Hawaii Temple

We visited the Hawaii Temple yesterday! It was sooooo beautiful, it has this long corridor driving up to it with palm trees on both sides all the way down, has to be one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. We came with the Wilsons, their daughter Jaime was coming for the first time.
Tim took some beautiful pictures (glad he did, I've been kind of hogging the camera......ooops......). There were beautiful trees, flowers and fountains. The landscaping was incredible.

I think this was Tim and Danielle's second time so we were happy to have them with us! So fun to have my daughter with me....... they were married in the Cardston temple, the Hawaii temple had the same designer so the design is quite similar.
Don and I so happy to be here.........makes it special to have time to visit the temple while on vacation. Its always nice to see what makes them the same and different.Kathy with the long corridor behind her. Most family we've had with us for awhile. We are hoping to come back on Sunday with the kids, go through the Visitors Centre and take lots of pictures then too.
Mel and Vanessa posing in front of the surf......great beach called Hukilau, just on the other side of the temple entrance. We went out here in the afternoon and enjoyed the beach. I sat and read, Don and the kids loved the surf.........they could have been here all day.Loved this picture, also took a small video, will have to figure out how to put it on here. We actually came to this beach because we were dropping Vanessa off later at the temple. She was invited to go on a youth temple trip with the ward that we went to church on Sunday.......so she was excited. They had a dinner beforehand and then did baptisms.......she said it was lots of fun! I gave her a hard time because she forgot to take pictures..........poor kid, but sooo glad she had this experience even though we missed her in our big Yahtzee game!

Waimea Bay Beach Park

Charlie's Angels or what!! Here are the girls with their Excel Rash Guards! Colin told us about these shirts and how wonderful they are in the sun, they have UV protection.....so we all got one, some of us just from the local store here and they are sooo comfortable. Of course some of us certainly have the advantage in showing them off!!!!!

Rebecca and Kristina having a blast whether on the beach or up in a tree....they keep each other busy!
Here are Carole and I........we asked Don to make it a head shot but he must not have heard us, now when I scrapbook I'll have to do some cropping, lol........not only that but the salt water is awful on hair so I go around with dreadful hair, thank goodness for hats..........I just want to know how come the girls can go around with beautiful salty hair and mine looks like this........

Carole is the travel agent extraordinaire, she's so funny, always phoning about something exciting she has found out.......like great deals on surfing lessons.......have to admit we wouldn't have done it without her...........THANKS CAROLE!!!
Rebecca and Mitchell....looking pretty cute in their rash guards.........they're the ones that we have to super watch, they'll play in the sun for hours. Here we are in Haileva..........famous for their shaved ice. It was really good.........like a super snow cone I hear, but a ton of flavours and we definitely should have shared a large and didn't!
Don and I.........notice the funky hat that I bought from the Aloha market for $5, kind of a Jane Austen looking one.......(the girls probably won't be seen with me) but it has been saving my head, well more like hiding my hair but whatever........we are having a fabulous time!

Danielle and Jaime the beach babes.......funny they still have lots to talk about, so glad Danielle has a wonderful friend in Jaime!! They've been so there for each other........
As you can see Mitchell takes after his Dad and is a total beach bum.........happiest when playing in the sand or exploring the beach for crabs.
The soon-to-be newlyweds, Luke and Jaime are getting married next month. We are going through the temple with them this week............yes, Luke is about 6'8" and all I can say is that considering the cost of groceries here in Hawaii, thank goodness Colin and Carole have to feed him.

Images of Hawaii

Just thought I would post some pictures I have been taking while I'm here. Luckily I have been able to use Tim and Danielle's camera which is very similar tomine, but not enough to have the battery charger be the same.....arghhhhh............then again, I still even forget theirs!!! Yesterday I forgot to bring it with me when we went snorkeling in Shark's Cove and so resorted to Melodie's. Last night I discovered she didn't bring her USB cord so I couldn't download those on to the computer so yesterday's pictures will have to wait until I get home!
Here are some just random ones.........

Here are Don and Rebecca with Honolulu in the background, huge city with so many high hotels!
Beautiful Vanessa in a park on the beach in Waikiki........she's already bought the cutest outfit!

Don and Tim......male bonding, they both loved snorkeling and are total beach bums.

Couldn't resist taking pictues of this tree.......they have them all over, they are enormous and look as the all the roots are above ground. Amazing to look at and huge, fun for picture taking.

We're off to the beaches again today, not sure if some of the crew will be taking surfing lessons, will keep you posted! Soooo happy to be here, but missing people at home. Funny but you keep thinking, wish they were here, or she would so love this..........

We are also keeping up with our scripture reading and praying as a family, Don is our leader in this, I'm grateful for his diligence!

Hawaii!! and camera woes...

We still can't believe we are in Hawaii........ to think that it took us less time flying to be in Hawaii than driving to Seattle. We were pretty excited to pack up and head out on Wednesday......we drove first to Seattle where we stayed with some friends, Dean and Leslie Bennion that night. Leslie had this wonderful dinner ready for us and then we just had this wonderful visit, did I remember to take pictures, NOOO! Have to get that in my head.
We headed out early!!!! the next morning to pick up Kathy from her hotel, park our van and catch our flight........I was so thrilled to just be able to take our kids on the plane! It was their first time, funny to think that I never flew until I was heading off the college and here Mitchell is 7 and Rebecca is 10, they were so excited, it was fun to see their faces!

Have to admit I was sick yesterday when I discovered that I had left my extra battery and charger at home in the kitchen because as soon as I turned on my camera it was flashing low battery. Have had problems before, so it's just a given with me that I carry an extra battery and charger everywhere........and considering that I had written umpteen lists and that I had every conceivable charger in my carry on (battery, phone, game boy, etc.), to not have the most important one was so upsetting. So went through a bad patch, then realized that Vanessa and Melodie both had one.....soooo borrowed Vanessa's (my old one) and carried on!.....which is why I have pictures now. The other good news is that Tim and Danielle have the same camera so Danielle is bringing her charger today!

So we are looking at palm trees everywhere for the first time! We are staying at The Aqua Island Colony hotel until we head for our condo on Saturday........when we got in yesterday, we rented two cars and came and checked in. We then just went walking and discovered lots of cute little shops where we took these pictures.....can see spending money will be very easy here! The groceries are sooo expensive, I about choked on what we had to spend on breakfast and snacks.
We had a wonderful supper at The Big Kahuna, thanks to Aunt Kathy where the kids also played pool.....we are waiting for Danielle and the Wilsons today!!

We are hoping to make it to Haunama Bay to go snorkeling.......this will be interesting trying to spell things, Hawaiians have soooo many vowels!

Hey let me know if you are reading this...... a big Hello to all of you.......love from the Mathiesons