SATURDAY & SUNDAY - 8-20,21-16 - LAST DAY OF CRUISE.  SOME MORE TIME IN OHAU.  We woke up early this morning and had to be off the cruise ship by 9:00 AM.  We ate breakfast, did some final packing, and said our goodbyes to the ship.  We went and got a car at Alamo and did a couple activities before our flight left at 10:00 PM to come home.  We went to the state's biggest open-air flea market.  It had over 400 plus stands that you could go shop at.  This picture is of a Tongan man that we met that is a master wood carver.  We watched him as he carved sea turtles and totem poles.  He turned to me and asked me, "What is your son's name?" pointing to Braden.  He asked me to write it down, so I did on some paper.  He then carved Braden's name in on the totem pole, caved his name at the top which was TUPO, and gave the totem to Braden for free.  That's how the Tongan people are.  They are so giving!  I did purchase some things from him, so I felt a little better about it, but I was impressed he would do that for Braden.  For some reason, the Tongan people take a special interest in Braden.  

After the market, we went and visited the the Pineapple plantation in the middle of the island.  It was really interesting to see and to read a little about the history.

We went through the Pineapple Maze which at one time was the World's largest maze (2008).  It stretches over 3 acres and includes nearly two and one-half miles of paths crafted from 14,000 colorful Hawaiian plants.  They had 8 different stations you had to go to that had stencils that you had to collect.  They recorded your time.  We had a difficult time finding some of them, but we finally did it in an hour and a half.  It was hot and took some time, but it was fun!

In the Pineapple Maze trying to find our way around.

The girls doing some photo shoots.

Time to go to the airport!  WAAAAAAAAAA!  Sad moment, but we knew it had to come to an end! Braden's face is priceless!

Makayla, Maddison, and Braden all bought ukuleles for their souvenirs.  The kids earned their own money before we came and bought their own souvenirs in Tonga and Hawaii.  They are savers more than they are spenders.  So, when they saw these, they had enough to buy them.  We feel that if they earn it, they'll take better care of them.  They fell in love with the Hawaiian music and wanted to learn how to play them.  Here they are in the Honolulu airport playing for all the passengers.  We had some smiles, some smirks, and some weird looks.  It's a fun instrument and we hope that they learn to play some fun Hawaiian songs with them.

We flew from Honolulu to Phoenix, AZ, and then to Salt Lake City, UT.  It was a long flight.  We flew from 10:00 PM Saturday to Sunday morning at 7:00 in Arizona.  Then we arrived in Salt Lake City around 1:00 PM Sunday.  Ella slept most of the time which was a huge blessing.  She stretched out between Heidi and I and had some good ZZZZ's.  She kept kicking me in her sleep though.  One time, she woke up, looked at her baby, made sure she was taken care of, and went back to sleep.  It was priceless!  Here is a picture of her taking good care of her baby.  Her baby gets the neck pillow and she gets the hard seat.  She will be a great Mommy some day.  She takes after Heidi of course.

Salt lake City Airport trying to make sure all our bags arrived so we can go home to IDAHO!  All the people kept looking at us as we pulled bag after bag after bag out of the baggage claim.  After I pulled out 7 bags, I turned to one Chinese guy and told him there were 4 more.  He said, "REALLY?" (picture in your mind a Chinese guy with slanted eyes saying, "REALLY?")  It was hilarious!  I laughed, he laughed, and I said Just Kidding!  He then laughed harder and I saw some relief in his eyes.  HA!  We had several people all throughout the trip ask Heidi and I if all 5 of the kids were ours.  People kept telling us that we were too young to have so many kids and kids that were as old as they were.  I told them that we started when we were young.  Heidi gave me the evil eye and said, "Don't say that, people will think we had kids when we were 16."  Heidi still looks like she is 17, but I look my age.  Later in life, people will start to think I robbed the cradle.  HA!  I guess it's time to start working off the poundage I gained on the cruise.  Oh, wait, I already had that.  Well, it's time to get back in shape.  Sorry, I'm rambling!

We had great friends that welcomed us home.  This is a sign that was done by our Young Women in our Ward to welcome Makayla home and welcome her in to the Mia Maids.  How awesome are they!

Josh and Chandler Clapier are the ones that stayed in our home while we were gone.  They were so awesome and made us a sign.  We drove up to our home and saw this sign and it made us tear up.  It's so great to have such good friends!  A big thank you to Josh and Chandler!

LET THE FUN BEGIN!  BACK TO REALITY!

A big thank you to everyone (family and friends) that helped make this trip possible!

You all are amazing and WE LOVE YOU!

FRIDAY - 8-19-16 - CELEBRATING MAKAYLA'S BIRTHDAY EARLY!  2nd DAY ON KAUAI.  We surprised her early in the morning and brought her a "breakfast roll" and decorated her door.  Heidi taped the paper up with bandaids.  Talk about creative decorating!  Heidi is amazing!  We celebrated it early because we will be traveling on her Birthday on the plane.  We wanted it to be a special day for her.  She is turning 14.  Holy Cow!  Crazy how time flies.  It seems like it was yesterday that we were in Iowa and she was a little cute baby.  People say that all the time, but it's true.  Makayla is so great and we love her so much!  She has been amazing this whole trip and its been fun to spend a ton of time with her.  We did some great things today to have fun on her special day.  One to remember!  We went to the fern grotto that is by the Wailua River State Park.  It's a lush river valley with a river running through it.  It has lots of history and is beautiful!

We took a riverboat cruise to Fern Groto which is an unusual fern covered cave set in a tropical garden.  We had an amazing band of gifted musicians that sang Hawaiian songs to us as we took the riverboat cruise.  They showed us traditional dances and taught us traditional songs.  

The family having a good time on the riverboat cruise.

This is the Wailua River State Park.

The Fern Grotto.  You can see the cave that is set back in there.  It looks small, but really is very large.  It can hold up to 120 people.  They don't allow people to go inside anymore because the tropical storms have made it unsafe.  There are beautiful ferns that are growing down from the rock.  As the years go by, more and more ferns will grow there unless storms interrupt the process again.

Family in front of the Fern Grotto

The Smith's Tours did a great job.  They sang to us and danced for us.  They said that they sometimes do weddings here.  I can see why.  An amazing place to have a wedding!

One of the singers brought his grandkids.  Braden and them were strumming the guitar strings.  He was kind enough to show them some things about the guitar.

Makayla took this picture of the trees.  Amazing huh!  I call it "Heaven's Windows".

Heidi came up with a genius idea!  When we got back to the cruise ship, she divided us into two teams and we had to do a race.  She had 10 things we had to do.  The above photo was just some of the things we had to do.  The following pictures are us doing the tasks Heidi wrote down.  Crazy?  YES!  Fun?  YES!  Some fun for Makayla's Birthday!  Makayla, Maddison, and I were on a team and the others were on a team.  GAME ON!!!!!!

We all had to climb into the tiny little cruise ship shower and take a picture.

We had to go to the kitchen and make ourselves a little shish kabob with a toothpick and cheese. 

We had to find some of the people working on the ship that clean the rooms, thank them, and then take a picture with them.

We had to go to the top deck and do the pose, "I'm sailing!"

Had to do the "Bunny-Hop" down a hallway.

We had to play a few rounds of "shuffle-board"  

We had to find the library and act like we were reading a book.

We had to take a picture on the famous wall and strike a pose.  The girls are awesome POSERS!

We had to go on the elevator and go from the 5th floor to the 12th floor.  After the race, we went and watched Jurassic World (the movie) in the theatre.  The reason they played that is a lot of it was filmed on this island of Kauai.  After the movie, the cruise shipped sailed pass the cliffs and pinnacles of the Na Pali Coast.  It has served as a backdrop for major Hollywood films.  The next few pictures are of the Na Pali Coast taken from the ship.  It was an amazing treat given to us by the captain!

We were blessed to see some beautiful scenery and an amazing rainbow!

Happy kids (except Braden).  He didn't want to be lifted up.  :)

Perfect end to Makayla's pretend Birthday!  Even Heavenly Father gave her a present.

Later that night, we went to dinner at the nice restaurant for Makayla's Birthday Dinner.

We surprised Makayla and had the whole area of the restaurant sing Happy Birthday to her.  So fun!

THURSDAY - 8-18-16 - LAST STOP - ISLAND OF KAUAI.  Today, we took our sweet time in the morning and just took it slow.  No hurry, no worry.  We had a great breakfast on the ship, went for a drive on Kauai and saw some great waterfalls.  This is Opaekaa Falls.  We saw a guy there in the parking lot selling sea shells that he turned into turtles.  They were pretty cool.  They were magnets that he put on the hood of his car.  He called them "Turtles from the Hood".  I thought it was pretty creative.  I was impressed with his creativity so we bought one "turtle from the hood". 

Kauai is of course part of the Hawaiin islands and it has the nickname, "the Garden Isle".  There is a tropical rain forest that covers most of the island.  It has dramatic cliffs and pinnacles on the Na Pali Coast and it has a canyon that they call the Grand Canyon of the pacific islands - "Waimea Canyon".  

I took the four oldest on a float tube trip down an old irrigation ditch through the rain forest.  It was a great adventure.  While we did that, Heidi and Ella went to a great park and rode the train, went to a petting zoo, and played on a great playground.  Here are some pictures of their adventure.

We got some great go-pro videos of our tubing excursion, but no photos I can post.  But, we did get this one.  There was a series of 5 tunnels that we went through.  The kids and I enjoyed getting in the water, seeing the rainforest from a different perspective and enjoying the outdoors.