Week 2

What an amazing week!  The kids are all feeling better and we were able to get up and go!  We hiked our favorite hike, Pololu, and while there took a new trail up the mountain and over to the next valley--we met some local girls on the hike who showed us how to pick strawberry guavas, and they were DELICIOUS!--we swam & snorkeled twice at our Mauni Lani beach club beach, which turned out to have AMAZING snorkeling--we swam at Hapuna beach--we took the beautiful drive up to Hilo and stopped at our favorite waterfalls along the way--at Kolekole park we swam to a waterfall, walked under it, and swung on the rope swing back out to the water-- we met Michael, who owns and runs a farm and who had the best homegrown pineapples we've tried--we got to play some tennis, and found one court that wasn't so great, but found a different one that was awesome--we watched the sunset driving over Mauna Kea, a volcano thats summit is 14,000 feet (we were probably 5,000 feet up??)--we watched a hula and fire dancing show--and we made our own leis!!

These leis smelled SOOOOO good! Wish I could send the scent through the computer!

 Mike's pretzels was finally open!  We got our macadamia nut fix, but found our new favorite-- salted carmel and chocolate pretzel!  YUM!!

Our FAVORITE hike!!

Campfire anyone?

This is the top of the 600 feet ridge!  

Facing inland to the valley and the freshwater streams

Facing out to the ocean

The trail that takes us up and over the ridge to the next valley

Don't fall off Lauren!!

The black sand beach at the bottom of Pololu-- after Lauren and I waded in the water we discovered several Portuguese Man-of-War washed up on the shore--glad neither one of us got stung!!

The name of our street!  (Our cousin's name is Maile!)

The only public tennis courts on the whole island!  

All of us, (Josh, Kelly and us) all ended up with the same color rental vans!  Here we are headed to the water falls!

Akaka Falls 

It's a rare thing to have a sunny day, when you do all the rainbows come out!  It was so beautiful!

Just outside of Akaka Falls is a coconut farmer!  He chopped up a coconut, and sugar cane for us!

Kolekole park--this is the drive down to the park: 

We swam over to this waterfall!

This video is from a small little hike that takes you behind the Hawaii Botanical Garden.  The kids always find coconuts and love to do all they can to crack them open!

Almost made it to the top-- (ha ha I was like 2 feet off the ground)

Rainbow Falls!

This is all of us climbing to the very top of Rainbow Falls

The very edge of Rainbow falls!

The sunset over the ocean from Mauna Kea

Hapuna Beach (we haven't uploaded the go pro pictures yet from here!)

Week 1!!

The Bad: 

Way back last summer we decided to do another summer in Hawaii!  So we got online & found a great condo!  Since we were so early-- we negotiated a really good deal!  After we got the condo, we watched & watched for flights to go on sale.  Finally, about the first week of March, they went down, so we grabbed them!  Two weeks later we found out that the agent who booked our condo "misplaced the paperwork" ( translation, took our money & scammed us) & we never had a booking.  After hours and hours on the phone with the police, the vacation agency & the agent himself, Gary managed to find us another condo. The agent, Anthony, agreed to pay for the second condo for us since the price had now gone up considerably.  ( or face charges) We ended up paying for the second condo, while working with Anthony to get the money back from him.  Phew, right?  Friday June 6th was a busy day for us!  It was the last day of school, it was Sydney's 8th grade promotion, & it just happened to be my birthday!  We were scheduled to fly out Tuesday June 10th.  Gary got a call that morning that our second condo was completely flooded!!  What?!  How?!  We were supposed to leave in 4 days!!  The manger of condo number 2 promised to help us find another, but finding a condo for 2 months with 4 days notice was next to impossible!  After 24 panicked hours, in which we were minutes away from calling the airlines to cancel the whole trip, the manager came through!  He had a condo that was usually reserved for long term rentals, (yearly) that was vacant & the owners agreed to let us stay for the same price as condo number 2!!  We got on the plane Tuesday with the contract in our bag!  

The Good:

This condo is AMAZING!  Easily the best we've ever stayed at!  So, after all the hours of stress it turned out to be a way better place, & after we get our money back from Anthony, we will have paid a fraction of the cost of it! 

Our own private BBQ & lanai with doors that open all the way--

More Good:

Our flights went as smoothly as possible! We are good at packing light-- well really what do you need for Hawaii?!  We all had a carry-on & we checked two bags, one if which was all our tennis rackets, tennis shoes & balls! :). All our flights were on time & went great!

We chased the sun across the Pacific!

A Little More Bad:

All three girls got a sudden cold as soon as we got here!  It was maybe someone on the plane? A bug they picked up before?  Either way they have been troopers & luckily, we have ALL summer! So it's ok to take it easy for a few days! 

Also I left our pool key at the pool last night!  Uggg!  I hope it gets turned in!! 

The BEST: 

It's HAWAII!  The weather, the beaches, the sun, the water!!  It's so so amazing!! We are staying at the Mauna Lani Villages.  We love to walk down to the Mauni Lani hotel & enjoy the hammocks & lounge chairs & watch the sunset!

This is our favorite beach!  Waves were on the small side today, but the water is WARM, & CRYSTAL CLEAR!!  Kua Bay beach:

Had some shaved ice!  We were hoping for a Mikes macademia nut pretzel-- but his sign said open "around noonish to close". We waited until 1 pm & figured maybe the surf was good so he wasn't opening today! 

We went to a macademia nut factory!   Hamakua Macademia Nut Company  Mmmm,  try the coconut macademia nut brittle!  It's delicious!!

Took a walk around the Waikola Hilton!  It's an amazing hotel!  There are free boat rides around the hotel & free monorail rides as well.  We stopped to see the dolphin encounters.  So cute to see them up so close! 

Parrots at the Hilton. 

Our other favorite beach, Beach 69.  We love the shade trees!  We can set up a nice camp & spend the day snorkeling, swimming, floating, rock climbing, & relaxing! 

Finished Fathers Day with a beautiful walk along the shore.  We started at the Mauni Lani Hotel & walked all along the   beach to the Fairmont Orchid Hotel.  We accidentally walked through a wedding at the Fairmont, (oops! ) & got there just in time to see the sun set over the ocean, & see their torch lighters light all the Tikki torches & blow the Conch shell.  Such a beautiful night!! 

recitals

The end of the school year usually means lots of recitals!

Matthew's 2nd grade class did a BUGGY musical!  Matthew was a firefly.

  Kaycee did a dance recital.  She danced to "The Big Bad Wolf" and "Rio" 

 Kaycee was also in her school chorus recital.  They did "Rockin America"

 Sydney had her end of the year recital for piano.  She played "Need You Now".  

 She also got her trophies and medals for practicing and learning about a new composer.

May

Our sweet Lauren turned 15 this month!  

We decorated at school to embarrass her!  Her friends brought her a huge teddy bear to carry, flowers, balloons and a whole cake!  Keep in mind there are NO lockers at high school now, so she had to carry everything ALL DAY! 

Gary took Matthew to see a Trophy Truck race in Lake Elsinore.

Lauren and Kaitlyn cheered on Olivia for her track finals, where she beat her personal best time! 

 Lauren wanted to go to Knotts Berry Farm for her birthday!