Breaking News Interruption!!!

I need to skip out the order and deliver some exciting news that Hailey is walking!!!
Here we are at Osan Air Base in Korea. Since we've been here Hailey has taken a few steps here and there but something about being in a new place made her want to venture out more so off she went. She's doing really well but still does the majority of her travel by crawling.

New shoes here we come!!! Mommy is super excited about shoe shopping :)

Finishing up some fun!

Hailey loved to push her own stroller and got really good at it. Everyone loved watching her try and walk around too. I think she's the only one that enjoyed that stroller. uh I was not a huge fan after we got it but now that we're traveling I soooo do not like this stroller. It's wayyy too short especially for Joel and the wheels get messed up quite often. We've been shown a stroller from one of the mom's here and the handles are tall enough you dont have to bend over. I've threatened to "accidentally" lose control of my stroller in front of a humV with Hailey in my arms of course:) with my luck the guy would be a super good driver and miss it!

Doesn't she have a great pointer finger? Hailey loves birds and we had no idea they had flamingos too at the hotel. She sat and watched them for a while. They were really pretty.

One thing we had not done yet was the big slide. Joel had spotted this one that I hadn't seen yet so I dared him to do it knowing how cold the water was. He did it and loved it, which in turn made me want to try it. That first splash of ice cold water was crazy but soooo fun! I went back for a second run which Hailey was greatly opposed to. Evidentally mommy screamed a little too loudly the first run ;)

I have one more set of pictures after these before we leave Hawaii. Wow I'm already to go back. We really did have a lot of fun, too bad it took us all so long to recoup from our long flights first. Those of you thinking of going that haven't, I strongly suggest booking at least a week no shorter and take someone with you to watch the kids that's a life saver. ok not that we did that but it's amazing how much you learn when you go on a big trip like this one. I'll share more later.

Fun in the sun!

Thank goodness for the water park!

This waterfall was at the end of one of the larger pools. It was so pretty. Hailey wouldn't get into any of the pools even though she loves the water, it was just too cold. No one quite understood why the water was so cold but it was and only the brave ones went out in it.

More fun!

I had skipped a section of pictures, after the dolphin pictures the next set should have been after the the volcano post. Wow, if you dont post the day you do your activity it starts mixing all together.
On our way home it was getting late but there was so much that we were passing that we wanted to see but we saw a sign for the black sand island. We were told that was one beach we should see along with the green sand island. The green sand was a little farther and harder to get to so we couldn't do that one but we made it to the black sand. It was really neat and Hailey enjoyed playing in it too. I love dolphins! Since these guys were a part of the hotel, we got to watch them as much as we wanted to for free!!! Can't beat that.

I was just wondering around the beach and had climbed around the rocks and noticed a head pop up and there this guy was eating off of the rocks. I was close enough to touch him however I learned quickly that the rocks were super slippery. Hailey nearly witnessed mommy "swimming" with the turtle!

We really enjoyed hanging out here but time was flying by and we knew we had at least 2 hours to go before getting back to the hotel. Ok so it took us a little longer. We covered the entire island so we could see it all. The drive back watching the sun set was gorgeous, too bad the camera couldn't capture such a gorgeous sight!

Volcanoes

Day 8 we go head out to see the Volcanoes of Hawaii. Once we get to the top where the visitor center was, I notice that it's drizzly and everyone has coats on. We open up the car door and WOW it's freezing. Hailey is in a sleeveless outfit, Joel and I are in short sleeve shirts. Needless to say the gift shop made good off of us!

This section was pretty cool. The steam was poureing out in a lot of places. quite tempting to step closer to get warm.

This was a beautiful spot. Breathtaking in many ways. When you look over the side it's a straight drop and this was a little wall and it didn't go very far. People could just walk right up to the edge.

This was pretty amazing to see the clear path of the lava.

I love to see small pieces of beauty in an area like this.

We were hoping to see the actual site where the lava was active but unfortunatly they had to close off the park due to the volcano being a little too active. It was putting off the harmful fumes that were way to dangerous for people to be near. You could see the haze that rolled over the mountains. They even had warnings posted that if you smelled anything or started feeling bad to leave the area you were in immediately.

This was a lot of fun to explore we just wish we had more time. It was about a 3 hour drive from our hotel and you had to be able to find it. There we several stops that we wanted to make but just couldn't squeeze it all in. Next time - right hon:)

Big Island

After a week in Oahu we'd covered the entire island. We had such a great time on the island but it was time to get on a plane fly for 30min. and go to the Big Island. There Joel suprised us at a hotel that was titled the #1 best hotel in all of Hawaii and once we got there I understood why. Once we landed we grabbed a shuttle who took us to the hotel. The ride there was amazing. The driver was giving us the scoop on the area and told us what a great place we were staying and that you could get to your room by walking, boat or tram. I laughed but once we got there he really wasn't kidding.

Welcome to the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

In our room was a little dolphin with a note this is a gift for you. How sweet until I opened the car with your donation of $15. Whoa Hailey get all the hugs you can out of Daisy Dolphin! and she did.

At each hotel there was a favorite spot in the room that Hailey enjoyed. This one had a little cubby hole underneat a safe. She would crawl in and out and then punch the numbers to the safe. Soo funny. We just hope the person that needs the safe can actually get it open.

Here was where the boat would go through. It was like a little city. Hailey loved the boat ride.

This was a connection to a restauraunt. They had quite a collection throughout the hotel of places to eat.

Dolphin pool.

Here was one portion of the hotel. We were on the other side.

This was Hailey's favorite place to play. No sand, No grass, No cold pool just sprinklers.











We got a great workout to get to the sprinklers, they were on the other end of our hotel so we got to enjoy the scenery while walking over.

The lagoon was a nice spot to stay also. No waves and fairly nice temp. and you got to swim with the fish and the turtles. We saw at least one turtle each time we went.

Our first day was just a day to rest. We'd done so much we just dropped our stuff off at the hotel put on bathing suits and crashed in the sand.