Day 4 - coconut trees

Later that afternoon, the kids wanted to go back to kids club to get their faces painted.  We were walking along the path to get them and noticed some workers were cutting down an old coconut tree that had gotten too tall and they were worried it might fall.  What caught my eye, was that the guy at the very top (and it was tall!) had climbed up there (and quickly, mind you) using only some spikes on his boots!!  WHAAATT?!!  I was quite impressed had never seen this before!  They are all so nice and he quickly waved when he saw I was taking pictures - HA!  He then came down, gave Josh and I each a fresh coconut to try and talked to us about how it all worked.  So nice and it was fun to learn about!

 At the top of the tree

 waving!!

 trying our fresh coconut milk!  I've had coconut milk before, just not this fresh!  Not really my thing, though...

 explaining everything to us with the machete still in his hand - Ha!

 opening up one of the coconuts

 this is actually a mango tree - I had no idea they looked like that!

 Lance the gladiator!

 Grace the butterfly!

 It was a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable day outdoors.  The kids had a little down time watching a video while we showered and got ready for dinner.

 I just added in a few fun shots.  This is me standing in the ocean and a shot of our "house".

 The worker is replacing the old palm leaves with fresh ones on top of the little huts

 A unique flower outside our door

 Josh and I ate at the restaurant Treetops while the kids practiced their dancing....

Day 4 - Grass skirts

The kids were headed off to kids club again first thing right after breakfast.  They had begun to make friends and were looking forward to seeing them every morning.  The girls made grass skirts this morning and the boys made spears.  They also started practicing for the meke dance performance they would be doing for all of the parents at dinner in a couple of nights.  I took advantage of laying out and reading on the beach and Josh enjoyed some hammock time - most relaxing week of our lives!!  We got the kids out of kids club and ate lunch and hung out with them for a bit.  

 modeling the grass skirt she made!

 Grace looks like a little islander eating lunch under the hammock!

 having lunch on the beach

 jumping off of the pontoon for some swim time

 you can see the pontoon in the distance in the middle

 taking some time for some more snorkeling.  This cracks me up how close he is to the beach, but there were actually some cool fish there that he was looking at!  The snorkeling was amazing right off the beach - you didn't have to go far!

 Grace and Josh went out a little farther

 touching the purple jellyfish

these boys were trying to "save" the washed up jellyfish without touching it - too funny!

Day 3 - Afternoon/Evening

After our little kayak adventure, we took the kids to get some lunch.  We spent most of the afternoon swimming and relaxing at the pool.  The kids had made some friends with two girls from New Zealand, so were enjoying playing with them.

Even Flat Tatum was chilling by the pool!

 We met this really great family from Canada at Happy Hour that night.  They had made a stop to Fiji on their way to Australia and were to visit Melbourne and Sydney.  We had a little laugh at this gecko enjoying some of Tawnya's drink!! He just kept coming back for more!

Thought I would close this day with a beautiful flower that was waiting on our bed for us after we all got back from dinner and dancing.  Kids were exhausted!

Day 3 - Morning

Today was a nice, relaxing day.  We all went to the breakfast buffet and then the kids went to Kids Club right away!  They first got to take their banana boat ride which they had "won" the day before.  Too fun!!  

We received a little booklet when we first arrived on Malolo telling us what they would be doing each day if you wanted to participate.  Today was "coconut" day with lots of fun activities planned, so the kids were really excited to go!  They were able to watch how a coconut was husked and then tasted the coconut milk!  I don't think they were too keen on it, but at least they tried!  They also got to make coconut boats, which they would later have races and let go in the ocean.  Needless to say, our kids were NOT going to let their's go, so did not participate in the race!  (We had a little race of our own on our last day since we knew we wouldn't be able to take them back into Australia due to regulations!)  Ha!  Josh and I enjoyed some relaxation on the beach that morning.  When they were finished making their boats, we decided that the 4 of us would kayak over to a tiny little island.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post because I used my underwater camera for that and they developed my pictures as hard copies, not the CD like I had asked for - boo! ;(  We had fun, though, and got to see a big purple jellyfish swim by our kayak!

 Out on their banana boat ride

 enjoying the beach.....

 I posted this pic to show where we kayaked to.  It's the little island to the left of the bigger one.

 Showing their coconut boats

 Grace got her hair braided!

purple jellyfish!

Day 2 - Afternoon/evening

We took the kids up for lunch and then they wanted to go to Kids Club.  I was a little unsure of this before we arrived on Fiji (as I had heard how amazing "kids club" was, but said we wouldn't send our kids there because we would be together the whole time), but it was amazing!!!  They did such neat things with them and treated them like their own kids.  Our kids begged us to go every day and LOVED it!  They even made some friends there during the week.  It was like being on an extended family holiday all week.  By the end, you felt like you knew everybody and the staff were like family.  It was so much more than I had ever expected it to be.  Our kids got to do a scavenger hunt this afternoon and whoever won (boys vs. girls) got a free banana boat ride the next day!  Well, boys ended up winning (don't worry, we let Grace go with him, too!) ;)  They loved it!!

 A picture of the path to our house

 That's me and Lance on the beach (I'm enjoying my chair - ha!)

Josh taught the kids how to snorkel.  The snorkeling was amazing and you could do it right off the beach, so it was perfect for teaching them.  They both got the hang of it really quickly, but Lance didn't last very long.  He got better throughout the week.  Josh took Grace out a little farther and she got to see lots of beautiful fish!

 Go Lance!

 Grace and Josh snorkeling

 That evening we all showered and got ready for dinner.  "Happy Hour" was at 5:30 every day and it was our time to sit at the bar/restaurant, watch the sunset, and use the internet.  (It was the only place you could get access.)  We uploaded a few photos to FB and answered emails here.  We all ate at the BBQ seafood buffet that night (which was really good - the chef on the island was AMAZING!)  The food was always wonderful.

 taking some family pics

 pic of the dock and beach at sunset

 the bar/restaurant from the dock

 watching the sunset out on the dock.  The kids played some games on the beach after dinner with kids club before we all headed to bed.