I have already blogged about our real, favorite Hawaii.... the rest is tourist Hawaii! We had an awesome family join us this year as well as my dad, sister, brother and brother's friend. We had a full House, but we had fun!
First noteworthy adventure, is not tourist Hawaii at all, but LDS hawaii. Bryce my brother, decided he was going to go to the Temple for the first time while in Hawaii. So here are a few pictures of his first memory!
It is such a beautiful place, inside and out!!!! Bryce, I am so proud of you!
Our Second adventure was a volcanic one! (In every meaning of the word!)
Let me explain!
Most people know that the Big Island Hawaii still is home to an active volcano. There is the volcano national park where you can go and see the Kilauea Crater that is still smoking.
But before I go into our journey, To get to the Volcano Park from Kona, it is a good two hour drive, so we stopped at Punalu'u Bakery to grab some hot and fresh malasadas which are amazing! As well as some sweet hawaiian rolls... DELISH. While at the bakery we took a few minutes for a great photo opp. Well, that photo opportunity ended up being a moment we will never forget, because it is where Arlo first yelled "say volcano!" Explination: when someone takes a picture of a person, they usually tell that person to 'say cheese' or something else similar. Well, since we were going to the volcano, Arlo wanted everybody to yell 'volcano' the problem was that we were all focused on taking pictures instead of him yelling 'say volcano' well, he progressively got louder and louder until he was screaming 'say volcano'. At this point everybody was looking at us. It was also time to switch places. Aleksie, Mejken, and Pollox (the wonderful and cute family that went with us to Hawaii) were done taking pictures and were now going to take pictures of our family. And Mejken decided to jokingly be Arlo and by the end of our Photo opp, she was screaming 'say volcano!' Needless to say, we were all cracking up and now out of the blue someone in our family will yell 'say volcano' just for fun. But it never fails to make us all laugh!
"Say Volcano!!!"
When we finally got to the park, our first stop was the steam vents. Which are exactly what they sound like, steam coming out of the ground.
But while we were there, Arlo fell and scrapped his knee on lava rock. But, that turned out to be a good thing because that was the first step in becoming Super Hot Lava Man!!!!
Second step... Eat Hot Lava Berries
Last and Final step... breath in the hot lava steam!
While breathing in the Hot lava steam, Arlo got a little worried and decided he did not want to finish the process of becoming Hot Lava Man. And instead settled on me telling him lots of stories about The adventures of Hot Lava Man and the Evil Shark Master.
The park is a circle, and while we were driving Arlo wanted to take a few pictures. Because Tim and I are never in any pictures I thought I would include them! Plus, they turned out ok, except for Tim's face... but for a 4 year old taking pictures, I was proud of him!
Then at the crater museum, I found this treasure and I could not resist taking a few pictures inside! When was the last time you saw a phone booth? Can you say old school?
Last, we took a hike down to the Thurston Lava Tube. Arlo and I had a super fun time taking pictures and exploring the rainforest around us!
This is the entrance to the Lava Tube
This is Cohen, he passed out in that car and missed most of the hike!
Right at the end of the tube, he decided to wake up and show us that goofy missing-tooth smile!
I should also mention that this little trip was taken on mother-times day. I was a lucky mama who woke up with candy, flowers, cards and presents. But, I am totally going to air out our dirty laundry here, because that is where my special day ended! This trip was fun, do not get me wrong, but let me paint a picture in your head. Two small boys in a car for hours at a time, already off of their strict schedule from home, only to be able to get out for minutes at a time. They were exhausted! We as parents were exhausted! Near the end of this trip, Tim and I were both to our wits ends and so Tim decided to help out by running (litereally running) back to the car, to drive it to the entrance so we would not have to walk all the way back. Great idea? NOOOOOOOOO!!! I was left with two whiny boys, not to mention one boy, ARLO, who thought that his dad was leaving him, so he ran after him. I yelled for him to come back and he would not listen as he was crying/screaming for his dad to wait and come back. I was holding Cohen, who would not let me put him down, so I could not run after Arlo. Luckily, Mejken ran after him, caught up with him and had to physically restrain him to stop him from running further. As she was doing this, Arlo was hitting/kicking/screaming at her to let him go. I finally caught up and relieved Mejken. The wrath that was directed at someone who he did not know so well was then turned on me at 100x's the strength and volume. Let me just say that it was my breaking point. Here I was on mothers day with an out of control 4 year old who was screaming things, I would never tell my mother even as a teenager and I broke. I started crying/sobbing! I sat in the mud in white pants with all sorts of tourists staring at me and my temper-tantrum throwing son. I was horrified, crushed, angry beyond belief and just plain sad. I understood that we were pushing these boys to their limits, but I had had enough. Tim finally came to my rescue and seeing that there was no talking with me at that point in time, took Arlo from me while I went and cried in the car. Why am I retelling this horrible moment? A few reasons... 1st, to remind me to never go on another car trip with my boys;-), 2nd, to remind mothers that it does not happen to just you! It happens to all of us, no matter how in control we feel, we will always have an out of control moment that sneaks up on us to whip us back in shape. I love my boys! I love Arlo more than life itself. Did he understand what he was doing? NO! Not at all. He was tired, he thought his dad was leaving him, and he had his breaking point. When I look back on this moment I always remember that. 3rd, It was a great teaching moment. When we got back home (A few hours later) I took Arlo aside and we cried together as we apologized to each other. We had a great talk about our feelings and how to best express them. Did any of it sink in? I have no idea, only time will tell. That was, to this day Arlo's worst tantrum. And I pray that it will be his last;-)
The next adventure, I kindly removed my boys and I from this trip. It was going to be another trip around the island. Which means hours in the car. So while my boys and I were at home tide-pooling and swimming at Manini, the rest of the house took my dad as a tour guide and drove around the island seeing all the sights! They said they had a terrific time! I'll take their word for it! And because I do not know the details here are the pics!
On another night we decided to go out to eat at the best Japanese restaurant in the world! Teshimas! Mama Teshima is now 106 or something like that! The restaurant has been there since the 1940's and before that the Teshima family owned the property and ran other businesses from the same lot before it became the Japanese restaurant in the 40's. It was one of my Grandpa Boone's favorite places, and now my dads and ours as well!
Arlo loved that they had meat on a stick!
My vegetarian sister did not! ;-)
Quick story... Niki decided she would gross Arlo out by telling him he was eating a dead cow. Arlo responded by telling her how delicious the dead cow was and eating more! It was too funny!
After a good dinner we went down to a resort in Keahou and saw the Manta Rays! The look-out point is at a restaurant with dancing! So we all took the opportunity to see some beautiful animals and dance!
I love my family!!!!
Another adventure that we went on more frequently, were the trips to get Shaved Ice! The Boys LOVED them!!!
They even have these touristy photo boards, Which took Cohen a few minutes to figure out!-)
And finally our terrific fishing trip!
Let me first off say a big thank you to My Auntie Pammy and James Spencer. They are my Ohana who are not really related but I love them like they are. They are GOOD people! James took my husband, me and my dad out for some deep sea fishing and it was wonderful!!!
I am really sad to say that I did not get any pictures with my Grandma Jeanie! We went down to Kapoho for a few days to spend time with her and swim in the hot ponds as well as see the lava flow (The lava flow was really boring! when I was little we got within a few hundred feet from the flow, now they do not let you within a few miles of the lava flow now. Even with binoculars, the red lava looked like red dots on a mountain!) If anyone out there has a few pictures they would like to email me, I would really appreciate having those, especially for my boys! That is one of the reasons why we went out there even with the boys being so young. I wanted them to get the chance to spend some time with their great grandma as well as get to know the place that I hold dear in my heart because of all the great family memories I have here!
What a great trip, This Hawaii trip turned out to be. Next time, I plan on going for a whole month instead of measly 10 days. It really is not enough time to get everything done and not feel rushed. A month might be perfect!!!
