January 2022 Part 1, Pre-Hawaii and first couple days.

Lilian is enjoying gymnastics.

Helmet, tutu, camo pants and boots... just a normal Thursday.

Melissa crocheted a bag for Trisha and one for herself. Here she is modeling an over the shoulder to show Trish.

Building sentences for homeschool. "The fish is in a pond."

"The frog has a tractor"

January 19th we drove down to Phoenix. We stopped and spent the afternoon with grandma, I cooked dinner and we spent a little more time, then headed to our hotel near the airport.

Sitting in the airport was probably the most difficult part of the trip. We don't look like we are screaming and fighting about masks... but we are!

Getting ready for takeoff.

We decided to take one picture with big eyes. January 20th, a little before noon.

Melissa taking care of her pair.

While mine naps... just kidding. This was several hours later. Hannah was a wonderful traveling companion.

When we landed in Kona it was pretty quick to get out to the car waiting area. We hired a small SUV through Turo (peer to peer rental company). He picked me up and took me out to the rental lots to inspect the vehicle and turn it over. Melissa and the kids waited patiently.

Our AirBNB had a nice yard. The kids ran around outside almost every day. Here they are modelling with the banana tree. The Frey's landed in Kona a little earlier than us, but they hit up Costco on the way out of the airport. They actually had a scare a few days before. Their flights were cancelled and they ended up having to change airlines.

The kids did very well with their cousins and stayed up until about 8 PM local time to get straight to the new schedule. Sleeping mostly well.

Then they were up EARLY January 21st, so we were at Hapuna Beach by 9:15 AM.

Uncle Porcupine enjoying some relaxation.

Melissa in her natural habitat.

Lilian loved "surfing" immediately. Hannah spent so much time wave jumping and body surfing too.

After about 4 hours and lunch at the beach we changed into regular clothes to be comfortable for the rest of the day. Then we headed for Pololu Valley look out. They kids were all mad that we weren't going for a full hike down to the beach. We just explored the topside and took a few photos.

Saturday morning, 22nd, we decided to visit the Boiling Pots for a short hike. It was about a 1 minute walk! It was so short that I felt obligated to read the full sign. It was the location were Maui battled a giant iguana to defend his mother. Actually a pretty cool story and the kids listened. I'm blogging 2/20, today Finley picked up a lizard toy and told me, "it is the same kind that Maui battled in Hawaii"

Lilian enjoying the top of Boiling Pots.

Posing with matching shirts, "The beach is calling and I must go." Plus a Finn photo bomb.

"Vacay Mode" Trish made shirts for everyone.

"Eat. Sleep. Beach. Repeat."

Then we went to the zoo. The kids very quickly found the playground... we let them play about 20 minutes, then started exploring and fighting about how much further they could walk to see the animals.

Very popular lemur.

After a long day out, we decided to visit the pool. Everyone got ready and we headed to the country club pool available with our AirBNB. We ended up at the wrong place, but couldn't find any staff to tell us it was wrong. So while Trish went to try and find someone, I got the kids started with pool noodle mini-golf/noodle fighting. It was the wrong place. We ended up getting to the right pool 20 minutes before it closed. We decided not to pack the kids right back up after waiting so long... they swam about 15 minutes and actually didn't complain too much.

Sunday January 23rd we went to sacrament in Kona at the chapel next to the temple.

The temple grounds were all locked up so we just looked around the front, then enjoyed sacrament meeting. The bishop called on his brother to speak, who hadn't been to church in several years, but he accepted the assignment and gave a wonderful talk without any notes at all.

We then ate lunch at a pavilion behind the chapel, overlooking the ocean.

Lots of photos in the 40 minutes before church started.

The boys both have beetles in their hands.

After lunch at church, we changed clothes and headed to the beach. We stopped at Magic Sands, but there was no room to play and the waves were huge. So we didn't even unload.

We ended up at a beach 15 minutes south of the temple. No official name on Google or on any of the signs, it just said "Shoreline public access." We had a blast. Snorkeling, tide pools, sand digging, a turtle and a tiny bit of relaxation.

Having the Frey family made this trip happen and enjoyable. It was wonderful to have so much help with out littles.

Lilian had a blast here, the AirBnB had a puddle jumper her size and she loved floating and swimming. All the rocks under the water slowed the waves and she loved this beach.