In February, we dropped our kids off in Texas to be with their cousins, and then we went to Hawaii because Jeremy earned an incentive trip with work! We were all gone from Feb 17-23.
We drove to the airport on Friday night and stayed in a hotel so that we would have an easier time getting to the airport for our 5 am flight. The boys were very excited.
Tanner helping Dallin tie his shoes before leaving to catch our plane.
At first none of our seats were together, but there were two first class seats open, so Tanner and I got to use them!
This kid, haha!
Katie, Steve and their kids met us at the airport!
All the kids were so excited to see each other. We had just an hour-ish to say hi and gobble down some food before saying goodbye to the boys and catching our next flight.
Kateve took the kids to a museum in Dallas before driving to their home. They had a blast!
The boys and their three cousins are in this picture, can you find them?
The boys got to spend one night at Kateve’s house and the rest of the week with Zach and Katrina.
Zakina’s house with two more of their cousins!
All ready for church!
Uncle Zach was glad the boys wanted to help clean the pool.
Party with pinata at Kateve’s house!
We got to video call the boys a couple times and sent pictures and texts to each other throughout the week. I think we missed the boys more than they missed us. At first, Tanner was really nervous about things with the trip (worried that he or Dallin would drown in the pools, that the girls would want to play princess the whole time, that kids would be too noisy, that we would die in a volcano or on the plane, etc), but he ended up see that there was lots of fun to be had! He was happy to report to his therapist that swimming ended up being really fun and he was able to learn how to float better! His cousins played lots of games that he liked, and even though mom and dad hiked a volcano, they were safe.
Actually, here we are hiking the volcano on the big Island of Hawaii, above Kona.
This excursion was a lot different than what we were prepared for. Everyone thought we would be taking liesure walks around coffee farms. But most of the day was spent hiking this difficult trail up a Volcano summit. It was beautiful and an incredible experience. We were told the land is sacred, and we had to take a moment of silence before entering to ask the spirits and mother earth for permission to walk there. It was really, really cool.
This is a huge lava tube that we got to hike into!
Jeremy.
Volcano crater.
Cool volcano stories at this spot.
Ground split very deep.
Unique vegetation
The next day we explored the jungle part of the island up north. This is the view of the ocean from the army jeep that we rode into the hiking trails.
Jeremy was very amused by my clothing attire. I didn’t care about him teasing me, I was very comfortable!
The night before, there was a huge rainstorm, and lots of flash floods. They got tons of rain compared to what was normal for that time of year. I was trying to take a picture of all the evidence of flooding. All the vegitation that is pressed down is from the river overflowing.
The waterfalls were very powerful as a result of the flooding. Here, we could tell the water had risen up to our heads during the storm!
This raging falls is where some of the guides let people swim. Jeremy took the plunge! He’s in this picture, but all these other Hormel people were in the way, haha.
He swam under the waterfall and came out over here. He’s the one waving.
There he is!
Meanwhile I’m in pants, long sleeves and a scarf, haha. Weather was gorgious, but still a little chilly for me.
I loved all the curly whisps I got from the waterfall hike! Especially the one in a perfect S shape!
Hormel spoiled us with lots of yummy meals. That is basically the best part of these trips. This view at one of the restaurants was amazing.
On Wednesday, we took a hike around the resort. We explored this lava cave where they think ancient Hawaiians lived. I found a portal to another world. Jeremy got some shots right before I dissappeared.
Boom, gone!
He explored the rest without me.
And then I came back!
Who knew we could have so much fun with a beam of light through a cave?
The worn out saucer looking divets in these lava rocks are believed to be from ancient Hawaiians grinding food.
Here is us.
Here is our view.
The rest of our trip was spent relaxing. (The volcano hiking and waterfall excursion kind of got us pooped!) We got open air massages right on the beach, sat by the pool and wrote in our journals, did work, watched humpback whales playing off the shore for about 6 hours, talked a lot about downsizing homes, ate a ton of food, and enjoyed the opportunity to just be together.
Can you see the sea turtle?
Creme brulee in a coconut shell.
This is THE MOST delicious cheesecake I have ever eaten in my life. And to make sure that I just didn’t have a sweet tooth one night, I ordered this dessert everynight. And it was the best thing every night! I also ate it at lunch couple times, too. It had a cashew nut crust, fluffy creamcheese with real whipped cream, topped with a guava glaze, and strawberry sauce and berry on the side. A. MA. Zing. This and the breakfast buffet was my favorite thing about the entire trip.
Getting home was on the rougher side. We left on our journey Thurs evening at 7 pm and put our heads on our pillows at home on Sat morning at 3 am. That’s a 32 hour trip. Lessons learned from our trip back: 1- Take enough blankets and pillows with you because there are still airplanes being used from the 1980’s out there, and they are not at all comfortable. 2- Dallas airport security for domestic flights takes at least 2 hours to get through. (We missed our flight out of Texas). 3- SarahLynn is much better than Jeremy at getting airline customer service to get us new tickets free of charge. 4- Hawaii is really, really far away from Minnesota. Think several times before going there again while living in MN.
We were very grateful for all the yummy food, excursions, and downtime we got to enjoy in Hawaii. Great job to Jeremy for working above and beyond to earn this trip!! A very special thank you to Katrina, Zach, Katie and Steve for taking care of our boys and treating them as their own for an entire week! Our boys had SO much fun and were able to make life-long memories with their cousins, which was the best part about this entire trip.
