Waimanalo

The next day, we drove down to the beach at Waimanalo. I may have had ulterior motives. Yes, Dave's Ice Cream happened to be on the way.

 Little kids waste their Hawaiian ice cream choices on silly things like chocolate or rainbow sherbert. 

I thought I could at least talk Cozy into Ube, since it's purple as purple can be. 

Nope. I got Kulolo and Coconut.

While Sofia and I were, respectively, navigating and driving our way to the beach, Anthony protested, "Ugh, quit saying all of those Hawaiian words! It bugs me!" 

Ha! He had to deal with it, because they were all street names!

The beach:

None of my kids are too big to enjoy splashing and playing in the waves.

Our one boogie board got plenty of use.

In addition to blue water and blue skies, Waimanalo also had lots of bluebottles (otherwise known as Portuguese man o'wars). (I'm sure it was just poor timing on our part, as we were there as the tide was coming in)

Jon, who got the worst of everything on our vacation, was the one stung. (Also my child who is most likely to get hives as an allergic reaction to a sting...or other unidentifiable pathogens. That came later in the day.)

A little vinegar and he felt somewhat better, but was justifiably unhappy about still being at the beach. 

Everyone else was still willing to risk the stings, and Jon eventually joined them again in the water.

When beach bathing, Cozy requires regular mermaid breaks, to warm up.

And, um....amazing.

Annika, once again winning the contest for best vacation picture.

When I wasn't on drowning prevention duty (swimming with kids), I just sat in the sand, enjoying the vitamin D and sense of well-being, while trying not to feel guilty about the sun exposure. Ah.