23 April 2014
Kayla had a nice mellow birthday this year. She wanted home made sushi for dinner. As it was a weeknight we had a mellow evening.
For Kayla’s party fun she started out with one friend and Julia getting manicures. They all really had a good time having that done.
My little party planner then planned out a great rest of the evening. Friends came over for canvas paintings, carmel apple makings, pizza and a movie. I think they all had a great time. Hard to believe she is 9 already!
19 April 2014
What a great trip we had to HI this year. With the girls being older we could do that many more things. We started out the trip at the Lava Lava lounge for happy hour. We met Vicky and Zayden there after our flight in. Beach bar, Mai Tai’s and live music. What could be better. You can see the lava lava in the background. We may have gone back a second time. Shh.
I think Zayden and the girls all had lots of fun together. They explored the beach together, looked for sea cumbers. Found some sea turtles sleeping on the beach to show me, played with Kedama’s, bubbles and who knows what else.
We got to meet Miss Emilia. So cute! She was two days old when we got to meet her. So little and lovely. It was great to see Lila and Joey again too!
Vicky and Zay joined us to drive down to the Volcanos National Park. I had forgotten how pretty and amazing that park is. We saw sulfur crystals, steam vents, the lava glowing in the distance at night, and had a nice hike. We also went into the lava tube at the Park. Kayla liked it so well we even went at night. It was still lit up inside, but not the walk there.
kayla also spied the Blood Moon that was happening while we were in Volcano. That was pretty neat to see. We stayed in a nice house surrounded by large Tree Ferns. It definitely felt like the jungle.
We also got to snorkel on the way to Volcano in the Kapoho tide pools. It was the first time for the girls. Julia stayed in the super shallow pool so she could keep standing up. The rest of us ventured a bit further but we didn’t need to go far. On the way home we stopped in Hilo for some yummy tamales, walked through another unlit lava tube. Very cool! I brought my headlamp just for that. And we saw a waterfall on the way home.
There was some very strong wind while we were there so it didn’t make for great beach weather. We did get to the beach two days though and had a great time. Beaches are good for boogie boarding, gymnastics at sunset and pina coladas. One night we sort of lost Julia. All we saw was her head. She looks a bit concerned in this photo.
Other fun things were seeing rainbows, wandering the Hilton resort, visiting Vicky’s school and bbq on the beach where we spotted a couple of whales. I’m sure we did lots more but it all seems so long ago already.