Aloha- Day 1 and 2

Ryan and I had an awesome opportunity to take a vacation to Oahu. Ryan's mom, sister, and brother-in-law were so kind to watch our kids and make the whole trip possible. On Tuesday May 17th, we drove to Indianapolis to drop the kids at Ryan's sister's house. The next morning we arrived at the airport about 4:30 am. After 2 layovers and almost 12 hours, we landed in Honolulu. We checked into the Beachcomber hotel, right on Waikiki. Then we grabbed food and went to the beach and swam for a bit. After waking up so early, traveling so long, and the 5 hour time difference, we were exhausted. So, we went to bed at 7 o'clock!

We woke up about 3:30 and sat on our balcony for a while. Then we went back to sleep for another hour. About 5:30 we got up and headed to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was amazing and I loved the fact that there were already about 20 surfers out on the water.

I don't know that you can ever get over the beauty of Hawaii once you've seen it!

We walked a couple miles to Leonards Bakery and tried out their donuts. They had a sweet and sour donut that was funky but good.

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the Polynesian Cultural Center. We took the bus service the offer and had a nice ride there.

We really enjoyed the shows. Especially this first one. He was hilarious and made fire right on stage.

Can you see the man at the top of the tree grabbing a coconut. Awesome!

Man are we white or what?! After the Fiji show, I went and got my own Fiji marking on my ankle.

We were able to see all of the shows and then we went on the LDS tour.

The tour took us past BYU Hawaii then on to the Temple. We stopped at the temple and went in to the visitor's center for a bit.

Then we headed back to enjoy the Luau and show at the PCC. It was such an awesome day. Learning about the Polynesian cultures and seeing their excitement for life was amazing.

I would definitely recommend going to the Polynesian Cultural Center to anyone heading out there. It was a wonderful day, but again, we were exhausted by the time we made it back to our hotel about 10:30!