Auntie Crystal Came to Visit

In February Jake's sister cam to visit.  She has a job where she can work remotely so she would work early and then we played in the afternoon.  Unfortunately she came during some rainy Hawaii winter weather, but we still had a blast.  And in some ways the weather worked out to our advantage.

One of the days off while Crystal was here we had planned on hiking out to Ka'ena  Point.  Unfortunately the park was closed to let the trail dry out after major rains.  SO we improvised.  First we stopped at Kaneana Cave.  We didn't know anything about it when we were there, but we just walked through and explored it.  The boys loved being in a cave, even though we didn't explore too far in.

Then after we decided to hike the pink pillbox hike with the boys.  It made me a bit scared, but they did really well (and no one fell, phew).

In the pillbox getting blown away

Not sure if Lou loved the wind

Crystal enjoying the views from the pillbox

That's Crystal on the ridge.

After we went to the beach in a light rain...we still had fun.

We celebrated Louis's 2nd Birthday

We hiked Diamond head in light rain, which made for an amazing rainbow and much less people.

Somewhere over the crater, dreams come true :)

Then we celebrated Grant's 4th birthday.

Enjoying a "campout" in the tent Grant and Louis got from Grandma and Grandpa Haake

Showing off their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Monson

Some other highlights while Aunt Crystal was visiting was hiking Ka'ena Point (it finally opened and we were able to do it).  We saw more whales and seals than I'd ever seen on the trail.  SO it was pretty amazing despite Grant and I getting tired and grumpy by the end of the 6 mile trek.  We also hiked Lanikai Pillboxes which was a lot of fun.  And then we went out for some yummy Vietnamese food.  I forgot to take any pictures of these events of course.  Crystal did capture this gem of a video.  Grant loves the "Going on a Bear Hunt"  song.  So glad I can keep this one around.

But thank you for visiting us Crystal.  We had so much fun with you!  Can't wait until we see you again.