Hawaii #4

Yesterday morning I went for an 8 mile run (best yet--finally less humid and slightly cooler). Then we went down and enjoyed our beach again for a few hours. K's favorite thing to do at the beach is to jump the waves. She'd probably do it all day if our shoulders and arms could handle it. Austen loves it, too, but it's a close second to playing in the sand.

Our condo has a nice assortment of beach toys, floaties (we got one more at Costco so the girls could each have one--great price and we'll leave it for the next two kid family), beach towels and mats. We also have a washer and dryer, which have been life savers for towels.

We got to see three Humpback whales yesterday off of the beach. Neither Jeff or I have seen them in real life, and it was breath taking. They jumped out of the water (is that breaching?) twice, and it was amazing the amount of detail we could see from where we were. They were also slapping the water with their fins and tails. So cool.

After the beach, we packed up and headed into Lahaina for dinner at The Clan's place. We first walked around Lahaina for a bit, going into shops (and buying a few trinkets...essential for a vacay like this, right?) and enjoying the scenery. Jeff and I and the girls went to look at the beach and saw a big version of the white crabs from the other night. I'm slightly obsessed with wildlife, if nobody has picked up on that yet. If it's not a squirrel, I'm all over it and fascinated.

K picked out flower shell necklaces for her and Aust, and A picked out chocolate covered macadamia nuts for everyone to share :)

I got all sentimental, seeing as how Jeff and I made that same walk on our honeymoon, and now here we are, almost seven years later with our two girls. Crazy.

We then headed over to the Westin for some classy-over-our-heads fun. It is a very nice place with a water slide (kids are too little for that), kiddie pool, pirate ship, and "hamster wheel." (Kara and I have a date with that contraption tomorrow.) the kids had a blast in the shallow pool--grateful for what we have to admit that it would be so nice to have that at our place. After watching Paigey swim under a few times, K finally got her swimming lesson courage back and started swimming under water. She is now a fish.

We had a delicious BBQ dinner with chicken and steak, and Pog Rum and bladder wine on the side.

Somewhere in here I missed the drive that we took with my dad to Iao Valley State Park. We "hiked" up to a view of "The Needle" (on which warriors apparently used to climb to the top of as a view point), which I found spooky looking. The girls were a bit tired and cranky, but it was a nice little getaway/change of routine. We walked down to the river and K and Daddy waded in real quick.

We had leftovers at the condo, then the Collins Clan headed to the beach for sunset. Jeff snorkeled for a bit and the girls stripped down to unders to play in the waves (Lynnwood represent!). I took one if my favorite pictures yet of Jeff and his girls, which I'll include at the end. I'll also include Austen's beach curls, which I love.

Everyone was beat, so we put in Ice Age for the girls and relaxed before another easy bedtime.

This is getting all out of order...