Saturday: Wrapping it Up

Saturday morning Adam was up early to watch one last sunrise over the ocean with his mom.  I joined him not too much longer after the sun rose for a beautiful stroll on the beach together.  

Then I headed inside to do this little lady's hair for the day:

I had been wanting to do her hair all week long, but we were so busy, it didn't happen until the last day.  It was so fun, and she looked so beautiful!
We got our last Hawaii breakfast at McDonald's.  :)

And then we headed back to the house to get everything packed up and cleaned up by 11:00 AM.  The kids got their last games of ping-pong in, too.  ( I so wish I had taken more pictures like this, by the way. Just hanging out at the house together.  That was a great part of the vacation!)

After leaving the house, we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

And we got Dole Whips.  Yumm-o.

We ultimately decided not to take the tour of the gardens, because it was really expensive and we didn't think either we or our children would enjoy it that much.  So instead, we bought more souvenirs at the gift shop and watched a pineapple demonstration:

This lady taught us how to select a ripe pineapple based on color, smell, softness, etc.  Pretty interesting.

Doug and Heather were so kind as to let us hang out at their house and watch the U of U football game during the afternoon.  Then we headed down to the vicinity of the airport and had dinner with the whole family at Ruby Tuesday.

Next, it was off to the airport.

This is probably about half of all our luggage.  Heather requested a photo of the luggage, and this is about as much as we could get together at once during the bustle of trying to get 29 people through the airport.

Last came the painful goodbye as we bid farewell to Hawaii and our wonderful Marchant family who were all catching a different flight home to Utah.  We took a red-eye to Denver and arrived home Sunday morning.

This was truly the trip of a lifetime.  At the beginning of the vacation, Rosemary said, "I hope you don't all hate each other by the time this is over."  But I can honestly say, at least for me, that the absolute opposite happened.  I have a deeper love and appreciation for Adam's parents and the rest of the Marchant family.  We made memories that we will treasure forever.  We feel blessed beyond measure to belong to such a wonderful family and to have had these amazing experiences together!

Friday: Parasailing and Laie Temple

Friday morning Greg and Susan watched our kids so we could go parasailing with Adam's youngest brother, Bryan.  

Adam going up!

Diamond Head as seen from the boat

Honolulu, HI

Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all before going up, and as it turns out, there was absolutely nothing to be nervous about, anyway.  Parasailing was much less of a thrill ride than I expected it would be.  It was sort of like being on a playground swing, just several hundred feet in the air.  It was really calm up there, though, not fast or crazy like I expected it would be.  But the view, as expected, was phenomenal.  I'm really glad we went; it's something I can check off my life to-do list, but I probably wouldn't pay to do it again.

Later that afternoon, we saw a beautiful rainbow over the ocean.  Again, photos can just never do it justice.

Friday night Doug and Heather, along with two girls who are students at BYU-H, came to the house and babysat all sixteen kids so all the adults could attend a temple session together.  Talk about a great way to end a trip to Hawaii.  Wow.  It was pretty special to be in the temple with Adam's parents, all of his brothers, and all of their spouses.  Adam and I don't go to the temple too often together at home--we take turns so we don't have to get a babysitter for the kids.  So it was great to have that time together, particularly in the Celestial Room where we were able to discuss specific spiritual promptings we had received.
I also absolutely loved sitting together with my mother-in-law and my four sisters-in-law, all dressed in white.  I am so grateful for them and the women and mothers that they are.  One of the things I miss the very most about living in Utah is the time after Sunday night dinner at G&G Marchant's home, sitting in the living room and chatting with all the Marchant women.  I love Adam's brothers--they are collectively among the best men I have ever known--and they are all matched by amazing women.  It was a wonderful privilege to be with them in the temple.  It was the pinnacle of a most memorable week.

I had hoped to get a picture of all of us together at the temple, but it didn't happen.  :(  We were in a hurry on our way in (getting out of a house filled with our collective 16 children on time is much easier said than done!), and after our session some of us stayed for a sealing session, while others went home.  So we didn't get a photo.  But, regardless, I will always remember what a special night we had.

Thursday: Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head

We spent Thursday morning at Hanauma Bay, which is known as a world-class snorkeling site.  Something that I learned on this trip is that I LOVE snorkeling, which was a little surprising to me considering I don't love to swim.  I seriously wish we lived close enough to a place where I could go all the time; it would definitely become a favorite hobby of mine if that were the case.  It also made me think it might be worthwhile to get scuba certified.  If I love snorkeling this much, I think scuba diving would be absolutely thrilling for me.  

Anyway, Hanauma Bay was lovely.  It was a perfect place for us, really, because there were practically no waves at all, which made it an ideal beach for the kids.  They played on boogie boards and had fun together while the adults and some of the older kids took turns snorkeling.  

The dark spots in the water are coral reef, and it was absolutely teeming with all sorts of tropical fish.

Sean had a waterproof case that you could put your camera in to take underwater photos, and he was kind enough to let me borrow it.  So I snapped all these photos on one of my excursions out to the corral.  It was nearly impossible to see what you were photographing through the case, but I felt fortunate that I got so many decent shots, anyway. 

That iridescent-rainbow fish on the right was (in person) the most beautiful type of fish I saw all day

And Greg took these two:

"Erik's Turtle"

"Emma's Shark"

I didn't see any turtles or sharks, (I did see an eel!), but I was happy that my niece and nephew did!

After becoming excessively sunburned, hungry, and exhausted, we took off.

It took McKay all of about 10 seconds to zonk in his carseat.

Even though we were tired, we didn't feel like we could go all the way to Hawaii and not hike Diamond Head.  It's very close to Hanauma Bay, so we decided to check it out before heading home.  We left the sleeping McKay in the air-conditioned car with Susan (who also had sleeping children), and Adam, Ty, Greg, Bryan, and I made the hike.

Right at the end, there was a ridiculously steep staircase leading to the summit.

This is how Bry felt about it:

But it was well worth it.  The view from the top was breath-taking.

Honolulu

It was a fabulous day.  It was utterly exhausting, and I went to bed way early that night, but we made some awesome memories at Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head.

Wednesday: Pearl Harbor and Swap Meet

Wednesday we drove down to the south end of O'ahu to visit Pearl Harbor.  The scenery on the way down was to die for.  These were taken out the window of our Jeep:

So much beautiful green.  And as a sidenote, because it is so green, we expected to encounter more rain. The weather while we were there was perfect, though.  It rained some overnight, but I don't think we got any rain at all during the day.
We were the first of the family to arrive, so we procured tickets for everyone ("29 tickets?  Are you serious?!") and walked around some while we waited for our tour to begin.

My guys in front of the USS Bowfin Submarine

The anchor from the USS Arizona

View from the Visitor's Center, The USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial.  The treaty to end WWII was signed on board the USS Missouri, so these two boats are symbolic of the beginning and the ending of WWII.

There were a couple of really nice museums that we were able to visit before we began our tour.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy them all that much because McKay was being a stinker.

Then we took a ferry out to the USS Arizona Memorial.  It was a very somber place.

The memorial was built directly over and perpendicular to the USS Arizona, so you could look over the deck and see parts of the submerged ship.
There were a few pieces of the ship that protruded from the water, too.

And a memorial wall to honor the soldiers that died there.

The USS Missouri, as seen from the memorial

Survivors of the crew of the USS Arizona are given the option of being interred in the ship with their shipmates.

Bryan and all the grandkids, or as Adam put it, "All the single Marchants"

Visiting Pearl Harbor was pretty special, but I don't think I would ever choose to return there with toddlers!  It's not a particularly kid-friendly place.  Add to that that McKay had a major meltdown at the memorial, and it wasn't necessarily my finest Hawaii moment!
After we were done visiting Pear Harbor, some of us headed over to Aloha Stadium to check out the Swap Meet that is held there.  Bless his heart, Adam took both our kids and Greg and Susan's two youngest kids home by himself, so G&S could hike and I could shop.  Four kids four and under is a lot for anyone to handle, but don't feel too bad for him.  All four of them fell asleep in the car, and the two youngest stayed asleep after transferring them to their beds.  Thank goodness; I was a little worried about him!
The Swap Meet was HUGE!!  There were bazaar-type booths circling the entire perimeter of Aloha Stadium.  It was a great place to get very inexpensive souvenirs.  7 T-shirts for $20?  Yes, please!  A couple of my sisters-in law and I went a little crazy!

Angie, Me, & Michelle at the Swap Meet

See those cute purses in the background?  Michelle tried to convince me to get one, and I am still kicking myself that I didn't.