Colorado

My dad moved to Denver, Colorado 12 years ago. Last week the girls were Off-Track, their friends were either in school or out of town. It's hard to get any work done when they are home, so we decided it was the perfect opportunity for a quick-road trip to visit my dad, since we had never been out that way.

 The scenery on I-70 was so beautiful!

My kids loved going through all the mountain tunnels.

We visited Tiny Town.

 

Ella loved eating Pizza at a Restaurant in the Mountains.

We ran into my friend Lillian at the Denver Zoo.

We also played at some parks, went shopping at Nordstrom Rack, walked around a Lake in the Mountains, & found a Baja Fresh. Although we were only there for two days, we had a great time! Lily wants to know if we will be going back to Russia anytime soon. (Russia is what Lily calls Colorado.)

Gumball Machine

Lily: I wish my name was Gumball.
Me: Okay, Gumball. It's time for bed Gumball.
Lily: No, I wish my name was Gumball Machine.
Me: Okay Gumball Machine. Go get in bed Gumball Machine.
Lily: But mom, my name is Lily. I just WISH it was Gumball Machine.
5 minutes later
Lily: Oh, I forgot. My name is actually Little Bear.

Hawaii

 We loved Hawaii. We flew into Oahu & spent most of our time at the Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.
Thanks to Tyler's Brother & our sister-in-law we got a great deal on plane tickets out of Las Vegas. We also got a great deal on a really nice hotel next to the Waikiki Beach.

 

We signed our names on the autograph tree at the Byodo Temple.

 We ate at all the best places including this shrimp bus off the side of the street.
It had the yummiest Chicken & shrimp!

 The North Shore was our favorite. I wouldn't mind living in Haleiwa.

 It was our first time snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.

 We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center.

 And the LDS Temple.

 We hiked Diamond Head.

 Ate at a delicious restaurant in China Town.

 

Tyler tried surfing in some dangerously high & strong waves with Brent and Cherese.
I stayed near the shore as I would have surely drowned.

 

 We also visited Pear Harbor and some more beaches on the East and North sides of the Island.

We ate lots of snow cones.

Someone gave us 4 days worth of free Trolley tickets (one for each of us.) They included guided tours. Other than a run in with some people who stole our stuff, it was a fantastic vacation.

I especially enjoyed our Taxi ride from the airport to our hotel. Our driver giggled and laughed the whole way. She was even slapping her knee at times because she was laughing so hard. 

Thanks Brent and Cherese for inviting us and showing us around.