Hawaii Vacation Day Four

Anna Claire and Manny excited to ride a helicopter.

How blessed are we to check off so many of our life's bucket list items this week? Today's agenda? Ride helicopter. See waterfalls. Sample fresh local tropical fruit. Try shave ice. Explore beautiful Hawaii.

Madeline was not feeling the headphones.

Our mics on our headphones worked like walkie-talkies. So fun.

 Shaka! Aloha.

I was gonna be stoked to see one waterfall but we saw so many! They were all so beautiful.

Love the colors.

I may never get a bird's eye view like this again. Beautiful!

We were able to go through a valley.

The waterfalls were my favorite. Bucket list worthy.

He took us in for a close look at this war plane. The crew walked away.

Multiple waterfalls!

Loved all the little bays.

AC fell asleep halfway through our helicopter ride. Probably a good thing since she was having motion sickness. Madeline fell asleep right out of the gate.

Team Averitt

Team Doss

The whole Averitt-Doss crew. Or Doss-Averitt.

We made it to Hilo on the other side of the big island. More bohemian vibe for sure. I snapped this postcard shot. I saw this image so many times when researching the island before our trip so it was neat to see in person.

Grabbed lunch at Remys plate lunch in Hilo, then explored some shops before getting shave ice with the fam!

Anna Claire discovered an amazing art gallery and fell in love with this painting.

AC with her rainbow shave ice.

Madeline and Oakley chillin in the double stroller. I think they're gonna be great playmates in a year or so, just like their older sibs.

Cousins enjoying their shave ice!

These three really hit it off this week. Lifelong friendships formed.

The beautiful lady who made this wonderful week possible. Love her so much!

These two cuties had so much fun together. Love that they are cousins.

After lunch we hit our main destination for the afternoon: Hilo farmers market! Found my sugarloaf pineapple here!

Farmers market finds...Clockwise:dragonfruit, durian, star fruit.

Larry in his element, scoping out mushrooms.

Emily joked that she imagined me looking like the girl on the left in Hawaii. She wasn't too far off base. I was in tropical fruit heaven!

Daniel in his element. Found a ukulele!

Mom got each of the girls a piece of jewelry to remember our trip.

Madeline loved Jackie Rey's. We all did. I think it was everyone's favorite meal in Hawaii.

My dish was as beautiful as it was delicious. Raw ahi with mango. The salad and sauces were amazing.

Hawaii Vacation Day Three

Each day keeps one-upping the day before!

Today was a photobug's dream. I got to spend the morning taking pics of the kids playing in the tide pools behind our house, the afternoon taking our family pics, and the night shooting a luau! But before any of that could go down, everyone had to wake up.

Madeline has been the first one up each day so I'm up right along with her. The challenge with that was to keep her content without waking up the house. The best solution and easiest for me has been to take her for a drive and get my morning coffee.

So, my morning routine in Kona is to get up at about 5 am with Maddles in tow, change her, wash my face and brush my teeth, slip on some shoes and head out for coffee. The awesome part about getting out so early is that I get to see the sunrise each morning and there is almost  no one on the roads so it's like I have the island to myself. I will always fondly remember cruising down Alii drive free of tourists with the windows down, and watching the waves crash.

Tourist free Alii drive.

My coffee-run view. 

My fave coffee shop on the island. (They also have the best breakfast!)

My little early bird.

When I get back to the house, I'm still typically the only one awake so my solitude continues on the deck overlooking our tidepools and ocean.

Once everyone was awake, the Dosses and Averitts headed down to the tidepools with our wagon, umbrellas, beach toys and stroller. We quickly found most of that gear useless as the current was too strong. So we tag teamed taking AC out into the deep and sitting with Madeline near the shore so she could splash. Our outing was cut short with AC getting salt water in her eyes and Madeline not caring for the scratchy sand on our beach which is more like the texture of fine gravel. Pretty abrasive.

We came in for lunch naps and showers. Then got dolled up for family pics. It was the only night I put on makeup while in Hawaii. Pics of Larry, me and the kids courtesy of Daniel Doss.

The luau was by far my favorite activity of everything we were able to do on the big island. The food was amazing, the dancers were phenomenol and the kids even got to try out some of the instruments and props the dancers use. It threatened to rain, but ended up being really pleasant with a nice breeze.

Khloie (sporting her emergency poncho) and sweet Manny.

The Dosses in their stylish ponchos.

Anna Claire in hers.

Dinner awaits.

I made my way up front to see the uncovering of the pig by saying, "Excuse me, can I get in front of you? I'm too little to see." Everyone said, "Sure!"

 

 

 

 

Banana leaves on top of the pig in the imu.

Uncovering the pig.

Dinner?

Time to chow down!

Madeline can eat up some pork!

Yum!

Khloe with poi balls.

Emily and Khloie playing the uli uli rattles

Anna Claire playing the ipu hand drum

Love these kiddos! Too much cute for one picture!

Manny playing pu'ili sticks and Emily trying out the poi balls!

Larry and sweet Madeline.

AC had fun inventing new uses for the emergency poncho.

Loved all of the dancers.

The band! They were great!

Breathtaking sunset!

The dancers were so beautiful and talented. Loved the costumes.

I loved the challenge of shooting without a flash! I think I did pretty well - making me really learn what my camera can do.