Hawaii

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to Hawaii a few weeks ago. Matt and I spent a week with my parents on the big island of Hawaii, near Kona, and just loved every minute of it! There were so many interesting things to see and we tried to take advantage of all that but there were also long, lazy days in the sun and soaking in some rest. I don't want to post a million pictures but I thought I would share some...

One of the beaches we went to.

One of my favorite things that we did was rent some kayaks to get to a beautiful reef for some snorkeling...

We unloaded our kayaks...

...then kayaked across this bay...

...and enjoyed some amazing snorkeling. This is not my picture (it came from here) since I didn't have an underwater camera, but this is a picture from that same bay to give you an idea.

Afterwards, my mom and I were walking around and saw this sign in front of a house which we thought was pretty great. And yes, we had seen the lady without teeth so we knew who the sign was talking about.

One of my other favorite things was going to the farmers market for fresh fruit and veggies.

(especially since I have been craving fruit ever since I have been pregnant.)

and I love anywhere that has fresh passion fruit.

Black sand beach

(Look Mom, the picture isn't even that great so now it is up for debate again...was it worth it or not?)

We also went to the volcano national park...this is looking into the caldera of Kilauea volcano.

And inside a lava tube ( which is made by flowing lava during an eruption)

Some famous arch that everyone goes to see...I mean it was cool, but whatever.

Layers of lava

This was a spot where a lava flow had taken over the road in the national park.

And we didn't get to see any actual lava flowing because it was a little too far away but we did see this...the glow of lava from an open crater on the volcano (close second?).

Sea turtle

You may also notice emerging evidence of me being 17 weeks pregnant in this photo.

Goodnight Hawaii! I hope to see you again someday!

I was a little dissapointed when I looked back on these pictures just because I feel like the pictures don't fully capture the beauty. Oh well. We had a great trip, have wonderful memories and as always on a Wallgren family trip, we have lots of jokes that will live on long after coming home. The other reason I was excited to go to Hawaii is that now that I have been there, I only need to go to North Dakota and then I have been to all 50 states!

Oh, and here is a picture of Joe Jackson at LAX. I like to think that this pose is like a tribute to his late son...

right?

(photo from here)