Kekaha Kai beach day

We woke up to another gorgeous day in Kona. We decided we should take a break from Mile 88 and show our kids a new beach. We took the boys' birthday hammocks, found some shaded beach and made it a relaxing day on the beach. We had some epic sand digging, plenty of football throwing and tons of turtles to watch swim around. LOVE KONA!

Hapuna Beach on MLK Jr.

Hapuna is an amazing beach! We saved this beach for a Monday because everyone else also knows how amazing it is~ it can get rather busy. We were rather surprised that there were so many people there on a Monday until we realized we were in true vacation mode~ we had forgotten it was MLK Jr. Day! Fortunately, it is a HUGE beach so it didn't stop any of us from having an unforgettable day. I was having so much fun boogie boarding with the kids that I only took a couple semi decent pictures! Oh well- Kep got tons of GoPro footage to make up for it!

humpback whales and geckos

We are diehard Seahawk fans so we skipped a day at the beach to watch the NFC Championship. And, boy are we glad we did~ what a crazy game! I spent the first 3 quarters laying out in the sun by the pool while Noah and Savannah swam but we all cheered hard for 4th quarter and OT! Go Hawks! Afterwards, you may be able to guess where we headed to celebrate their HUGE win… MILE 88! There were just a few others celebrating as well~ humpbacks! We were all in awe of how fortunate we were to watch these 3 whales breach up close and slap their tails at one another for about 5 minutes straight! We concluded that they were congratulating the Hawks!

Meet Spencer! We had a gecko or 2 visit us every night out on our lanai! For some random reason, Savannah named the bigger guy… Spencer. After the Hawks won, his name was switched daily to~ Sherman, Lynch, Thomas or Baldwin! LOVE my little Seahawk fans~ they sure make their dad proud!

walk thru Kona

Our condo is located on the main drag in Kona, known as Alii Drive. When Kep and I visited 2 years ago, we had fun taking morning walks down to Lava Java for a coffee date and to shop at the market. And, we walked downtown on a few nights for dinner on the ocean. But we realized early on in our first family walk to eat out at Bubba Gumps and shop at the market~ that this would be our only walk to downtown area! The kids' legs were wiped after a full day at the beach and a jaunt into town didn't sound very exciting! So, we made the most of it and browsed the market, ate at Bubba Gumps, shopped the broad walk area and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

Savannah lived up to the duty of every young tourist girl~ she bought a pink ukelele with turtles on it! We were then serenaded on every van ride! So cute!

"Queen's" beach

We were blessed to wake up to more sunshine so we took our kids to a new beach that we call the "Queen's" beach. Back in the day, the Queen used to teach her kids/grandkids how to swim in this protected little "pool". Our kids enjoyed snorkeling and looking for crabs and shells in the lava rock. After a few hours here we returned to Mile 88 for more boogie boarding! Another fun day in the SUN!

Mile 88- Take Two!

We ended our first day back at Mile 88 so the boys could boogie board again.

Savannah wasn't too into the boogie boarding so we spent our time digging in the sand and "dancing" in the little waves. We attempted some sand sculpting and turned her feet into a turtle and later a dolphin.

Here is Parker with his shell collection of the day from our Kiholo Bay trek.