Hawaii part 2…continued! (surfing, the temple, BYU Hawaii and Waimea)

Next up on the agenda (after swimming with sharks in the LAST POST), we decided after all the surf longings the day before we better take some surfing lessons.

Yes that is a LOT of surfers, but they were still able to learn a lot…

…and all four of the big kids got up came out with ear-to-ear smiles.  It was so fun to watch them from the shore where Lu and I got to relax and read our books.  Heaven.

This is the closest shot I could get (above) but luckily there was a professional photographer right there with his whiz-bang waterproof lens who caught a bit more of the action:

This is the only picture he got of Grace, but I love how she’s rocking it out there between those other two surfers:

 Elle was loving life.

(Thank you williamedwards.photography!)

Dave rented a board and went out with them too.

Next we headed over to Laie where BYU Hawaii is…and the temple too.

But first, apparently you cannot go to Laie without eating a burger at Seven Brothers Burgers.  Everyone we talked to for advice told us to get our booties over to that place so we obeyed.

Yowzas.  Now that is a burger!

It did not disappoint.

Then we continued on our sight-seeing to BYU.

Elle applied to BYU Hawaii so it was kind of fun to check it out.

We walked the campus which was quite sleepy since everyone was gone for Christmas break, but what an incredible place to go to school!

My brother and sister-in-law met there so it’s kind of special just for that! 🙂  It is a beautiful campus.

At one point I made everyone stop and check out these treasures that had fallen from one of the trees:

Perfectly symmetrical beauty and one of the thickest most lush green leaves you can imagine.

Elle should go there just so she can see those treasures every day, don’t you think?  Ha!

Who knows, maybe some day.

Next it was off to show the kids the Laie LDS Temple.

That is one gorgeous spot on earth I tell you!

We were a little disappointed because Max, Grace and Elle all brought their things to hopefully do baptisms there but it was closed until January 16th.  Darn it!  It was sure great to just be there and soak it in from the outside though.

We ran into not one, but TWO sister missionaries from Taiwan in the visitor’s center.

They were pleased as punch to tell Max all about their country, how much he was going to LOVE it, and how tall people would think he was there 🙂

We watched a cool short movie on the history of Laie and the church and found our Books of Mormon from “our” countries as per tradition.

We needed to have Dave in this pic. with Max, darn it!

(More gorgeous leaves and beauty all around.)

Of course we had to walk all the way up to “touch” the temple (our little tradition).

I loved how Lucy RAN to touch it:

Luckily we got Pillbox in a few days before, and to be honest, I don’t know that there could have been a hike more grand than sitting on the beach watching my family as the sun sunk behind the horizon.

We headed back to Waimea Bay where the surf had died down considerably from the day before which made for a perfect evening.

Sorry in advance for all these pictures, but know there are 497 more where these came from (I kid, but I couldn’t stop it was just so gorgeous)…at least I spared you those 🙂

You can’t see them up close and personal, but Dave, Max, Elle and Grace were out there body surfing…finally some perfect surf for that.