Over the ocean to Grandma and Grandpa's house

I have been dying to type this post for weeks, but no Internet makes things a little bit difficult to do. But now we are up and running so here we go finally!

*Beware this is a long post

We had a great get away to visit my parents in Hawaii. We headed on a much needed vacation for 10 days. We flew out early on Sat the 5th so we drove to Seattle and spent the night on Friday. The girls we so happy to be out of the car and got their built up energy out while jumping on the bed.
Here is the before our 6 hour flight picture, which then we jumped on another plane for another hour flight. Blah!

The girls actually did really well considering the length of the flight. Lexi was great and didn't even want to watch a whole movie. Very unlike her, but she did really well the whole flight. Danielle only cried about 5 minutes before she conked out for her whole 20 minute nap. (insert sarcasm here) I was very worried when she woke up that it would be horrible the rest of the way, but actually she did well considering.

When Lexi got off our first flight, she walked out to an open air terminal and she saw a palm tree and she said, "Dad we are in the jungle!" Priceless!

My parents greeted us with some flowers for our hair and then we were off to their house for the rest of the night.

The next day we headed to a place called South Point. Now this is most southern part of the US, and I must say that it was gorgeous. You had to be careful where you step or else you might fall in this huge hole, which was not marked by any means. It is hard to tell in the picture but there is water down below swooshing in and out.

Notice the wooden things on the right of this picture? Well I guess people actually cliff dive from there and below it is this very rusty looking latter to help you climb back up to the top. I must admit that this is not what I would call "fun" to do.

Grandpa took Lexi down to check out the waves. I thought to myself....they look a little close, then about 20 seconds later, a big wave came crashing in front of them and almost soaked them. Lexi was not too happy about this. Can you see where they were sitting that is now covered in water?

We then headed to the closest beach called Black Sand Beach. Can you guess why it might be called that? Danielle loved the water, unless it came past her belly, then she was very unsure. She would throw the ball into the wave and then try and chase it.

We saw our first turtle at this beach. He was just chillin' on the sand. Lexi was so scared of it and then she wouldn't get in the water to swim. Throughout our trip we saw about 10 or more turtles. It was so amazing to see them in their own habitat.

What is a beach without playing in the sand? Well this is more like tiny little rocks rather than sand but it was almost as good.

And there was a random lily pond behind the parking lot. I just had to get a picture of the single lily hanging out in the middle alone.

So some of you may be asking what my parents do in Hawaii? Well they grow and sell orchids. Here is us checking out the greenhouse.

This one actually shows how big it is. Johnny and the girls are all the way at the end.

They have so many different varieties and they were all so beautiful. Almost as beautiful as my bright red arm and neck huh? Yeah that happened in about 20 minutes the day before. I guessed I missed a few spots with the sunscreen. Ouch!

So one of the many things Hawaii is famous for is macadamia nuts. We headed to the Mauna Loa company to check out the processing plant, but unfortunately for us they didn't have it running that day. But that did not stop us from going to get some treats.

This treat is heaven on earth I must say and whoever can up with it, is in my book, is a genius. Frozen cheesecake on a stick, dipped in chocolate then dipped in macadamia nuts. Yummy!

Grandpa and Lexi shared some chocolate macadamia nut ice cream instead.

My dad gave us a mini tour of Hilo, and he showed us where he worked and a few hot spots. And in the middle of it all, is this huge waterfall. I believe it was called Rainbow Falls.

One of our days we went to the local zoo. The best part about this zoo was it was free. Now I will be honest because anything free is usually not that great, but I thought the girl's would love it. To my surprise I loved it too. The main attraction is their white tiger. He was so beautiful. Once he finally decided to come out of the trees, this is the show we got....

Lovely huh?

I am still not sure why I took the picture or why I am showing you but hey it was a funny memory right? Lexi thinks so, because that is about the only thing she talks about from the zoo.

In the middle of his area was this gorgeous tree. I am not sure what it is called but they were everywhere and I just loved them.

There was a butterfly tent and Mom was lucky enough that one landed on her. Here Bob is showing us our new friend.

Our little souvenirs that lasted a whole 2 minutes....thank goodness they were cheap!

Later that day Johnny and I got a little alone time and we went to a local snorkeling spot. This is what our drive looked like. I felt like I was in the jungle or something.

Another thing that I thought was funny, was they don't even try to level the roads out when they pave them. Lexi and I would throw our arms up and pretend we were on a roller coaster ride when we drove down this road that my parents live on. Can you see the bumps? Trust me..they are bigWe checked out the Volcano National Park one day. While we were there checking out one of the craters, it decided to give us a little burp.

Johnny and the girls at the entrance of a lava flow cave.

Now this is a picture of another crater. Now if you look closely you can see a little "path" that goes across the lava. Johnny, Bobby and I hiked across that thing. (more to come on that adventure)I just loved this picture, and in the background is the ocean, and all of the black stuff...yes more lava flow. Seeing a pattern yet?

The white thing is a van

Now for our hike I mentioned before. We climbed down into the crater, and this was before we walked across this active volcano. Right after this, a lady told us that they had a 3.6 earthquake there that very morning. Ah! So I was a little bit paranoid that another would hit and the hot lava underneath would swallow me whole. (ok not too much but maybe just a little bit)

Johnny checking out the steam.

I was just so amazed that plants could actually survive and grow through all of this lava. I mean, it is not that old of lava and there wasn't any sand or anything. I was seeing if the tree wanted some of my water.

We made it back to the top and finished out the 4 mile hike. It was a good hike and I haven't done one like that for a long time. I bet if I did that hike everyday I would be super fit!

We spent one of our days on the other side of the island, in Kona. This is where most people who come to the big island go. They have more of the white sand beaches and shopping over there. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from my parents house. We spent the day snorkeling, playing in the sand, shopping and finishing it off with some yummy fish and chips. Here was our sun set as we ate our dinner.

We had a few dips in my parent's pool, but it was a little colder than the ocean. I had to share what Danielle's hair looked like over there. It was so curly and beautiful! I wish it always looked like this.

We took Lexi on outing with us one day to have some one on one time with her. We went to visit another place called Akaka Falls.

We were on a search for a beach that we saw on the map and was having a tough time finding it. We ended following a truck down this hillside and find where the "locals" body board. I am still not sure what it was but it looked like an old fort of some kind. We watched some brave souls body board in the waves. They were surrounded by rocks and it looked like if they didn't hit the wave right, they would go smashing into those rocks.

This spot was right under this bridge.

We didn't give up hope and we found the beach we were looking for. This picture makes me feel bad because one of Johnny's most favorite things to do in surf, body board, or just be in the ocean. Unfornately, like I said earlier, there wasn't any beaches were we were and when we were at a beach we didn't have much time. So the poor guy came all the way to Hawaii and didn't get to do the one thing he wanted. :( I felt so bad, but reguardless, I think he still had a good time.

So this picture I call "so close but can't touch"

Danielle fell in love with my Mom, Dad and Bobby but I must say she really loved my mom. By the middle of the week, if she got hurt or was mad she would run to grandma and cried til she picked her up. Um...can you say spoiled? I was very grateful that Mom spent a lot of time at home with the girls so us "big" kids could go out and play. Thanks Mom!

Here was our favorite snorkeling spot. It was a bunch of tide pools. The last day we went with my Dad and we found an awesome area. The coral was bigger than me and I have never seen so many different varieties of fish and other sea life. I saw tons of sea slugs, sea cucumbers, and sea urcines. When we were in Kona, some guys were feeding the fish (illegal by the way) and I didn't see them, but what I did see was like 50 big black fish swimming at my face. Yes, I totally freaked just a little then I figured out what they were doing. They also attracted a little puffer fish which was probably the coolest thing that I saw in the ocean.

Our flight home was alright. The girls were good but Danielle would only sit with me, so that was a long flight for me. We arrived home very late and then had to drive home. It took a few days to get off of Hawaii time.

*In the airport on a lay over, we were eating lunch and the girls were just plan being naughty, and an 80 year old guy stops Johnny and said "I just wanted to thank you for reminding me of how it is to travel with young childern" Ah, I know they were being that bad! But I guess I was glad it was the airport and not the plane.

We had a great trip, and I am sure I forgot tons of things but I am sure many of you are tired of reading this, and I am just tired of staring at this computer. If you did read this far, then I know you truley love me :)