Day 8

 We went to the pool Monday morning. It wasn't too crowded so Rockwell and I were able to play frisbee in the pool for a while. That was a lot of fun.

Tessa and Damon wanted to play volleyball.

Rockwell and I thought that looked fun too so we joined in.

Damon was so excited to find some flowers that had fallen off a tree. There were beautiful flowers everywhere and the kids had a hard time all week not picking them. He was excited that these ones were already off the tree so he could keep them.

I love these hibiscus flowers.

After lunch we went to Malaekahana Beach. Melanie had told us that there were big waves there and a place to rent surfboards. The kids wanted big waves for the last day, and I wanted to surf, so this was a perfect beach. Tessa and Damon dug a hole in the sand and then made a defense surrounding the hole to protect it. :)

There were a lot of people surfing in a certain place. They all looked really good and it was pretty crowded there, so I decided to try the waves closer by where we were playing.

There were some pretty big waves down there. I had a really hard time getting out beyond where they were crashing, so that I could catch any of them. Paul was so sweet and came and took the board out past them for me, and I swam out to meet him there. I really love surfing, but the biggest challenge for me is the strength to make it out as far as I need to. He stayed out there with me for a while and it was fun to have him there. I saw a huge fish(?) come up at the top of one of the waves. I wasn't completely sure it was just a fish, and so we decided that was our cue to head back to shore. Paul watched a lot of videos of sharks swimming right around people before we went to Hawaii, and we weren't interested in risking it. :) I rested for a while and kept my eye on that spot to see if I saw anything else. It seemed safe, so I went back out until it was time to return the board. I was determined to get out on my own, and I did it this time. I was proud of myself. The waves slowed down a lot once I was out there, so there was a bit of wait time between each one, but I did get a few of them.

Rockwell and Paul spent a lot of time boogie boarding. The waves were awesome for it! I think Rockwell could boogie board from sun up to sun down and not get tired of it. There was one huge wave that caught him off guard and he was swept under. Paul pulled him out pretty quickly, but it shook him for sure. He took a break for about 10 minutes and then got his confidence back and went back out. It was fun to watch him get better and better at catching the waves all week.

Tessa and Damon loved playing in the big waves in their life jackets.

It was funny to watch how far the waves would take them. I was trying to get a picture of Tess in the wave, and then she washed all the way past me and up the shore. :)

We wanted to make it to Matsumoto's Shave Ice on the North Shore since it was our last day and we hadn't been there yet. We were so glad we made it before it closed, because those were SO delicious!