Waimea Falls

This was our townhome in Kaneohe. It wasn't fancy, but it had enough beds for everyone! Plus having a kitchen and laundry room was huge. With all of our swimming, we made quite a bit of laundry.

...and the maids made our beds and took out the trash every day. Bonus.

Next door were much cuter, newer apartments. I like to think they were small. :)

My first big outing with the kids was hiking to Waimea Falls.

(Yes, I posted Dole and the PCC grossly out of order, chronologically.)

Cozy was holding our newly-purchased bird guide, so that we could put names to all of the cute, feathery things we came across. (Waimea has a great gift shop!)

BUT FIRST, one must fortify oneself with Hawaiian Ices. Tradition. (No one ate the melon flavored ice.)

The first birds we saw - Jungle Fowl (otherwise known as chickens). There always seemed to be a chicken or two everywhere we went - even at McDonald's, often with broods of fluffy chicks following them around. Sofia wanted to kidnap a couple of chicks and bring them home as souvenirs. (And she would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for her meddling Mom!)

If it wasn't up hill, I would have called it a "stroll through a lovely botanical garden" instead of a "hike".

Hey, at least we didn't take the tram. What a shame it would have been to miss out on all of the beautiful trees and plants. Many of them are so amazing they look like they couldn't possibly be real.

Little zebra doves, scurrying around after crumbs and hiding behind leaves.

And...the waterfall. It looked much bigger in person. I swear.

The last time we visited this waterfall (roughly a decade ago), they had a hula show and cliff divers. 

No more. However, before, the time you had to swim in the lagoon was pretty limited. Now they have life jackets available and you can swim as long as you like! Yay!

I didn't swim....something about hiking back down in wet swimgear...

So, the big children each got paired with a little child, and I got to sit back and watch.

The one rule (not even my rule - an actual, real, posted rule!) was not to stand up in the waterfall (an injury avoidance thing), which one of my children immediately did. :)

Aside from that one infraction, they were all lovely and played nicely, only occasionally forcing each other under the waterfall. 

Cozy, taking a break. The water was pretty chilly, and Cozy hasn't got much body fat to keep her warm. Poor dear. I'm sure it won't last, but in the mean time, she gets blue-lipped from swimming.

Annika, in the ideal vacation shot. I should have made everyone sit there for pictures! Alas, too lazy.

One the hike back to the car, we stopped and looked (probably a bit too closely) at some of the interpretive sites. (Please be recreations and not actual ancient ruins!)

...and posed as the Avengers for a group photo.

Lovely outing.