Hawaii begins!

After years in the works (literally, over 2 years) the Morgan family made it to Hawaii, with no kids! We initially planned this trip when Joyce was battling cancer, and had the hopes of all being together there. We missed Joyce & Stu so much, but thought about them constantly, and we're sure Joyce was with us at least part of the time! It was so nice to be with Matt, my parents, brothers and sisters for nine days without any kids! I missed them so much more than I expected though. Anyway, here are the pictures from the start...sorry to bore you all with the details!





My sisters and I started off the trip a day early by getting pedicures. That's a must! It was nice to spend a little time together before we left, especially considering all the craziness it takes to get ready for a big trip.



Here we are, we had just arrived and were waiting for our rental cars. It was so blasted hot, I was totally sweaty (from the humidity of course), swollen (from the water retention) and starving...but for some reason we just kept hanging around the rental car place. Where better to be than there? It took us a few days to figure out how to function well as a group of 16. The first few days entailed a lot of standing around waiting!




We arrived Friday afternoon STARVING! It was about 9:00 PM our time so we were ready for dinner! We ate at the most beautiful place in Oahu. I loved the all the green scenery, the flowers, the smells! It was a great place to start the trip with everyone.



My sister Joan can still do the splits! She's so crazy/silly and will just be standing there one moment and then break in to the splits the next. She makes me laugh!


Chad, Joan, Mandy and Steve
This is the view we had over dinner!


This is all of us, except Matt (taking the picture) and Susan who met up with us in Kauai.




We had this inside joke going around in my family about a mustache, and who'd show up with the washboard abs and a mustache, and so Matt took it upon himself to grow one. He thankfully shaved it off the next morning! He already has the washboard abs, so the mustache completed the package. (:





Back row: Dad, Mom, Eric, Julie, Brian, Chad, Matt, Jason, Carrie, Steve and Roger
Front row: Katie, Joan, me, and Mandy


This is at the temple. We were able to do a session with everyone on Saturday morning. We were so tired though, and had just eaten a huge breakfast so a lot of us were nodding off, but it was great to be there together.



Matt took this picture on the temple grounds. I loved all the beautiful flowers everywhere.


The Polynesian Cultural Center


Carrie and Jason at the luau dinner


Eric volunteered to play the drums and dance around a little bit at the P.C.C.'s Tonga exhibit. I honestly don't remember laughing that hard in a long time. Katie (Eric's wife) has the video of it. I'd LOVE to post it if I can. It's seriously hilarious. The coolest part is, Erica can actually play the drums and could keep up with this guy so it was super fun to watch, and the crowd was super impressed (mind you 15 of the members were a little biased)



The humidity was killing me! I was so swollen by the end of the day my flip flops were hurting and my puffy feet were bulging out of them. Matt wanted me to take a picture with this guy, and he said "sorry, I'm all sweaty" and I said , "cool, so am I!" The humidity has it's good things, but I'm so glad to live in a dry state!


Here we all are at the luau dinner


It was my mom and dad's 41st wedding anniversary recently (Sept. 1st) so they went up and did a little dance along side with other anniversary celebraters, honeymooners, etc.



These pictures are actually in Kauai, so I'm getting a little ahead...


This is Roger's wife, Susan riding a wave in. She nailed just about every wave and always came right in to shore. She was a natural!


Here's Matt riding a wave in with some random kid


I think this is Joan riding a wave in. This was her first time ever boogie boarding!



Brian applying sunscreen to be sure and not burn!


My mom, Julie, Chad, Joan, Eric and Katie


Dad, Carrie, Roger, Susan

Ok, well I'll post more later!