Hawaii {Day 5} – School for some, Kona for others, Beach for all

Abigail had a midterm today at 6am and needed a place that would be completely private so Justin and I needed to vacate our room very early. Abigail had a full day of studying today so we decided to have JKD catch their classes as well. Carly also had some studying to catch up on. It was a lazy morning for me while I listened to a Instagram live from my documenting guru, Becky Higgins.  

Abigail’s Testing Center

Jason’s Classroom

Justin took Drew to a nearby beach and Carly and I went down to the pool for an hour or so with Katie before she started classes.

Carly and I decided to head into town to try an acai bowl and run a few errands. Justin wanted to join us. We decided to get the large açai bowls which I don’t regret but they were quite large and we could’ve easily shared two between the three of us.  We also swung by the Kona temple for a quick pic.

We also hit Costco to get some more macadamia clusters (we’ve eaten an entire container in 4 days!). The idea was to get back to the hotel and make a quick turnaround to the beach. But it always takes us much longer than we expected/should. We didn’t get to the Hapuna beach until 4pm. This is the same beach that we watched the sunset a few days ago. The kids took dozens of pictures on the GoPro.

It was way too cold for me to get wet so I sat onshore and tuned into a stake fireside on protecting young minds and online safety. It was long but interesting and definitely a conversation we need to revisit often with our kiddos. We stayed at the beach until the sun disappeared and then back to the room for showers and pizza. Our kitchen didn’t come with any flat pans so Justin had to put them straight on the racks which made a huge mess and resulted in a little paper towel fire. Abigail had another midterm to take tonight so we were once again kicked out of our room. I listened to a CFM podcast while Justin and Carly did work/homework. 

Hawaii {Day 4} – Green Beach, Black Beach and Volcano

Abigail, Katie, and Drew each had just one call this morning and then we packed up and headed on an all day excursion to the green sand beach (Papakolea), black sand beach (Punalu’u), and the Volcano National Park. It is about a 2 hour drive to get to the green sand beach and then a 2.5 mile hike to make your way along the coast to the beach. Thankfully it was early enough in the day that it wasn’t too hot and we had a nice ocean breeze on the way there. The terrain was really interesting with lots of ditches and weird, unlevel paths to hike along. 

The green sand beach itself was pretty small and had quite a steep descent down to get to it. We weren’t dressed for swimming but that didn’t stop Drew from getting in and jumping through the waves. 

I challenged Carly, Jason, and Justin to race up the sandy part of the cliffside. They all got up there pretty high, but Justin did if fastest and furthest. 

On our way back to our car we saw one of the local “shuttles“ tipped over in one of the ditches. That made me feel even better about our decision to hike to the beach instead of hitching a ride. 

It was a warmer hike back to our car and we were all pretty exhausted when we got there. I think virtual school has softened up the stamina of some of my younger kids who haven’t had to walk to school every day. 

Our next step was to pick up some lunch at the southernmost bakery in the United States at the recommendation of my friend Tracy.  A few of us got teriyaki chicken and we also tried their malasadas, but still prefer the malasadas from earlier in the week better.   

The black sand beach was right off the main road and easy to get to. Our friends that were here two weeks ago we’re lucky to spot several turtles here. We only had one onshore. We didn’t stay long but we did take some pictures and buy some souvenir T-shirts for Carly, Katie, and Justin.  

Justin really wanted to check out the volcano since we were in the area. It was really late in the day so we only stopped at a few viewpoints. 

We knew it was going to be a long drive home so we stopped in Hilo for a quick dinner at Taco Bell and then ended up getting back to our hotel just before 9pm. Which according to Seattle time is nearly 11pm and the kids still had to shower before going to bed. Abigail had some studying to do tonight and it took us a while to get everything cleaned up and put away. Which made for a very early morning the following day.

Hawaii {Day 3} – Pool Day, School Day

This is our second full school day so we were up by 6:30am. Once we got the kids settled Justin went out on a run.  He took some pictures of some petroglyphs nearby which the rest of us never did end up show the kids.

I went to the complementary 8am yoga class. I enjoyed the relaxing stretch to start my day. I decided since I was already in workout clothes to head to the gym. This is the first time I’ve been in a gym in 335 days. I did the elliptical for an hour and then some weights. It actually felt good to work out and wasn’t nearly as difficult as I would’ve imagined after such a long break. I guess all these walks that I’ve been doing over the last many months have kept me in decent shape. 

Katie and Drew were able to swim for a couple hours before their afternoon classes started.  We’ve strapped a life-jacket on Drew for years even though he has passed a few levels of swim lessons – it’s much more relaxing at a pool when you don’t have to worry about keeping anyone alive.  However, we wanted him to get more comfortable with actually swimming, jacket-free, so we encouraged him to go without the jacket as much as possible at the pools.  He did great.

After we all had lunch most of us headed down to the pool leaving Jason, Katie, and Drew to finish their school day.  I started one of the books I brought along and am enjoying it so far.  

We stayed at the pool until we were hungry enough to head up for dinner. Costco chicken alfredo and caesar salad for the win. I was exhausted from a day in the sun and all that exercise this morning so Justin took Jason with him to the store to pick up some more bread and Abigail took a mid-term after the littles went to bed.  A nice relaxing day!

Hawaii {Day 2} – Mauna Kea & Hapuna Beach

We decided that we would have the kids catch school at least a few of the days and today was the first. It wasn’t too difficult to be up at 6:30am for the kids to get on their calls before 9am PST. Abigail decided to attend her mission prep class outside and sat at a table near a barbecue station. Pretty picturesque if you ask me. 

Jason had calls until the afternoon and stationed himself out on our balcony. Katie and Drew only had one call in the morning after which all of us (except for Jason) went to Mauna Kea beach for a few hours.  

Then we came home for lunch to get Katie and Drew on their afternoon classes. Abigail realized when she started her homework that she needed a calculator for her midterms so she and Justin headed to Walmart in the afternoon to get that and a few other items.  Our plan was to head to the beach when everyone was done with school but Abigail had a test she needed to take so it took us longer to get out the door. We wanted to try some dole whip before hitting the beach and after Justin waited in line for 15 minutes he found out he was in the wrong line and during that time the place where he should’ve been (next door) had closed. Major bummer but we still had malasadas to pick up and enjoy which were delicious. 

I just think this picture is funny with Drew in the background

We got to Hapuna beach in the late afternoon, too late in the afternoon to get any sun. Justin and the kids had lots of fun catching waves. Drew loves to play in the ocean as well, but he wasn’t really into the boogie boarding today so I spent most of my time trying to keep him from going too deep as he jumped and played in the waves. Near the end of the evening he spent some time on the beach with the sand toys that we bought at Costco.  We stayed until the sun set.

We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner back at our room. The younger kids went to bed shortly thereafter. It’s easy to get to bed early when it’s already dark outside and we’re waking up so early in the morning.