Morgans carving time...

Well- tonight Morgan ate all her dinner so she was able to carve her pumpkins. Our Hawaii trip messed with my scheduling... I never wait until the night before Halloween to carve pumpkins- we dont get the chance to really enjoy them. We had to do it though and Morgan was so excited to carve her pumpkin. With Aydins help gutting it- it turned out pretty good.

Carving pumpkins

Carving pumpkins was a special event in our house... Morgan was not allowed to carve her pumpkin tonight. We told them if they did not eat their dinner they were not going to carve a pumpkin. Well... Aydin ate everything and Morgan didnt touch her food. She ended up falling asleep at the table while Aydin got started.... Looks like Morgan will be carving hers tomorrow night.

Coming home...

Our last day- what a bummer! Wish we could have stayed longer..much longer! Our trip was the best 10 days we have had in a long time. The kids were great, the weather was awesome, and the friends we went with are the best!
As we were in line to board the plane... Aydin lost his tooth. He was so excited to loose a tooth in Hawaii!
We are going to miss this place.

The RENEWAL!

What a perfect day!! Kevin and Amy had their renewal of their weeding vows... after 10 years- at the Waipio Valley lookout. After they renewed their vows we went down into the valley and took more pictures. Amy looked BEAUTIFUL! Her dress was gorgeous and looked even better against the black sand.
Steve and Kevin were a little bummed that they forgot their boards in the cars- up the valley...the waves were huge!
After we left Waipio- we went back to the house and had a party with tons of family and friends. It was a blast!

Hapuna Beach

Both Wednesday and Thursday we spent time at Hapuna beach. Wednesday night we went for sunset- which was beautiful!! It was so nice seeing a sunset again... I miss them.
Thursday we spent most of the day hanging out being beach bums. The boys found more rocks to jump of off, a cave to play in and had more fun in the water. Steve and Kevin made a huge sand castle for the kids to play in. After the kids left it to play in the water- other people on the beach were coming up to it and taking pictures by it. It was pretty funny. We then went to the blow hole... and took more pictures.

Kua Bay....

Tuesday we went to my FAVORITE beach of all time!! I was very sad to see that in the past 6 years- Hawaii is making a ton of 'growing' changes. Kua Bay once was a dirt and lava rock road where 4 wheel drive would be the only way to drive down... and now is a paved road and a public beach with showers! I couldnt believe it!!
Well- even though it was over populated...it is still my all time favorite! Beautiful as always... Aydin turned to Steve and I and said "Why cant we have beaches like this in Florida?"... I too could only dream.
Amys brother Mike, sister in law Juanita, baby Morgan, Kevins mom and all of us spent 5 hours swimming, snorkeling, laying out, eating, ect... Aydin did follow Kainoa, Mike, Kevin and Steve and did some rock jumping much to my surprise. He said this was the best part of the trip- got to love it! This was a perfect day at the beach.

Monday on the East side

Hilo- here we come...
Today Steve, the kids and I went to visit our old meeting grounds... Hilo. We had a great day!! We first went to Akaka Falls- waterfall. Aydin was so surprised to see how big the waterfall actually was. Morgan was funny- she kept saying 'WOW'. We hiked around the loop- took tons of pictures and Aydin even tried sucking the 'juice' out of ginger flowers. (Which he loved)
We then went out to Hilo, drove around a few of the places we used to hang out, where I used to live and of course the beautiful black sand beach- Richardson's. This is where Aydin tried snorkeling for the first time. He couldnt believe how many fish were so close the the shore. Of course we could not got o Hilo without visiting the Big Island Candies factory and pick up some chocolate! It was kind of fun watching the chocolates being made.
After all of this in Hilo- We met back up with Kevin, Amy, the kids and Mike (Amys awesome 'tour guide' brother). Mike took all of us to some hot ponds and to the volcano. Now- of course the volcano was not active on the only day we choose to go- but is was still fun to see the lava rocks.