Tuesday, July 8 RENEE

My parents are visiting the island.  More importantly, they are visiting our family and being awesome grandparents.

 {playing games (to win!) and reading books}

{temple and grounds were closed for maintenance, but had to go back to where baby Julia and I used to take our daily walks}

Mom was here when Julia was first born, and I'm afraid I wasn't a very good tour guide just weeks after having a c-section.  Dad has never been here, so they were up for some fun island adventures.  We started our day early by going to our favourite cliff-jumping spot at Waimea.  While I have had quite some time to get used to my husband's bribing of our kids to do daring acts for slurpies, I think my parents were a bit shocked.  Dad pointed the caution signs out to me, but I have learned to let go and let live.

 {climbing up the rock}

{Ethan is jumping, Tyler and Greg are waiting on the rock and Julia is in the water in the right corner}

The kids had a great time, and Greg was able to take my Mom out for some fancy dancy snorkeling. She saw, among other amazing creatures, sea turtles, which delighted her to pieces.  It was fun to see her so excited with this new experience!  Dad dove right in to building sand castles with the kids. In fact, he was so enthusiastic, he unfortunately forgot to sunscreen his "never-before-seen-the-sun" feet.  This, I will assume, will be his biggest regret from his trip to Hawaii.

   {sand building extraordinaire}

 {with all of our company this summer, Greg has mastered his teaching of snorkeling}

 {seriously, how cute are these two?  Celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary in Hawaii!}

Next we made it through the historic town of Hale'iwa and then up to the Dole Plantation.

The kids (minus Julia as an infant) had never been here before either as it is QUITE the drive from our place.  Always eager to introduce learning in our daily excursions, it was thrilling to show the kids the process of growing pineapples.  Dad was a big spender and gifted us with our first, and fabulous taste of pineapple ice cream.  It is divine.  Truly worth a taste if you manage to get up there.  There was a train ride and a maze.  After evaluating the cost benefits, Mr. Economist and I decided to indulge the family in the maze.

{we'd been posing long enough, so I decided to go in for the treat... of course that's when the picture was snapped!  Love our little photo bomber in the back.} 

 {here Tyler brought us back in time as he demonstrated how a two year old throws a tantrum on the ground}

 {EVERYTHING was pineapple}

We didn't take into consideration that it was now the middle of the day, extremely hot, and that while all around the maze it was shady, within the "World's Largest Maze of 2008" there was absolutely no shade or covering.  We didn't have much of a plan, and some of us stuck together, while others ran off on their own, and I think my Mom must have said a dozen time, "Roy, just get me out of here."

Here are the kids' thoughts/reviews on the maze:

Julia: "It was really hot.  It was a fun activity.  Just really really hot."
Tyler: "It was fun and long."
Ethan: "The ice cream was good.  I was lonely in the maze."
Jacob: "I liked it.  I was hot."

While we are thoroughly enjoying our time in Hawaii, the heat is probably the hardest part for us to deal with, coming from Montana. Thank heavens for pineapple ice cream to get us through the hottest of summer days!