Sorry for the long absence--now that we're back from Hawaii, we'll do better :)

Sooo, it been the longest interval ever in the history of the Nelson family blog. Sorry.
Last year was a crazy whirlwind of a year for us. My landscape firm has experienced astonishing growth. When we started in 2010 we were doing $7,000 jobs, the end of this year saw us wrapping up a $145,000 job! The price I paid for that was 70+ hr weeks and no outside life.

This year looks to be even more successful and crazy. Although my focus will be to maintain a better work/life balance. And with my in-laws leaving the country/continent to serve a mission for our church I will endeavor to keep up on this blog with more routine.

The biggest thing to happen to us this past year, besides the huge success of my company, is that we took some much needed family re-connecting time and spent the month of January in Hawaii.
It was such a calm and tranquil place. We had a long time there so we did  not feel any pressure to fill our days up with sight-seeing. In fact there were whole days when the only things we did was sit on a beach!
We had 2 weeks on the Kailua-Kona side of the Big Island, and 2 weeks on Kauai.

So here are some pics. [we just discovered that if you click on the pics they will come up in a full size slide show, however you do not get the captions with it] Then we shall resume afresh from here. (Before viewing the pics, start the music on the right side of the screen for background music.)

 At the airport

 Our "home" in Kona. it was very homey.

 Henry in the waves

Homeschooling.

 Nice eh?

 We saw lots of sea turtles

 I took lots of pics of the waves, they had a very translucent quality to them.

 Those waves are breaking on the shore nearly a mile away. I figure they were splashing about 150+ feet in the air.

 Steam vents around the volcano

Kids

 Neat pic of the waves. Everything was so beautiful.

 Sea arch on some of the newest earth on Earth.

 "Road Closed" ya think?

 My beauties!

Exploring a lava tube. It went in a least 400 yds. That's where Henry made us stop.

 The kids loved playing in the waves.

 Another beautiful sunset. Everybody seemed to stop and celebrate the sunsets.

Beautiful blue ocean waves--could just hang out at this beach for days.

 A golden sunset--almost every night was another amazing sunset

 Us looking towards the sunset as we were watching whales

There were at least 8 whales playing just off the coast--amazing!

Spinner dolphins

Our next home in Kapa'a Kauai

  

 We rented a Jeep. Then took it for a spin. It got very dirty.

  Removable tops are pretty darned cool.

 

Beautiful Hanalei lookout

 Neat looking waterfall spilling over red soil

 Fern near Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

 Lunch break at Hanalei Bay

Crashing waves on the dock

 Kids at our Kapa'a beach

 After off-roading, we hiked through the jungle to a remote waterfall

Beautiful sunset

Yummy shave ice

 Ummm....maybe not the best day to be out in the ocean

 Hiking the Hawaiian way

 Super nifty sea cave. In the summer they say it's like a lake in there.

The Napali Coast--one of the coolest places I've ever seen in my life.

We can definitely see ourselves taking a month off every winter.