Snow... *sigh*

Remember when it was spring? I don't. Remember how it snowed all day on April 15 and then all night as well? I do. Eight inches. EIGHT. That's not supposed to happen in April (actually it's expected. It always snows during finals week at byu.)

I think the April "showers" just killed the May flowers.

Last Day in Paradise...

Whoops! Thought I forgot about posting about our very last day did ya? Well nope, I just got a little lazy :) But here we go, our very last day in Hawaii. It was another lovely day... well lovely enough. It wasn't super hot or anything, but there was sun and blue sky out! We started by going to the Pali lookout. Great view! Every time I saw this -uhh, the dragon's back? - when we drove by, all I could ever think of was the Jurrasic Park theme song. Hahaha.

And there's the beach we're about to go to.

Of course Flat Alix got her picture taken as well.

And as we were leaving, Jason and Ashlyn went to chase the chickens that were just hanging out in the parking lot.

Then we drove out to Lanikai beach. That's one good looking beach with a real nice family hanging enjoying themselves there. Oh wait, that's us! Doesn't that sand look fantastic? It was.

There was a man who set up his fishing post right in front of us for a while. I'm not sure he ever caught anything. Not that I notcied anyway.

For the first while we just sat on the beach and enjoyed the surroundings and all the beauty of this very relaxing beach.

Even Flat Alix got some sun... with baby doll.

This is the view to the right of us.

And here's the view to the left of us.

J and Ash braved the water. While it was a nice day out, the water was still pretty cool but Ashlyn doesn't care, she just wants to play!

After they came out, Ashlyn got warm, while I decided to test out the water myself.... but only on my feet. Brrrr, it was a little chilly. I was happy to just relax out of the water.

Heather found a nice sturdy stick and started writing different things in the sand and taking pictures of her words before they got washed away by the water.

Just chillin here.

Later on, we decided to play horseshoes. So Jason got it all set up.

Dad and Jason played first. Look at the concentration.

Nice throw!

Then Heather and I played. I guess we could've all played together... but Heather and I weren't really able to throw as far as the boys.

And here's me! I must be a really stiff thrower. All the pictures of me throwing look exactly like this one...

Jason and dad played again while Jax graced us with his presence since he was hungry. What a cute little guy!
On the way home, we decided to stop at Waikiki beach. You can't just go to Hawaii and not even see the beach. By the time we got there, it was pretty chilly out... mostly because of the wind. Flat Alix with this surfer dude... statue.
It's a pretty beach, with lots of people around and crowded with shoppers too across the street.

We went out on to this pier where on one side you can see the view where J and Ash are sitting (above), and here is the view of the other side. You can see the clouds are starting to move in again!

Dad and me. Our final holiday picture together. Boo hoo.

Actually, this is our last picture. In the airport in Portland a couple of days later before we parted to our separate gates. What a great Hawaii trip! I'm ready to go back again!!!!!!

Beach Day... Finally!

Thursday brought the warm sun! Hooray! We quickly got ourselves together and out the door. Jason figured out where the best sun would be that day and we headed off to Ko'Olina Resort. Although it wasn't all sun all day long, it was still warm and the sun made several appearances and broke through the clouds. More bliss! Too bad the water wasn't as warm! We still took a dip and did some fun things.... like burying Ashlyn... although we had to do that real quick because she doesn't stay still for very long! We also buried Jason.
Here's where Jaxon was most of the day. Protected from the sun in his own little shade.
Jason and Ashlyn braved the water first with rides on the boogie board. That didn't last a whole long time, especially after Jason was running pulling the board behind him with Ashlyn hanging on it, kicking loads of sand into her face. Oops.

Then I took a turn and played in the water with her too.
That lasted a few minutes before she got super cold. I don't blame her, the water was pretty chilly. You do get used to it after a bit but still!
Then Heather and I got on the snorkeling gear and headed towards the rocks for my first ever snorkeling adventure.

It was a little suffocating at first and weird to get used to breathing and stuff. I also found that I was very disoriented under water (I mean, I have a hard enough time when I'm on land!), and I felt like my vision was completely distorted in the goggles. When Heather suggested we swim across the lagoon, I agreed but stuck really close to her or I probably would've got lost... But I still liked it in the end and we did see some fishies.

Like these little guys.
After we were through with snorkeling, we were cold so we jumped into a nearby hot tub.
While we were out snorkeling, Ashlyn had to put up with the men. But she made good use of their time. She had Jason "paint" her fingers...
...and got dad to take her around the Lagoon and back into the water to play more.
Later, dad even tried snorkeling... minus the flippers and the swimming part. I just took him to a shallow place where we could see some fish but he could keep his feet on the ground.

Heather also made friends with the birds and fed them baked Lays. So it shouldn't hurt the bird because they're healthier, right?

Ahhh, the joys of the lovely beach (which from this picture you can totally tell was man made!)We spent a good part of the day at the beach and fully enjoyed the outdoors. We only came back semi burned but it probably would've been a lot worse if we didn't put on our trusty sunscreen!

Coming up is our last day in Hawaii. How sad, I know (but right now I'm kinda glad because these posts are getting real time consuming!) But it was a last day filled with many activities... just like the rest of our trip!

The Big Island Adventure

Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to get on our way to Hilo. As luck would have it, we left a BEAUTIFUL day on Oahu so that we could enjoy even more rain and chill on the Big Island. Who's idea was to go this island anyway?! Hahaha, nah, it was way fun... just wish the sun woulda come out on our North Shore day instead! So on the plane, we took some pictures of Oahu from above. Here's Diamond Head Crater (in case I haven't mentioned it enough, we hiked here earlier in the trip).

We landed in some cold-ish weather and waited for Jason to pick up our sweet ride :) It was nice and roomy for all 6 of us. At least everyone got their own seat and then some! We even let Flat Alix take a turn at driving... riiiiiiight. We just let her have a feel at the drivers seat.

Our first stop: Akaka Falls. Rain, rain, rain is mostly what we saw. Two umbrellas, two kids, 4 adults. Well, we at least managed to keep the kids and the mother mostly dry. When we got to the falls we told dad to take a picture. He said, OK! ...where is it? His picture turned out to be a blur of mist and water. You should look at Jason's recap of this day to see what the falls are supposed to look like.

We took the scenic route on the way to our next destination. It was pretty scenic indeed and included these cliffs on the way.

Next up was Rainbow Falls. No rainbow to be found here. In fact, the water looks a little... dirty.

Flat Alix keeping dry. This is one of my favorite Flat Alix pictures :)

Then we went to look at the boiling pots, which weren't as cool as I was hoping, but it had a pretty view of Pe'epe'e falls (no, not peepee falls...). I bet it would look even lovelier with the sun out and a nice blue sky.

Later that day, after going to the grocery store and dropping our stuff off at our vacation rental (Hawaiian Retreat), we went to Ahalanui Warm Springs which is naturally heated by the volcano. It was nice. And a little strange. There were warm spots and cold spots... and mostly it was cold on the bottom and warm up top.

Dad finally got to make use of his swim trunks!

Ash had a blast in the water. She practiced floating... and it kinda looks like I'm about to eat her...

And where was Jax? Well, in his usual spot taking a little snooze.

We went back to our place for a cozy meal and all fell asleep by 9:00. But not before we all had a chance to use this all natural feeling shower... Look at J's blog for other pictures of what the place looked like.

Here's the bed I slept in. Both beds had mosquito nets... although I'm not sure there were any mosquitos.

After it rained all night long, we woke up to lovely sunshine. We had a scrumptious breakfast and took off so we could enjoy the sun before it disappeared (which was soon after...) But before we took off, we had a chance to lounge in the hammock.

Our first stop of the day was the State Lava Tree Park. The behind the scenes photo of taking Flat Alix pictures.

Here's the picture. It turned out a little bright so we took a better one after that.

Then we went into Volcanos National Park. We found out that a lot of the park and the roads were closed due to the sulphur dioxide coming out of Kilauea (behind us). Too bad. We still got to see a lot of the park but we didn't get to do some of the small hikes we thought about doing for safety reasons.

One of the hikes we did was to the Lava tubes. It wasn't a difficult hike as some of us wore flip flops.

Inside the lava tube.

We drove along the chain of craters road and saw many craters like this one.

We also found the July 1974 Lava Flow. This is significant for dad since that is the month and year he and mom were married. So naturally we stopped to take a picture. Although to me, all the lava rocks look the same.

At the end of the road was the Holei sea arch.

Our goal was to get to see lava pouring in the ocean. From this point on, it was an 8 mile hike to that smoke you see billowing in the background. So we opted for the drive out of the park and a short 3/4 mile hike to see it from the other side. If we had known this the night before, we could've gone and stayed longer to watch since we had stayed down that way. Oh well.

We drove over and followed the dotted yellow lines to our watching spot.

Unfortunately, they don't let you get any closer than this. So for a long time we waited for the sun to go down so we could see some real action. It was the longest hour ever. Plus we had a plane to catch so we were really cutting our time close!

And look who finally decided to wake up and enjoy the scene! What an adorable little face!

Even Flat Alix got to enjoy the scene for a moment.

Darkness finally approached... finally you can see the lava glowing in the smoke! We had to leave very soon after this but at least we got to see some of it! It was pretty really cool when it got much darker.

We made it to the plane on time where we ate the worst dinner we probably ate this whole trip (jerky and trail mix), and got home where this one passed out for the night. Poor kid.