sweet home

Day 3

Day 3 was a big, long day. We started out with cousin pictures in the matching outfits Grandma Dee got the kids. They are all so adorable.

Then we made our way around the island to Volcano National Park. The drive was gorgeous. The landscape is so unique because there are parts where it is completely desolate and lava rock and then it will be totally lush right next to that.

Tiana and Jason rented a Jeep and my kids kept calling it "Sir Axelrod".

We made a stop at the black sand beach. It was amazing. I have a slight obsession with sand.

We saw a turtle here too and even got a picture of just Lewis and me!

Here the kids are sitting on the edge of the caldera looking in. Unfortunately the closest hot, flowing lava was a 6 mile hike across lava rock and that just wasn't happening. We did watch a movie and saw lots that way though!

This is hiking into the lava tube. Apparently when the lava is flowing it forms it's own tubes to flow through. Then when all of it is gone the tube remains.

We decided to hike down into this volcano. Cate was wasted and Abs was asleep so we decided to head back up while the rest of the group walked across to the steam vent.

Lewis assures me that this is the closest the kids got.

Then we drove out to see the cliffs and the water. I love these pictures.Even though I took them from a moving car.

We drove up to Hilo to see it and to have dinner.

While we were waiting for our food Grandma Dee took the kids to a candy store. You can imagine their excitement!

Cate and Daniel are a month apart, but on such opposite extremes!

Day 2

Day 2 started out with snorkeling. It was the best snorkeling I have ever done (not that I am an expert). There were so many fish. So many types of fish. In such a small area. It was even kid friendly because it wasn't deep and they didn't have to swim far to see a lot. We also saw 3 or 4 sea turtles which was really cool.

Dee found this awesome tent for the babies to sleep in and it worked out great!

This picture of Lewis is too good to not share:

In the afternoon we went to a beach for the kids that the rental guy (who stopped by on Sunday to fix a fan) recommended. They call it the Keiki Ponds which means kid ponds and it was great. We parked in the wrong place at first and had to walk a pretty long way along the wall on lava rock, but when we got there it ended up being the prefect beach for the kids.

The water never got too deep, there were no waves, and there was lots of exploring to do.

The Big Island day 1

We arrived in Kona on Saturday and it was only 8pm there, but since it was 1am for us we pretty much just got straight to bed after saying hi to everyone. Sunday morning we got up nice and early of course, thank you very much time change, and hung out with cousins and grandparents. It was General Conference weekend so we spent a lot of the day sitting and watching. In between sessions we went and saw the temple. It was beautiful. After conference was over we ventured out to a beach where a turtle was hanging out. It was so cool to see it up close.