Hilton & Volcanos

We did end up doing a few other things in Hawaii besides the beach and the pool. One afternoon we went over to the Hilton to see the Dolphins. They are amazing to watch. I love that it is free to come and look and you can get really close up to them. Maybe when our kids are bigger we could get into the water with them. That has always been a dream of mine.


We also took a day and drove to the other side of the island. It took a couple of hours to get there and the roads are very narrow and windy. Taylor and I both got a little car sick on the way.

We made our kids do a 4 mile hike down to a lava lake. It was really cool. Taylor did great too and made it to the ascent mostly be herself. Unfortunately right before we got back into the trees she fell and got cut up on the lava rocks. She had some skinned knees and a bloody elbow. Needless to say she got a ride up the hill. Jeff and I took turns. At the time that we started back up the hill it also started to rain. I thought the cover of the trees would keep us pretty dry, but we were soaked and cold by the end. It didn't really help morale much. I was so proud of my kids for doing it. They were by far the youngest kids on the trail. I think I saw one other girl that was probably 10. We got a lot of looks and comments from people about how brave we were to do it with kids. Jeff and I have always tried to stay active even with kids and I hope that someday our kids love the adventure as much as we do.
In the picture above you can see the trail across the lava lake, it is a little bit lighter than the other lava.



Kaylee and Taylor showing off their muscles.


Normally I don't like to post pictures of my butt, especially in saggy pregnancy pants, but Taylor reminded me of a little monkey curled up on my back.
We didn't see any red flowing lava at the volcano rim, just lots of hot spots with lots of smoke.