Waimea Bay is just up the coast toward the North side of the Island. It was about a 45 minute drive through luscious forests, along the rocky beach coast and through the famous Dole pineapple plantation. It was pretty incredible to see the pineapples hanging off the plants, in rows and rows and rows for hundreds of acres as we drove up the highway.
Wiamea Beach was incredibly beautiful, and of course, much less crowded than Waikiki beach. We brought along our floaties and a boogie board from the condo. Sycely was glued to that thing spending almost the entire day afloat, riding the waves in to the shore.
We grabbed some lunch before heading back to Honolulu and made our way to Turtle Beach, just 5 miles down the road, back toward the city. Turtle Beach, as it's come to be known, is a warm, sandy beach where 28 green sea turtles frequently come to bask. It's pretty much a daily occurrence to find a few turtles lounging here and soaking up the warm afternoon sun. Because the turtle frequent the area so often, they are used to people and have even been named by the Guardians (volunteers who help protect them). They have a binder with pictures of each of the 28 that use the area and they note distinctions in the head markings in order to tell them apart. They know the ages of some of them and they stick a sign in the sand with their name and other details when one of the turtles comes ashore. They also put a red rope around the area the turtle are laying in. This is to keep people at least 6 feet from the turtles so they are not disturbed.
When we arrived there were two turtles ashore basking-Wully Bully and Olivia Dawn. I was literally in tears being so close to these sweet creatures and was so touched that Lem had thought to research this place and give me this once in a lifetime opportunity. It wasn't but a few minutes after we arrived that we spotted another turtle not too far out in the water, making its way to the shore. It was incredible to watch the turtle drag itself slowly up the beach and snuggle up with the other two.
Turtle Bay was definitely the coolest thing I've ever done in my 4 trips to Hawaii and I would LOVE to go back again and stay in the Northshore area so that I could go and watch them every day and maybe even be a Guardian volunteer at some point.
We headed back to the big city to wash up and get packed. I snapped a few photos of our condo and our view. I went up to get some shots of the rooftop pool area and was greeted by this gorgeous rainbow. Hawaii was giving us quite a send-off!
We had a direct flight home that night, so we headed to the airport, returned our rental car and grabbed some dinner before changing the girls into their jammies and getting settled on the plane for the trip home. Both the girls were exhausted from all the fun in the sunshine and Sycely was sacked out about 2 minutes after we took off. Ella took a little longer to fall asleep, but was snuggled in and asleep before long. All in all and pretty smooth flight home after a pretty fabulous trip to Paradise :)
One of our first stops was the elephants-Ella's absolutely favorite animal. She was tickled to see the big fellas up close and called out to them waving and talking. It was so fun to see her so excited and having so much fun.
There was lots of animals that we don't have here at our Alaskan animal zoo and the girls loved seeing all the animals that are typical zoo animals-monkey, tigers, giraffes, zebras, hippos, rhinos, lions and lots and lots of wild peacocks-which 
The zoo also had a special learning area that had a tank of giant goldfish you could climb inside of, a guinea pig tunnel exhibit, and a petting zoo. The girls got a hoot out of getting to pet the goats as they lounged trying to keep cool. They even tried to milk a (plastic!) cow ;)
We also did a few jungle animal crafts. First we colored some wooden jungle animal art pieces. They had little display stands attached and the kids loved lining them all up on display when they finished them up. We also used jungle animal stickers and other glittery stickers to decorate foam 
Next, we did cake and presents. 
It's hard to believe six whole years have passed since our first daughter came into the world. She is such a delight and brings such joy to our lives every single day. She is curious and loves learning, and has a real knack for the arts of all kinds. We couldn't be prouder of the little girl she's become over the last six years and we look forward to watching and helping her grow into a beautiful young lady.
We played some games-cloud jumping, where the kids made their way around the 
Next we opened presents. Ella was so excited as she peeked inside each bag and tore wrapping paper off her presents. Playing up some of her favorite current interests, she got a stuffed dog and a new baby stroller-two of her favorite gifts.
After presents, we sang happy birthday. Ella blew out her candles in one big puff and then we enjoyed some yummy 
On Ella's actual birthday, we spent the morning at Chuck E Cheese. 
That night we shared dinner with the family at Red Robin. The staff did their famous singing and delivered a special ice cream sundae to the birthday girl.
When we got home from Red Robin, Ella opened up the rest of her presents from Mommy and Daddy. One of her favorites was her new Dora dress-up dress, which she put on right away!
