge! Like 6 feet long. We never would have found them if the guide didn't take us to the exact right spot. Apparently they hang out in the same area for a few days at a time.

  

We were excited to meet Ben and Barbara's new baby, Juniper. It's fun to have a baby to pass around!

Late night shave ice run!

It was a long, slow line, but that's okay because we're all grown up and patient.

Plus it gave us more time to visit and decide on flavors!

Maryruth and Jen were the two siblings who went without their husbands. They couldn't get away, plus they helped watch their kids back at home.

On Sunday we went to church, which was packed! They get a lot of visitors every week, as you can imagine. After lunch we drove the Road to Hana and pulled over a few times to see waterfalls, cool plants and views.

There weren't as many waterfalls as there were when we went last time, because apparently this is a dryer season. But there also weren't as many tourists, so the road wasn't nearly as crowded. That was nice!

Kathy also provided a couple of cars for us to use while we were there. Plus my parents rented a van. We filled up all three cars exactly and just did everything together. We noticed on the Hana trip that we were divided into big kids in one car and little kids in the other!

We got about halfway to Hana before turning around and heading back home. It's more about the journey than the destination!

We stopped and saw another little waterfall on the way back. 

We pulled over to get a glimpse of the north shore, which was beautiful. 

We saw a bunch of people pointing to the sand down below and realized there were a bunch of sea turtles on the beach! From a distance they just looked like big rocks, but I'm glad we went down to check it out because they were adorable. I loved watching them crawl forward very slowly and clumsily.

On our last day we went to a beautiful beach for some great snorkeling. For some people this was their first time snorkeling, and everyone loved it! Once again, Kathy to the rescue! She provided a bunch of snorkel sets for us to use. 

Ben had a play and couldn't get there until late Sunday night (the rest of us were there from Wed/Thurs - Tuesday).

This was Jen's first time leaving Kyra, which is a big deal. Josh and Megan are moving to California at the end of this month, and we're so excited!!

I love this picture! Troy looks just like their oldest son, Andrew.

Every time we snorkel, we see something new. This time I saw really cool spotted eels. We learned that about 25% of the fish in Hawaii aren't found anywhere else in the world. There is such a huge variety!

We were on our way out to the luau show when I realized it was our one and only chance to get a family picture! The last time we were all together was Ben and Barbara's wedding 7 years ago. So we got people out of their cars and quickly clicked a few pictures in front of the condos. I'm so glad we did! I love my family!!

All because two people fell in love. I know, cheesy, but so true!!

Cute picture of Ben and Juniper. It was so good to catch up with everyone, and I love how MaryRuth is always so smiley!!

Our last sunset in Maui!

It was a beautiful setting for the luau show.

The show wasn't as big or as good as the one we went to last time, but you can't beat free!

We woke up early to drive Josh and Megan to the airport on Tuesday. Then we walked along the beach one last time before breakfast. 

This was a great place to have a little family reunion in honor of my mom and dad. It was relaxing and beautiful, and I hope we can do it again sometime!! Maybe next time we'll take all the kids :)