Last Day

Our last day in Hawaii was spent packing, tidying up the condo and swimming in the pool. We had such an awesome vacation! We saw a lot of new things and revisited all of our past favorites. None of us were quite ready to come home yet - though I think us 5 could stay forever! We joked with the kids often about if they wanted to move to Kona - both Logan and Katie eagerly said yes, but we had to ship Duke over. (And I'm sure Duke would also LOVE it here!)

Katie's love of water was by far the biggest surprise this trip. She was a fish! She mainly played on the steps of the pool by herself, but always begged people to go swimming with her. 

Logan surprised us the last day by NOT wanting to go to the pool. He was pouting because his cousins left earlier in the day to continue their vacation on Oahu. 

I can't really complain about how Carson behaved on vacation. He did have a couple of crying fits - but for the most part he did very well. I don't know if I'd do it again though as vacationing with a baby isn't much of a vacation. Mark and I joked on the way home that we now need a vacation from our vacation. Being up everyday at 5:30am isn't very relaxing and we never had a moment alone just the two of us! haha. 

But these two loved it so much. It was awesome watching them boogie board, play in the sand and swim in the pool. I also loved how happy they were playing with their cousins.

Goodbye Kona - until next year? (I can dream, can't I?)

Road Trip!

We headed out early this morning for a road trip to the other side of the island. Our first stop was at Waipio Valley for a quick photo opp. Mark swears he saw a whale in the water below - I couldn't see anything but others also thought they saw shadows of something large.

Afterwards we headed south to Akaka Falls. The boys did a whirlwind tour of the falls, running almost the entire way. Katie was being a bit more difficult and kept insisting "I can't walk daddy!" So poor Mark had to carry her almost the entire way. Carson and Carter stayed and napped in the van with Grandma.

Our next stop was supposed to be the Pana'ewa Zoo, but it started to rain - and pretty hard. So we detoured to the nearest Pizza Hut for lunch. Pizza Hut.... *drool*. (I may have just ordered pizza hut for dinner haha)

The rain finally let up and we were able to carry on to the zoo as planned. We had such a good time at the zoo. There were so many different colored birds and exotic animals - including anteaters, lemurs, turtles etc. (My favorite part of the zoo - it was FREE!)

The kids LOVED the playground at the zoo and burnt off a ton of pent up energy. 

Logan's favorite part of the zoo (and what he was looking forward to all trip) was the White Siberian Tiger - Namaste. Namaste was HUGE.



Everyday at 3:30 they feed the tiger. They lock him up in a pen at the back of his enclosure and give him his dinner of a raw chicken stuffed with all sorts of nutritional goodies. We got to go right up close and watch Namaste eat. Half way through he dropped his chicken and started snarling at us. He then let out a roar that startled even the adults! Definitely today's highlight!

Katie loved the peacocks that freely roamed the zoo. She wasn't afraid of them at all and kept running up to every one she saw to talk to them.

After the zoo we headed down to Kalapana - a district that was destroyed by lava back in the 90's. When we were here last January there was hot lava flowing right by the pathways - so close Mark melted his sneakers. Sadly this year the flow was far off in the distance on private property - so we couldn't get anywhere near it without paying a fortune for a tour. But it was still neat to see the cool, hardened lava up close. 

The rest of the family stayed until after dark to see if they could see the lava glowing off in the distance. By this time Carson had enough so our family of 5 opted to head home instead. Carson did calm down and we may have managed to sneak in a trip to the Ross in Hilo :)

Mark's Vacation Check List: Complete

Mark really only had one item on his vacation check list, and if you know him, I bet you can guess what it is. Golf. Mark has been looking forward to this since his last round in September. He and Jon golfed the Ocean Course at the Kona Country Club. They had a great morning. Mark shot a 91 and Jon a 96. Mark was a little disappointed that they only got one round in this week. But thankfully Calgary has been having some awesome weather this spring and he'll be able to golf at home soon enough.

While the boys were golfing Sam, Mom, the kids and I hung out around the pool at the condo. (The Dees family went over to Volcanoes National Park). I couldn't take any pictures at the pool today as Mark took the camera golfing. Once the boys returned we headed over to the Hilton Waikoloa to watch their dolphin show. It was a free 15 minute show. The kids loved it.

Mark and I joked that once we win the lottery big we're coming back and staying at the Hilton. It's unreal. Sooooo beautiful.

Katie was getting a bit grumpy and you could definitely tell she missed her afternoon nap. By the time we reached the flamingos (the Hilton has flamingos!) she was done. I could not get a smile out of her for the life of me. Gotta love the stink eye!

Vacation Check List: Complete

I think it's impossible to have a case of the Mondays while you're on vacation. Everyday is a great day.. even Mondays. We started this Monday off with some family photos. Sam had an awesome idea to hire a local photographer to take our family photos. We met him at the beach by the Four Seasons - (which is a very pretty and picturesque. There were also a TON of turtles out on the beach! Which was awesome to see.) Despite his wild crazy hair, he was a super friendly guy and had some great ideas. Below is just one of the sample of the pictures he has already sent us. I can't wait to see the rest!

After our cheeks hurt from smiling we headed back down to Hapuna for another beach day. Mark has just decided to accept the fact that the waves are not near as big as last January and embrace the "baby waves". The baby waves kept the boys entertained all afternoon - I don't think Logan came out of the water once. 

The rest of us found shelter from the wind near the rocks/cliffs. It has been SUPER windy this week, which is a bit of a downer - but at least it provides some relief from the scorching sun, 

 

After the beach we all went our separate ways. Jon and Sam went into Kona for a luau and Dan and Karen for a dinner cruise. Mark and I took our kids into Kona and checked some things off of our "vacation check list". There are several things that Mark and I always like to do while we are on vacation.

1. Go to Jack in a Box. Since we don't have Jack in a Box at home we like to stop there at least once to have egg rolls, curly fries and mozza sticks. It was no luau or dinner cruise, but the kids LOVED it! (Though they're not impressed with their mom taking their pictures 1000x a day).

2. Go to Ross. Carson definitely benefited the most from this trip. I got him some new onesies and little sweatsuits. Katie got a princess cup and Logan got Antonio/Octozord and a mooger (if you dont know, dont ask.) Mark was extremely embarrassed that I was taking this picture.

3. Go to Target. Mark banned me from taking any pictures in Target unfortunately. But there we stocked up on keylime and banana cream pie yogurts, some new Rapunzel undies for Kate and a new dress for me. The ONLY thing I can not cross off of my vacation list this trip is vanilla coke. :(

4. Have a caramel frappe from McDonalds. I don't know why McDonald's at home does not make/sell these. If you want to compete with Tim Horton's you should bring these in to rival their icecaps. They are far more delicious and waaaaaaaaay cheaper.

My vacation check list is complete. If I had to go home tomorrow I could do so without any regrets. But thankfully I still have a couple more days of beaches and sunshine (and maybe another order of egg rolls and caramel frappes. haha)

Poolside

After our day of sightseeing, we decided to take things easy on Sunday and all do our own thing. Jon and Sam went into Kona and spent the day sightseeing/shopping. Dan and Karen went snorkeling down at A Beach. Mark and I stuck close to home - in the morning we walked down to the Queen's shops and looked around (we bought Katie a water shirt like Logan's as she's proved she now loves to swim.) In the afternoon we decided to skip the beach because it was so windy and head over to the pool instead. Nobody really seemed to miss the beach as they were having too much fun in the pool! Even Carson joined in on the swimming action! Though he wasn't overly impressed. He loves baths, so I figured he would like the pool. He was okay with just his feet in the water, but as soon as his hands got wet he freaked out.

Logan was showing off again by doing flips into the pool. He's fearless and refuses to wear his lifejacket. Mark did have to pull a David Hasselhoff this afternoon though when Logan and Ty bumped heads in the deep end. Logan was crying too hard to swim to the side, so off came the shoes and sunglasses and Mark have to dive in to save him.

I looooooove how close our condo is to the pool. When Carson needs to nap I can put him down in his bed and the baby monitor reaches to my lounge chair. If we need something cool to drink from the fridge its a short trip. And we're nice and close to the bbq's too - so yesterday for lunch we had hotdogs on our patio and then headed back for more swimming.