Hawaii Part I

We're back. We had a FANTASTIC time and wish we were still there, but reality hits and life sets in. We missed the kids (surprised?) and we were glad to kiss and hug them. The phone calls home everyday made us really appreciate the sweet kids that they are. There will be a few Hawaii posts (after all, I took almost 200 pictures in 5 days!) and in no particular order, here we go.....

Akaka Falls

This post is the "Sunday" of our trip. We started off with church in Waimea, not too far away from our resort in Kona. What an awesome ward! It was fast and testimony meeting and the spirit there was so amazing! This picture is of my Dad and Brad in the parking lot waiting to change clothes and hike to Akaka Falls.

You can kinda see the waterfall behind us and it's more gorgeous up close!

See, I told ya! It's so hard to capture with a camera what you see with your eyes. That is a 420 foot fall! Crazy!

I love this picture! Aimee, me, Tyler, Cami, and Callie
Don't I have the cutest siblings?! :)

Looking east towards the ocean in the parking lot at Akaka Falls

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Kilauea Crater

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Much to our dismay, we saw no eruption. :)

The steam vents and two random girls. Yes, the steam is very hot!

Part of the crew. Some stayed back at Cami's place in Hilo while the rest of us went to the volcano and lava tube.

Coming back out of the lava tube. FYI: a lava tube is formed when lava flows down the mountain and the top cools and forms a tunnel for the still-flowing lava. When the lava ceases to flow, the tube empties out, and ta-da....a lava tube. Very cool.

On our hike back up the trail at the lava tubes. This place is beautiful. I think this is where my Dad hid behind one tree and scared (or tried to scare) the rest of our group coming up. :) C'mon, our day wouldn't be complete without some Christensen humor!

More still to come....