ALOHA

* Our roadtrip to the most Southernest Point in the USA, was so windy that the trees in this place all grow completely sideways like the photo below
* There was a market in our little town. I bought myself a huge turquoise ring, Ben a few tee's, and a massive butter avocado and red pepper for our enchilada dinner we were making later on that night
* I was totally diggin the Bob Marley fabric poster at the market but something told me that it wouldn't quite match the rest of my home
* Gotta love the random zebra (and donkey which is not shown) on the side of a a random road with the please don't feed sign. Hana was overjoyed at the sight of the random zebra.
* The windmill photo was encouraged by my brother. He thought they were really cool and I was not all that impressed. He convinced me to snap a photo as we were driving by and I actually love the shot with those cotton candy hued clouds. So there you go Chayse, it's a keeper
* The grassy landscape was a total change from what most of our side of the island looked like. It was very pretty though with all the long grasses and bluffs. I love the very last shot of the little sparrows on the fence and the crazy blue sky above them
* You know the pineapple in Hawaii is yummy when it can make a girl who didn't like it before, suddenly crave it all the time. It was SO good. Everyone forced me to try it and I'm so glad they did. Can you seriously go to Hawaii and not even TRY their pineapple?! 

I still need to get to editing the photos from the Luau we went to on the night of my birthday. It was so entertaining so those will be next & more beach shots of the prettiest beach we'd gone to. It was too bad we discovered it on the afternoon of our last full day there. Stay tuned!

I told you there were a lot of photos ...

* Tiny frogs being carried in tiny hands

* Black sand beach

* A roadtrip with my brother & Hana to the most Southernest point in the USA

* Extra memorable fishing charter trip for the boys (they reeled in a shark!)

* Lots of laughter

* Swimming in the open waters with wild dolphins

* Snorkeling, snorkeling and more snorkeling!

* Lots of swimming in our pool and down at beaches near our place

More photos to come!

More Hawaiian Adventures!

Some of the highlights from days three and four of our Hawaiian trip were ...

* Cracking open our first coconut (right off our tree in our backyard)
* Doing an early morning walk just Ben and I to the bay near our house
* Went to Hapuna State Park Beach w/ the whole fam (first time to a really typically gorgeous white sand Hawaiian beach)
* I had a serious bathing suit malfunction standing in seven foot waves
* We ate our first (and best through out the entire trip) fish tacos from a little stand at the beach
* The babies stayed home after Eli's long night at the hospital
* We did a little mini photo sesh with my brother and his girlfriend Hana. They had been to a candy factory the day before so we used their salt water taffy in some shots. One is posted below in black and white and the others will come another day  not so soon
* Of course Eli has been working hard to walk. He tried and tried on the trip. By the end he was motoring along a lot quicker with a helping hand, then he was before we left.

There were likely more highlights but because I have been SO slow at getting these photos up and because I am way busy, I am just going to post a bunch today.  They are not all from this day of course, but I need to get rollin so that's ok ;) I am crazy in love with the black and white one of Ben & the Colty holding hands, the ones of my Dad & Colty sitting in the wicker chair & the one of Chayse (my brother) photographing in black in white. The image of me in the yellow dress was taken by my adoring husband.
P.S. All the images have been taken by me & if they're not, I'll write otherwise.

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Adventure {Day 1 & 2}

I think the one and only way to blog our vacay in Hawaii is to go through it day by day. So I think I'll do just that. We stayed on the Big Island in Kona in a vacation home.

{Day One}

We arrived on Wednesday evening. Jumped off the plane and walked into the outdoor Kona airport. The air was super warm, super humid and we all instantly perked right up after our long day of travel. The babies were amazing ... they slept through each flight and were really patient with all the security and waiting. We pulled up to our place and we figured we must have had the wrong house ... this place was way too incredible. The photos that were advertised clearly didn't do it justice AND it was dark out. We realized that this was it and we were even more excited to get in and settled! The house had a huge wrap around deck with bamboo flooring, comfy outdoor furniture, a perfect jungle view and you could overlook the pool from the deck as well. The entire house was encased by huge banana leaf, coconut, papaya and avocado trees. We  all went for a dip that night in the pool and then off to sleep since we had a big trip ahead of us!

{Day Two}

Today we needed to fill up the fridge and get some groceries for the next little while. We headed to a nearby Costco (the cheapest place to shop) and Target as well. I got a few new swimsuits (one of them with a major malfunction which I'll explain on another day).

Ben and I bought ourselves some snorkel gear that morning and went snorkeling at a small bay on Alii Drive (the main drag in Kona). Hana and Chayse came along with us and Hana and Ben both got bit by a fish! There are signs on the beach with photos to show you what a fish bite looks like, in order to help you correctly identify what your bite was from. Look below at the first video to see the sea turtle we swam beside! The water at this particular bay (video number two) wasn't clear and blue like all the other bays but there were turtles everywhere and it was a good little intro to snorkeling. Today we had our first shaved ice! No idea why I didn't get photos of it because it was the best thing ever. Below is a photo of Colty eating the last few bites of my fave flavor Coconut, Cherry and Pina Colada. Don't go to Hawaii without trying it. Actually, we 'tried' it quite a few times during our trip.

Eli had been running a bit of a fever that afternoon and he was being a little crankier than normal. Ben and I woke up in the middle of the night that evening to a running shower and loud footsteps running up and down the stairs. Their bedroom was right next to ours. I got up to see what was going on and realized that Eli was really unwell. He had a fever of 103. They decided to call an ambulance. We had no idea where a hospital was or even a clinic that would be open this late. And who knew if there was even a hospital in the town we were in.We were so thankful that the ambulance was there within 5 minutes. It wasn't far to the hospital from our place.They took Eli and C & J with them to the hospital and helped them to bring down his fever. Turns out, Eli had a bad ear infection from the plane and a sore throat as well. That baby can't catch a break but he must have slept it off because in a day or two, he was feeling much better (see him napping away in the photo).

The blue palm tree photo was the reflection of the trees in our pool. The photo was my Mom's idea and it turned out to be so pretty. The pink flower photo was also taken in the pool. The videos were filmed with our underwater camera that only worked in the moments that it wanted to (it's getting a bit old now and it doesn't take very good clips but it's done the job over the past few years). That's day two! More beaches to come for the next post of days three and four!