I can die a happy woman

 Family vacay in our one and only vacation spot: north shore, Oahu. Last week was probably top five greatest weeks ever for a couple reasons that I'll obviously talk about. Really though I won't be doing a lot of writing in this post A. its late and I just need to get this done (Its already a week late) and B. the pictures speak for themselves when it comes to Hawaii. After a weekend spent with the family for jacks endowment and planting the garden we had Sunday to recoup, pack and go to bed early in preparation for an early start to our travel day. 

This shouldn't surprise anyone by now - I sure do love a good plane nap. Wait I just realized I could change the name of this blog to Plane Jane and just be a travel blogger lol

Ok after this point Im not promising the photos will be in the correct order, but I'll do my best. No pictured was our first stop - malasadas. 

Then straight to our beautiful (4 million dollar *cough cough*) house  

And very quickly right into the ocean in our backyard. We wasted no time and almost immediately swam with a couple turtles. Life is good. 

We spent the evening enjoying the view from the deck, went for a run and did push ups, and ate a yummy pulled pork sandwich dinner. The house doesn't have AC so sleeping was a little rough at first, but we found all the fans in the house and I slept with a bag of ice at my feet haha. 

Day 2 was skydiving!! Us before...

During!

And after! Probably one of the coolest things Ive ever done. I already wanted to do it again right after we landed. Jack and I's first time and Im glad we did it together. I don't think either of us were too scared at all. I will admit when the instructors are starting to tighten up the harnesses and putting on the goggles and helmets you kinda realize "oh crap its about to happen" The sketchiest part was watching jack get whisked away out of the open plane right before my eyes. I was the first one in the plane so I was the last one to jump and watching my little brother disappear into the sky was quite scary. It's true what people say - you don't get the drop in your stomach when jumping. I actually think I enjoyed the parachuting the best. Maybe because when I was free falling at who knows how fast plummeting towards the earth I think everything was happening too fast and honestly I don't remember much, but the parachuting slowed everything down and you actually had time to realize what was happening and I got to enjoy the view. 

This is Gabriel, my instructor. He was awesome. He let me drive the parachute which was pretty rad. Anyways like I was saying earlier - the drop in the stomach didn't happen when jumping but one of my favorite parts was when Gabriel would drive the parachute and he would almost like drive it to the ground (that sounds bad), but that's when the stomach drop would happen and it was sick. The views were unbeatable and I want my whole family to do it next time. 

Mom and Dad obviously stoked on their kids about to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet. They were even more stoked when they saw our parachutes had opened. 

The rest of Tuesday was spent at our backyard beach and matsumotos!! 

Wednesday morning: a quick stop at the sunrise shack before the beach!

Waimea bay! So literally the day before as we were driving to go skydiving we were passing by Waimea and I said "I think I just saw a pod of dolphins!" I then say "Im sure it was just some people swimming" but I kid you not they were grey and shiny. I have seen ample amount of turtles at Waimea, but that's all. There are never dolphins there so I didn't really think much about it. Until this morning... jack and I walked down a little after the family because we got smoothies well the first thing mom says to me is "the lifeguard said there are dolphins in the area" pretty sure my jaw dropped. she proceeded to tell me the lifeguard said we aren't supposed to go near them because its like a federal crime or something. Well I immediately got my mask on and went searching for dolphins. I knew where I had seen them the day before so I headed in that direction, but lets be real - I aint a good swimmer. So I got out of the water and started walking back to the family on the beach, well I look out and see all these dolphins flipping out of the water over and over again. I watch them for like 10 minutes in awe. They were putting on a show for the kayakers, but they were still just a little too far for me to swim out to. I ran back to the fam and showed them where they were at. We watched them all morning until they started coming in just a little bit closer. We decided to go for it. Jack, Drew and I grabbed our masks and started swimming out to sea like a bunch of crazies. I turned the GoPro on and just sent jack out (he's a faster swimmer than me) so the GoPro video is like over 7 minutes of chaotic swimming haha. But we found them! It was so surreal. The hear them laugh and then swim right next to you was insane. At one point we were literally surrounded by them so the view from the top of the water was just a bunch of dorsal fins. Proud of drew for facing his fear of the ocean (and sharks) and swimming with a bunch of things that look like sharks from above. Definitely a pinch me moment. Once again I totally manifested this moment, or I just pay my tithing whatever you want to say because not many days before this I had said I really want to swim with dolphins but in a natural way, not in a tourist/ payment/ artificial way. Dreams come true that's all I'm saying. 

Lots of laying out, beach football and rock running (my favorite)

That evening was the temple! jacks second endowment in less than a week. 

I have some thoughts on the temple lately that I'll probably mostly share in my next blog, but I love going to the temple on vacation and Im glad my family makes it a priority to worship while still on vacation. I think especially in a place such as Hawaii (spending every waking minute at the beach and in a swimming suit) its easy to "check your religion at the door" but I love the time we set aside to still make it to the temple. 

And the best way to end the night - Seven brothers! Now that Im a lover of bleu cheese the deep bleu burger was *chefs kiss. 

I believe Thursday morning was spent at the water park and I have no photos so here are some random photos... sleepy Jackie. 

Friday started off with more Waimea - it really is the greatest beach. Then we drove to a new part of the island, Lanikai, for the afternoon. 

The Lanikai Pillbox hike. A very quick, steep hike with pretty sick views. 

Thanks Jeremy for the recommendation. I love our little bubble of paradise between Laie and Haleiwa but I was really looking forward to seeing and doing something new. Definitely didn't disappoint. 

And yummy pizza also thanks to Jeremy. Well that was our last full day. Im sad all over again thinking about it. Im ready to go back. Round two anyone??

One last Waimea before checking out at 10am. 0630 at waimea is the time to go - lots of turtles and practically no one there! 

Fourth time to the north shore and I think it just keeps getting better and better. Travel day home equals me and jack watching 4 hours straight of grey's anatomy haha I can't believe I got him to like the show. 

Got home at 3am and mom woke us all up not too long after for 9am church. Booo. Only kinda kidding. Such a fun trip. Thank you mom and dad for all you do for us, for being so generous and for still inviting all your grown up kids on family vacations. Lots of memories were made that's for sure. I love my family and I love traveling. I especially love it when these two things come together. Alright since it's 1:15am I should probably go to sleep. Goodnight!