Hawaii: the Beach

Obviously, we spent a lot of time at the beach. Well, beaches. It turns out there are a lot of them in Oahu! We didn't usually manage to take too many pictures, since we were afraid of ruining our cameras by getting sand and/or water in them. So be glad, because even with that limitation, this is still going to be a lot of photos in this post!  Here are some of the ones we did manage to snap, starting with Kailua:

Craig made me a mermaid tail.  Just call me Ariel!

The Smith men

This might be my absolute favorite picture from the entire vacation: Ryder is ready to surf!  On his boogie board.  (Especially considering that I took this using an iPhone that was wrapped in saran wrap and it was too bright to tell what I was pointing it at!  Bonus points for that, right?)

Bentley surprised me by how brave he was

And apparently when this picture was taken I was surprising Craig by how far I ended up going out into the water-- he said all he could see was my pink hat and it kept freaking him out.

Kendra at Waikiki at sunset

Okay, so this isn't a beach.  It's a beautiful viewpoint.  It's also really, really windy.  Which is why I look completely weird.  Oh, well.

Using Craig's sunglasses as a filter, you get some pretty awesome shots!  Waikiki.

I love the soft lighting in this picture of Laie Point.  It makes me think of the paintings by J.M.W. Turner

And I love Bentley's smile here.  And the fact that his eyes match his shirt!

Sunset at Laie Point, near the PCC

Apparently this super cool rock formation happened within the last decade or two when an enormous wave punched that hole in the rock.  It's fun to see recent geological developments!

Again using Craig's sunglasses as a light filter

Someone asked what the significance of the word "Ohana" on our shirts was-- it means "family" in Hawaiian!

The beach was always a lot of fun.  It was also exhausting.  Ryder kept trying to run out into the water when we weren't looking, and I was always worried a huge wave might come along and drag the other two kids out into the water, so I had to maintain Constant Vigilance the entire time we were there.  But it really is amazing how much fun there is to be had at the beach, especially for kids!  It never got old.