the end of the Alohas

Tuesday we drove out to Hapuna Beach-- it was Amazing. As you can clearly see from these pictures! The water was SO crystal clear, we had sea turtles swim right by us, and it was just amazing. Lucy was in absolute heaven! Clara not so much- she is pretty scared of the waves! Haha. So she pretty much sat in a beach chair the whole time, but Hey! It was still pretty amazing. Tyler and I helped Lucy 'boogie board', we built sand castles, and I probably swam in the ocean for a good 45 minutes- swimming. In the Ocean. The water was so warm and clear, and it was awesome. Definitely my favorite place in Hawaii!

 I love my sweet Lucy! We had SO much fun together in Hawaii! She is the perfect little travel buddy. Clara was also so much fun, just not at the beach! Haha. She was hilarious!

 Lucy was so funny. She ate it like 3x in a row, Hard! And she just kept jumping back up excited to try it again! This girl is like the energizer bunny!

 Ahhh... Did I mention it was my favorite place? Already dreaming of going back!!

After we left the beach we decided to drive up to Hawi since we were already half way there! Everyone fell asleep in the car, and it was the most gorgeous drive! The lookout point was breathtaking! I wish we could have hiked down, maybe next time without the kids! It was amazing though.

I had to document what these 3 looked like a crammed in the back of the car! Haha... Tyler is SUCH a good dad.

 We ate dinner on the way home and a yummy restaurant then came home in time to see another sunset and swim of course!

 Wednesday morning we headed to a little beach just up the street from our condo. Again- Clara would NOT touch the ocean because of the waves, but Lucy had a blast!

 cutie Clara- perfectly happy just snuggling with Grandma all morning!

 Wednesday afternoon Tyler and I left the girlies with grandma and headed out on a Snorkeling with the Manta Rays adventure!

 I don't love fish. Haha- but seriously. Swimming in the middle of the ocean totally freaks me out, but I was excited to try something new! We got there earlier enough where we could go out before it go dark to get used to snorkeling and just explore the area, then we got back on the boat for an hour or so to wait for it to get dark. Tyler and I were both starting to feel pretty sea sick, but as soon as we got back in the water we both felt immediately better! As soon as the sun went down they shine these huge bright lights in the water to attract the Plankton, and thats what the Manta Rays eat!

 We suited up and got back in the water to see the Manta Rays! We were all holding on to this little surf-board type thing that had lights on it as well. That's when the Manta Rays started coming! Oh my gosh they are HUGE! Most of them are at least 10 feet long, and just ginormous! They aren't dangerous, but it was pretty terrifying and amazing all at the same time! They got SO close to us and kept flipping right under the board! After about 10 minutes I was ready to be done so I got back on the boat to watch! It was still so cool even from the boat. But honestly, I'm a huge wimp and was so so scared! I'm so glad I did it though! It was definitely something I will never forget! I need to get the pictures off of Bonnie's camera of them because they were so cool! But if you are ever in Kona, do it! It was amazing!

 Thursday morning we headed out to eat Breakfast at one of the Country Clubs, but we got there and it had closed! So sad! We ended up eating downtown, then came back and spent the afternoon at the pool! We had originally planned on going to Akakka falls this day, but knowing how car sick Clara gets, we decided to just stay in Kona and relax, instead of spending 5 hours in the car!

I had to document Lucy and Clara taking turns pushing the elevator buttons- definitely the highlight of the day! Haha

 After breakfast we did a little shopping and finally got Lucy her 'baby guitar'!! Haha. She was SO excited to get her ukelele, and miraculously still plays with it! Haha. She is so funny, she kept putting shows on for us!

 I really miss POG, the warm pool, and the ocean... Sigh...

 I was able to run Thursday afternoon while it was cloudy and it was SO so nice... Here is me taking super lame pictures to send to Jenny! Haha...

That night we had a yummy BBQ on the beach! We had hot dogs and grilled pineapples and a smoothie! It was actually so good. I love grilled pineapple more than anything!

 It was SO fun to be there with Bonnie. I am so lucky to have married into such a cool family. But seriously! I know a lot of people might dread a 10 day vacation with their in-laws, but it was so much fun. We had a blast, and I love vacationing with Tyler's family more than anything!

 Oh, and here's our little family! We really need to be better on the family picture front!

 We had such a fun last night on the beach! The girls had so much fun playing in the sand and down in the Tide pools! I love these girls so much!

 Tyler- always waiting on his crazy girls!

 I'm just really glad these girls are 2, and 4... and not 14, and 16! Haha!

 Friday morning we left bright and early for the Beach right downtown at the King Kam Hotel-- Lucy of course made immediate new best friends, and we rented a paddle board!

Oh, and Clara would play in the water here because there are no waves! Yay for Baby beaches!

 and when we say we paddle boarded we obviously mean that we paddled our babies around!

 Tyler took Lucy out of the bay out into the Harbor and they saw all of these dolphins! They saw like a herd of over 30! There were all these locals out there just snorkeling and swimming with them in the Harbor! It was crazy! They even had some swim right under there board! Lucy was SOO excited! I hurried and took Clara out there when they got back and couldn't believe how many we saw! It was awesome! Who knew you could swim with dolphins for free? Haha!

It was the perfect end to Hawaii!

 We of course had to go get some more Shave Ice at our favorite place downtown! Delicious!!

 We spent the afternoon packing and cleaning up while Clara napped. Later we took our luggage to the airport to check it, we couldn't fit all of our luggage and the stroller in the car! Haha, but we had to pick Jessi & Stefan up anyway so it worked perfectly! We were able to grab dinner with them quick before we had to catch our flight! Aren't they just the cutest? They should just get engaged already!

 I'm glad Tyler got to see Jess and meet Stefan too! He hasn't seen her since Christmas! I already can't wait to see everyone this summer!

 We had the red eye flight to LAX-- it was hard because of the time change! Lucy slept almost the whole flight, and Clara of course fell asleep as we were LANDING at LAX, but otherwise they were both SO good on the flight there! We had a quick layover and grabbed breakfast at Mcdonalds before heading to Minneapolis. They both slept pretty much that whole flight too! I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who didn't-- I really hate those airplane seats Ugh! But we had a pretty long layover in Minneapolis where we just ate lunch and let the girls play on the playground there! Our last flight was pretty empty to Clara was pretty excited to have her own seat! We made it home around 4:30! I was exhausted, but was feeling so antsy after being on a  plane ALL night/day that I wanted to get out of the house, we headed over to the church at 5:30 for the YW Dinner/ Silent Auction! We are crazy... Haha.. I feel like I am still recovering from sleep, but it was so worth it! 

Overall we had an AMAZING trip! Thanks again to Bonnie & Jeff, and Rex. It was SO much fun and I hope we get to to it again in our lifetime! Aloha!