Fun in Waikiki

I went and picked Trey up from the hospital first thing this morning.  I brought him home and got him settled.  Then after Hadley's morning nap my mom, Aunt Terry, the girls and I headed to the beach.  We went to the lagoon down in Waikiki.  It's the perfect spot to go with little ones.  Since Riley is a huge fan of the water I knew this would be a great place to be.  It was also Aunt Terry's first time in Waikiki and I knew she would enjoy the atmosphere as well.  We got there right at lunch time and we were all hungry.  So my mom took Riley down to the water, Aunt Terry stayed with Hadley, and I went on the search for some burgers and sodas.  The first place I went to didn't have what I was looking for.  The next place had $12 cheeseburgers.  I passed on that one!  I knew that the Hale Koa had good food and reasonable prices so I walked all the way there.  Carrying all of our food and drinks back to our spot on the beach felt like a 5 mile hike.  But I made it without spilling any of the sodas or dropping anything off of the tray.  After lunch my mom and Aunt Terry thought it would be fun to rent a paddle boat and take Riley out on it in the lagoon.  We all thought that she would love it!  So I'm holding Hadley watching them steer the paddle boat, waiting for them to come towards me so I could say hello to Riley and take their picture.  After about 15 minutes of them going around in circles and running into the rock wall they finally made over in my direction!  Aunt Terry and my mom claimed something was wrong with the steering device, but I'm thinking it was the drivers!  Ha ha!  Riley was done riding on the paddle boat after about 20 minutes.  She just wanted to be in the water playing, not on a boat.  So that left Aunt Terry and my mom to paddle around by themselves for another 40 minutes.  And with the boat not steering properly they continued to just move in circles and tried to avoid hitting the people swimming in the lagoon.  At one point my mom got out of the paddle boat to push it away from a rock wall.  But then she couldn't get back in and couldn't stop laughing about it.  Everyone on the beach was watching, which made it even harder for her to get back in because she didn't like her audience!  I think the only people laughing at this story are probably my mom and Aunt Terry.  You really had to be there!  But it was totally funny!

After the paddle boat adventure my mom and Aunt Terry decided to take Riley around the lagoon on a raft.  Someone had left the raft(which was a hotel raft) so we decided to utilize it!  Riley was loving every bit of being towed around the lagoon on the raft.  I mean she was in heaven!  I was wishing that I was laying on the raft, relaxing.

But the best part of the raft was when Riley was done with it and wanted Kiki to get on.  I don't really think there is any good way to get on a raft other than to just plop yourself on there.  I jokingly took a picture of my mom getting herself on the raft and it turned out priceless.  Aunt Terry and I were literally wetting our pants when we saw the shot I got.  Sorry mom, but I had to post this picture.  I love you!

After our fun at the lagoon we headed back towards the car.  On our way we stopped for a yummy ice cream treat and we stopped by The Pearl Factory for Aunt Terry.  I didn't think we were ever going to leave the pearl shop because Aunt Terry was obsessed!  She was having so much fun shopping for pearls.  It was actually fun to watch, she was like a kid in a candy store!  After I'd say an hour we left the pearls and headed home.  We were all plum tuckered out and excited to eat some of my mom's homemade lasagna(which she prepared before we left for the beach0!  Yum!  A perfect ending to a perfect day!

Here is Riley passed out on the drive home.  We were only in the car for about 2 minutes when she fell asleep!