My highlights:
1. Thurston Lava Tube hike – this was an amazing short hike through some of the coolest rainforest I have ever seen and then you walk through a long tunnel that was made from swirling lava flow and now is a cool tube through the earth lined with lava rock. Bea has pics of it on her blog. This made the drive down to Kilauea worth it.

2. Snorkeling with Grace for her first time. She is so good. She was a natural at snorkeling. No fear. I was so proud of her. I felt like we were such pals out in the water. I loved it. I have video of it on my FaceBook Profile.

3. Being with my mom and dad. My mom has been dealing with some memory loss lately and I really cherished this time to be with her, for my kids to be with her and for her to spend time with my kids. I believe that this time has embedded my mom into Grace’s memory in a greater way. I’m unsure about Ella because I don’t have any memories of my life when I was two years old. Please pray for my mom and dad. Memory loss is a sad thing.

4. Mauna Kea Beach. This beach was recommended by Nicole Gniffke and I seriously loved it. It’s a HUGE white beach (which is a bit rare on the Big Island) with some fun snorkeling and perfect gentle waves for kids. I had a blast snorkeling with Grace and Bea. It was cool for all three of us to go together while my parents stayed with Ella. Ella fell asleep on my mom’s lap and I think that was my mom’s highlight. Then the gentle waves in shallow, warm, clear water was super fun to play with the whole family.

It’s great to be home. The flight home was super easy, but it was a red-eye and I’m pretty tired so I’m glad to have a day to rest before going back to work tomorrow. I highly recommend the Big Island. I was pretty skeptical going into the trip. We didn’t even get to do some of the cooler things like Waipio Valley and Captain Cook Bay because it was just too hard with the kiddos. But I still loved it. Check it out for sure!

I am very happy to spend a week with my family. We are going with my mom and dad. It will be great to spend the week with them and with Bea and the kiddos.

Have you been to the big island before? Any thoughts?

My trip to San Francisco was pretty amazing. We didn’t do a ton of stuff, but that was kind of the point. We had some good talks sitting on the bay, ate some incredible meals, and walked around a little. We all spent a good amount of time sharing what has been going on in our lives that has affected us significantly. Then everybody could ask questions about it and just spend a while digging into it. We also talked about the Eugene Peterson book. We focused a lot on prayer and a rhythm of life that has an awareness of God throughout each day, week, and month. On Sunday morning Rob talked a little about having blessings spoken about you. If you were to speak a blessing, or a prayer, for yourself over the course of this next season of life, what would you speak to yourself?

 My blessing would be for great clarity of mind. An ability to think clearly and have wisdom about the different situations that come to me. Also, an ability to sense the presence of God in the things that I am doing.

On the way to San Francisco today our flight was seriously delayed. So we caught a flight to Oakland that was only delayed by one hour. Then we took the BART into town. It was a bit long and crazy, but we showed up to the restaurant, Pazzia, only about 25 minutes late.

I had a Risotto with prawns and scallops. The rice was really smooth and the scallops were perfectly cooked. We had a mushroom pizza to start that was very Italian – thin and high quality mozzarella. Yum. We are back at our hotel chatting and looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.

I’m flying to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon and staying until Sunday afternoon. I probably will be out of internet contact so this might be my last post for a few days. I’m going with five other guys for a spiritual retreat, accountability, good food, deep conversation, and fun. I respect the guys I am going with a ton. Jason Krusiewicz, Matt Davis, Tim Young, Rob Loane, and Richard Mullis. We are all reading The Wisdom of Each Other by Eugene Peterson and we are going to talk about that and our lives. I’m sad to leave my family but I’m really excited about this trip.

We also have a lot going on to get ready for our trip and have our parents ready to watch Gracie. I can’t complain about that, but it is just another thing to do before the end of the day tomorrow.