Welcome Baby Owen

My niece Oaklie went into labor 3 weeks early and gave birth to a healthy Baby boy on Christmas Eve

Owen Daniel James 

Weighing in at 5 pounds 5 ounces 

Mom and baby are doing great!

Hawaii day 5

We woke up Wednesday morning refreshed and ready to go. We had went to bed by 8 pm. The kids wanted to go for a swim so we have in and took the to the hotel pool. It had rained the night before so the pool was freezing. It didn't take the kids long to decide they couldn't handle it. The pool has some coconut trees around it so we picked a coconut and Andrew bashed it against the corner of the concrete and was able to bust it open.

It wasn't completely ripe enough to eat but the water inside was pretty good. 

After getting dressed and checking out of our hotel we went to the Hilo Farmer's Market. 

The Farmer's market was so much fun and to my surprise actually cheap. There was tons of cool looking fruit and lots of home made food. The whole week Andrew had been talking about a food called musubi that he had as a kid. He was so excited to find it at the farmer's market.

Musubi is spam wrapped in a sticky white rice and seaweed. We bought lots of other goodies including a pineapple. Have I mentioned how much I love all the fresh fruit??!!! 

After Farmer's market we drove down to Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park.

One of the volcanoes is currently going off so allot of the park is closed. We were able to see Kilauea Crater from the overlook. It is still steaming. 

All through the park there are steam vents. I expected to see water in the holes but it was just the moisture steaming off. 

Our next stop was Pana'ewa Rainforest zoo and gardens. This place was perfect for our small kids. There are tons of lush plants with  beautiful flowers everywhere. They mainly have birds at this zoo.

Lexie was so impressed when a parrot told her "hello, my name is Max" she acted if it was a magic bird that only talked to her. On the way out we had to go back by him for Lexie to tell Max "goodbye, I love you" to witch Max replied "goodbye, my name is max". 

The zoo's path ended at an awesome little playground. Andrew and I were able to sit and relax while the kids birds of some energy. We all loved the zoo. I loved that is was FREE!

We stayed the night in Hilo but this time at a different hotel because the Hilo Hawaiian was booked that night. That night we stayed at the Hilo Seaside hotel. It was nice but not as nice as the others. Some thing were a little outdated but they had renovations going on so that will help. It did offer a free hot breakfast and free wifi which is a rarity on the island.

We were all pretty tired so we ordered our dinner to go and ate at the hotel. Lance & Lexie enjoyed a nice dinner on the balcony. They were pretty cute acting like they were on a date. 

Aloha Hawaii

Friday was our last day in Hawaii and we made sure to make it extra special. 

We spent the morning relaxing then walked down The road to the port for our submarine tour.

we checked in early for our tour then visited Scandinavian shaved ice. O My Goodness!!! This place was amazing!! Andrew got a shaved ice that was to die for. It was mango, orange and passion fruit flavored. My ice cream cone was the best I ever had. It was a waffle cone that was so fresh it was still warm. My ice cream was a piña colada and strawberry mix. Best cone ever!!! Lexie isn't too adventurous when it comes to trying new things. She just wanted chocolate. Lance got a volcano ice cream which was Oreos, banana and strawberry. 

Our submarine tour was done through Atlantis submarine tours of Kona. It was perfect for our kids. The sub seats 48 people but it was just us and one other couple. The kids had plenty of room to look out the windows. We dove down to 112 feet at the deepest. Most of the time we stayed in between 60 & 70 feet exploring the coral reefs and fish that live there. The kids loved seeing the big eels. My favorite was the two ship wrecks. 

Once done with the submarine tour we went back to the hotel room to get ready for our grand finale, a Luau. 

The luau started at 5:30 with some Hawaiian men blowing the conch shells then two Hawaiian men unburied the pig (kalua pig) out of the huge fire pit. 

We watched several dances then it was time to eat. I can't say enough about all the amazing food we had; kalua pig, lomi salmon, poi (not so good), rolls, coconut cake, pineapple upside down cake, tons of fruit and so much more! 

Lexie loved watching the hula girls. She was too cute as she would try to dance too. Lance loves the Hawaiian men who twirled fire. For me, the best part was just watching the kids. I think Andrew would say the same thing. 

We ended the night at the hotel pool to ware the kids out before bed and help them sleep on the flight home on Saturday. 

Our vacation in Hawaii was absolutely amazing! We made so many memories. The kids were the perfect age for their first trip. We spent each day swimming at a new beach (8 different beaches) and exploring the beautiful island. 

One thing that I absolutely loved was listening to Andrew talk about when they lived in Hawaii. He never talks about anything from when he was a kids, but being in Hawaii brought back lots of happy memories for him. 

Hawaii had allot of surprises for me. I couldn't believe how different all the beaches were. Each one was beautiful in its own way. I loved seeing all the different plants and trees.

Hawaii sure had a wide variety depending on where you were on the island. 

I couldn't believe all the animals on the island. There were wild donkeys, cats, mongooses (we seen tons), goats, turkeys, pigs, chickens, horses and tons others that we didn't see. All the animals had been brought there for a purpose at one time. The donkeys were used to work in the sugar can fields, the mongooses were brought there in case there was ever an infestation of snakes. Most animals were brought for food like the chickens, pigs and turkeys.  

We are definitely going to miss all the fresh fruit and a drink we all became addicted to and drank tons of while on the Big Island; Aloha Maid Natural guava drinks!

We were up bright and early Saturday morning for a 5 hour flight to Anchorage, a quick 1 hour layover then a short 40 minute flight to Fairbanks. It felt so good to be home. 

God has blessed our family with so much and a chance to see some more of His awesome creation!!!

Good bye

Wednesday my grandpa went to be with the Lord. I know he is loving seeing my grandma again. 

Hawaii day 4

Tuesday morning I was woken up by the sound of the rooster crowing. I found us the most amazing place to stay that night. We stayed at an old sugar cane plantation named Pahala Plantation Cottages.

It was so awesome. It is kind of set up like a bed and breakfast with several little cottages that you can stay in. All the cottages were booked so we are in the huge plantation house and we had it all to ourselves! Julia, the owner, told us a little history about this place. It was a working sugar cane plantation for over 150 years until 1996. It was left empty for a while then she bought it and started restoring it. 

Each room is filled with antique furniture and pictures of Hawaiian art  

or Native people. 

Andrew and I were awake before the kids so we took a chance to enjoy each other. We walked around outside holding hands, talking and looking at the beautiful plants. 

Just a little funny; Lance kept saying we were staying at a "cobbage". 

The plantation house was perfect for playing hide and seek!! I couldn't resist the urge.  The rules were easy. Don't climb into any beds that we didn't sleep in and don't climb on the furniture. O My Goodness!!! It was so much fun!!! 

We left the plantation and headed towards Kalea to the green sand beach.

The green sand beach is about a 3.5 mile dusty walk. You can drive there, but four wheel drive is a must. The locals offer rides for $15 each. I haggled one local down to $40 for the 4 of us. When we arrived at the green sand beach we were in for a big surprise. The beach was straight off a cliff! We took a very steep path down the side of the cliff to the beach. The sand looked more golden than green. A man was there who was a jeweler and had a little eye piece that you could tell the sand was green and yellow. The waves at the beach were a little rough so we spent our time playing in the sand. This beach was also windy which made it very hard to spray on sunscreen. Needless to say, mom and dad got burnt. Lexie was so funny at the beach. She would roll in the sand and say she was a "black dog" then she would climb up on a rock and howl. On the way up the cliff she asked "what color beach we going to next?". So far we had been to a white sand beach, black sand beach and a green sand beach.

Our next stop was at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach.

This was my favorite beach of all!!! There were sea turtles everywhere.

It really was amazing! We were able to get up close and personal with the turtles. Lance and I were snorkeling when one swam right under us.

We had to fight the urge to touch the turtles (it's a huge fine!). I think Lexie's favorite part was the ducks in the little pond near the beach. Punalu'u has showers so we were able to wash off before heading into Hilo. 

We stayed at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel which was located on beautiful banyan drive. Banyan drive is named after all the huge banyan trees that are planted all along the road. Each banyan tree is named after the person who planted in. The one directly in front of our hotel was named after Babe Ruth. That evening we took a stroll along Banyan. The kids loved hiding inside the trees. We walked across a little foot bridge to Coconut island.

It was so beautiful there. We watched a group of people exercising.

Lance decided to join in for a bit. We watched the sunset then headed to dinner.