123, Hawaii - take two

So true to form I'm writing this very late.  It's now August and we did this holiday at the end of June. Still, better late that never :)

Off to Hawaii again but this time the Big Island. I was so surprised at how different it was to Kauai.  It was truly magical.  Beautiful but rustic and real.  There were times when you could have been on the moon.  The highlights were seeing lots of sea turtles, the trip to the volcano and climbing dried 'hot lava' (T has sooo much fun doing this, he's a very good climber don't you know!), driving above the clouds and star gazing (seeing Saturn through the telescope was wonderful) and taking trip down at 25% gradient road to the valley below.  And course there was time for swimming, in the pool and in the beautifully water Hawaiian sea (nothing like the CA pacific!), collecting shells, making sandcastles and all the other stuff you need for a good holiday.  A week wasn't really long enough.  Good times :)

 

Tahoe without the skis

Granny and Pops arrived and there was no sitting still.  We did the pool (many times), the Greenes pool,  a Saber cats game for the boys, the pedalos on Almaden lake, a pops style treasure hunt, making s'mores on the firepit and games galore.  And of course a long weekend in Tahoe.  Even though it's summer it was a bit chilly at times, especially on a certain chair lift!  We cable car-ed one day and beached it the next two (broken up by watching England lose to Italy - boo)  We went up to look at the grassy hills that are now the ski runs, seems weird to think we'd all skied down them in February!  Lots of fun.

Hiyahhh!

Phia gets her yellow belt in Karate :)