Akaka Falls

TJ and I wanted to take my family to Akaka Falls while they were here. On Friday, we got up early and headed to Akaka Falls. It is about a 50 minute drive from our house, so we wanted to get up early enough. We didn't want to waste a minute! TJ and I have been there before, but we loved going again and enjoying it with the family.

On the way out, we found a little stand selling fresh fruit, and coconuts. We stopped there to check it out.

Jordan bought this hat from a guy that hand makes them. It is amazing how he can make something like that!

TJ wanted to try it out too!

We took my family to lunch at Tex's so they could try the famous Malasadas. They loved them, of course! Afterwards, we went back to Hapuna Beach to spend the rest of the afternoon there. It was nice and sunny! We played, took naps, and enjoyed the beautiful beach!

Thanksgiving with the Famiy!

I have been patiently waiting for my family to arrive for Thanksgiving. I have been counting down the days, beginning from around August. My days are very lonely, so for that reason I wanted company extremely bad. The day was finally here for them to arrive! I picked them up from the airport around 9am the day before Thanksgiving, and that is when the fun began! TJ and I had the hot spots planned out to take them ( Posts w/ pictures will come later). Luckily, the family I babysit for was kind enough to let us stay at their house while they were here, since they were going back to the mainland for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday I picked my family up from the airport, and headed to Kona. I showed them around, took them to different stores, and got the food needed to make Thanksgiving dinner. On the way home we stopped at Waikoloa Beach Resort. We came home, dropped off everything, and headed to Hapuna Beach.

Thursday we woke up and got ready to go to the beach again. My mom was nice enough to stay home and get Thanksgiving dinner ready while we played (She is a WONDERFUL mom)!

We all had a lot of fun that day-- although it was a little cloudy! Then we all went home to a wonderful feast prepared by my mom. Although, I did make my first, delicious, pie! It was a really yummy meal considering we improvised on really everything!

The pie I made. :) SOOO good!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I am so grateful that my family was able to come to Hawaii to visit TJ and I. It made the holiday one of the best I have had. I am very grateful for my family!
** It would have been even better if Tyler and Lucci were able to make it-- they were in our thoughts**

Hawaii Sunrise

We are rarely ever awake to see the sunrise. When we are awake I am always amazed at how pretty the Hawaiian sunrise is. Yesterday, I could not sleep past 4:30 in the morning (something is wrong with me) so I decided to open all the blinds and watch the sunrise. I was able to get a few shots of it.

This is one of the things I will miss most about being here in Hawaii.

Spencer Beach

During the week TJ works from 6:30-5:30. I tend to get really lonely during the weeks so I like to spend some of my days at the beach. I decided to branch out from our usual Hapuna beach and I tried something new. Spencer beach is a lot smaller than Hapuna, but it is a lot less crowded. It is more of a family friendly beach which is perfect when I go alone. The weekend after I discovered Spencer beach I took TJ to show him around. While we were walking around we found a trail and decided to follow it.

We saw this beach and wondered why no one swims at it.. we decided we would make it our beach.

Random? Yes,  but I was having fun taking pictures!

My new skirt! I had to take a picture of it. :)

We discovered a long the way that this was a historical trail. We found these stories along the way. Back in the day there was a king who used to sit on this throne. He would put sacrifices in the middle of the ocean and would watch while sharks would come and eat these sacrifices. This is the reason why no one to this day swims at this part of the beach. Shark sightings have been spotted ever since. They have seen 15 sharks at one time. After reading this story we decided to take back our idea of claiming this beach.

TJ wanting to be like the king.

Volcano National Park

One of the main attractions on the big island is the Volcano National Park. The big island is the only Hawaiian island still growing because of the active volcanoes. TJ and I took a day trip to visit the national park. It was really interesting to see and read all about the volcanoes. The one thing that I was disappointed about was I wanted to see lava which we didn't get to see. We heard a ranger say that at night is the best time to go. Because it is dark you can see the glow of the lava. We are thinking we need to do another trip at night.

This is where you would see the lava glow if it was dark out.

 

Making Musubis

Musubis are the very popular dinner item here in Hawaii. TJ tried one at a local Hawaiian restaurant a few months back. I on the other hand, was too grossed out and refused to eat one. Unfortunately, I couldn't avoid it for long. Our landlords daughter wanted to teach me to make musubis just the other day. It was a fun experience, but I did not enjoy eating them. They are so disgusting! I can guarantee that I will never be eating those ever again.