Back from Hawaii

Got back from our 10 day trip to the Big Island of Hawaii on Tuesday...just now getting over the jet lag! It was Avery's first big trip, and he did great on the long plane ride, in part thanks to the new Nintendo DS we got him just for the trip.

We stayed in the amazing Hilton Waikaloa Village Resort, which was like a small city in itself. Big enough that it had it's own train and boat to get you across the resort.

and drove around the island for two of the days. We drove to the southern-most point in the US, and Chris jumped off that cliff into the ocean.

We went to volcano caldera...didn't see any hot lava though, just stinky sulfur smelling steam. The museum near it was interesting though.

I never thought I would see so much hardened lava, but it went for as far as the eye could see. Only lush palm trees in the resort area.

Avery got to go to a kids camp one day, where he got to see sea turtles, and search around in a tide pool for creatures.

Chris and I went snorkeling off the coast also. We took this boat for about an hour long ride to a little bay where the Captain Cook monument was. The boat was a double-decker, and you could jump off the top into the water. They had a grilled lunch for us after 2.5 hours of snorkeling where we saw lots of colorful fish and a purple octopus. This was the first time we had been snorkeling, and it was a blast! Next time we want to try scuba. Avery got a snorkel set as well, that we have only used in the bathtub so far.

Thank you so much grampa and gramma for this trip!