Hanging with the Dolphins

The boys had an awesome opportunity to not only see dolphins today, but to actually touch them, talk to them and Caleb even got to feed one.

The local Hilton has what they call Dolphin Quest.  Ethan Sky has had it on his list to experience this adventure since moving to the Big Island.  But it is really difficult for a seven year old boy to save up a couple hundred dollars, so no such adventure was expected to be had.  One of the mom's in our homeschool group really came through for us and got us an UNBELIEVABLE discount! 

The people at Dolphin Quest gave the boys some really great information on the sea life of Hawaii.  They were able to see some fish, turtles and Pico the myna bird. 

There are 2 pictures here of a group of kids...you will barely see the dolphins jumping in the background.  Caleb is in the white shirt with red borders and Ethan is in the red shirt with green swim trunks :)

 

Gram's visit

We probably got to see 50% of the island in the 3 weeks that my mom was here. We had so much fun!!! My mom gave Ethan her old camera when she got here. Ethan did not leave the house without having it in his hand. Many pictures on this movie were taken by him...I think we may have found one of his talents:) No need for details of our adventures, just enjoy the video!

The fun before the fractured foot:)

We got together with some friends on Friday at Puako (aka rocky beach.) Here is witness to the fun we had. That is until Joshua decided to try his hand at skim boarding and broke a bone in his foot:( Catching tiny fish with Uncle Demitre, Auntie Heather and Noah. It was quite an endeavor:) Ethan Sky finally decided he would put his face in the water. He had so much fun and saw over a foot long fish (per his account) just off shore. Ethan and Joshua went out quite a ways trying to see some fish. Ethan is getting braver by the minute Caleb decided to start swimming all by himself with the floaties on. Check out the video. Can't help but love the buoyancy of the ocean!!!!

Hilo Zoo, Buzz and Volcano National Park

Joshua was blessed with having Father's Day and the day after off, so we decided to go on an adventure:) The boys were kind enough to wake us up at 6:30 am, so we got an early start and headed out to Hilo. Our first stop was the Hilo Zoo.It was a small zoo, with very few animals, but it was free, so it was good enough for us. They do have a white tiger , which had a great exhibit. Sorry we couldn't get a better picture. They had lots of birds, being that it is Hawaii that is not surprising. Quite a few of them talked, so we had fun figuring out what they were saying. The zoo didn't take as long as we had planned, so we drove around a while to let Caleb take a nap. We decided to head down the same road we took to get to Rainbow Falls. We saw some beautiful houses and found a sign directing us to the Boiling Pots. We figured, why not check it out since we had time to spare, before checking into our hotel. After waking up Caleb from a short nap, we decided to take the little hike down to the water. It was quite a wet and slippery hike, but it was beautiful! To end the evening, we decided to head to the movie theater for none other than Toy Story 3. Volcano National Park was something that Ethan has been excited about, since hearing we were moving to Hawaii. Unfortunately his excitement did not last long once we got there. The hopes were to see lava flowing, but the volcano has been erupting some nasty fumes for a while and the lava flow area is being blocked off from visitors. We did get to see some steam vents and a crater emitting steam though. These last two pictures are of The Thurston Lava Tube. There is an undeveloped area of the lava tube that people were walking through, but flashlights were needed. The next time we take a drive to the volcano, flashlights will be in the bag. Also in the bag will be sweatshirts, it was a little chilly there in the morning. Note to self...there are not really any places to eat if you drive home around the west side of Hawaii. We did not eat lunch until 2pm, and due to that and probably some curvy roads, Ethan Sky turned as pale as a ghost and Caleb had a mini puking episode.