Aloha and Farewell From Hawaii ... We Will Miss You Ko Olina!

Well, I guess the time has come to say good-bye to all our friends at Ko Olina! Thanks for the Best of Times, and the Happiest of New Year's. If 2009 can stay as wonderful as it started, this will be the best year ever! Here are the final photos from our last couple of days in Hawaii...

Janette and I posing one last time out in front of our hotel...

Our final sunset on Waikiki beach just hours before our flight home....

We hiked to the top of Diamond Head for a spectacular view of Waikiki and Honolulu below!  We did the entire uphill hike in about 20 minutes (they say it should take 45)!

You are probably wondering who caught the biggest wave on the North Shore?  Certainly Todd or one of the boys, right?  Not a chance.  I missed the entire shot here, but you should have seen how HUGE this wave was that came crashing down on Janette!!!  And luckily she survived as she was toppled head over heels with the entire beach panicking at first, and then laughing when she came out of it!  When you get a chance, ask Janette about "the big one".

At the same beach (Waimea Bay) as the prior picture, there was also this great rock that we jumped off of.  In this picture Jackson is making the jump!!

And Alec and I jumped off together, in 3-2-1, Woohoo!!!  Look at the air we are catching!  P.S.  I hit bottom...

The boys continued to tear it up on the North Shore, to the point where they actually broke the skim board in two!  Luckily for us, Costco took it back!!!  Yes!!!!

What would a trip to Hawaii be without eating at Duke's.  Duke's is a restaurant introduced to us by our favorite Hawaii travel buddies, Dallis and Carolyn Christensen, and we have loved it ever since!  Although we still love our Duke's on Kauai, the salad bar at the Duke's Waikiki was WAY better!!!  And of course, the Hula Pie is to Die for!

And you absolutely MUST pay tribute to and take a picture with the man himself, Duke Kahanamoku!  We had to take this picture about 10 times, to the point where it became the family joke, "who wants to go take a picture with Duke!?"

And finally, I know for years now many of you have wondered whether or not I do... As you can clearly see in this photo, the answer is clearly yes...I do walk on water!  (You may want to stand back from the lightning strike that surely is coming my way)

Thanks for sharing our time with us in Hawaii!  We had a blast and hope that perhaps one day, we can all go there together and get lei'd!  Todd, you are awful!

And Now.... Abstract Thoughts From A Crumbling Mind!

Much has been said about how much wood a Woodchuck would chuck if that Woodchuck could chuck wood. But I'm thinking if I am the Woodchuck, even if I could chuck wood... I'd probably hire it out to someone to chuck for me? That way I can focus my time on more important things, like that cute girl that sells sea shells down by the sea shore!!!

Aloha from Hawaii - New Year's Eve...a.k.a. Wahini Wednesday!

Welcome to Wahini Wednesday! Yes it's New Year's Eve on Oahu, and we decided it would be a good day to head over to Pearl Harbor....

Here is Janette and the boys at Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona Memorial is out in the Harbor, just to the right of, and above Alec's left shoulder.

Here they are again actually out on the Memorial. It was a really cool experience, and sad to think of all those people who lost their lives on December 7th, 1941. It was cool for Jackson because as you recall, he was born on December 7th.

Here is a picture of the actual USS Arizona Memorial that sits on top of the sunken Arizona that still sits there in the water. It is eery to see the oil still leaking up to the top of the water after all these years, and to think that 900+ men are still entombed in that ship.

For New Year's Eve, we decided that we would go to a Luau. Here is Janette all ready to go!

And the boys were primed and wiley with our new Island Tribal Tattoos!

Hey Jack! How about a good spear throwing competition! Actually, it was Alec who stuck the spear in the target 2 times in a row while all of us other guys and gals (and there were about 30 people trying) couldn't get it to stick even once! Wait to go Al! Collect some more Shell Lei's....

I don't even know what this was called, but Janette and a group of other folks were spinning these Ball on Rope things and dancing to Hawaiian music? Personally, I think these are ancient Hawaiian tools to keep the men in line!

Now that is what I am talkin' about! I'd be smiling too!!! Nice Coconuts, eh? And you should see those hips move!

The fireworks at the hotel were awesome! I have never seen a fireworks display over Palm Trees and the ocean! It was really cool!

Happy New Year everyone from Ko Olina! We had a great day and ended the year with a BANG! We hope you all had a great New Year's Eve too!

Aloha from Hawaii - Tiki Tuesday

I know, I know! I am a couple of days behind! But the connectivity over here is so dang slow! So, hopefully I can catch you up a bit on the past few days here at lovely Ko Olina! Here are a few highlights from Tuesday...

We started the day with all you can eat pancakes at Hapa Grill, our favorite little breakfast cafe just down the road! Mmmmmm.....Coconut Syrup!!!

Then it was back to the hotel to spend the morning and early afternoon down at the beach. Here are the beach bums in their natural habitat...

After all of that time in the sun, there is nothing better than driving half an hour north to the town of Haleiwa for a delicious Matsumoto Shaved Ice, with vanilla ice cream in the bottom. Once again, the Hawaiian Delight was the best flavor of all....Banana, Coconut and Pineapple.

Then we drove about 3 miles down the coast in search of "Lost" beach, which is the beach where they shoot the camp and beach scenes of Lost, which is one of our favorite shows. Here we are on the beach, but how can we be sure? Alec and Chandler, run down the beach and see if you can see anything else....

Ah Yes! It is true! Here is the actual Lost base camp set where all of the base camp scenes are filmed. It was blocked off with bright orange fencing and had a 24 hr/day guard. The hull of the plane is back in the upper left of this photo, along with the orange tarp covered hut where Juliette operated on Jack's appendix. Sawyer's tent is back to the right, and the church that Mr. Echo was building is just 30 yards down the beach! We love our Lost! They will start shooting the Final Season in this very spot starting Monday the 5th, the day after we leave! :-(

We ended the day back in Haleiwa for some fine Hawaiian food...? Of course not! It was great Mexican food at Cholo's, where the fish tacos were made with real Ahi Tuna! Very Good Stuff! Well, that was a pretty good Tiki Tuesday! Back to the hotel to sleep...after all, it is like 2am in Utah!

Aloha from Hawaii - Mahalo Monday

So the fun continues...We are loving it here in Paradise. These pictures below are actually in the wrong order though! You should start from the bottom, and then work your way back up!!!

We ended the day with a lovely Hula Dancing show in the hotel lobby! It was a GREAT day!


We spent the afternoon over in Hale'iwa where we had to grab some shaved ice with ice cream from Aoki's (Matsumoto's had a 30 minute line!) I got the Hawaiian Delight!

We then drove over by the North Shore. The waves were small today, but the mountains in the center of Oahu are beautiful as the clouds seem to hit and hang onto the top of the hills.

The boys love to Skim board at the beach!! Thank goodness for Costco and the Skim Boards they sell here in Hawaii!

Of course we went and found a great beach! Jackson is the King of the Boogie board! The waves were HUGE!!! I got beat up good!

If you look close, you can see the bigger fish kickin butt on the little fish! What we all do for a free meal!!!

We started the day with a 7:30 a.m. feeding of the fish down in the bay! Jackson was trying to figure out which fish we were seeing from the 30 fish shown on his card!

The day started with a beautiful sunrise over the lagoon! We knew it was goint to be a GREAT day!