"Who - waii" 2015, Part 1, Waikoloa

SEATAC airport

April 1st we loaded up and headed to the Big Island of Hawaii (or Who-waii as Anikka calls it) for a 2 week vacation.

It is a 5 hour 45 minute flight from Seattle to Maui. We had a brief layover in Maui then an 18 minute flight from Maui to the Big Island.  Our kids did amazing on the flights. They are such great travelers, we trained them that way :)

We stayed the first week 25 miles north of Kona at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott.  It is unusual for us to stay in a hotel when we go to Hawaii.  We love having a full kitchen and washer/dryer so we usually stay in a condo (time share). We could only get one week of the condo this time so we decided to try a hotel because we wanted to stay two weeks. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible. We made it work the best that we could with all of us in one room.  We spent most of the time out of the room anyway.  We liked all the pools at the Marriott and the easy access to their beach.  I didn't love the cockroaches that I saw in our room, especially the one that was on my head and then ended up in my swimsuit top.  But that's a story for another time.

After the first day we settled into a pattern almost everyday that went something like this: beach, lunch, nap, dinner, pool, shower, bed......repeat.

BEACH

NAP

POOL

DINNER

Tired kids after a full day of sun and sand

Shave Ice perked them up a little

Picnic dinner at the beach

BED

T-I-R-E-D

The day before Easter we took the girls to an Easter egg hunt in Kona. It was called an Egg Rush and that described it perfectly. They had different age categories and they spread 12,000 plastic eggs per age group onto the soccer field, counted to 3 and let the kids pick them all up.  It took the 2-3 year old kids 2 minutes to clean up the field.  It took even less time as each category went up in age.  There were 1600 kids in attendance.  It was kind of crazy.  Our kids were a bit baffled.

My big girl and I also went to the nail salon that day. I had a pedicure while she got her toe nails painted.  The little one had NO interest in letting a strange lady paint her toes.

Since we were in Hawaii for Easter this year, I thought it would be fun to buy our Easter dresses there and make it a Hawaiian theme. We found the cutest dresses (at Blue Ginger) and took the girls to Waialea Bay for pictures on Saturday evening before dinner.

I tried to get a picture with them, but it's nearly impossible to do anymore.  There is always one who won't cooperate. This was the best we could do.

Easter morning, we had baskets full of fun Hawaiian treats and toys.

On Easter, we decided to go to Tex's for malasadas (about a 30 minute drive). We ended up being gone the whole day.  In route to Tex's we decided to do a few other things.  We had lunch in Honomu and went to Akaka Falls.

Anikka told us that the waterfall looked just like the one by Rapunzel's tower (in the movie Tangled). The girls loved this little walk/hike through the rainforest.

One the way out of Akaka Falls State Park we stopped at a road side stand for fresh pineapple and coconut water. The girls thought it was really interesting how the lady (whose name we found out was Maja) hacked off the top of the coconut with a machede.  Anikka liked the coconut water, Elin did not.

Maja cut up a pineapple for us and it was one of the best I have ever had. It was so fresh that after 3 slices it made our tongues tingle a little from the acid.

By 5 pm we had finally made it to Tex's which was our original destination that morning.  Malasadas for a pre-dinner snack.....mmmmmmm.

One other day we thought we would show the girls the dolphins at the Waikoloa Hilton (just up the street). We decided to stay for lunch and ended up being there for hours. It is like a small city with several pools, it's own tram/boat and lots to do.

Watching the dolphins from our lunch table.

Birds will eat from your hand. They are actually quite annoying.

Rope bridge over one of the pools

Beautiful view (and little girl)

That about sums up week one. We had beautiful scenery

gorgeous sunsets

and lots of fun

Plumeria hunting

Relaxing in the hammock

Playing with Daddy at the beach

Elin wasn't too fond of all the dark lava rock fields that surrounded us when we were up north in Waikoloa.  She said one day "this doesn't look like Hawaii, it looks like disgusting land ".

She was happy to move on to our condo at Kona Hawaiian Resort in Kona.  This is what it takes to move us.

(to be continued...)