Visit with GG and Gramps

Who would have guessed that my parents just needed one little trip to Hawaii to become wild and crazy vacationers? They were here for the third time since we have moved here (fourth for my mom who came when Ridge was born). They have so much fun together. They rented a car and on their own they went to the Kalalau lookout at the top of Waimea Canyon, on a helicopter tour , to the coffee plantation, and on a Na Pali coast boat trip. The captain of their boat was a man from our ward who let my mom drive the boat which she was pretty excited about. They also bought a video of their helicopter tour so we got to see what they saw from the air. My mom's goal was 6 beach days and we made it. We spent two Saturday's at Hanalei Bay and the most amazing thing happened. MY MOM GOT IN THE WATER, ON A BODY BOARD, AND CAUGHT A WAVE! My mom loves the beach but not the water. She actually got in the chest deep water, layed on a board, and jumped right on to a wave and rode it to shore. Holly jumped up screaming and ran to give her a huge hug. We were all so excited. Our other beach days were at Kalapaki, Lydgate, and Poipu Beach x 2. My mom and dad always bring or buy good treats for beach days so the girls are extra excited to go to the beach with Geeg and Gramps. My Dad loves golf, but you will only understand how much when I tell you how many holes he golfed in two weeks. Are you ready for this..... 112 holes! When he got here he had a case of gout in his elbow but he played golf through the gout the very next day and just kept going. On my mom's birthday Holly and I got a babysitter for the kids in the morning, sent my dad golfing, and took my mom on a scavenger hunt. We gave her clues for each stop. The first stop was island soap and candle works where she had to spend all of the money that was in the envelope. She got a lava rock foot scrubber, some lotion and some chapstick. The second stop was the jungle girl, where she had to pick a necklace. The next clue led us to the Kalaheo flowers farm. Luckily the owners of Kalaheo flowers are in our ward and I was able to set up a tour of the farm. First we did a walking tour of one part of the farm, then I kept Ridge in the car and Holly and my mom did the rest of the tour in a golf cart. Holly told me it was like a flower Disneyland ride. When we left they gave us a big bunch of beautiful flowers. I think it was a highlight for my mom. Last but not least, we took my mom to Keoki's. We made her get a fancy drink with her lunch and introduced her to the best desert in Hawaii, Hula pie. Other fun things we did were check out the lighthouse by the Marriot in Lihue, walk on the "turtle path" in Poipu, walk on the Kukuiolono golf course, and visit the Kamokila Hawaiian village (a mock up of a traditional Hawaiian village). It started to rain on us at the Hawaiian village so we took cover under some trees . The trees happened to be right by some pig pens. The pigs started snorting and scared my mom to death. It was really funny. I'm so glad they got to come to see us. I know they think it is more fun to visit us in Hawaii than Boise, Utah, or New Mexico. As for the next time we venture out of the state... I think traveling gets exponentially harder with each kid. Especially when you have to travel across the ocean, have several layovers, rent a car, sometimes with a hotel stop, and drive to wherever you are going. I'm not sure when we will be back on the mainland next. I am sure that we miss our families like crazy and HOPE to see them soon.

Visit with Merrill and Nancy

In addition to the six days we spent on the Big Island, we got to have Steve on Kauai for 5 days and Merrill and Nancy for 11 days. We did our best to make the most of that time. Here is the rundown...
Wednesday-dinner at Poipu beach park, ice cream at Lapperts.
Thursday - lunches at the beach, Poipu Beach day, farkle and family stories. Steve taught us to play farkle a couple of years ago and it became a family classic.
Friday - Na Pali Charter. I have attempted being on chartered boats twice now. The first time I fed the fish (threw up over the edge of the boat). The second time I took some medication and felt like I wanted to throw myself overboard to feed the fish. Needless to say, I did not go on this one. I stayed home with all the kids. Everybody else had a great time and I'm glad they got to go.
Saturday - Jungle hike (pics on separate post), Kalapaki beach with paddleboards, and Kyleigh's dance recital (another separate post).
Sunday - Steve went home. We wish he could have stayed another week. Kokee hot dog roast. Kokee is the only place we can go where we need to wear jackets in the evening. It is so fun to wear our jackets. No really, it is.
Monday - made hippie salve. Hippie salve is a recipe for topical skin ailments made with medicinal plants. Mike and Holly started making it when Katelyn was having lots of skin problems. They also named it. The official name is MH hippie salve and we love it.
Tuesday - bike riding at the golf course. I guess it just took someone to show off for, but Kyleigh finally decided she was going to officially be a bike rider. Both her and Katelyn improved significantly in one night.
Wednesday - pack meeting (edible fires and demonstration on bow drill fires). Rusty is the cubmaster and he talked Mike into doing the demonstration for us. He is the family expert on bow drill fires. The kids were all in awe.
Thursday - picked up GG and Gpa. Potato bar and noodle ball with s'mores. Noodle ball is a game where there are two teams and everyone has a pool noodle. You try to hit a large inflatable ball to your goal. Rusty was on Kyleigh's team and he taught her a strategy. He told her to run around and hit everyone in the face so they would be distracted and he could hit the ball. What can I even say about that? I'll make a separate post for my parents visit, but this is where their visit began.
Friday - golfing at Kukuiolono (Russ, Mike, Merrill and Dad). Dinner at the Aston. This was our anniversary (11 years and still going strong) so we got a babysitter and all the adults went to the Aston. They have an all you can eat prime rib and crab leg buffet on Friday nights. All you can eat crab is like my Disneyland. I kept coming back with huge plates of crab and nothing else. They also had a ginormous chocolate fountain. Could it get any better? Everyone was finished while I was still eating. I went to ask one of the servers a question at the end of the meal. Someone mentioned that I had gone to ask a question then looked up and said, "Oh, I guess not, she's at the dessert table again." Is there anyone who can walk past a monstrous chocolate fountain and not stop?
Saturday - Hanalei - saw Rusty's project at St. Regis Hotel and spent the day at Hanalei bay. The kids jumped off the pier, and Rusty and Kyleigh saw a manta ray while they were snorkeling.
Sunday - blessed Ridge (another post). Rode bikes again at the golf course.
Typical Sunday afternoon. Mike is riling up the dogs by doing karate kicks and running around in circles.

Dusk at Hanalei.

Cute buried girls.

Seriously, does it get any cuter.

Mike and Merrill paddle boarding at Kalapaki.

Serious sand castle concentration.

Kyleigh standing on her board.

Papa and Nama are good sports.

The group on the NaPali coast.

More Big Island Pics

Another Kileaua Iki hike pic.

On a black sand beach.

Tour of the chocolate factory.

Rusty swinging on a vine.

Katelyn in front of the burned clothes display.

Merrill, Rusty, and Ridge enjoying the steam.

The ocean water inlet entering the hot pool.

Kyleigh poking lava.

Mike behind an unofficial sign.

All the boys.

The group on the dark side of the Thurston lava tube.

Katelyn entering the Thurston lava tube.

Kyleigh, Katelyn and Ridge feet in the black sand.

Above Kilauea Iki. Active volcano steam rising behind them.

Me and Katelyn getting a steam facial.

Back to the Big Island.

Almost exactly one year ago Rusty and I went to the Big Island for our tenth anniversary. We made the trip back from May 6th to the 11th with Merrill, Nancy, Steve, Mike, Holly, Naiya, Kyleigh, Katelyn and Ridge. Our family does not "vacation" on vacation. Every second is packed with fun. Here is the jist on what we did...

Friday-
-Mike, Holly, Russ, and I went to the Kona temple. Merrill, Nancy and Steve watched the kids for us (THANKS GUYS!).
-Went to a farmers market for some fresh fruit and vegies.
-We did some big city shopping at Ross and Target. You can not know how exciting this is for Holly and the big secret is that Rusty loves Ross as much as Holly. The secret is out.
-A trip to Costco stocked us up on groceries for the rest of the trip. Nama bought those really delicious chocolate ice cream bars for everyone. Kyleigh and Katelyn talked Nama into buying them their own. Someday I'll be a Grandma and do the same thing.
-We drove around the South shore of the island to the house we rented in the town of Volcano. Steve arranged for the house and it worked out so well. It was nice, new, clean and just big enough for all of us. It was so nice to have a place to cook good meals and sleep comfortably. We had a fire in the fireplace at night and a big screen T.V. to watch movies.

Saturday-
-We made it through the Thurston lava tube, dark side and all.
-We tried to go see the lava flow. Yes, it was flowing on the surface. The radio said it was open from 2-10. The people driving back on the road were telling us you could walk right out by the lava. We got out to the right spot about 2:15, 15 minutes after civil defense set up their barricades and wouldn't let us out to see the lava. Running with the rebels that I do, we backtracked and took a wide circle around the barricade. I got to poke red hot lava with a stick. The stick caught on fire the second you poked the lava. We went back towards the road and got caught by the civil defense man. He yelled at us and told us he could call the cops. We asked where the signs were that prevented us from walking around like we had. He grunted and left.
-On our way back towards Volcano we stopped at a natural hot springs pool. It is hot fresh water mixed with ocean water that comes in and out through an inlet. For those of you who have been to Challis Hot Springs, it is alot like that with ocean water coming in and out. It is a public place and free for anyone. I planned on holding Ridge on the side and watching everyone, but the water was too nice. I ended up swimming in my clothes and Ridge swam in his birthday suit. It was his favorite part of the trip. He didn't make a peep for over an hour while he was enjoying the hot water. Note: You can always tell a tourist on Kauai because they get upset about naked babies in the ocean. Nobody else cares. It is not uncommon to see a 5 or 6 year old running around naked.

Sunday-
Kilauea Iki Hike- We did the 4 mile Kilauea Iki hike. This was one of my all time favorite hikes. The 4 miles seemed more like 1 or 2. It was a nice rainforesty descent into the bottom of the crater. One man stopped us when he saw us coming down into the crater to warn us that it was a four mile hike. We get that alot. People see our little kids and think we don't know what we are doing or that we are plain crazy. Kyleigh hiked it without any problems and Katelyn hiked well over half on her own. A majority of the hike is across the barren floor of the crater which was dotted with steam vents. We stopped for steam facials in some of the holes. Steve jumped in a hole for a whole body steam bath. The ascent out of the crater was very steep, but very quick. It finished with a fairly level walk back through more lush rainforest to the cars. Everybody had a great time.
Jagger museum-We made a trip to the jagger museum. I think the most interesting part of that museum is the display of clothes from the volcanologist who fell into flowing lava (and lived).
-We also made a trip down chain of craters road.

Monday-
-Rusty, Mike and Steve decided they hadn't had enough time playing with hot lava so they made a trip back to see the flowing lava really early in the morning. They poked it with a stick, and helped shape the earth by manipulating the quickly drying lava. They brought back a few rocks wih poke marks in it. They also went to some steam saunas.
-We all went to the lava tree state park. When the lava hits trees it sometimes drys around the tree and then the tree burns leaving a hollow mold of the tree that was there.
-We went snorkeling at some tide pools that were a great place to see fish and interesting reef formations.
-Because we had enjoyed the hot spring pool so much we made a trip back. This time I brought along mine and Ridge's swimming suits.

Tuesday-
-We took a self guided tour of the Mauna Loa chocalate factory. Best part-eating samples.
-We did a self guided tour of all of the waterfalls in Kona, and went through another lava tube.
-A few hours were left to kill so we went to the movie theatre and watched how to train a dragon.

All too quick our vacation was over.



Living room at the house we rented.

The group in front of the Kona temple.

The crater floor.

From rainforest (in the background) to barren crater floor.

Steve's steam bath. Kyleigh thinks he is crazy (he kind of is and we love it).

Map of the big island.

Classic Steve taunting the kids.

Red hot lava setting my stick on fire.

Feeling the heat from the flowing lava.

Inside a lava tree.

Outside of a lava tree.

Naked Ridge kicking back.

Rainbow Falls in Kona.