Monsters, bugs, and Jack Sparrow!? Final Update 7/13!!!!

[irky416]

Wow, you got a lot of neat pennies! And the bag is really cute with all the autographs.

Woo hoo on MNSSHP and Disneyland!

Thanks!

I love the bag - what a great idea!

NOw how did I miss Prince Caspian!!!! He is, indeed, hot!

That meet and greet must be top of my list for next trip!

Thanks! He might not have still been there. That was just after the movie came out. Not sure if he's a constant character or not.

 

[kathleen27]

Sounds like a great last day at HS, glad you got to do so much there! ( I have not been on here in ages, and am just catching up!)

Pizza Planet looks fun! We have never been there. I think if we did go, the kids would never want to eat anywhere else at DHS ever again.

The bag looks really great with all the signatures. Maybe we will do that one day.

ooh I really like the Hawaii notebook! How was the trip? Would love to see photos if you post them anywhere. Sounds like you had a lot of fun things planned.

Glad you are going to MNSSHP, you'll have a great time!

Good Luck with the wisdom teeth. Not fun.

 

[irky416]

Sounds like a great last day at HS, glad you got to do so much there! ( I have not been on here in ages, and am just catching up!)

Pizza Planet looks fun! We have never been there. I think if we did go, the kids would never want to eat anywhere else at DHS ever again.

The bag looks really great with all the signatures. Maybe we will do that one day.

ooh I really like the Hawaii notebook! How was the trip? Would love to see photos if you post them anywhere. Sounds like you had a lot of fun things planned.

Glad you are going to MNSSHP, you'll have a great time!

Good Luck with the wisdom teeth. Not fun.

I've been wondering what happened to you! Welcome back!

Pizza Planet was pretty cool...if I was a kid, I think it would have been 100x more enjoyable (although not with my dad who would never let us play in arcades on vacation! ).

The bag was fun to do! I would definitely do it again sometime!

I'm in the process of going through the Hawaii pictures now and getting them posted online. I took like 2000, but my camera screen wasn't working right so I couldn't really review them as I took them. I've already deleted a ton, but I still have to work through the last two days. As long as the thread stays open I can post a link to them here and maybe some of the better pictures.

My wisdom teeth have kind of been bothering me, so it will be nice to see them go, but they just told me their first available appointment is September 2. Ummmm...I cannot take a day (or more) off school until at least the end of September! So, I don't know what's going to happen with that now.

I am going to have to go back through your TR and look for things about MNSSHP that I don't want to miss!! I hope things are going well with you and your family!!

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

I kid you not...I went to Mexico twice and both times I was killing myself trying to remember what you needed from there!!! It was the dang penny!!! I hate that I didn't remember!!!!

BTW - great update...I am lazy this year...no TR for me. Let's just say we had a great time...all went very well...WE ARE GOING BACK NEXT YEAR!!!!! DH said we will go every year the kids want to go and we can afford it! I may have to get a job just to make sure we go! I totally want to go during MNSSHP or at Christmas...I will work on that later with him!

 

[LaurenMic]

So sad it's over! But that is awesome you get to go to MNSSHP! Getting your wisdom teeth out sucks, I had mine out, but it's def bearable if you have that as a reward!

I hope Hawaii was amazing! You should post about it

 

[irky416]

I kid you not...I went to Mexico twice and both times I was killing myself trying to remember what you needed from there!!! It was the dang penny!!! I hate that I didn't remember!!!!

BTW - great update...I am lazy this year...no TR for me. Let's just say we had a great time...all went very well...WE ARE GOING BACK NEXT YEAR!!!!! DH said we will go every year the kids want to go and we can afford it! I may have to get a job just to make sure we go! I totally want to go during MNSSHP or at Christmas...I will work on that later with him!

Haha...thanks for thinking of me and my missing penny!

TR's are alot of work. I don't think I'd do another one for a long trip.

Glad to hear you had a great time and are going back!! That's so exciting. Are you going in the summer?

Christmas will be the next thing I bargain for!

So sad it's over! But that is awesome you get to go to MNSSHP! Getting your wisdom teeth out sucks, I had mine out, but it's def bearable if you have that as a reward!

I hope Hawaii was amazing! You should post about it

Haha. That's what I keep telling myself about the wisdom teeth.

Hawaii was awesome. I should have all my pictures uploaded later today, so I might do a small post about the highlights.

I'm glad you posted here because I somehow missed your TR! I thought I had caught everything I missed while I was gone but yours slipped by me. Off to catch up!

 

[irky416]

Ok, here's a few of the highlights from Hawaii, as requested! I hope it's ok to post these!

First up Maui:

We got up at 2:30 AM to go to the top of Haleakala ("House of the Sun") crater and see the sunrise over the clouds. It's 10,000 feet to the summit up a road carved into the side of the mountain. The views were incredible!

It was freezing and rainy and miserable!

We didn't see anything on our first day, so we had to do it again later! We were rewarded with a very nice sunrise. The park ranger said, "You know the sun is rising when the clouds turn to liquid gold." And they did. It was awesome.

We also saw rare Silver Swords up there that only grow on the slopes of the mountain. If you destroy/hurt one the fine is $10,000!!

We tried ziplining, which was really fun!

It's weird purposefully launching yourself off a 50 foot drop!

We did a lot of snorkeling and it was really fun. (Snorkeling in the Caribbean is way better, though!) We saw a lot of interesting creatures and thousands of fish.

We snorkeled with this turtle for 45 minutes!

Sea snake...scary!

Did the Road to Hana, which is a twisting, and in many places one lane, unpaved road that kind of circles the island. It was amazing to see the huge variety of climates on Maui! We were in lush tropical rainforests with waterfalls in one part and desert like conditions in another.
Black sand beach

Waterfall

Oheo Gulch (aka Seven Sacred Pools)

The vegetation change (and this might be my new favorite spot ever! It was so quiet and peaceful there and you could see for miles!)

Iao Valley and Iao Needle was gorgeous!

We loved the old whaling village of Lahaina and even in Hawaii I found a character to get a picture with!

Jack enjoyed Lahaina also!

Shave Ice is so good and may have replaced Goofy's chocolate covered treats as my favorite snack ever!!!

We never got a really excellent sunset, but we did get some nice ones!

Enjoyed a luau with Jack!

Had some picnics on the beach with fresh pineapple and POG juice (just like at the Poly only better!) while we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery!

I also took a bunch of pictures of the flowers. I loved them! Some of them turned out pretty well.

I think I'm running out of room for pictures, so I'll do Oahu in the next post!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great pictures from Hawaii! I especially love the one of the turtle...that turned out really good! Looks like you had a great time.

 

[ScotsMinnie]

Loving your pics! What an amazing time you must have had. can't wait to see more!

 

[irky416]

After a week in Maui, we moved onto Oahu for a few days. (Of course, as I'm doing this, my internet goes out and I had to redo this whole post!)

We hiked up Diamond Head. Wow, that was a hike! But worth it!

We had to climb these evil stairs after we hiked up the whole mountain!

We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center...kind of like a mini Epcot World Showcase and made these amazing fish toys that were my favorite thing from the trip I think!

We visited the Dole Plantation and had Dole Whips and a Dole Whip Float!!!

Of course we had to do Pearl Harbor. It was very moving and I almost cried during the video they make you watch. It's done really well.

It still leaks oil every day. There's many legends about this. Some say it's tears from the soldiers and others say it will continue to leak until the last survivor dies.

We went to the Waimea Valley (which was gorgeous) in search of the waterfall they used to film an episode of Lost!

My dad wanted us to get a picture with Jack from Lost (he has a man-crush!), so we took a picture of Jack at the place where Jack was and planned on telling my dad we saw Jack where they filmed Lost and then show him this picture: (He was not amused!)

We were surprised but we (and Jack!) really enjoyed the Honolulu Zoo!

And we enjoyed lots of beautiful scenery around Oahu!
Hanauma Bay - where my waterproof camera turned not-so-waterproof, it was misty and cold, I saw a huge red eel about a foot from my face and I had a definite child-like meltdown due to all of this! (We didn't stay there for very long!)

It was hard to stick to highlights! I have so many pictures! All-in-all it was a really great trip. I think we both agreed we like the Caribbean much better, though. I am glad we went to Hawaii, but I don't think I will go back until i retire and can go in the winter for the humpback whales!

If you really want to see more pictures from the trip, you can go here and enjoy all of them if you want. Hawaii Pictures!

 

[ScotsMinnie]

Those pics are fabulous! Hawaii looks wonderful - somewhere I would love to visit one day.

and those stairs do look seriously evil!

 

[irky416]

I thought I replied to these yesterday, but that must have been when my internet was being weird.

Great pictures from Hawaii! I especially love the one of the turtle...that turned out really good! Looks like you had a great time.

Thanks! I have tons of pictures of that turtle. I was surprised that some of them turned out so well.

Loving your pics! What an amazing time you must have had. can't wait to see more!

Those pics are fabulous! Hawaii looks wonderful - somewhere I would love to visit one day.

and those stairs do look seriously evil!

Thanks! It was a blast! Hawaii was definitely awesome and I would definitely recommend going sometime if you can. (But if you can't many places in the Caribbean are just as wonderful as Hawaii!)

The stairs would look even more evil to you if you saw what we had to hike up before we even got to those stairs!

 

[LaurenMic]

Thanks for sharing all those Hawaii pictures! I'm glad you guys had a great time. It looks SO beautiful! That's so funny that you found Dole Whips and characters I LOVE Lost so I got really excited by the waterfall pictures. Your dad has good taste

Glad you found my TR!!

 

[irky416]

Thanks for sharing all those Hawaii pictures! I'm glad you guys had a great time. It looks SO beautiful! That's so funny that you found Dole Whips and characters I LOVE Lost so I got really excited by the waterfall pictures. Your dad has good taste

Glad you found my TR!!

Haha. DBF kept rolling his eyes at me over the character and the Dole Whips!

I agree my dad has good taste, but it seriously freaks me out that my dad and I have a crush on the same person!