ALOHA!

This is long so beware.  The end of July, Dave's dad treated all his posterity with a trip to Hawaii, the BIG ISLAND!!  It was amazing.  We were there for an entire week.  Here's what we did.  Sunday was just a low key day.  We went to church and then had lunch at Denny's owned by a member of the church who gave us a discount.  That's when we learned just how expensive everything in Hawaii is, even with discounts.  It was still nice of him though.  Then we went grocery shopping.  Yes, we broke the sabbath.  Deal with it.  We didn't have any food.

The next day the real adventures began.  We stayed in a private home in Captain Cook that was beautiful and hidden in what seemed like a jungle.  Here's a view from the lanai.

The silly Ricks boys tried out the pool.  It was cool with infinity waterfalls. The boys enjoyed competing with one another in such things as who could float the farthest and who could make the biggest splash.

Then we headed north to a ride called Flumin' da Ditch.  It was a kayak ride down the old sugar cane canals that are no longer used.  It was pretty sweet and our guide said we were the most rambunctious and fun group she'd ever had.  We only went a few miles but it took a couple hours.  We went through awesome tunnels (even sang in one) and over some amazing sights of the landscape. Mostly it turned into a huge water fight.  On our way back we rode through a Macadamia orchard. Grandpa stayed behind since he'd already done it before so he could spend some quality time with Jocelyn even though she slept most of the time.

Show me the SHAKA!  On our ride to the canal with our guide Hula.

Later that day we stopped at the beach.  It was a little chillier than I expected but still very nice and had real sand, none of that rocky stuff.

Tuesday, we went parasailing.  We were split into two groups since there were so many of us.  Josh, Tara, Dave and I were on the same boat along with some random couple.  We all decided to do the dip, which means on our way back down they drop us low enough to get our feet wet in the water.  I was a little nervous about going up but it was really fun.  I expected a huge rush off the boat but we slowly rose into the air.  Once up, we realized just how quiet it was out in the ocean.  We had a great view of the island.  Unfortunately, we didn't see anything cool while up there though Josh and Tara saw a shark (YIKES!) and the other group saw dolphins.

After that we went to the beach and went snorkeling.  It is one of my new favorite things.  It took a few seconds to figure out the whole breathing through your mouth thing but once I got the hang of it, I loved it.  I saw some bright fish and a turtle.  After I was finished I bought some shaved ice.  I got a large so I could share with everyone.  And when they say large, they mean large.  Tara and I ended up eating most of it because the boys took way too long playing in the ocean.  It was tasty.

Oh and Tuesday was Josh's birthday.  We celebrated that evening with cake and ice-cream.  Tara brought decorations so it would be more fancy and that it was.

Wednesday, we headed east to the volcano.  On our way we stopped at the Black Sand Beach for lunch.  It really had black sand.  I guess they named it well.

Then we went to the volcano.  We hiked around and then down through a huge crater.  We didn't see any lava which I was bummed about but it was still really cool.  And Jocelyn was amazing.  She loved being outside and smiled the entire time.  Once we made it back up the crater we went through a lava tube.  Crazy how those things are made.

The boys plus Jocelyn.

She was in heaven.

We just walked across that crater behind us.

Lava tube.

Thursday, we got up nice and early and went swimming with dolphins.  It was so AWESOME!  We weren't allowed to touch them, not that we got that close but we were close.  We just swam around in the deep open ocean for several hours.  That was the day we all got sunburned.  But it was worth it.  It was so fun.  On our way back to shore we saw Pilot Whales too, which are actually dolphins.  And just FYI, dolphins are conscious breathers so they never actually sleep.  Half of their brains are always on.  They were in their resting state when we saw them.

No, I didn't take this picture.  I sadly took no pictures of our dolphin experience but this is what Spinner Dolphins look like, the kind we swam with.

After swimming with dolphins we went to the beach to do some boogie boarding.  That was really fun as well. We didn't stay long because we were all burnt out.  No pun intended.  Okay it was kinda intended.

Friday, we went to another beach.  Everyone went snorkeling again except me.  I was done being in the sun.  We ate lunch and then headed over to the Place of Refuge.  I stayed in the car while Jocelyn napped.  She needed it.  Then we headed back to the house and just took it easy and started packing up.  We headed home on Saturday.  And just so you know, Jocelyn is a great little traveler.

We had such a wonderful week.  I had always wanted to go to Hawaii and now I can say I've been.  Thanks dad for taking us all.  We had a BLAST!