Hawaii Part 2

One of the days David, Eisley, and I took a day to drive around the island to just see what we would come across. 

Our first stop was just by chance we saw it while driving. It was the Valley of the Temples and is a huge multi-religious cemetery. It had separate areas for each religious group and it was interesting to see the different headstone/memorial styles. We loved seeing the mountains covered in huge waterfalls.

In the back of the park is a really cool traditional style Buddhist temple. This is a common sight in Japan but not so common for the states. You pay a little admission fee, but it was worth it to walk around and take in the peaceful beauty. The backdrop of the pines and the mountains is stunning. 

Eisley loved all the Koi fish

Next we drove up near the Polynesian Center on the north shore to the BYU campus and our church's Hawaiian temple. It is gorgeous and the grounds are a great place to walk around and spend some time as a family. We didn't have a sitter to do a session inside but we would love to go back someday!

Jesus is one of Eisley's favorite people to point out. She started saying his name when she was just 9 months old and my mom taught it to her while she was watching her for us at the San Diego temple. The second we walked into the Hawaii visitor's center Eisley yelled "Jesus!" and all the sister missionaries swooned.  

The view from the temple steps goes all the way to the ocean.

After enjoying the temple grounds we drove on over to the Bonsai Pipeline. A popular surfing spot for locals. The waves were impressive and there were a ton of people surfing. It was really cool just sitting there and watching them. 

I loved this dad teaching his little boy how to surf by watching the big boys do it. 

Along the way back we made a quick stop at Waimea Valley. We wished we had time to stay and go through the park because it looked interesting. They have a lot of cultural exhibits and waterfalls, along with Waimea Valley being a very historically important place culturally and religiously to the Hawaiian people.

One of the best parts of traveling and being in the Navy is because we have a lot of great friends scattered all around the world. We were able to catch up over dinner with the Sponseller family since they are currently living on Oahu. We were finally able to meet their adorable girls! Eisley and Ruby are very close in age so it is fun to see the similarities in development and personality.

The next day we stopped by the Disney Aulani resort to meet Mickey Mouse before some beach time. They didn't catch it on camera but Eisley was so anxious in line to see him, and then she ran up and gave him a big hug. 

Nearby is Paradise cove where Aaron told us we could find some sea turtles. There were six wild turtles swimming in the shallows. It's always neat to see them in the "wild" even though they are so used to humans. There was a lady just standing in the water and one swam right into her. 

Afterwards we met up with David's parents at our resort so Eisley could play in the water some more. She loves swimming and playing in the sand. She's lucky that we always live near a beach. 

I can't get enough of that cute little toddler belly!

I love those sandy little feet!

So that was our Hawaii Vacation. It was a lot of enjoying the weather and beach and seeing the sites. We are really glad we were able to go as a family and get some much needed vacation time together.