Home again, Home again

We are home from Hawaii and only slightly disgruntled to have to get back to everyday life. Our trip to the big island with my in-laws was wonderful to say the least! I'll spare showing you tons of pictures and only show half a ton. Clearly I really enjoyed the trip, but what makes me the happiest is that the hubs (who never wanted to go to Hawaii) is already ready to go back!
We decided to not take our kids this time and instead had Gramma come and stay with them. Being so far from them was hard but knowing that they were safe and sound with someone who loves them definitely makes it  easier.  Gramma is the real hero of this story, so thanks again mommma!

 While we were there we relaxed on nearly every beach we could find

We took in some sights

This was my favorite sight of all!

We hiked down from here all the way down into the Waipi'o Valley

And played on the black sand beach

we took in a few beautiful waterfalls

My momma-in-law and I searched for shells, beach glass and heart shaped rocks

We played in the beautiful rivers

 We took a day trip over to the volcano

Which we pretty much had to do since this guy's a geologist!

(which also meant that we broke the rules and took a few small examples of the different kinds of lava rocks to show the boys, but it's strictly educational so you won't tell right? )

we checked out all the craters

and literally ran through the wet and drippy Thurston Lava Tube!

and then took a moment to meditate on the sea arch at the end of the park road. which was without a doubt my favorite part of the whole trip.

And ended everyday on the beach with a cold drink watching the sunset!

Now that we are home I am having a really hard time getting back to normal life, although I'm overjoyed to have my babies back. Last night was my first shift back to work and it was rough to say the least!

I'm also pretty bummed that I can no longer go to the farmer's market and buy bag loads of tropical fruit. 

How awesome are those apple bananas?!

&  Big Waves!