Big Island

We were able to get away to the Big Island for a few days during the first week of October. We rented a cottage in Kapoho - on the Hilo side of the island - right on the champagne pools. We came here before with Mark's Uncle Gregg, so when we found the house right on the water we were really excited to stay there!  The Champagne pools are ocean pools that are spring fed and geothermal heated. The results are heavenly! Crystal clear, warm yet refreshing water with great snorkeling!

I'll recount our stay with captions below...

The front of our cottage.

View from the lanai of the cottage

These boys were wiped out! Vacations are rough!  We bought them glow sticks and on this night, we turned off all the lights and they had a glow-stick-dance-party, which I guess wiped them out!

The pool in front of the house.

Breakfast on the lanai

We spent lots of time playing in the water around the house.

The house was surrounded by private pools

We went to Volcano National Park for the day

Checking out the steam vents

View from the Kilauea Ike hike, down to the lava field.

Boys being boys!

The boys may look like tourist, but I didn't want their heads to get sunburned while we hiked across the lava field.

Looks like we landed on the moon! (or in a large parking lot!)

Exploring a lava tube

We made sure to take a dip in our champagne pool a few times a day...before heading out to explore and once we got home.

We went to check out the town of Kalapana which was covered by a lava flow in the 70's

Kalapana used to be the site of a famous black sand beach, but the eruption in the 70's wiped it out. There is a new beach forming there now...the newest black sand beach in the world!

Chris and Kristen live on the Big Island now, so we got to spend a day hanging with some "locals" :)  We went to Makenzie State Park to explore some lava tubes.

And we spent most of the day hanging at the Champagne pools. Kristen has a great underwater camera and took the following pictures.  (PS - I want one of those underwater cameras now too!!!)

Makes me laugh because the sibling love is so evident in this picture :)

Our snorkeler!

The rocks in the water in these pools were colored yellow, blue and green - from volcanic gases I assume?

Awesome picture of Kristen snorkeling!

Hoku Award Winner

Gavin is thriving in Kindergarten! He is certainly at the early-reader stage...noticing print and sight words everywhere! He likes to write his name and any other words he can attempt on any and every piece of paper we have around (including bills, my textbooks for my classes, and my students' work).
The only concern we have is that he gets really tired by the late afternoon and often gets upset at A-Plus (his after school care). The program is great, but has a lot of kids and is much less structured than his classroom.  I've been trying to go to pick him up earlier than 5, but then it leaves me no time to get work done or to exercise. (Ahhh! The mommy guilt!)

The first quarter ended on September 28 with an award assembly and we were notified that Gavin was to receive one of the school's Hoku Awards. Each quarter, they focus on different values and give awards to students from each class that demonstrate that value.  Gavin won an award for Laulima (working together).

Mark was able to go into work a little late that morning and since it was a Friday, my time was flexible as well.  So, we took Dylan to Aunty's house late and the whole family went to cheer Gavin on when he received his award :)

The award-winner posing with his medal/lei and award certificate. The first of many :)

An example of him writing on everything....

Up on stage.

The Boys

We've had so much going on lately with new jobs, new school year, and two busy boys that this post is just a hodge podge of pictures in my attempts to get up to date!  The boys are certainly growing up way too fast, but Mark and I are really enjoying the stage they are in now. With Dylan getting older, we have more flexibility to do things and be on the go and on the go we have been!

These boys are going to be good daddies one day!

The bouquet from my little men :)