Big Island Hawaii Vacation

Family vacation photos from Hawaii! We spent 16 days on the Big Island from May 24th-June 9th. We had an amazing time and I made sure we got family photos while we were there.

The family picture was from our luau. It was for free because we had also gotten our photo package through the hotel!

The kid photo is from the regular photo session. I think this was our last photo of the session, I was relieved to get a nice one.

Juliet picked this as her favorite picture of herself but I might prefer the one of her by the water a few photos later

We did some jungle pics and then ended up by the water at the end

So pretty of Eleanor, despite her refusal to smile. Ahhh, the darling child.

I am obsessed with boys in matching Hawaiian shirts and shorts. Bradley looked so nice.

More luau pics

The kids were way too enthusiastic when the photographer asked for a fighting pose. Patrick also did a pose in an earlier shot but I think this is the only one where you could see all their faces.

Nathan and I didn't get a great professional shot of just the two of us, but we took tons of pictures on our own and I have a number that I really like.

A cute but less beautiful photo of the kids

This was our best option for a family photo before the luau photo. Thank goodness for the luau!

We had an actual discussion about trying to photo shop a smile onto Eleanor's face. She had an amazing time in Hawaii. Ahhh the teen years.

See? What a cutie. I love this photo

It was rather infuriating that both of Eleanor's solo pictures looked amazing after she refused to smile for any photos that included siblings. Sigh.

This was the start of the trip. We had a long layover in Seattle so left the airport for a bit to go to a coffee shop.

In order to get to hang out with my friend Serena! We had a lovely time at Impresso Espresso!

The sign in the background says "Scott Plaza" and I was trying to take a picture of the girls together but unfortunately the nicest one was Eleanor putting Juliet in sort of a choke hold.

They were airplane buddies.

Such great cuddles. 

It took ages to get there but we were so excited to arrive in Kona Hawaii! 

Checking out our condo in Waikoloa

It backed to a golf course and it had three bedrooms and was rather expensive but we loved everything about it and it was worth every penny.

Palm trees! This was our backyard for the trip.

The little deck off the master bedroom

Our welcome sign

Bradley's bedroom. Nathan and I made a grocery run the first night and the kids cuddled up and watched a show together.

Juliet and I woke up at 4AM the first morning thanks to the time change. We had a lot of time to enjoy the backyard.

Once Eleanor discovered Juliet had climbed on the palm tree she was determined to as well

Juliet is way too okay with being sat on while playing catch with Eleanor

We had anticipated going to the nearby Hilton a ton on this trip because we got free passes to go use their pools and lagoons. We went twice, because it turns out the ocean is a lot better. However, we did enjoy getting to paddleboat around on their lagoon and Juliet made vacation friends with another girl with her exact name so that was pretty fun.

And we were going to make most of our food at our condo on this trip but we realized that Costco is closed on Memorial Day, which was our first full day there, so we were forced, forced I tell you, to go to the Lava Lava Beach Club for dinner. Nathan and I wore our Hawaiian outfits we got on our honeymoon!

Cute family!

There were a lot of flies buzzing around but the food was yummy and the kids were very excited. Nathan and I loved it because we got to sit and chat and enjoy a fancy drink while the kids ate all their food and ran off to the beach we were sitting right in front of. The found a turtle they called Fred 2.

Nathan and Bradley hanging out on the beach after family photos the next day. Interestingly enough, our family photos ended basically in front of the Lava Lava beach club. We ended up there a few times on our trip.

Nathan insisted on a selfie after our family photos. Lighting is hard.

Then we went to the volcano. It was a full day! Took two hours to drive there and we spent maybe eight hours traveling around and looking at everything.

The lava tube was much shorter than we expected but it was quite cool to be where lava had flowed

Looking out on where steam was rising up

We drove all the way out to the coast which is where I saw lava when I came to the big island 25 years ago.

The kids love what I call "danger hikes." We are so bored with straight paths to scenic locations but if there are things to climb and jump around on they are so happy.

On the map there was a nearby petroglyph field so I insisted we walk out to it. It was a long walk in the heat at the end of a long day, but the path was somewhat treacherous so the kids were game.

Juliet did so well. This was actually the day after she had stepped on a sea urchin on a very short beach excursion right by the Lava Lava Beach Club. She climbed up on a rock but the sea urchin was there and she got her foot. I knew nothing about sea urchins and assumed we would just tweeze out the spines like splinters. Nope! They just crumble to nothing, they don't stay whole, so you have to dissolve the spines by soaking the injured area in vinegar and hot water. Crazy business. At first I thought the vacation was ruined and she wasn't going to be able to walk for a week, but the vinegar worked and I think we got lucky with where she had gotten injured. She had sort of kicked the urchin with the front of her foot so it wasn't on the bottom of her foot as much as in the front. Still, poor thing. I carried her for a lot of this petroglyph walk. So hot, so sweaty.

We walked for what felt like ages but finally found the petroglyphs. They were mostly circles and were quite underwhelming.

Can you see that all four kids are sort of clinging to me in this photo? This was a lot of the trip. When in doubt, cuddle on Mommy. Pretty sweet.

The one good petroglyph we could find there. It was also just a tad windy.

Kids playing catch back at the condo. We went to bed at 7 most of the first nights we got there, which was midnight Kansas time. We were just so tired.

The next day I insisted we go by the nearby petroglyph field, which was very close to our condo. 

There were so many petroglyphs here! Tons and tons. Good thing we didn't do this one before going to the volcano national park petroglyph, it would have been very underwhelming.

The kids enjoyed exploring this area we later discovered had signage saying it was off limits. Oops.

Happy Anne with petroglyphs! They're lucky I didn't drag them to every historical site on the island, they were all so interesting.

Danger hike! Fun but so toasty with all the black lava rock reflecting the sun.

Juliet loved that a little gecko ran up on her leg at our lanai

Playing board games in the lanai

Patrick and I found out that it was dirt cheap to rent a court and rackets and balls at the nearby Hilton Waikoloa so we went there at least three times over the course of the trip. The court had cracks and no shade, the rackets were not great, and the balls were old, but it was tennis and we never had trouble getting court time.

Meanwhile the others ran around at the lagoon again with our day passes. Bradley didn't want to touch the ocean for about the first week we were there because he was concerned about gross ocean germs (I had bad news for him about Kansas lakes) but he was able to be bribed to paddle around on top of the water for a while.

Our condo also had a nice, mellow pool area. We were so happy with where we stayed.

Rinsing off

Nathan and I got "free" coupons for the girls to get to open up an oyster and get a pearl at a jewelry store. Any pearls they found were free! Juliet found a single white pearl and was thrilled.

And Eleanor got two pink pearls. So fun!

Look at these free pearls! HOWEVER the jewelry to put them in was not free and was quite pricey. The girls were thrilled.

I also got jewelry, at the shop next store. A necklace and a pair of earrings. They're very pretty and I'm already wearing them a lot. I never get new, nice jewelry, it was very fun.

We had to wait for the jewelry to be made for the girls and then went back for it. So much joy.

We did eventually make meals in our condo. So much mahi mahi, so much delicious! Although we were all ready to take a long break from fish by the time we got back home from the trip.

Nathan and Eleanor and Patrick were the only ones to go on a manta ray nighttime snorkel excursion. Apparently it was amazing, the manta rays would swim right under the boat and do barrel rolls. One brushed against Patrick. It was quite chilly in the water but the kids said it was worth it. 

And I was very surprised when all the kids voted yes to hiking to the green sand beach, even though we told them it was a 2.5 mile hike to get there. 

That said, the hike was gorgeous.

You parked and then walked a short way out to the coast and just walked along the coast until you got to the green sand beach.

Eleanor kept stopping to take pictures

We took it slow and I carried Juliet a bunch and everyone did really well

Cute couple pic!

Patrick was proud to find a coconut shell

Apparently it can be brutal to walk on particularly hot and windy days because the dust flies in your eyes the whole hike, but we had very little wind and some good cloud cover.

We finally spotted the beach!

It was a bit of a danger climb to get down to the beach. The kids were beyond thrilled.

It actually looked a lot worse than it was to get down to the beach. Fun but not really scary. Perfect.

The real danger was the water itself. Serious waves crashing into shore. I didn't want the kids to get in the water at all, they just played running away from it and getting the tail end of waves.

The sand was definitely green! Not bright green, but clearly green. It is one of four green sand beaches in the world so it was really neat to get to go to it.

The ocean loving children

Bradley liked it too but just didn't want any water to touch him

We went back to the volcano after the green sand beach because the volcano was starting to erupt and we wanted to see it both at day and night

The kids took literally hundreds of photos and were very excited

But you can barely see it. Still. Lava!

Seeing it at night was incredible.

The next day the volcano fountained, which means it shot up something like 300 feet in the air. However, everyone was so tired and they had just seen cool lava literally 10 hours earlier so we decided we would go to a beach before our evening luau. If it had been just me we would have driven back, but the kids would have spent one minute looking at the lava and we would have driven four hours for that. So we went to a new beach. And we had one of our best beach days of the trip! It was perfect boogie boarding conditions and Bradley got in the water and had a blast.

I also got completely in the water for the first time of the trip I think.

Patrick got to play catch

And Bradley cuddled on his dad in the water. He had such a good day.

Happy beach time!

Trying out the snorkel with Bradley. Not as much to see, not as exciting

And then we rested up and cleaned ourselves up before our evening luau. Can you find Patrick in this photo? Hint: look in the tree ...

We got there very early and got a nice table for the show. We were also the first to get our official luau photos, which was fun because we knew both of the photographers from our family photo session. 

Matchng outfits!

We had one other family at our table with two cute little girls who had a lovely time hanging out with our kids

Getting out the pork we ate for dinner

Slightly crazed Juliet and a very happy Bradley who drank bottomless soda

I said, "smile!!!" and this is what I got from her.

Eleanor actually had a delightful time. And please note the matching necklaces.

And this cool guy! Who is he? Very mysterious.

Sunset pics!

Eleanor took this photo of us

The show was fun too, crazy expensive but I'm so glad we went.

My fancy buddy

Fire juggling! Clearly the best part of the show. The kids are not easily dazzled but they were very enthusiastic. 

Eleanor telling bedtime stories to Patrick and Juliet. Juliet adored the bedroom setup, she had her own bed but there were people around her and it felt cozy. Eleanor adored it slightly less but her sharing a room meant she actually kept on the same schedule as the rest of us so that was good.

The next day Nathan took Patrick charter fishing so I let Bradley hang out at the condo while I took the girls out for food. Juliet got to try a malasada, a Hawaiian donut, and it turns out she's a fan.

And we found a cute ramen place for Eleanor

Then Eleanor and Bradley insisted on some much needed screen/book time back at the condo and Juliet and I checked out the mini golf course at the nearby shops.

We were the only ones there and it wasn't that great of a mini golf course but Juliet could bring the plastic loop the loop around to each of the holes so we had a lovely time.

The final hole was super fun and she did it on repeat. This place was only $5 and it was the best bang for your buck activity we did on the island. 

Meanwhile, Patrick and Nathan got to do some fancy fishing. 

They caught a few big fish and got to bring home a portion of the meat!

We ate so much fish on this trip ... it was delicious though!

Eating the boys' catch

More pool time! I was so happy we didn't stay at one of the big hotels, our pool was quiet and restful.

We had a snorkel cruise the next day and I had us spend the morning at Pu-uhonua O Honaunau national historical park.

I love a totem pole. Patrick and I look just like them.

Apparently we could have brought our snorkeling gear here because a lot of people were snorkeling on the beach to the side.

More totem pole action

Eleanor has one of her best smiles of the trip here because she was busy telling Juliet this was a child sacrifice site. Fortunately Juliet took this news in stride. It was just a normal shrine. Oh Eleanor.

Another totem pole with my cute husband!

Checking out an ancient Hawaiian game board

And I had us stop by a painted church on the way to our snorkel cruise. A pastor decided to paint the story of the Bible despite having no formal art training. The pictures looked pretty impressive!

There was a farmer's market near the pier where our boat was launching and Eleanor talked me into another pair of earrings for us to share. Please note she is also wearing my swim shirt here. It's actually really convenient that she can wear a lot of my clothes, it's just annoying that she looks so good in all of them.

Starting off the snorkel cruise in good spirits! Unfortunately the water was very rough and I started to get seasick pretty quickly. It was a rough trip for me and the snorkeling wasn't that great because the water was so cloudy. At least they gave us a full refund when I called the next day. I guess every outing can't be a grand slam! We figured out while we were in Hawaii the earlier the better for snorkeling but we didn't know that when I booked this.

At least Juliet looked pretty cute when she got on her snorkel gear

Eleanor, Nathan, and Juliet had an okay time in the water but it was quite cold and they barely saw any fish. Bradley and I didn't get in and Patrick was in for just a couple minutes before he was cold and didn't want to do it anymore.

At least the kids got to all eat their body weight in snacks on the boat. I just sat and tried to stare at a fixed spot on the horizon. In my defense, at least a third of the boat had sea sickness and Nathan told me one guy threw up. Rough stuff.

The next day was much nicer, we went to Waialea Beach which had nice shade, soft sand, and pretty good snorkeling conditions.

We discovered a mermaid on the shore!

But it seems that we actually discovered a beached whale

Juliet was rightfully a bit nervous about sea urchins after her incident early in the trip and wanted to wear flippers anytime she went into the water at all.

Eleanor was crazy about snorkeling and took some great pictures of turtles and fish

Humunukunukuapua'a!

Nathan loved swimming around with her

Showing me her snorkeling pics

And Bradley and I tried a little snorkeling too. Bradley was not a fan, sand castles and boogie boarding are more his style.

We got a ukulele and Juliet was delighted to serenade all of us

Patrick taught himself to juggle!

And Bradley and I played some good games of cribbage

I tried to find a food truck in Waimea but was very sad when we couldn't find it so we made a hard pivot to a nearby Japanese bakery called Patisserie Nanako. Best pivot ever! We were beyond dazzled. Check out this chocolate ganache ladybug pastry.

Juliet got a homemade crusty bread with cream that was to die for. I know because I ended up eating most of hers.

Then we went on to the zip lining tour. The best way to see waterfalls!

Juliet's and my ATP tour was cancelled because it was too muddy so we went exploring at a nearby botanical garden.

They had a hedge maze!

We were so worried that we would get lost ... and then we did get lost and couldn't figure out the maze. Juliet was not willing to wander and work on it so we left. Ah well.

We did have access to a nearby waterfall that was quite pretty. It was an easy drive, a walk of about twenty feet from where we parked, and we had the place to ourselves!

Then we drove back over to where Nathan and the kids were zip lining and found another set of waterfalls.

I tried to take a picture with Juliet and she didn't want to so I said "GOOD" and tried to take a picture of just me. Juliet suddenly wanted very much to be in the picture so I lovingly shoved her away while she tried to lick my hand. We are a delightful pair.

She's so pretty

Ziplining was super fun! They had a blast!

Patrick was upside down most of the time

Although Eleanor did it a fair amount as well

On some of the routes Patrick was too light to go on his own so a guy would ride with him. Patrick still chose to go upside down.

I'm not sure how much most of them paid attention to the ridiculous views but they had a fun time

Even Daddy went upside down!

Joyfully reunited!

A little tired. Long drives, long days, lots of excitement.

Nathan and I checked out the little pop-up market at Queen's Marketplace when we got back and he was delighted to get a coconut chopped open for a fresh drink while we were there. So cute and happy!

We went back to OBISIC for more shaved ice and discovered that they had the coolest sweatshirt, so Bradley got a souvenir from the trip that he actually cared quite deeply about. The shaved ice was a highlight for all of us but I think Bradley might have enjoyed it the most.

Menu on the back. Sooooo delicious even just to look at.

Happy shaved ice crew!

Nathan couldn't do a lot of the shaved ice because what makes it so good is adding a little heavy cream or ice cream. But he got a killer acai bowl.

Sunset picture! We thought we were going to have shaved ice and go for a sunset walk on the beach but the line on a Saturday evening was incredibly long so we ended up trying to watch the sunset through the stores at King's Shops and we caught the tail end of the sunset back at our condo.

Lots of beach days to round out the trip!

Eleanor simply adored having photos taken of her. She also stole this white zip up shirt from me for the trip. Again, it looked lovely on her. How dare she.

Sand fun at our favorite shady beach!

Eleanor and I had a lovely time looking at fish together. We ditched the snorkeling gear and just took goggles, which would have been fine except on the other side of the big rock outcrop the water was quite shallow and there were loads of sea urchins near our feet so I panicked and made us leave the beautifully fishy area. The flippers aren't just for mobility, they are also for foot protection.

The boys had fun playing War.

I love that we had such a long stay in Hawaii because we weren't frantically running around sight seeing the entire time, we also had time to just hang out and play card games in our lanai.

Back at Lava Lava Beach Club. It was so perfect because the food was good for both adults and kids and the yard games and beach time were great too.

Me and Nathan with our fun specialty glasses!

And we did get to do a sunset walk that evening. It was me, Nathan, and Patrick because all the other kids just wanted to hang out at the condo.

I love a beach

Nathan said some things about third wheel Patrick being there because it meant we had some enthusiastic commentary if we kissed but he's so cute and he also took nice photos of us so it worked out.

Me and Patrick pushing over a tree

Nathan wanted to take a lot of photos of me but it was so windy

Nathan dipping me

Me dipping Nathan!

I was glad we just got to hang out and soak in the sunset. So nice. 

And we got to see a little sting ray at the end! Just swimming right by the shore.

Back to the black sand beach for our final beach day

Eleanor and I were all in on snorkeling by this point

Nathan and Eleanor are responsible for all of the underwater pictures.

Some swim time for Juliet who was in no way shape or form beached out even by the end of our time in Hawaii. She just wanted more!

And Bradley came around and did really well with the whole beach thing, which was a relief.

We were supposed to go to OBISIC one last time before we left but to our horror it turns out they were closed on Mondays.

We had to get Gecko Girls shaved ice. Which honestly wasn't exactly slumming it.

Uno Teams and Super Mega Lucky Box were the family games of choice for the trip.

Juliet talked me into one last round of Malasadas on our final day, which required waiting at a food truck for about 40 minutes but luckily we had some spare time.

The rest of us saved our stomachs for another round of Patisserie Nananko. Even the staff were impressed by how much we got. Heck yeah. 

And for our last activity we went horseback riding. Except Bradley and Juliet refused to go (Bradley had seen a horse poop before and said never again) so Nathan stayed back with them and I went with Patrick and Eleanor. 

The three of us got a private ride with a guide and it was ridiculously beautiful

We saw a baby wild boar and a Hawaiian owl and got to ride around on wide open land where we could look out to the ocean. Patrick and Eleanor had seen a lot of ocean by this point and didn't particularly care. Of course.

But it was a good time and a great way to end the trip.

One last epic trip to OBISIC! The desserts were huge but because it was mostly ice you could eat it all. Except if you were Juliet. I ended up helping her, kind of like a hero.

Feelings about leaving Hawaii

Our flight was late and I think it took about 16 hours from the door to our condo in Hawaii to make it to our house in Overland Park

Kids slept a little bit on the flights but I wouldn't let them fall asleep on the car ride home from the airport because I needed them to stay awake for the next couple hours and then go back to sleep and be on Kansas time.

Except for Patrick who got to take a nap because he had a basketball game the night we got back. What a champ!

We actually had a lot of trouble readjusting to Kansas time, I'm so glad we didn't go during Spring Break because going to school the next week would have been absolutely brutal. As it was it was okay that we were still sort of on Hawaii time because we had a lot of later night activities when we got home and the kids handled those very well! It was just really brutal on Nathan who did indeed have to go back to a regular schedule and go to work. But Hawaii was amazing, you never know with these trips if they're going to be worth all the time, energy, and money but this absolutely was. Everyone was delighted, everyone wants to go back again. It really was paradise!