Day 1: The Big Island, April 25, 2010

It's taken me over a month, but I'm finally getting around to posting our travelogue from Hawaii. Actually, it wasn't completely my fault since it's taken this long for Jason to get everyone's pictures, go through them all and then post them in an album that I could access. There are about 1000 good pictures from The Big Island, culled from 5000. I have managed to cut that number down by about half by choosing the best one shot out of 20 pictures of the same exact thing. When almost everyone in a group of 8 has a camera, you get lots of pictures of the same thing. I'm just going to put a few highlight pictures on here.

What we should really do is make a photo book of the Hawaii trip. Which is exactly what we've been saying for 2 1/2 years about our wedding pictures...

So anyway, we arrived on the Big Island late on the evening of Saturday, April 24, 2010. I was awake for almost 24 hours on the 24th because of my inability to sleep on flights and the time difference. It wound up being a great way to get on Hawaii time almost immediately.

On Sunday the 25th, we spent some time getting our bearings and thinking about what we wanted to do during our week on the Big Island. We scoped out the condo/time share complex where we were staying,

and went to the grocery store to stock up on food for the week. Since I have a reputation as the cook, Jason's dad and I planned most of the meals, which I was happy to do since that way I got to make sure we had lots of vegetables and that we could keep things relatively healthy.

We also took a little walk down Ali'i Drive
(Taylor presents you with this bougainvillea)
Taylor and Marissa
Jason and me (with a plumeria in my hair that Jason's dad found for me. They smell so good!)
We walked to Kahalu'u Beach Park
where this little guy decided to pop out of the water right in front of us to say hello


(FYI, I'm a little obsessed with turtles (honu in Hawaiian) after this trip.)

When we got back to the condo, we decided to check out the pool. Jason and his siblings "choreographed" and "performed" a little "synchronized swimming routine" for the rest of us. (Those quotes are completely intentional)



(Also, this isn't captured on film, but I did several backwards dives using Jason as a springboard. I don't think I've done that since I was 10 years old and using my dad as a springboard in my grandparents' pool. I was impressed with myself.)

Day 1 was pretty slow, and we have a lot of pictures of people sitting around, randomly trying on Jason's and my hats

and, of course, adoring baby Anya.