Alves Family: Hawaii

We went on an amazingly fun trip to Hawaii with my side of family for my Step-Dad's retirement. We went to Kona on the Big Island. There were seventeen of us under one roof for two weeks. Initially I was worried that seventeen people under one roof for two weeks was going to turn to disaster, to my amazement it didn't! We had my Mom, my Step-Dad John, my oldest brother Branden and his wife Ryoko, her parents came from Japan, my next oldest brother Bret, his wife Arly, their kids Cora and Abby, my sister Shelley, my Step-Dad's mexican brother Richard and his wife Sandy, and Chris and the kids and I. We did a lot of relaxing, hanging out by the pool, going to to beach, and tons of eating!

Some of the highlights:

Parker got stung by a wasp on our second day there. He luckily bounced back pretty quick.

We were there on Parker's birthday so, we went swimming with the dolphins to celebrate followed by dinner at the Kona Brewing Company. He truly had the best birthday ever.

Ryoko's parents made us a traditional japanese meal that was amazing. It was a very fancy presentation too!

Watching the kids play all day everyday without any real fights was great.

Watching the kids swim in the pool for hours and hours and seeing the games they would come up with. A game of lifeguard, a game of kitties Brynn and Cora or known as Velvet and Violet the cats, and some game where Parker was an alligator and he'd chase Brynn, Cora, and Abby while they were other animals.

Brynn learned how to body surf and boogie board. That kid is a fish and is fearless in water.

Parker ran through the screen door at the house. We all had a good laugh when he did it.

The many days spent at the beach, playing in the water, building sand castles, and watching the crabs come out of the sand.

We drank Kona coffee every morning followed by chowing down on donkey balls (they are chocolate covered macadamia nuts).

Every night we would sit out on the lanai with all the adults after the kids went to bed and talk, have a drink, put our feet in the hot tub and watch the hooligan partiers in the empty lots down from the house.

Oh and don't let me forget, Bret and Chris aka the speedo twins in their speedos. It was hilarious! Best five bucks I've spent.

The best of all was the time we got to spend with all of us. It doesn't happen very often and the time was priceless. Thank you Mom and John for putting it all together and putting up with all of us. Coming back to California was not easy especially leaving the nice warm Hawaiian weather.