The Zook Family

Friday, May 11, 2012

Hawaii 2012 - Day 2

Day 2 - we (the girls and myself) woke up around 4am and got a bath to wash off travel grungies and keep them entertained for awhile. They had lots of fun cleaning each other up....

Next Lisa and I took the girls down to see the beach (that was their first) and Natalie loved it and Rachel hated it.
After a yummy breakfast at the hotel, we got in our swimsuits and hit the beach with Dad. It was lots of fun until we were overrun with about a hundred canoes. We finally decided to head to the pool which Rachel was thrilled about.

After naps, we packed up and left Kona and headed south towards the Place of Refuge. We stopped at a roadside cafe that had geckos and parrots running around which of course is entertaining for kids. Natalie and Rachel liked it too.

There were also lovely views....ahhhhh. The bird's name was Chopper. We liked that the owner and the bird looked similar. ha!

After lunch, we stopped at Place of Refuge. It had some cool stuff to look at and the scenery was just beautiful. We were getting tired after that and headed on towards our rental house in Volcano Village. We would be staying there the next 3 nights while on the Big Island.

Hawaii 2012 - Day 1

HAWAII 2012
For those of you who don't know, us Texas Zooks just got back from our "every 5th year" Hawaii trip extravaganca....and let me just say, it was AMAZING!!! oh how I wish I was still there.....
This year, we had several "FIRSTS" for us.....first time to go with kids, first time to go on vacation with a mutual friend, first time to see red lava for all of us.........I could keep going. and I will.
I'm planning to update the blog with pictures from each day so that I can share our trip with you out there in blog reading land.

So here are the details:
"who" - Erica, Matt, Natalie (age 3.5 years), Rachel (20 months) and Lisa (BFF)
"what" - a crazy family trip with two little rug rats, a best friend and two people in love
"when" - April 27 - May 7
"where" - Big Island and Maui
"why" - because Hawaii ROCKS!! and Matt and I decided to go every 5th anniversary (this is our 3rd trip)

Day 1 - our plane left DFW in the afternoon, stopped in LAX and landed in Kona at 8pm that night (2am to us). We traveled for over 12 hours and we were tired. dead tired. The girls did great and God blessed us with lots of room on the plane rides for the girls to stretch out. Since Rachel was a lap child this was a HUGE blessing and Natalie enjoyed stretching out (.....somehow she managed to escape the camera the first day). We spent the night at King Kam Beach Hotel in Kona. I highly recommend it.