Hawaii: Day 7

Day 7

Somehow we were down to the final day of our vacation. It ended up being one of my favorite days of the trip.

Loved seeing these three all snuggled up. 

Final sunrise. This one was cool because there was a mist over the ocean from rain during the night.

Stop at Ted's bakery for doughnuts and pie on our way to Waimea.

I really wanted to go to Waimea Falls during our trip, but wasn't sure if it was going to happen. After the crazy rain storm Tuesday night, Waimea flooded and there was a ton of damage I guess. Waimea Valley was closed the rest of the week while they cleaned it up, but lucky for us, it opened back up on our last day there. I was so happy we got to go! I had never been before, so it was all new to me.

The walk to the falls was gorgeous. The valley was so lush and green and full of all sorts of cool flowers and trees.

Our entire family got in and swam! The water was cold at first, but didn't take long to get used to. Sean and Jackson swam over to the waterfalls and jumped in a few times.

On our walk back, Jackson found this cool flower sitting on a rock that looked like something from a cartoon. The part in the middle opened up like a mouth!

I couldn't get enough of these big, sprawling trees. Waimea was a beautiful place and I am so glad we were able to go.

Since we were taking a red eye home that night, we had a full final day to do stuff. After Waimea we headed back to Turtle Bay for one last afternoon at the beach and pool.

Molly thought it was hilarious to try and grab my sunglasses.

She loved playing in the surf and would laugh when bigger waves rolled in. 

As we sat on the beach this final afternoon and watched the kids play, I kept thinking about how much I didn't want to go home yet. It was such an incredible week and so much fun having the whole family there together. I'm not saying it was picture perfect the entire time-- sure there were still melt downs and kids got tired and argued, but that's real life. We made so many amazing new memories. I feel so grateful to be able to have had this experience together.

Hawaii, we will be back. And we won't wait so long this time.