We decided to have a little party of our own. It was Mari's first night without Mom but it went well. Well, at least she went down and slept fine, but she didn't really trust me after that and always had to make sure mom was around, but it was a good start since she has only been with mom for six months. :-)
On the Big Island, we stayed at my brother's timeshare. It was very nice! This is K admiring the sand at the beach. Since the Big Island is still made primarily of lava rock, the sand at the beaches tends to be a mix of black and white.
We ran down to Cook's Cove. Yes, literally ran.
As you can see, the landscape here is quite different. All the dark areas are black lava rock. It is very sharp for the most part.
But the cove has such clear water you can see the fish from above the surface.
The boys even saw a three foot eel. It was good to have M back from being sick. Always nice to have more adventurers. :-)
For the sake of randomness.
When we got back, the kids were playing train, or bus, or whatever this was. :-)
The girls LOVED Mari. When we got back, they told their friends that their new cousin was "so cutie". Ironically, she weighs nearly as much as Em and she is 18 months old. She definitely eats more than both my girls put together, not that that's too terribly hard.
Headed to the pool...we snapped some photos along the way, hoping for the elusive good kids shot.
It never did happen, but at least they had fun doing it.
Then it was off to our choice of several pools. This one had four slides, at least four waterfalls, basketball, volleyball, and three hot tubs (behind me). In the center you can see the exit of one of the slides.
The girls liked this pool better though because it was more shallow and they could reach throughout most of it.
After a week of trying, Ben finally succeeded in getting K to snorkel!
We put coins out for her to find. Finally!
Em, who can't see a thing because her glasses are off, loves to go all over with a mask on. She doesn't use a snorkel, she just holds her breath the entire time. She is a little blind fish.
Em...
There was a kiddie beach area, so at times we would congregate at the bottom of the slide so the kids could go nuts and still feel like we were watching them.
At least they were happy to go down the kid slide on their own.
K, of course, had to get used to it with full snorkel gear on before she could get over her fear of getting water on her face.
But she did eventually do it.
That little one has not found one piece of the fear that my girls seem to have. She loves the water, puts her face in and tries to walk right off the edge whenever she can. We were calling her 'Crazy Kamikaze' by day two.
SO many long hours of prayers to bring this one home, makes her face and her smile all that more precious! God is good! He makes families how He wants them and it's so much more perfect than we could imagine on our own.
Okay, so did I mention the place was nice? On our first night, they showed a movie on the big screen for the kids. It was free and so was all the popcorn, candy and drinks. Mo and I did free Zumba in the mornings, once it was aqua Zumba - quite the arm workout!
A couple family shots.
Doesn't that look fun? We had them going so high!
Okay, really there is still more to come, like a 400ft waterfall and some videos my brother made. We swam with turtles, jumped off waterfalls and explored all over. I thank God for his blessings that He would provide for us to go on such a wonderful vacation and that my brother and fam are so gracious as to let us stay with them for that long! I feel blessed all around.
1 comment:
Looks like an awesome vacation that you experienced! Glad for you.
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