Hawaii: Part 2

DAY 4: BEACH DAY...AGAIN!!! We love Hapuna Beach so much that we headed back there on Monday.  Eric came with us, but Mindy stayed at the resort with baby Kacey because he was sick. :(  The waves were A LOT better on this day and we all got tossed around a little bit!! It is always so much fun to go boogie boarding even though it wears me out! It takes so much work to get out to the waves just to get pummeled by them! But boy is it loads of fun!! One piece of advice...wear a swimsuit that you know will stay on! I made the mistake of wearing a new swimsuit that did NOT stay in place! Let's just say some lucky beach-goers may have gotten a little show! Oops! Besides the wardrobe malfunction, it was another fun-filled day at the beach!

Eric and Christian

He thinks he is tough...ha!

Me and Jason catching a wave

showing off their "muscles"

 After the beach we went back to the resort and went swimming.  We had wanted to go down the water slides so we found them and had a ball! My mom has all the pictures of us going down a bigger waterslide.  I think the guy on duty at the slide probably thought we were crazy because we kept going and going and going...but it was so fun! We were posing for my mom as we went down the slide and everything!  I'll have to get those pictures from her.

 That night we all went to dinner at Roy's. It was pretty good and marked a milestone in my life. I ordered fish for the first time ever!! I decided to branch out a little and actually order a seafood meal...I was kind of disappointed.  But I can now say that I have ordered and eaten a seafood dinner. Yay me!

Adorable Campbell

Isabelle...I love this girl's smile :)

me and Gretchen...I'm so short that she had to pick me up!

me and the madre!

DAY 5:  ISLAND ADVENTURE.  The Big Island is almost two times bigger than all the other islands combined.  It is quite diverse in its landscape too.  The Kona side is the desert side and is not what most people think Hawaii would look like.  It is mostly just black lava rock.  As you travel around the island towards the Hilo side it gets more green and luscious.  The Hilo side gets a lot more rain and is also home to Volcanoes National Park.  We all wanted to see the volcano, so we decided to take the day and drive around the island to check it all out.  We got a late start on the day and it takes about 2 hours to get over to Hilo then about another 15 or so to get to the National Park.  That side is definitely more green and reminded me more of what the other islands look like.  Driving around the island was great because we got to see the diversity of the island and how beautiful it is.  Since we were driving, I didn't get any pictures of the trip.

We had to get back to the resort for the luau that night so we did not have much time to check out the volcano and the national park.  We were able to drive to the steam vents, see the crater where the volcano collapsed in on itself at one point, and more of the island.  I would have loved to hike around the park or even see the recent lava flow, but we did not plan our day very well! Oh well, next time right?

I think they were using the sulfur vents as a way to release some gas of their own without everyone noticing ;)

That night was the luau at the resort and all of the people with the AFS group were invited to go, so we headed back to Kona for that.  The luaus are always fun and they always have different dances which is neat.  They had a big buffet dinner with delicious Hawaiian foods.  It was quite an enjoyable night.

Grandparents and parents doing some hula dancing

Me and Sha

YEAH BABY!!

G-ma getting some action too

DAY 6:  FINAL HOORAH!! Wednesday was our last day on the island.  Our flight didn't leave until almost 10 that night, so we still had all day to play. My parents were actually staying for a few extra days so even though we had to check out of our rooms, we could still play in the sun and have a room to shower and freshen up in before heading to the airport.  This was very nice because normally we have to drive around with our suitcases in the car and didn't want to get dirty or wet.  We decided to hang around the resort and play in the lagoon again.  We had talked about having kayak races the whole trip, so of course we had to do this! After soaking up as much sun as we could, we got ready and hit some of the shops, then headed into Kailua-Kona for dinner before heading to the airport.

One of the turtles just chillin by the lagoon.

kayak races!! Christian cheats, by the way.

run, run, run!

We found another waterslide. Let the easy entertainment begin!

LOVE these flowers!

I just love this picture! What a dork!

Dinner at Bubba Gumps on our last night.

Thanks mom & dad, Associated Foods, and Destinations for another fun and memorable trip!!! I had such a great time and Hawaii truly is my favorite place to be! ALOHA!!