Hawaii- Turtles, Photoshoot, Waimea Falls

After we toured around Kualoa Ranch, we went to the North Shore. We tried out a delicious food truck in Haleiwa, Surf N' Salsa, which had some of our favorite food of the trip, including a pumpkin tres leches cake.

Then we went to Lanikea beach where we saw one sea turtle napping on the beach and we saw some surfers riding the waves!

Then we checked out the Laie temple. It was beautiful!

We spent the rest of that day on the beach near our hotel, where there was this cool swing the kids liked:

Our last morning we went to the beach to see the sunrise and to do a little photo shoot:

After the photoshoot we went to Waimea Valley to check out the botanical garden and see the waterfall. However, the waterfall was barely a trickle, we weren't allowed to swim in the pool at the bottom since the water was so low, and a lot of the flowers weren't in season, so it ended up being a bit lame, but we made the best of it!

There were still a lot of beautiful hibiscus:

And some crazy flowers and trees:

There was also some beautiful scenery:

Here was the "waterfall":

We had lunch at Ted's Bakery on the way back to the hotel, and they had some really delicious food. I loved the macadamia nut cream pie, which may have been my favorite thing I ate the whole trip!

Our last afternoon/evening was spent at the beach by our hotel. We rented some boogie boards, and we all had a great time using those. Ryan and Hyrum went snorkeling a bunch, and Ryan even ended up snorkeling with a sea turtle for a bit!

A couple other things I want to remember from this trip- there were sea snails all over the sidewalks and in the hotel pool, wild chickens (we called them Hei-Heis) wandering all over, kids watching Hawaii movies in the car as we drove all over the island, delicious haupia pies from McDonald's, and singing Disney songs in the car on the way to the airport on our way home.

We had such an awesome time in Hawaii! The whole family agreed it was the best family vacation we've ever been on, and it was great just spending time together without a million distractions. It was hard to come home!