Willies in Paradise

Our week in Hawaii with all of our kids, spouses and grandchildren, was great fun! We managed to pull off a week where every ones' schedules accommodated our gathering at Turtle Bay on the north shore of Oahu. Our condos were right on the golf course, which Ryan loved. He got to play every evening with his uncles and his dad. Our mornings were spent playing on the beach and swimming, despite Audrey's good effort to eat all of the sand around her whenever she could. Brooke and Dave were our family paparazzi and photographed all of our adventures. The fishing group, including brave Brookie (!) managed to pull in about 500 pounds of Yellow fin tuna and Ahi between them (not counting the slimy fish eye Jeff ate after catching the biggest fish of the expedition, and we won't mention the episodes of queasiness out on the open sea!) Jenny appointed herself our family hula queen and posed at every tourist site with her wavy arms. (Enter to learn- Go forth to hula!) Kristin is almost convinced to have a destination wedding when she and Adam tie the knot next year. The view toward the ocean down the steps of the Hawaii temple in Laie is beautiful! Tyler was our lone scuba diver and was able to give us a great description of the underwater world, 40 feet below the surface of the bay where we snorkeled. I think I'm glad I didn't get up close to some of the creatures he saw. Wendy organized the ATV crew and it was a toss up whether the group was more impressed by the amazing scenery and tropical vistas, or the movie trivia shared by their tour guide. It turns out that several shows had filmed on location where they rode their bikes that afternoon..."Lost," "Jurassic Park," and "Pearl Harbor." It's a good thing I didn't go along on the cliff jumping adventure and watch all of my kids climb up onto a huge volcanic rock formation at Waimea beach, and then heave themselves recklessly out over the cliff and crash into the sea, 25 feet below. The fact that Matt dragged a good deal of the red, muddy soil from the trail back with him on the white seat of the rental car was a small price to pay for just being ALIVE after tempting fate with his cliff dive. The only real casualties of our week at the beach were Dave's cut foot from stepping on some coral, and Jenny's multiple gashes, sustained from her body surfing wipe-out. And Wendy had to take Ryan to a local "medicine man" to treat him for his cough. All in all, we had a great adventure. We ate, snorkeled, fished, golfed, toured, sunburned, pina-colada-ed, shopped and played our way through our wonderful week in paradise. Big Jeff did a fabulous job working out all of our travel arrangements and car rentals. It's a good thing he got to relax in Hawaii for a week because now that he is back home again, he's been called to be a temple worker and a seminary teacher! What about Kauai in '09----who's with me??