Hawaii Day 1

For her 40th birthday, Mom's sister, Tiffany, wanted to go to Hawaii. As her birthday is in November, she choose to go over Thanksgiving. She also invited all of her sisters and their families to go along. Though it meant missing three days of school, the next thing we knew, we were on an airplane at 6 am on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. 

We made it to Kona!

Everyone was coming in separately, and we were flying into Kona and then driving across the island to Hilo. We had a few items on our list before the drive, including a stop at Costco and a stop at Snorkel Bob's to rent some equipment. All the boys really wanted to do on this trip was snorkel and be with family. We grabbed lunch and a rental car, too. We were able to get those things done quickly, so we went to the same beach that Mom and Dad had first snorkeled, on our trip to the Big Island 14 years ago. 

The snorkeling was great at Kahalu'u. All 5 of us saw plenty of kinds of fish, both large and small. Mark went out pretty far and found a turtle, too. We took some good photos and videos. Unfortunately, right as we were coming out of the water, a large wave pushed Dad up on the volcanic rock and gashed his hand pretty badly. It bled for a long time, but we finally got it to stop as we drove across to Hilo.

The boys were so stoked to go snorkeling again.

Seth is a champion snorkeler. 

Mom and Dad loved showing the kids this spot.

We saw a ton of fish!

Even spotted a puffer fish.

There were a huge variety of colorful fish.

Dad's hand was bad! It bugged him all week.

So happy to be in the warm weather of Hawaii!

It was rainy as we came over the pass between the two massive mountains. That was the only rain we saw, though, as the weather was mid-70's and beautiful on both sides of the island. We stopped at a grocery store on the way to the house, mostly for band-aids. 

When we arrived at the house, we were stunned. It was a massive two-story on stilts right across the road from the beach. There were balconies on two levels looking out over the ocean. There was also a massive tree spread across the property with hundreds of birds. The Webbs and the Pooles shared the house with us, while Grandma and Grandpa, the Ferlans and Brittany had a place just down the road. Though it was getting late, we waited for the cousins to arrive before sending the kids off to bed.

This is the home we stayed in and it was amazing!

This tree in the front yard was home to many birds!