For our 10 year wedding anniversary we took a family vacation to Hawaii. It was AMAZING!! Although the flight was looong and traveling with a 12 mos old had its challenges, the vacation was awesome.
We stayed three nights in Honolulu at the Ilikai Hotel on Waikki Beach. Truly a beautiful resort. Our second night there, we sat on the beach and watched a great fireworks display, it was so cool!
However we woke up Saturday morning (Feb. 27th) to the sounds of sirens going off in the hotel warning us we were under a Tsunami alert. Chile had been struct by one of the strongest earthquakes ever; it was an 8.8 quake! Thankfully this proved to be minor for us in Oahu but it was amazing to see the effect the quake had made on the ocean and the rips and tides that we were able to see. It was just awesome to be able to witness God's creation and see the cause and effect knowing Chile is thousands of miles away.
After we got the all clear we wondered if we could see any effects of the Tsunami so we headed to the North Shore. We passed some surfers who were daring to risk the freak squals.
The kids so desperately wanted to get in the water and play at the North Shore but because we were still uncertain of any after shocks that might cause strange rip currents we didn't let them get their suits on and jump in but despite all that.. we still played in the sand and had fun..afterall we were in Hawaii and MI had snow back home :)
...even Little Bit couldn't resist the sand! 
Even though many people said the tsunami upset a lot of the marine life,
this whale was showing off his tail.
We went to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Habor and I was just truly in awe!!
Seeing the ship lying in the water, still having oil leaking out just took my breath away. So many men and women gave their lives there for our freedom...it just gave me goosebumbs.
