Hawaii: Friday & Saturday

Friday morning we headed back to Kona and stopped first at the temple. 

Karen and Alan played with the boys while we went inside.

Then we went to Hapuna beach, which is supposedly the best in the nation. 

There were some great waves with lots of body boarders.

Scott liked playing in the sand.

Jonah took a dip in the water with dad after his nap.

It was nice, warm water and perfect beach weather. It was sunny, but enough overcast that I wasn't worried about burning through our sunscreen. And hats. And rashguards. I'm pretty anti-sun to tell the truth.

Jonah went right for the sand, which he put right in his mouth.

I gave him a bottle instead.

This was probably our overall favorite day. 

We're looking forward to taking them to the beach more this summer, although it will be much chillier in Santa Cruz.

We hadn't brought Jonah to the beach since he was a tiny newborn and this time he could actually enjoy it.

Now both boys are old enough to really play. The best part of this beach was the warm shower on the way out. We all de-sanded and headed home. We tried another shave ice on the way home, but it wasn't up to our Wilson standard.

Being in the brand new home in the evenings with two little kids was tricky. At home we typically go for a walk after dinner, but there were no sidewalks or street lamps and plenty of mosquitoes here. So we did our best to entertain them without letting them touch anything (like the beautiful bamboo floors.) Scott ran his car around this table about 5,000 times and we played games like hide-and-seek. It made me appreciate our old house and weather that permits outdoor activities most days of the year. Being inside like that is exhausting.

One night Scott was throwing away Jonah's diaper for me and I heard a thump. I found it in the bottom of the decorative vase shown in this picture (I moved it to the corner where it was less vulnerable). He's obviously not used to the luxury lifestyle.

The next morning we went back to the farmer's market. They had lots of lunch options.

John tried the spam musubi. I had egg rolls and a maui onion bagel which Scott mooched half of --can't blame him because it was delicious.

I think Scott napped every day we were there. Probably a combination of running all day, getting up at night and the sleep-inducing drives. 

We went to Volcanoes National Park which was really fascinating. 

I was a little nervous about being on an active volcano, but John was so excited that we had to go see it. Luckily there were no major eruptions while we were there.

We went back at night to see the glow. It was even more impressive. The fog rolled in and blocked the view shortly after so it was perfect timing for visibility.

At the park, Jonah was a happy clam doing some stroller exercises.

We stopped at the steam vents in the park. At the higher elevation it was much cooler, so the warm steam felt nice.

Grandpa took a turn following Scott as he ran free.

We also went through the Thurston Lava Tube, which John was looking forward to seeing.

It was longer than I was expecting and you only walk through a small section of it.

It gave me the heebie jeebies and I was glad to get out of there.

I held Jonah while John used the facilities and he was so happy to be out and held. He just kicked and smiled the whole walk back to the car.

Grandma took a turn following Scott. He just runs and runs.

Our next stop was to see the lava trees. Jonah was happy to get out of the car again.

Scott found new ground to cover.

Some of the tree holes were little like this and others were deep like a well.

Trying to lift the rock.

Alan was doing some work from his phone and Scott wasn't happy about it.

Another favorite part of our vacation was using a van. They are incredibly convenient with little kids, not to mention lots of people and gear. We miss that guy.

John used Atlas Choice and we definitely recommend

them if you want the best price. Other places cost as much for a small car, so in our case 

it also saved Karen and Alan from renting and paying for gas, so it was an even better deal overall.