It begins...

His Nintendo Switch prize (from selling 100+ fundraiser items at CK) arrived just in time for the latter half of Christmas break. They are thoroughly enjoying their games, Smash Bros and Mario Kart (I think). We told them we'd buy them two games and then they'd have to buy any others. I think Christian said he only wants two games total? We'll see...

It's kind of amazing how much fun it is for the kids. TBD as to what kind of restrictions we end up putting on time. 

Back to good old-fashioned fun: This is Olin's Lego and Christian's wooden puzzle he got. They've set up shop at our dinner table and are playing with these things around the clock. They've been pretty much waking up and going straight to the table. 

Soft Landing

 

Enjoying a shot of espresso while relaxing in Seattle

Our itinerant crew. Lyft prices were OUTRAGEOUS (see below) so thank goodness for Light Link Rail! We were dressed in our hybrid tropical/cold attire and the change from 80° to 20° was a shock to the system. 

I was surprised we landed in this weather in Seattle.  I heard so many friends who had friends whose flights were delayed and outright canceled. Side note: I never knew the airline logo was an Alaskan Eskimo on the tail of these airplanes until well in to adulthood. (I always thought it was just some old, random guy!!)

Out of order but…opening Christmas presents today!!! It actually felt kinda like Christmas. 

Final meal in Hawaii. We walked in to a fancier place but didn’t feel like it so we walked down to L&L which was good and a nice way to spend our last night. 

There is a child tucked away under my sweater. :)

Their Christmas gifts this year: Crumbl and Starbucks gift cards $10 each that the boys immediately asked if they could use so we drove to Crumbl tonight. Lego for Olin, and Intrism wooden puzzle for Christian. New ski goggles: Amazon for Christian and Dae, Costco for Olin. Gradual light alarm clocks for both. Cold hard cash from grandparents in Georgia H&H - haha. Vessi waterproof shoes for both. I think that’s it. They were happy!

This was nuts

Big Island, Part V (I don’t want to leave)

 

Jodi texted and asked if they could come visit us on Kona side today. We said absolutely! We visited the Place of Refuge (Pu’uhonua o Honaunau) which was really cool and then went to lunch. 

Pretty palm frond (?) near our building 

Walking the 100 yards to ping pong table

Walking the quarter mile to KTA supermarket

Dae golfing Kona Country Club (right next to our place!)

Olin, Christian, Parker (2), Harper (8)

Spam musubi galore at KTA but they sell out by lunch we found 

Cool coffee farm tour at Greenwell

coffee farm

Not sure what this is but it grows on the street side 

Responsible child(ren)

More coffee farm tour

Lunch spot. Parker was so cute and animated and active!

Merry Christmas, Crater Style

For Christmas morning we drove to Kilauea Iki and hiked the 4 mile loop from rim to crater floor. It was really cool - rainforest for half and then dry crater floor for the other half. 

Punalu’u Black Sands Beach - on the way to Kiluaea

The crater floor was so cool and stark

These steam vents were so warm!

Crazy story - we went Hilo on the way home and I remembered my friend Jodi’s address from way back in college so we thought it would be funny to take a photo of her house and text it to her in San Francisco. When we drove by, Jodi was out on the front lawn weeding! I probably haven’t seen Jodi in 10+ years and didn’t even know if her parents still lived here! That was fun. 

Big Island, Part III

 

Keiki (kids’) course Dae found in Mauna Lani which was awesome for us and hilariously anywhere from 44-115 yards per hole. Perfect!

Jogging partner on Day 2. He could jog way farther than me. 

Playing some (terrible) tennis 

Kona Brewing Co!

I got the kids the classroom editions of this book as well as Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. Olin opened up this book and asked what “The Marty-an Andy Weir” was. Then we were joking that perhaps a person isn’t ready to read a book if they can’t pronounce the title. Ha!!! Now we can’t stop calling it “the Marty-an Andy Weir”.

Dinner at Jackie Rey’s - our favorite dinner so far

Ube drink. I’ve been really in to everything ube this trip. 

Location: Walmart, Hawaii

Ukulele lesson through an Airbnb experience. Loved it! I can’t wait to go home and practice on the kids’ ukulele. We finished with the song ‘Lava’. 

We’re about a 5 minute walk from

a good snorkeling beach called Kahalu’u

Post-run stretch

Snow capped Mauna Kea

More bad tennis although the 3 others in the family are decent….I am the worst

That red speck across the parking lot is the kids throwing their football across from our building