We started June with a family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. We had never been to this island before and we had lots of fun adventures! We spent the first 5 days in the small town of Waimea on the dryer, warmer side of the island. We visited some beautiful beaches where we boggie boarded in some really fun waves,
Lounged and played in the sun and built sandcastles galore...
paddleboarded...
Took a speedboat tour to Captain Cook where we snorkled with tons and tons of fish and saw lots of spinner dolphins...
hiked to this beautiful black sand beach where we had tons of fun playing in the waves...
Visited the Kona temple and did baptisms together as a family. It was super cool to have the temple president greet us as we came in and then have him talk with just our family before we did baptisms. Such a neat experience!
After 5 days in Waimea, we drove all the way around the island, stopping at South Point to visit the southernmost tip of the United States and then taking a super sketchy 3 mile ride in the back of some local’s beat up truck to Papkolea Beach, one of only four GREEN sand beaches in the world. The green sand was beautiful and the waves at this very exposed beach were so much fun to play in, though getting out proved to be quite the adventure as the water would just pull you back in. It was such a fun adventure!
We were squished together pretty tight...
Devin and Seth were on the tailgate through one very dusty ride, as evidenced by the next picture...
Devin arriving at the Green sand beach - a little dust covered! :)
It's hard to see the green color of the sand in the photos, so we put my brown sandal next to Bryce's sand sea turtle so you can see the sand is really green
Autumn hiking straight up to get from the beach back to the "road" for our truck ride back.
After our green sand beach adventure, we drove to the small town of Volcano, where we spent the last three days of our vacation. Here we visited Volcano National Park, where we saw the glow from the lava filled crater...
We also hiked through lava tubes, ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs, and hiked through past lava flows, complete with steaming fissures and gaping caves. So amazing!
Our favorite hike was a 5 mile hike through the Kilauea crater, which was created by a massive volcanic explostion in 1959. We hiked through a lush rainforest to get to the crater and then hiked across the crater and back out on the other side, all in the pouring rain.
Devin and Seth "earth-bending"
I love this picture of Bryce and Autumn "swimming" through the lava :)
Looking back on the crater we just hiked across before hiking back through the rainforest to the top.
We took one final hike to the sulphur banks before heading to Hilo, stopping at the Moana Loa macadamia nut factory on the way (where Bryce and Megan very nearly decided to move in) and then hiking to a couple of waterfalls before flying home. Such a great vacation!!
The day after getting home from Hawaii, Seth left for a week filled with fun and spiritual experiences at EFY with his friend, Jake. He had the best time and was so excited to share all of his experiences when he got home.
On June 7, Megan FINALLY completed her orthodontic journey and was so SO SOOOO happy to get her braces off. She endured the surgeries and pain of being in braces again as a young adult with her usual grace, but is so happy to have it all behind her.
The youth from our ward (as well as all of us youth leaders) took a trip to the Manti temple to do baptisms. The Manti temple president and matron are members of our ward, so it was a neat experience to have them greet our youth and speak with them before they did baptisms. The youth also thought it was super cool to eat in the temple cafeteria - most of them didn’t even know that temples have cafeterias! :)
We took family pictures up American Fork Canyon. Here are a few of our favorites:
Seth had surgery on his sinuses to help him breathe easier
Megan celebrated her birthday with shopping with Autumn and me and a party with her friends that evening.
We picked a bumper crop of cherries from our tree. Seriously, we had two kitchen counters piled high with cherries. We washed, pitted and bottled some of them and then washed the rest and gave them to everyone we know. And we still had plenty for the birds.
We ended the month of June with Autumn and I traveling to Idaho for Girls Camp. We had a great time despite the sweltering heat and multitudinous bugs. Autumn especially loved being able to go to the Twin Falls temple to do baptisms with her YW friends, playing in the cool creek and lake, having a value colors chalk fight, making crafts and all of the devotionals.
And that’s our June - whew!! We love summer!!
1 comment:
Too much fun! Awe, Hawaii.
Beautiful Family
Post a Comment