hawaii - day three

Tim and I started out at 6:30 am again (it was impossible to sleep in).  We got our early morning run in and then suited up and headed to Mauna Kea Beach.  This beach many people told us about.  It only has 40 parking spots so you have to arrive early to get a spot.  This made for a very quiet, private beach.  It really was beautiful.

We did a lot of this...

And this...

And some more of this...

Plus a little of this...

And even some of this (love these candid shots Melissa got of Tim & I)...

And lots more of this...

My favorite part though was this...

How amazing that you can facetime your children from the BEACH.  It was so fun to show them the ocean.  We wrote their names in the sand.  We played in the water with them.  They loved it.  Crew was slightly confused and getting frustrated that he couldn't get to us, but Parker & Cooper thought it was so cool.  Payton wasn't around so we missed him this time.  That was definitely one of the highlights of my day.

But I also really loved this...

When I think of myself playing in this water I can still taste the saltwater in my throat.  I'm sure my friends can still picture me trying to clear it out of my nose and throat.  Yuck!  The saltwater in that part of the ocean was so potent.  I loved swimming in the ocean, but I couldn't handle that saltwater.  My body is perking up a bit just thinking about it!!

We ate our sack lunches that we brought and enjoyed a relaxing day at the beach.  It was very low key and very relaxing.  Then we headed into the town of Kailua-Kona to check out Ali'i drive and hit the Farmer's Markets.  We picked up some fun souvenirs here.  We got the boys some sea turtle necklaces and gecko bracelets.  I bought some cute earrings.  Josh bought a bunch of delicious fruit.  I loved the Farmer's Market.  I had to restrain myself from buying everything.

As we walked along Ali'i drive we found some Tropical Dreams Ice Cream.  I had the toasted coconut.  It was delicious!  We also ran into one of our "supporting actors" as Josh so cleverly called him.  I can't remember his name, dang, but he was a crazy man that somehow followed us on our path down Ali'i drive.  Luckily, we stopped off in a market to buy some t-shirts and we lost him. Phew.

One other memory from this walk was the black crabs all over the beach rocks.  They were so disgusting, but fascinating to watch these black creatures crawling everywhere.  Speaking of disgusting, Hawaii has a serious Cat infestation.  If you're not a big fan of cats, you won't like it here!  They.  Are.  Everywhere.  I actually like cats so I thought it was kind of fun, but other times when you would see a group of 100 cats all huddled together it was a little creepy.  They seriously could take over the island if they wanted to.  They were ate every single restaurant we ate at just waiting for some scraps of food.  They were also lurking all over the resort.

One of the funnest moments of this day was watching Josh do an impromptu comedy routine!  Tim helped him out a little, but only at the urging of Josh.  Our favorite "supporting actor" of the trip goes to Justin from Target.  I can't forget his name and I really hope that Josh has already called this Target and talked to this boys boss.  The story wouldn't be funny to retell, but I have to remember this funny moment forever.   Oh boy.  Thank you Justin for helping us find our friends, find a place to park the car and laugh our guts out!

We came back to the resort after a long adventurous day and did some more swimming before the sun set.  Here are the boys practicing their dead man float. 

These boys loved playing basketball and volleyball non stop!  I was horrible at basketball, but I think I brought some skillz to the volleyball court.  We had a lot of fun volleyball games!

Another awesome thing was the Gecko's that were all over our resort.  Tim & I were so fascinated and we loved trying to catch them.  Look how adorable this tiny little Gecko is?  We wish we could have brought him home for our boys!

We ended another incredible day with another beautiful sunset.  We made frozen pizza's for dinner tonight.  I think everyone was too exhausted to go out.  The pizza adventure was way too crazy.  Not sure why the boys were in charge of this, but they were.  The pizza turned out.  It was food.  We were hungry.  Thanks for the effort boys.  I think we chatted or watched a movie.  This may have been the night that I curled up on the floor and fell asleep.  I may have snored one time, but I'm told it was only once.  I'm sure I slept with my mouth open.  Just another day in paradise!