Hawaii for a wedding and some sun

Cheryl has been keeping everyone up to date the past few posts, but I’ll throw one in there to keep the ball rolling. Evan and Stephanie decided to get married in Hawaii, on the Big Island in early December, and Cheryl’s always wanted to go to Hawaii, so this was our chance. We even got a sweet deal when Cheryl signed us up for one of those timeshare presentations… Free rental car, cheaper lodging, seemed like all the stars were lining up!

So, we took a week off and off we went. Luckily Grandma Frey was able to come along with us, she was very helpful with Kayla, and I think she had some fun too :)

We were staying at the Hilton Waikaloa Village. Not walking distance to the beach, but much closer to the beach than Seattle, and we did have a pretty nice pool with waterslides and all within close proximity to our place.

And even when we had to venture further out it was ok because Kayla has a ton of fun just going new places anyhow. I think one of the highlights of her trip was riding the short train from the main Hilton entrance to the poolside…

Kayla, Cheryl, and Grandma Frey had a great time by the Hilton’s pool:

Watching the dolphins:

Kayla also had fun just playing around:

 

Kayla spent most mornings eating breakfast on the patio with Grandma and Mommy:

 

 

Evan and Stephanie had rented a plantation out south of Kona. I went over to their place to check it out. Evan, his brother, a few of his relatives, and I rented snorkeling gear, and took a 45 minute hike down to nearby Kealakekua Bay, where the snorkeling was fantastic. The highlight was when a pod of dolphins came within 50 feet of us, and started jumping around. Evan, his brother and I swam around to see if they’d come near us, but when we circled around they moved another 50 feet away, so it wasn’t meant to be. But it was still really fun to try :)

When we got back to the top of the hike I went to open the car, and realized I’d taken a swim with the car keys, so the key fob was broken… I opened the car with the physical key instead and then realized a new security feature whereby the car will not start if the fob is broken, and instead gives you a 12 second countdown, and then alarms… Great feature. I called up the rental car company, and for $120 and after Stephanie’s sister was nice enough to give me a ride to the airport to pick up the replacement key I was back in business. Most expensive snorkel I’ve been on as a result :)

Anyhow, here’s a pic of the view from the plantation that Evan and Stephanie had rented out:

  

Kayla also managed to make it to a few beaches… Here she is scoping out the surf:

We were also able to walk around a bit, find a ton of crabs, and even some sea turtles hanging out off the beach:

Grandma Frey offered to watch Kayla while Cheryl and I took a heli tour around the island with Blue Hawaii… It was Cheryl’s first time in a helicopter, and we really had the chance to see a lot of the island this way. Since we didn’t have time to drive up to the volcano this was the best way to go! We got the ‘eco tour’ helicopter which cost a bit more, but it has more window, and we were fortunate enough to get to sit right beside the pilot… No back seat flying for us :)

 

The wedding itself was really beautiful, I will refrain from posting many photos, but I’ll throw a few up here. They were right on the beach, and the attire was my style of wedding attire: No suits, no ties, no fancy shoes :)

 

 

The reception:

 

One of the funny things about our Hawaii trip is I think it’s where Kayla learnt about ‘miss-miss twees’… Somewhat odd to have your first introduction to Christmas trees in Hawaii, but I’ll take it :)

And to close it off, here’s a quick group shot by one of Kayla’s miss-miss twees:

Until next time!