No Words. Just Photos.

Last Adventure

We just climbed up to a vantage point of "Sweetheart Rock". It is absolutely breathtaking from up here! Sophie and I will write more about it later. For now, I'm posting some pics from my phone.

Friday Fun!

We've had a busy, fun day already! We had a great group breakfast and got to see lots of old friends. The girls had us in the pool by 8:30am. We took a trip to the little game room at the hotel for some shuffleboard and pool. Then it was off to the beach for a couple of hours. John has a massage appointment today, so it's just us girls for a couple hours! We cleaned up to grab some lunch and the girls are drinking Shirley temples while we wait for food. They think they are "big girls" because they are sitting over there without me. Love listening to those giggles.
We have our group luau tonight and we are all really looking forward to it. I think the girls will enjoy all of the entertainment - if we can just keep them up past 8:00 tonight. Each night has been a little easier, so I think they'll be fine. Convincing them to nap while we are in Hawaii and they know there's a pool and beach just outside is virtually impossible!

Another Guest Blogger

I decided it was time to let Eleanor tell us a thing or two about Hawaii:

"I love Hawaii. I don't love ferry boats. I am having fun playing in the ocean and swimming in the pool. I asked Mommy if Mrs. Powell and my class were missing me yet.

The food here is really good. They have lots of fruit at breakfast. It is soooooo yummy. My favorite fruits so far have been honeydew melon, cantaloupe, papaya, kiwi, and raspberries. They bring us lots of pineapple when we are at the pool and the beach. This island that we are on used to be for growing pineapples.

We took a boat ride to Maui yesterday. That is a whole other island! I got a flip flop necklace that says Hawaii on it. And it has dolphins on it.

My favorite dinner here is chicken. We are going to a luau tonight, so I think there will be lots of good food there.

Love, Eleanor"

Reading Machines

The girls have become little bookworms as we have traveled to the islands. Eleanor, in particular, is finally discovering the joy of reading chapter books! Sophie is about 14 chapters into a book that she absolutely loves reading. This mom loves seeing her girls want to get lost in a good book!

Some Thoughts from Sophie

Today we walked on volcanic rock. We found a spot where fishermen from over 800 years ago used those kind of rocks to build storage. Tomorrow we are riding a ferry boat over to Maui. We might get to go to a farmer's market and buy a few things to bring back. Mommy says I can write another post tomorrow. Here's a picture of Ella and me on the volcanic rocks at sunset tonight and some pictures I took with Mom's phone today. One of those pictures is of some wild turkeys that came up to our back porch this morning!!!

More Pics from Day One

We took the girls on a little exploration around the hotel grounds this morning. It is simply breathtaking here. We have remarked more than once already about how majestic and amazing God's handiwork is here on this island. I am sitting on a couch on the back porch of our room right now looking out, and I see at least five different types of trees, six different types of shrubs, mountains, beach, etc. all in one place. It is simply amazing.

John and I just keep looking at each other as if we need to make sure this is real - we are really here, it is really this amazing, and God has really blessed us with the opportunity to have Sophie and Ella here with us. We found a beautiful little spot overlooking the ocean that we plan to use for morning devotionals with the girls.

For now, we are back in the room resting (that time difference is kicking our rears!). Sophie has asked to be my "guest blogger"; I told her I would turn it over to her once she gets a second wind.

Exploring the Beach

Sophie has been giving us a vocabulary lesson on different types of rock this morning. We came across this part of the beach and she was in heaven. Ella, on the other hand, told us in no uncertain terms that the lava was going to get us!!!

Amazing!

We made it to the hotel at about 7:30 last night local time. There is a 5-hour time difference, so we were all really tired. We slept well, but our internal clocks are all out of sync. We were wide awake before 5AM. So, here we sit, watching the sun come up from our patio area. The splendor and majesty of the works of our God never cease to amaze us!

Hawaii

John and I are headed to Hawaii tomorrow with some very excited little girls. I think I packed half of our house trying to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. I'm like a little bitty on Christmas Eve before trips like this, so I'm anticipating very little sleep tonight. Praying that's not the case or the 15 hours of travel time will feel more like 50 hours!

We are going to try to keep this blog updated while we are away so Sophie can "report" on Hawaii for her classmates at Hutchison. :-)