Father's Day

Homemade crowns, BBQ Shish Kabobs, Aaron's favorite pumpkin pie, naked children, Pin the Tail on the Donkey (Daddy).

Happy Father's Day Dad and Aaron!

Summer is Here!

Summer is in full swing at our house. 

Here's what we have been up to so far:

Kali's end-of-the-year Pre School Picnic. 

She was soooo excited that daddy surprised her and came.

sunshine eyes

Summerfest Carnival

Swimming at Papa's pool

Wearing our sister's jammies

Loving each other at the beach

Switzer Falls Hike

A few weeks ago Aaron and I joined our youth from church on a half- day hike to Switzer Falls.  It was in preparation of the 3 day Pioneer Trek we are going on soon.  Stay tuned for some interesting pics of that little adventure!

Me and my graduating Laurel, Paola

Matchy matchy black and grey

One of my Young Women was unable to hike back out of the canyon, to the car.  At the rate she was going, it would have taken us all day to walk with her, so Aaron picked her up and threw her on his shoulders.  I sure love him.

Memorial Day

You may have thought we were done with pictures of us in bathing suits, but you're wrong. 

Summer is just beginning!  We hit Huntington Beach only 6 days after we got back from Hawaii.  I thought we would be spoiled by the clear, warm water in HA, but it was a really nice day with the cousins at the beach.

Food Crawl Day

Last Day

  Supporting our favorite Hawaiian politician.  We don't know who he is or what he is even running for, but his signs were EVERYWHERE so naturally we planted on in the front yard.

The last day was the only day we stayed in Hilo. Our flight was later that night so we decided to skip the 4 hours in the car and check out the town.

1st stop- Rainbow Falls

Then somehow the day turned into a Hilo food crawl. 

 First we hit a french creperie that was delish...

Then the sushi lovers hit a sushi place,

and lastly we hit the shave ice hut.

Then we drove out to a natural hot spring that really wasn't hot at all.  I didn't get a good picture of it, but this is the ocean flowing into the spring, which probably had something to do with it not being hot.

Re-named it "Room temp. springs"

After the springs, we packed up and headed to the airport.  The flight home was pretty miserable since we were so tired.  We landed at 5am and came home to these little silly heads.  They're so cute in their Hawaiian outfits.

We also brought them little baby honey bears, because they love

the mama honey bear in our cupboard.

Turquoise Water Day

Nearly every morning, before we would leave the house, my sweet little Aaron would go in the kitchen and make anywhere from 7-12 sandwiches for us.  He made each one with love and care, and kept us from wasting away while playing on the beach.  I sure love him. 

My 2nd favorite day was at Kua Beach.  The color of the water was so vibrant, you had to wear sunglasses to look at it.  You may even be harming your eyes just by looking at these pictures. 

Dirky and I swam out to a rock and did some jumping.

Happy Campers. 

Snorkel tip:  Put on fins and mask once you are in the water. 

This way you can properly walk into the water.

We went on a major snorkel expedition out at sea.  No one was injured this time, and we saw tons of beautiful sea life.  This little guy stayed by us for quite a while.

Dirk, Tasha, Katie

Sister Photo Shoot!

Lava rocks spilling into the water 

We had so much fun that day just be silly in the water.  I miss that beach!!

Jeep Day

On Jeep day, we rented two 4x4 Jeeps to drive down into Waipio Valley.  It's a gorgeous valley on the Northeast corner of the island, and its also where King Kamehameha hid until he was 17 yrs. old and ready to reign.  We couldn't take the van because all non 4 wheel drive vehicles are prohibited in the valley.  The road down descends 1000 feet in just a mile to the bottom of the valley.

At the top of the valley. This the coast of it lined with a black sand beach. 

 Driving down into the valley on this tiny little road that wasn't even wide enough for two cars. 

 Once you're down in the valley, the river from the waterfall crosses the road several times.  We kept sending Maurice out to do a depth check and make sure we could cross the road.

Random pack of skinny horses that walked right passed us.  A local said they're wild, and stay near the hikers looking for food.

In this pic, Maurice and Dirk are standing on the black sand beach facing the coast.  Behind them you can see how far back the valley goes.  Follow the river behind them and you will hit the waterfall that we ended up hiking to. 

Silly tourists.  We set off for the waterfall thinking we could

tote a baby along on Kai's back. 

This was the most tame part of the hike.  It got to the point where we had to climb rocks, swim through a reservoir, a scale cliffs.  When we  got to the reservoir and realized what we were in for, we decided to send the baby back.  Aaron volunteered to take Katie & Oliver back, so we dumped all our backpacks with them and took nothing but the waterproof camera.  

After about 2 hours we made it! It's not a huge waterfall, but its the highest in Hawaii at 1,400 feet. 

 It really was beautiful. 

  We had it all to ourselves too.

 Inside the waterfall. 

 Timer shot of the climbing crew.

Notice Maurice's makeover?

 I love these shots.  Katie is pointing to the waterfall that we were probably

 swimming under right at that moment.  

 Aaron drinking the falls. 

That day was my most favorite day of the whole trip.  I loved the drive down, I loved the jungle in the valley, I loved the challenge of the hike, the falls, everything.  It felt like a real Hawaiian adventure.

On the way home we stopped at Akaka Falls just before the sun set. This was as close as we could get to it though, so we weren't super impressed.