THE LUSTIG FAMILY: HAWAII TRIP

HONOLULU OAHU

Our family were blessed to be able to go on a wonderful vacation to Hawaii. Jeremy had a convention there and of course we came along!! What a beautiful state! So lush and colorful. Our Gracious Creator had a great time with Hawaii!

4:30AM!!!
We are up not used to the time difference yet, so we went to breakfast at 5:00am in the morning! Crazy start to a "relaxing" vacation, but the weather was beautiful

My family waiting on our REALLY EARLY pancakes!!

This was the view from our breakfast table........what a beautiful place!

Looking out the window from our hotel room in Oaho (Honolulu). Our first Hawaiian rainbow.

First day on the beach. SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL!! See my feet?!?! I couldn't even get up out of my chaise lounge to get this pic....I was so super relaxed!

Savannah heading out to brave the waves!

Nicholas coming in for a goggles tightening from Mommy!

My Madison-Bear!

Savannah Banana starting a sand castle

Noodles bringing water to make the sand stick for the castle

A lot of our friends from residency were in Hawaii with us for the convention. It was so fun to see everyone while enjoying this beautiful place
(Nicholas, Savannah, Athens, Mikayla, Madison)

THE LUAU

So colorful and beautiful!

Very exciting....what a beautiful culture there is here in Hawaii

Dinner is served

Here is a close up of our dinner

The beautiful Hawaiian girls hula-ing with their fresh flower lays

DINNER AT BENIHANA

My little Bird of Paradise, Madison

Nicholas Noodles and Savannah Banana at Benihana

All three kids

Me and my Hawaiian love, Jeremy

MORE BEACH PICS

VERY INTERESTING LOCAL BREAKFAST!

Jeremy and I were headed to the North Shore with some friends and looking for a place to eat breakfast. Here is the place that we found with our iphone GPS.....a little questionable, but RIGHT up Jeremy's alley.....he loves the "hole in the wall" restaurants....luckily so did our friends

Doug and Becky (our friends from residency that now live in Georgia)

Here is our food served next to the bathroom key......yes it was outside and locked!
A TOTAL MOM AND POP PLACE!!

THE NORTH SHORE

(boy was it cold on the North Shore)

GIOVANNI'S SHRIMP TRUCK
(known all over the islands)
On our trip to the north shore, we stopped at the famous Giovanni's shrimp truck for lunch

It was an actual truck with a LONG line of people

Here is my handsome man in front of the truck before we ate.....we were so full after! The food was so good.....I wish that we would have thought to take a pic of our food. We enjoyed Shrimp Scapi, and Hot and Spicy Shrimp!

MASS AT THE HONOLULU CATHEDRAL
We never miss our Holy Mass, even when on vacation....It is always a special treat to visit other Catholic churches around the US and the world! We are all one holy catholic and apostolic....I feel so much unity knowing that the same readings are being read at Mass in my church at home and in every Roman Catholic church in the world!

Our Lord, Father is our Home and so even being away from Texas, we feel so comforted in His Holy House, worshiping and praising Christ with our Roman Catholic family.

We were blessed to be able to spend a Sunday in Honolulu which gave us a chance to attend High Mass at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Downtown

It's this beautiful church in the middle of skyscrapers!

They started Mass with an "Aloha" and asked all of the visitors to stand and be recognized with a lay made of shells

The Cathedral is set up like no other Catholic church that I have been to.......the altar and the lectern (Where the scriptural readings are read) are across from each other, so when the priest read the Gospel and gave his blessed homily, we were right next to him!

(Here is a picture from online that shows what it looks like during Mass)

What a beautiful church with so much faith....the priest gave a beautiful homily
What a blessing it was to spend our Sunday

PEARL HARBOR
Pearl Harbor touched me greatly!! What brave men and women they were and what a great loss they all felt...I felt that loss as I heard the stories, saw the giant ships, and read all of the names on the wall.

These were not people that I personally knew and I could not imagine how the people felt who lost their friends and loved ones on this horrible day.

At the end of the tour, the kids got to take an oath and received badges that said that they were official Pearl Harbor Park Rangers. They were very excited!

MAUI

SUBMARINE TRIP

NOW WE ARE GOING TO DECEND UNDER THE WATER...

NOW WE ARE UNDER THE WATER 130FT BELOW!!

WHAT A COOL EXPERIENCE!!

LUNCH AFTER THE SUBMARINE RIDE......EVERYONE LOVED NICK'S SPAGHETTI!

Here is a video of the kids dancing to the music at the restaurant while eating Nick's spaghetti.....look at how Nicholas "fake eats" the spaghetti to the music.....it just laugh every time I see it! Our kids are so funny! They bring us so much joy!

MAUI'S FAMOUS SHAVE ICE

We met the nicest man that owned a shave ice stand and surf shop.... He was a total surfer who ran the shop when he wasn't surfing or giving surfing lessons.....Jeremy took one from him too! The shop was really only there to finance the surfing!
We went EVERY night for a shave ice from "Maui Mike's" stand. In fact the first night after he closed and we were still there eating, he offered Jeremy a beer and just sat outside and talked with us! He was so interesting to talk to and listen to. I was very inspired by his outlook on life.

Look how crazy big the shave ice's were!! They were SO YUMMY!!!
Savannah ordered a root beer, bubble gum, banana flavored together and Maui Mike told her (in his awesome surfer accent) that he wouldn't even make that for her....those flavors mixed together was just too horrible sounding...so funny!! So she got bubble gum, banana, and tiger's blood

I got a grape, tiger's blood, and banana

Jeremy would try something new each night.....not sure what this one is.....looks like tigers blood, banana and maybe lemon lime?

Madison would switch hers up each night just like her Daddy. They were so good!

We met this other surfer named Drew that when he wasn't surfing, would make balloon animals professionally. He lives in a boat parked in the parking lot at the shave ice stand and surf shop.

( Here is Drew's house...everything that he owned was in his car)
He was an absolutely amazing person. He is a missionary that travels around the world, surfing, and making balloon animals for kids. He will go travel 3rd world countries and make balloon animals for kids (who have never seen a balloon before). He doesn't even consider himself a missionary. When we asked him if he was a missionary he said....."No, I just like to travel around the world, have fun surfing and make kids happy" He was so peaceful and kind! The kids loved him. What wonderful people we met in Hawaii.....there is a sense of really living life. People are slower paced and peaceful. Our Lord is truly delighted with Drew and Maui Mike, who bring so much happiness to everyone that they encounter.

Here are the kids with their balloon animals that Drew made them. He told them to come back the next night so that he could show them some card tricks!

Here we are with Maui Mike on our last day in Hawaii. What a cool connection we made with him. He was a blessing to us all!

PARK IN MAUI

SUNSET CRUISE ON THE GEMINI

NEW PETS IN HAWAII

The kids all found these tiny hermit crabs on the beach....so we kept them in little homemade terrariums made out of dishes from the condo kitchen

We found little snails also to keep the hermit crabs company in their new homes

This one is named "Bob"

This one was named "Blue Eyes" He really had blue eyes!

LAUGHING WHILE EATING PRETZELS
One night in the condo, we were eating pretzels and just started acting crazy and laughing a lot! They were so excited that I bought the "rod" shaped ones!!