Our fun filled day at the PCC!

We continued around the Polynesian Cultural Center. We visited all of the "villages" and learned a lot. It was off-the-charts on the fun factor! We learned a lot and were entertained much!

Here the children are learning how to twirl these balls on the ends of rope (they have a Hawaiian name, but I cannot remember it...shhh! Don't tell my Hawaiian friend!..."love ya Trish!")

A fun stick rhythm game...nope don't remember the name of that one either.

Poor Andrew is trying so hard to swing those things around! The ladies make it look sooooo easy and graceful!

How ADORABLE is HE???!!!??? I just can't stand it!

Another game. This one is with sticks and although I cannot remember the Hawaiian name of it, it translates to "right, left". (Well, at least I remember that much...I know, it's not much.)

Ok, this was a treat! We bought some Hawaiian ice cream to share. It was soooo delicious! Tatiana is thoroughly enjoying her share!

And it was served to us off of the boat. How cool is that?!?

In "Fiji", the kids learned how to dance! It was so cute to watch. Ben, our usually outgoing ham of the family, was too shy to go up there. But all three other kids went! Andrew wanted to stay with his sister even though the boys were suppose to go to the other side to learn the "boy part" of the dance. The man on the microphone said he was a "smart man" that he stayed with the "pretty girls". Everyone laughed and thought it was cute.

Nick, even without Andrew to back him up, did really good over on his side. I was impressed with all three of them!

Family picture in "Tahiti"!

The kids with some pretty girls in Fiji.

And here they are with the Tongan drummer. He was hilarious! We really enjoyed his show and the kids definitely wanted a picture to remember him by.

After our tour of the villages we took a boat ride through the PCC. It is such a magnificent and beautiful place!

Arriving at the Polynesian Cultural Center

Finally it was time for us to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center! We were so excited for this part of our trip. And we were right to be excited because this was one of the favorite parts of the whole vacation for us!

The weather is still trying to be discouraging, but we won't let that bother us! When we arrived they did give us ponchos, just in case. Thankfully we never did need to use them!

We were all presented with leis and then got our picture taken. After the picture they took the leis back. Oh well, we got ones we could keep later on. We received both a shell lei and a real orchid lei. Both very beautiful! Here Andrew is receiving his lei for the picture. Such a cutie pie!

Ben is such a "cool dude". Here he is giving us a "SHAKA!"

One of the first shows we we saw in PCC was in the Samoan village. We saw "Kapeneta Teo-Tafiti" or "Kap" for short. He showed us how to make fire with coconut husks and how to crack a coconut and how to get the milk from one. It was very fascinating. He also taught us that in Samoa the men do ALL the cooking and the women weave and sew. Very interesting. I could live like that...for a while. Kap was very entertaining and had us all in stitches a few times.

One of Kap's friends showed how they climb the tree to get the coconuts. It wasn't really like "climbing" the tree, more like "flying" up it! He was so fast and made it look effortless. Wow!

Exploring Laie Point

The Legend of La'ie Point: Laniloa, The Mo'o
This point of land that extends out into the ocean is called Laniloa. According to legend. This peninsula was originally a "Mo'o" or giant lizard. Standing upright ready to kill any intruder.

After Kana (a legendary warrior) and his brother had rescued their mother from Moloka'i and had taken her back to Hawaii. Kana set out on a journey to kill all the Mo'o in the islands. In time, he arrived in La'ie where the Mo'o had been killing many people. Kana easily defeated the Mo'o taking its head. He chopped it into five pieces and flung them into the ocean. The pieces of the lizard's head can still be seen today as five small islands lying off-shore their original names were Kihewamoku, Moluaaniwa, Pulemoku, Malualai and Keauakaluapa'a'a.

This picture is one of the islands, or "heads". Notice the big hole in the middle? That was knocked out by a tsunami back in 1946!

Exploring and finding all kinds of cool volcanic rock.

Such a beautiful girl.

These boys could spend all day here.

Our very own private beach! "The Queen's Bath"

When I returned from my morning run, I joined everyone else down on our private beach behind our house. Everyone was having such a great time!

The kids were paddling around on their boogie boards, having races...

Andrew wasn't too sure of the water at first so he played in the sand. Nice shades!

Here is a view from the top. It is called "The Queen's Bath". See the ridge out in the water? That is a ridge of volcanic rock and acts as a wave breaker. During high tide it is underwater, but during low tide the waves break on the rock leaving the shallow water on this side very calm. It was a perfect spot for the kids to play.

Ben figured out a way to paddle faster. Clever kid!

Andrew decided to try out the water. Once he was in, he was LOVING it!

Nick's sand castle. Good job!

Tatiana out on the ledge. Such a pretty girl!

Ben couldn't get enough of his boogie board.

What a fun morning!

A morning run, BYUHawaii, and flooding...

I started our fourth day in Hawaii off with a nice morning run. It was great! I ran from our beach house, past the Polynesian Cultural Center across the street, down a few blocks and then turned left to go run around the BYU Hawaii campus. It was a beautiful morning! I have never been to the BYU campus before. I love the mosaic they have on their main building. Beautiful artwork!

With all of the rain we have been having there has also been some flooding. We have driven through water on the roads that was pretty high and seen it here and there on our travels around the island. But I stopped on my run to take pictures of some of the flooding on campus...


I love the sign they have as you enter campus, "Enter to Learn, Go forth to Serve."

Now on with our day...it's going to be a great one in paradise!

Sweet Tatiana!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day, who wouldn't in Hawaii! When we arrived back at the beach house, Tatiana gave me a Mother's Day gift that she purchased in Hawaii with her own money. A little blue glass dolphin that says Hawaii on it. She is so thoughtful and sweet. I am so blessed to have such and amazing daughter...and wonderful sons...and terrific husband!

Turtle Beach

On our way back to the beach house we stopped at Turtle Beach to see some sea turtles. There were a few that were surfing around in the waves and they were a lot of fun to watch.

Tatiana watching the turtles...

Grandma watching the turtles as Nick and Ben play in the sand beside her...

The sand feels so cool! There is nothing quite like Hawaii sand.

My Honey and me!

Ben running on the beach, I love this picture with the wave crashing behind him.

Grandpa pointing out turtles to Andrew. Andrew is never to sure of the beach, the loud crashing waves scare him and he much rather be held if he gets anywhere near the water.

Tatiana, Ben, and Nick checking out the turtles...

Here is one that got washed up onto the rock and was waiting for a wave to take him/her out again. They are so amazing!

A stop at Tropical Farms

We stopped at "Tropical Farms" a macadamia nut farm. They had some delicious samples and we just had to buy some. We took some pictures in front of the statues and flowers out front.

Our three STRONG boys!

Our wonderful children and me on Mother's Day in Hawaii!

This is really neat about the founders. They seemed very religious and I thought it was very appropriate that we stop here on Sunday.

And our GORGEOUS daughter!

Valley of the Temples

After we were done at our temple, we went back to the house to change. Then we went to visit the "Valley of the Temples", a Buddhist temple and cemetery. It was very interesting. Beautiful and educational.

The kids mostly had fun feeding the fish and birds.


They each had a turn ringing the HUGE bell. It was fun for them to try to move that giant log to ram into the bell. Here is Tatiana taking her turn.