Hawaii 2013

My annual neuropsychology conference was held on the Big Island in Hawaii this year, the same place where Ryan and I got engaged in 2008.  Ryan and I decided to tack on a few days and make it a family vacation.  We were admittedly very afraid about taking Clayton on that long of a flight (~10 hours total), but our fears were unfounded.  He did absolutely fabulous on all flights and we didn't use all of the toys or the iPad as much as we had planned!  Just a few photos from our island adventure below:

We stayed at a large resort hotel that had a great lagoon swimming area.  Although he was initially hesitant, Clayton loved running in and out of the water to chase the fish and turtles that were swimming by.

Just lounging on a whale - Clayton circa 2013...

And Ryan circa 2008!

There was a dolphin swim area too.  Clayton spent hours just leaning on the fence watching the dolphins swim by.  He was particularly partial to the dolphin playing basketball

Clayton was in a great mood most of the week and for some reason decided that he could bust a move anywhere he felt the urge!  Ryan and I tried (very unsuccessfully) not to laugh at his moves.

We left the resort on several occasions to explore other sights of the island. Since we'd been there before, we knew of a few places that we wanted to check out again.  The first adventure was to a black sand beach.  The heat of the sand was a bit off-putting, but the turtles did not disappoint.

We ventured across the island to Hilo one day and stopped to see an incredible waterfall...

and to a zoo I had read about.  Unfortunately, the zoo was a bit of a disappointment, although Clayton has been talking about peacocks nonstop since our return!

Clayton loved the Koi fish as well.  We made daily stops on our trek through the hotel at this swimming hole.

On our last day, we went on a whale watching boat tour.  It was amazing.  We saw dozens of whales within 100 yards of the boat.  On the way back to shore, we actually saw a full breach (whale jumping completely out of the water)!  It was incredible.  Ask Ryan to tell you about his close encounter with the whale who decided to swim directly UNDER our boat!

 We had a great time and we're looking forward to our next big family adventure.