Xterra World Championship- Dirk did it!

Dirk did it. He waited ten years to be in this race. We are all proud of you. Sorry that the pictures are out of order. As many of you know a triathlon consists of a swim, bike, and run. I didn't get any pictures of the bike due to the kids misbehaving. But here are the pictures I did get.

Dirk let Peter run to the finish line with him.

They had to run on the beach between swim laps.

The swim

Dirk before the race with the kids. There was about 550 athletes in the race and about 20 different countries represented.

Benjamin is Two!

Ben is celebrating his two year birthday with homemade cake. He just got down eating pizza, so he is very dirty but ready for his cake. We had a party for Ben at the base gym and here are a few pictures.

The kids at Ben's Birthday Party. It was a lot of friends of many different ages. Ben is holding the balloon.

Ben is actually upside down in this picture. He is rolling in a tube.Benjamin is two years old. He is so funny and sweet. I love having him in my life and I am so grateful for him. He is definitely more curious than Peter was at this age. He doesn't like to hear "no". He thinks he is the same age as Peter and can do all the same things.

The Big Island

We spent a few days up at Kilauea Volcanoes National Park. Peter had been studying about Volcanoes- so he was ready to see lava and have some first hand experiences with volcanoes. We got to see lava flowing into the ocean, walked across one of volcano craters, saw steam vents, and walked through a lava tube.

We left Volcanoes National Park and headed to Waipio Valley.

We took a wagon ride in Waipio Valley and it was quite the experience. The tour was kind-of expensive and we spent most of it in a very hot van with a dog running around in the van with us. The Waipio Valley is only accessible by 4 wheel drive vehicles and it involves a very steep drive down and up a very narrow road. Our guide was really the first, unfriendly person I have met in Hawaii since living here. He had a lot of hostility and definitely no aloha spirit but the boys loved riding on the wagon and going through rivers... so it was worth it.

We spent one day driving around to all the different waterfalls on the Hilo Side of the Big Island.

We spent the end of our vacation in Waikaloa. Waikaloa is a big resort area, and we were able to stay in a condo and were able to cook so it saved us a lot of money. We only spent about $40 eating out over the whole vacation. One place that we enjoyed exploring was The Hilton Waikaloa Village. The village had a tram and a boat that you could take around the resort. The boys loved taking both of them. They also loved the water slides, bridges, caves, waterfalls, dolphins, snorkeling area, etc. that were part of the resort. The boys on the tram.

Kohala Sunset- the last day of our trip. We were sad to go... but we felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to have such a great vacation.

P.S. We wish you were there with us.