{ajm}

It’s time again for the annual trip to Las Vegas for NAB. This is about the tenth year for Ben to attend. Lots of fun memories over the years, friends and family, Cirque de Sole shows, incredible hotels, and for the past several years, the Hacienda. This year we have already taken Mallory to see the Bellagio fountains and their amazing conservatory. It’s one of my all time favorite things to do here.

The Hacienda is the name we’ve given the house where we are staying. It’s sprawling and entertaining all by itself. We enjoy the pool and volleyball court in the back, the large green expanse that includes a two hole putting green, the circular nature of all the interconnecting rooms. Mallory is loving the "conversation pit" and the stairs that lead from all the rooms to one another. She is also in heaven with the back yard, she is moving the volleyball court one handful of sand at a time.

Sunday we had the opportunity to visit Red Rock Canyon. It’s beautiful. The mountains are incredible, completely different than Hawaii but every bit as compelling. The day was lovely, crisp, and clear. We climbed up a bit, hopefully giving Mallory a taste for adventures yet to come.

Wild Dr. Seuss shaped rock formations.

Great fun climbing around with her-and fun watching her want more independence to climb on her own.

We met a kind woman who offered to take pictures of the three of us.

She was THRILLED to be outside and exploring.

amazing rock formations

new (to me) cactus specimens

This one and the next are her exploring the sand "behind" the rock we "climbed"

A glorious Sunday spent with our family of three.

my favorite side of the island

I love the small town feeling (so NOT Waikiki) love the amazing beaches, the turtles, the snorkling, the fact that we watched whales breaching from the beach, the waterfall where you can swim. You might have heard for the surfing that goes on here and this is where lots of the LOST beach scene are filmed. So many cool things that I would campaign to spend time just on this side of things.

this is Waimea Bay. It’s huge and literally took my breath away. It’s also home to one of two regrets I have about our trip. I so wish I had forced Ben to stop here, even if it was just long enough to jump from this cool rock.

here are some pictures I took while we were on the "LOST" beach (also know as Papa’iloa Beach)

I am not the only one who thinks this is amazingly beautiful!

pineapples growing

view of the mountains from the Dole Pineapple farm

they looked fake in all their coolness

cable ties are kind of a family joke, adnd when I saw this I laughed out loud
I think it’s HILARIOUS that the top heavy pineapples in this picture are cable tied to stakes

our first viewing of Diamond Head and Waikiki–from the air

We stayed on the southeast side of Oahu at Ko’ Olina.

exploring at the hotel: this is one of three natural lagoons where queens of Hawaii came to relax

sunrise view from the hotel: this is one of four lagoons (human-made) adjacent to the natural ones

pool at the hotel