Ahhhh, Hawaii....

What a wonderful time. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad McCain, for taking us on a fantastic trip. We loved being with you two and watching you play with Hayden. She finally got some one on one time! :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Since we had such a great time, that means I took a million pictures. I have decided to do mosaics out of each day and event that happened, so that way it is easy to read this beast of a post...hopefully.

This was our first plane experience with Hayden and boy, was it an experience. We probably should have started by going somewhere closer than half way across the ocean, but oh well, we made it and survived. Overall, Hayden did pretty well. She had her moments, but luckily we had very nice people around us to entertain her and a nice couple that even offered to hold her every once in a while when she was fussy. They saved our sanity! We love you, nice couple! The trip back was easy breezy, since it was a red eye, Hayden slept the whole time. Awesome.

Thanks to Mom and Dad McCain, we were hooked up in the nicest suite we have ever stayed in! We lived in luxury for a week and loved it.

The first day we were there we basically got the lay of the land. Carl and I went swimming while Hayden napped(at 9 in the morning, since we woke up at about 5:30 a.m everyday do to the time change). The pool was beautiful. We even got burned being out there for a short time that early. When Hayden woke up, Mom and Dad had a time share meeting to attend while Carl and I plus Hayden took off down to Kona to rent some snorkeling gear and walk around the beautiful town. Then it was back to the hotel for more swimming with the baby. Good times.

Next day: Off to the Hilton Lagoon for some fun in the sun and snorkeling. This place is amazing. We were swimming with fish, sea turtles and Manta rays! They had a dolphin lagoon too! Loved it! Hayden played with Gma and Gpa on the beach while we snorkeled. Beautiful!

The next day was a traveling day to see waterfalls and the Botanical Gardens over in Hilo, about 2 hours from our resort. First, a quick stop to try some malasadas, which our a famous, traditional treat in Hawaii. They are like donuts, and we all know how much I love donuts. Then off to the waterfalls. Wow, these waterfalls were breath taking. We saw Umauma Falls, Akaka Falls, Kahuna Falls, Onomea Falls and Rainbow Falls. It is said to be good luck to visit 3 waterfalls in one day, so I think we did alright. :) The Botanical Gardens had such amazing flowers and trees. It was so beautiful.

The next day, Gma decided that it would be mine and Carl's to do what we would like and she would watch Hayden. So we headed down the shoreline to Captain Cook Bay, a popular snorkeling beach that was supposed to be amazing, and AMAZING it was. Once we got there, people were asking us if we wanted to rent a kayak because all the good snorkeling was on the other side of the bay and the only way there was by kayak or hiking a few hours.
After thinking about it, we chose to kayak and I am so glad we did. The water was crystal clear and beautiful and when we got to the deep part it was super blue! About half way to the beach we heard some other kayakers yell out "whale!!" and sure enough we looked out to sea in time to see a whale breaking surface!!! A freaking whale, about 100 yards from us. It made its final dive and its tail came up and that was it, I knew it was the best day ever, and we hadn't even snorkeled yet. Needless to say, the snorkeling was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water with a million different fish. We took a break for a little bit and walked along the beach and guess what we saw? The whale was back!! We saw it again and it was marvelous. We decided we were done snorkeling, actually, the water was a little too cold for me, but I would have loved to do a little more, but anyway, we got back in the kayak and started back to the dock and about halfway there guess what we saw? About 7 spinner dolphins! They even jumped out of the water and did spins for us. They came as close as 10 feet from our kayak. So yes, pretty much the best day ever.

The next day was another traveling day to go up north. We saw a famous statue of Kamehameha, a King and Hawaiian hero, and drove to the end of the road that led to beautiful cliffs with waterfalls that fed into the ocean. We ate at a popular restaurant called Bamboo and made our way back down the shoreline to stop at a beach. Awesome. Gma and Gpa played in the sand while Carl, Hayden and I went swimming. It was lovely:) That evening, Gma, Hayden and I went to see some Hula girls do some hula dancing. It was really fun.

Our resort is surrounded by lava flats so on the road between the airport and our resort you see a lot of lava with graffiti, but it's a different kind of graffiti. People get white rocks to write their messages on the black lava. I think it is cool, so I took pictures.

Basically, it was an amazing trip and one I would do again in a heart beat. Again, thank you Mom and Dad for this experience. We love you and can't wait to see you again!