ALOHA!

Hawaii....Hawaii...The only way to describe our trip is through pictures.
(I won't mention this again but I did not know how much 2 people could miss one little boy so much and being pregnant doesn't help the emotions either!)

We arrived Tuesday night...The next day was one of the worst rain storms they had seen in almost 30 years. Flash flood warnings, no power for 48 hrs, chocolate milk ocean and our streets were flooded. Yep, that street is where our rental house was. No swimming yet.....

Amber was lucky to have a couple hours of power the morning of her wedding (enough to get a warm shower and get curlers in her hair). No one had electricity to bake her cake and the beach that she was suppose to get married on was washed out. Even still she was beautiful and the wedding was great. (I think Chad is chewing gum!)

More rain! so we decided to go for a walk (Sara, Riki, Chad and I) the more we walked the harder it rained the wetter we got but what do you do...We were in Hawaii!

Finally some SUN! So we took a drive and ended up on some one lane road passing through all these small villages. We met Randy (1st pic) in this green little hut selling "the best banana bread ever." He was funny and had mannerisms a little like Captain Jack Sparrow. We also stopped to help these honeymooners from Canada with a flat tire. It was just great to get out!

Chad having Scott and Grandpa Erickson hold him up so he could pick bananas off of the tree. I guess having his mom be a cheer coach for so long paid off...at least it was a good excuse to watch the cheerleaders! He also worked really hard at opening this rotten coconut he found on the beach.

This was the sunrise on top of the Volcano. We did briefly see a glimpse of orange once. The point of it was to watch the sunset then to bike down the volcano. After getting sick and having to have the van driver, Jimbo, pull over twice so I could throw up, I found out because I was pregnant that I could not bike down with the rest of the group. So I got to endure the van ride back down but had the company of my grandparents. Riki did wreck but I think they all enjoyed it.

The whole trip was great but the last few days really made up for it. We were able to put on our swimming suites and play in the ocean. We got to snorkel and I learned not to wear sunglasses in the water because those waves can take you down at any time and that Chad is afraid of Sharks. (Sorry to post a swim suite picture but it was Hawaii). Everyone pretty much left on Sunday but Chad and I didn't fly out until Monday night so we had the whole day together. We spent 3 hours at the aquarium, watched the wind sailors and surfers and went to a really nice dinner.

We were very excited to come home and see Justin. It made it even better when he was just as excited to see us! To top the whole trip off we came home to 10 inches of beautiful snow and got stuck in our drive way! ALOHA!