Ever had a day where everyone/everything drives you crazy? And the worst part of it is, you can't really think of a good REASON why you are so crabby, annoyed, grumpy, snappy, etc? You just are. And you want everyone to read your mind and do/say everything you think they should. And you want everyone to be happy despite the fact that you are putting off very negative vibes.

Yeah? Well...me too.

And I'll tell you what... eating a LARGE helping of pink sherbet (locked in your bedroom because you're not supposed to eat treats before Sunday dinner) really helps.

The BIG Island - Beaches and Long Drives

One of my favorite places to see on the Big Island was the black sand beach at Punalu'u. It is on the southern part of the island (about a 40 min drive south of Volcano National park). The black sand is made from basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean, cooling and exploding.

Its also famous for the Hawaiian green sea turtles. We saw one resting on the beach right away and another in a shallow tide pool. There were lots swimming right off the coast too. As the day wore on, the turtle sightings got fewer and fewer.

This is the place I really overloaded on the picture taking. I couldn't help myself. The contrast of the dark black sand with the bright colors was so cool. None of these pictures have been edited. The sand was really as dark as coal. We stayed for quite a while. The kids had a ball making rivers for palm tree boats, volcanoes, roads for cars, black cookies, etc. It was a beautiful day.

A little Hawaii romance :) Whoo! Whoo!

After wearing everyone out, we started the long drive up the western coast. We stopped briefly at the bay of Captain Cook's landing on the Hawaiian islands, but other than that, we just drove. Not my favorite drive. However, as we got nearer to Kona, the scenery became beautiful again. The kids swam at the hotel pool then we drove into town to look at the Kona Hawaii temple and have dinner.
The dinner place was chosen strictly because of the name and the location. It was right on the coast. We watched the sun go down during dinner ... so pretty!
The food was quite good too. We got a kids meal for the kids to split and the waiter brought a prize for each of them, one of those rubber duckies with fun accessories. The toddlers immediately put them in their water cups. Elise said, "Mom, duckies WANT to be in the wata." as Austin pulled his overjoyed face and body shake. Lovely.
Our hotel was located right next to Kahalu'u Beach Park. It is supposed to be one of the best places to take kids to snorkel and didn't disappoint. The coral was beautiful... bright yellows and vibrant reds. Geo took Lu out for a bit and then I went out while he watched the kiddos. When I came back, Lucy asked me if I saw a parrotfish. I said I didn't know and she tried to describe it to me. I looked at the picture guide and the answer was yes. And I saw all sorts of other beautiful fish that I don't know the names of. :)
This picture only made the cut because it is George's favorite of all the pictures (people and a sea turtle together). If my legs got a little color like my neck always does, I'd blend right in with the locals. :) I'm sure you can tell, the sea turtles were all over the place here too. And they freaked Elise right out.
After more swimming at the hotel, we took to the road again and drove north up the west coast. There were short stops along the way, but it was mostly driving. Once we hit the northern tip at Hawi (and stopped for ice cream), we drove south on Highway 250 to Waimea. Supposedly, this is rated one of the top 50 beautiful drives in America (the only one to make the list in HI). I was assuming it would be like the rainforesty drive we took to Waipi'o valley on our first vacation day, but it was totally different. It was a lot of driving through rolling-hilled, green cattle ranches. The road climbs over 3000 feet and once you reach the top, it is evident why the place is called the Big Island. It looks big. We could see a LOT of land as well as the ocean beyond.
We drove back down the Kohala coast to the Kona airport and shoved all of our junk into bags for the trip home. The kids arrived at the airport still in their swimming suits. I wasn't too concerned. Honestly, the last few hours of our vacation wore me out. I heard "I need to go a-potty." from both girls about 20 more times than I wanted to. And you can tell by the photos, its not like we were in prime "rest stop" land. Ah, well. Such is life.

We really had a great trip. George said he's found the place to retire. :) There are some things we skipped out on for the sanity of our young children, but that gives us a reason to go back, right? Ha!

The BIG Island - Waterfalls and Volcanos

We just got back from a little weekend trip to the Big Island. If we can, we'd love to visit a new island every year and this seemed like the best time to book a trip to the big Island of Hawaii. (much easier with a baby in the belly than out :) To live up to my reputation, I took a billion pictures. And this post is taking way longer to write than it should. Somehow I messed up the formatting and pictures keep disappearing. So, as long as this post is... it could have been longer. :) Now... on to the trip...

I had to laugh at myself with the packing. I started off packing an "airplane bag" - you know, stuff to keep kids occupied so they don't drive everyone around them insane - and then I remembered, this was a 35 minute flight! Ha! Both ways were the easiest flights I can remember. That is my kind of flying. :)

Also, looking back I realize that this trip was really more for George and I than the kiddos. We saw a lot of cool stuff, but the kids didn't care that it was lava rock or whatever. The fun part was the climbing, jumping, throwing rocks, etc. They were really quite the troopers as we hiked and drove in the car - A LOT. All of the hikes were easy (one mile or less) but we did at least 6 of them in two days. So, not bad, I'd say.

The first two days were spent on the Hilo side, hiking to waterfalls and visiting Volcano National Park. We arrived around 9am Friday morning in Hilo and started to make our way up the coast. Our first stop was the hike down to Onomea Bay.

We saw some whales from a distance and some sea turtles and enjoyed the scenery. Favorite part for the kids: throwing rocks in the bay. Austin especially was sad to leave.

Next stop: Akaka Falls State Park. This was a great half hour hike with a view of Kahuna Falls midway through.

The water falls 442 ft - beautiful!

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After a delicious passionfruit juice shave ice and lunch, we drove two hours up the coast to Waipi'o Valley. George thought the drive wasn't

totally worth it, but isn't that pretty? And the kids slept the whole way up... bonus!

Back in Hilo, we hit Rainbow Falls.

Anuenue= "rainbow" in Hawaiian

The view of the falls is actually beautiful from the parking lot, but we ventured up the trail a bit and the kids played in the trees and vines. This was George's favorite waterfall (it drops 80ft), but I think he was mainly talking about the playtime afterward which included real vine swinging.

VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK

We entered Volcano National Park around dusk. The first thing we saw were these steam vents. It looked like the valley was filled with mini-fires.

Afterwards we stopped at the Jaggar museum and checked out the volcanic activity. Cool! Sadly, the picture isn't really cool, but you'll have to

trust me on this one.

We looked around the museum (kids liked spinning the earth and trying to figure out how to get the dollars out of the donation box... great!) We also saw the moon rise which was as red as the volcano. It was cool too but I didn't get a photo.

The military runs Kilauea Military camp - these little cabins inside the park and they were great! Sadly, we've all turned into wimps and were freezing in the morning. It had two rooms so the kids all slept in the same room, but snuggled with us in the big bed when they woke up. Then back to the blankets after breakfast.

Our first stop of day 2 was the Visitors Center and Volcano Art Gallery (really neat stuff, but way too pricey to actually buy anything). Then we drove the Crater Rim Drive and stopped at some crater overlooks along the way. This one is Kilauea Iki.

My favorite hike was the Thurston Lava Tube (behind us). Lava flowed through it several hundred years ago and now it looks like a big long cave. Afterwards we hiked through a rainforest-looking trail and saw lots of pretty flowers and trees and birds.

Next up was Devastation Trail. This is one we probably should have skipped. Not sure why the name didn't clue me in on that. But it was paved the whole way so we took the strollers.

Another cool crater

This was one of the Mauna Ulu lava flows on the Chain of Craters Road. Everything looked so smokey and slightly creepy.

The end of the drive takes a steep drive down the mountain to the ocean. Man, could we feel the rise in temperature! We had a picnic by the ocean and were all sweaty before we'd even started our hike.

This is Holei Sea Arch. It is 90ft tall. Quite amazing.

The arch is at the end of a now barricaded road. In 2003, lava flow covered part of the road so you can hike down the road to see it. Wish we would have brought the strollers on this one. Elise was worn out and not happy to hike any more.

Once we got there, it was really quite incredible and the kids loved climbing around on the lava rocks.

We jumped in the car again for... lots more driving. Kids were sweaty and exhausted but Elise woke up when we stopped at the Macadamia Nut Factory. This WOULD have been a good stop... except the factory explanation videos were broken, the workers weren't working, etc. Oops. The nuts were good though.

And next stop... more hiking. :) We drove about two hours from the park along the east side of the coast to see current lava flow. It was on private property so there was limited access.

We walked along this road and I could not believe there were houses built on this land!!! The one Lucy is standing in front of is for sale for $90,000. Killer deal for Hawaii...any takers? According to the public employee working there, during the 1990's, lava covered their land and houses. About ten years later, the property owners wanted to come back. The government wouldn't provide any services (water, sewage, etc.) and charges $25 a year for property tax, so they took the risk. Now lava flow is starting up and some have lost their houses again. Isn't that crazy?

At the end of the half mile road, we gathered on the old lava and watched the new red lava coming down the mountain. When we arrived, we could see red specs and smoke. The employees told us a bunch of stories. One of them crossed the barricades about 30 feet and dumped a quart of water. It instantly turned to steam. Wild.

The old lava has ferns growing in it. The new lava is where the steam is. The guy told us that 30 days ago, the "parking lot" was where we currently stood and people hiked a half mile past where we were standing to see the lava. It was quite incredible how much lava flow there had been.

Of course, the kids just played in the rocks. Great "L" find by Lucy.

According to Elise, these are "baby rocks." They built houses and towers and whatever else. We left when it was dark and we could see red flow on the mountain (in the distance, of course). We needed flashlights for the hike back and the kids had a great time with those.

The next two days were spent on the south and west side... stay tuned.

Love day fun

Our church ward had a Valentine's dance for the whole family on Saturday. The Elders Quorum was in charge so George assisted in some of the planning. The committee decided on "light refreshments" rather than a full meal. So we had a full salad bar and sandwiches. Ha! Cracked me up. It seems Hawaiian events include lots of great food. Never a problem with me. :) The decorations included fresh Hawaiian bouquets/greenery all over the place. Pretty fancy!

The first hour was karaoke. Good times. Here's a video clip of Lucy and her dad dancing during that part (lights were up). Notice Austin running back from the buffet line with a plate full of potato chips. That is how he and Elise spent the whole first hour.

The second half of the party was the dance. Austin and Elise loved to copy the Frost's cool moves.

And check out these moves... then notice the fresh flowers along the whole stage. Its dark, so you'll have to trust me on this, they were beautiful! This video missed the laps by Austin... down the stairs, a few wild moves and then back down the other side... repeat.

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Valentine's Day

Heart hair (Elise's fancy hairdo disappeared sometime during my morning shower.)

Elise tried to fix my hair up in a heart too.

Not everyone was thrilled over hairstyles.

"Its okay, buddy."

For Valentine's dinner, we have a few established traditions. One is red jello hearts. Fancy, huh? :) This time, I tried this "jeweled jello" recipe. For the main course, I either order a heart shaped pizza or try a brand new recipe. Just depends on what we have going that day. This year, the new item was macadamia nut chicken with a papaya-pineapple marmalade from Sam Choy's cookbook. It turned out pretty yummy, but I overestimated the cooking time. So we ate everything else and then the chicken. :) The rest of the menu was caesar salad and grands biscuits from the can. Ha! I had grand plans of making a fancy dessert too, but it didn't happen. I remembered we had pink sherbet in the freezer and thought that would do. But we forgot all about dessert. And we forgot about the candlelight too (but it was too light outside anyway). Whatever. We love each other. That's the point, right?

Here's my happy boy (after he successfully swiped Elise's biscuit off her plate).

A side note: During Christmas time, I rented the movie "Holiday Inn" with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The plot is ... well, it doesn't have one. I think the main idea was to showcase these talented stars. Anyway, the story goes that Bing decides he's had enough of show business and opens a hotel in the country. Except its only open on holidays. So every holiday, they have a big 'ol fancy party and Bing sings or Fred dances as part of the floor show. I didn't think much of it until George told me later that he thinks that would be my ideal place of employment. Since then, I've thought of it a lot. And wouldn't that be fun?!? Who's in? :)

** Really Austin was ticked off in the pictures above because I wouldn't let him see "the boy and the bus" in the digital camera screen. I hadn't even taken the picture yet. So he threw a fit.