New Year Hawaii Trip Sunday

The day started with a walk to church.  Beautiful morning:

After church we took a walk on Mana Road.  Always a favorite.  So beautiful:

I taught a mini-seminar on making grass kazoos:

Clara got sooooo tired so we carried her:

This walk always reminds me of England, especially with the ruins:

We paid homage to Rob's bike accident at the cattle guard:

We returned home to a delicious meal made by Tutu.  After dinner we headed up Mauna Kea for star gazing.  We made it in time for the sunset, although we had to run to make it.  The thin air made for hard running.  Up at the lookout the kids found the geocache they signed 3 years earlier:

Back at the visitor's center we had a great time viewing the stars.  We were a wee bit cold.  When we got home we did our best to warm up.  It was a great day!!

New Year Hawaii Saturday

I have self diagnosed myself with a horrible mental health condition called chronic pre-trip anxiety.  If I have to fly somewhere I DO NOT WANT TO GO.  EVER.  And ALWAYS when I get there I am so glad I am there.  It kind of stinks.  And the older I get the worse it is.  Boo.  Anyway, I conquered my anxiety and on New Years Eve, late we drove to Oakland for our morning flight to Kona.  The flight was uneventful, but I am sad to say my tolerance for xanax seems to be increasing.  Boo.  Oh well.  We landed safe and sound in Kona around 1 and Papa met us at the airport.  He took the kids and Rob and I picked up a rental and we drove up to Waimea where Tutu had burritos waiting for us.  After that we headed to Puako to enjoy the tidepools and sunset.  Ahhhhh, it was so nice to be in Hawaii.  

 The next day was a beach day.  Hapuna.  We timed our trip wrong with the waves.  They were huge and the water was all churned up and non-snorkeling friendly the whole week.  Lucy got drilled her first time in.  But it was still fun.  We found a little shelter from the waves in the cove, but it was pretty murky.  The blow hole was overflowing and violent!  Violent waves aside, it was a very fun day at Hapuna.

 One of our resident climbers:

 Clara tried out the snorkel mask in the sand.  Don't ask.  We don't understand. 

 We had reservations that night at Cafe Pesto so we went home got cleaned up and rushed down, hoping to catch the sunset before dinner.  We got there just in the nick of time and we enjoyed some tourist posing:

 Clara was exhausted apparently and woke up enough to eat pizza but could not be roused for dessert:

Back at the ranch Lucy showed Tutu her pictures and Anders worked on origami.