Kona Kona Kona!

August means......Hawaii!!!!!!!! Mom and Dad planned an awesome adults-only getaway to Kona!!!! Man, the week was totally heaven. the only bummer was that Andy missed the first couple of days, but other than that, it was totally perfect. 

Highlights!!! Ready 1,2,3!

-The house! Mom and Dad rented an awesome house, complete with a pool, hottub and dining sunroom, where we all played endless games made delicious meals, hottubbed and played pool categories, cracked a many joke, and watched lots of episodes of Person of Interest. Soooooo fun.

-Beach Day! We found a lovely, be it crowded, beach where we just layed out in the sun, swam in the ocean, and just chilled with a picnic lunch.

-Andy flew in safely. Halleluah!

-Waterfall Day. We all drove to the other side of the island and found some beautiful waterfalls. We found some great trails, ate some yummy poke, and saw beautiful scenery.

-Snorkeling Boat tour. cannot remember his name, Dave maybe? Oh well, we will call him Dave. Dave was our boat captain and he drove us out to some pretty awesome snorkeling. We saw a huge whale shark, dolphins, baracudas, and other beautiful fish. The Men's highlight? (joking not joking)We will call her "the Mermaid." A graceful exotic beauty with sparkly scaly leggings, long flippers and quite the breaststroke. She chided one of us for trying to touch the dolphins😂😜.

-Kona temple. We were able to do a sealing session as a family, which was really awesome! 

-Church! In true, Aloha fashion!

-Hawaiian Shave Ice! Sooooooo heavenly. My favorite flavor combo? Fresh strawberry, grapefruit, and passion fruit! I can taste it now....

-Luau!!!!! Mom did herself in and brought us to a luau, complete with an ocean view, roasted pig, and a hula show and fire dance! (more exotic ladies doing the hula😜😜) Yummy food, and great local entertainment:)

-Massages. Oh. my. goodness. I don't think there are words. The owner of the house we were renting told us that his wife could come and give us massages. And did she ever! while half the crew went scuba diving, Andy, Jake, Jess, Mom and I stayed behind and got massages with sushi to follow after. let's just say that the woman somehow manages to use her hands AND her feet when she is giving you a massage. Let's just say they were massages that none of us will forget!

-Sushi!!! We went to this fabulous sushi restaurant twice and it was divine.

-Hawaii Volcanos National Park. On our last day, we drove through the island and got to see where we got to see a live volcano...safely from a distance of course. It was pretty cool!

-Rainy Days! Yes, we desert natives love ourselves a rainy day. We played Bananagrams, Therapist, and lots of Cover Your Assets. We all hottubed, read books, and of course, ate yummy food.

-Cacao Farm. I arranged this one myself! We got to go on a private our a beautiful cacao farm near Hilo. We got to pick pods, and eat the beans at every step of the process. Soooo cool. This farm also grows coffee beans and different kinds of fruit. I think Jess and I geeked out the most over the whole process of chocolate making, but everyone concluded that this was definitely a highlight!

Waterfalls

My sweetie pie

Tree climbing!

Seesters!

kiss and photo bomb!

sister selfie!

Luau!!

Jake's Sunday get up!

Kona Temple!

apparently Root Beer is made from this root!

Cacao Pods!

tasting the raw beans

planting the beans

The roasted beans

Waterfall on the farm

golf cart ride through the farm

the crew!

we caught a Redeye flight back home after a delicious sushi dinner and tried our best to sleep on the flight. The best thing ever was the welcome home we received from B and J! Best tackle hug ever! The perfect end to a dreamy week!