Kona & Country Fiancial - Part II

The morning before checking into the Country portion of the trip, Nate & I went and had breakfast at the Hilton resort.  It was amazing!  It was obvious this is where people bring their children when they come to The Big Island as it was like Disneyland!  We enjoyed a boat ride within the resort after breakfast.

The boat we rode.

Pic taken by another person on the boat, the irony...a State Farm agent.

(Note:  Before tans)

After checking out of the condo we were staying at the first couple of days we headed over to our home for the next 5 1/2 days, the Mauna Lani Resort.  We were greeted with our lei's and were immediately smitten with the place.

The Main Lobby

It was open air and there were many ponds with gorgeous fish.

Our view

Because this was the Country portion of the trip we were well taken care of, and that is putting it mildly.  We had a breakfast every morning (which consisted of the most amazing bacon I've ever eaten!) and three out of the five nights we had a dinner with all the other qualifiers from the company. The other two nights we were covered monetarily by the company so we could choose where we wanted to go.  One of the two nights we went out with a few other couples and the second night we, along with the others from Nate's same agency, were taken to dinner by the agency manager.  The rest of the time was all free-time...no meetings, all fun!

The Gresham Agency & Spouses

(First night's dinner)

The 2nd Country Dinner

(We all received our second leis...LOVED them!)

Gresham Crew at the agency dinner in Kona

Catching the sunset before dinner

Last Country dinner with Torey!

Nate & Aaron having just a little too much fun!

Mai Tai's & Lava Flows!

(I never knew I could love a drink as much as I do a Lava Flow!)

The sunsets were phenomenal!  Here are a few I was able to capture from our stay:

Kona

Our last Hawaiian sunset at the Mauna Lani

As I mentioned before, we were free to do whatever we wanted!  Nate & I, along with our good friends Aaron & Torey (Aaron is also Nate's manager), spent one day in Kona.  We went to a coffee plantation and then hit the streets of Kona.

Greenwell Farms Coffee Plantation

Coffee Tasting Table

(This is way better than wine testing if you ask me!)

Delectable!

The fruit of the coffee tree -- where the nectar of heaven is derived from!

The bean is enclosed in the cherry and this needs to be dried before it can be roasted.

Nate checking it out.

THOUSANDS of beans drying!

Here are a few other random pics taken at the coffee plantation:

 Banana Tree

Gorgeous Flowers

Never-ending Flowers!

Gecko Eggs

The rest of our excursion to Kona:

Sushi for lunch!

All of this cost $17!

YUM...Hawaiian shaved ice!

Oh, there is ice cream in the middle!  Again, I say YUM!

Aside from this day we spent all the other days either at the beach or pool.  We did some snorkeling (which Nate loved and did almost every day) and went to a Turtle Bay which was not far from the resort.  This bay was known to have "hundreds" of turtles.  Well, we didn't see hundreds but it was a fun hike!

Nate & a friend headed out to snorkel with the turtles.

Well Hello, Mr Turtle!

(Pic courtesy of Lisel Williams)

Nate taking a dip in Queens Bath on our hike back to the car.

Apparently there are petroglyps in there.

 My view for much of our vacation.

It was so hard to pic a small sampling of photos, I took over 200 and they all turned out so amazing!  I can't wait to go back.  Thank you Country for an amazing vacation!

Hilo - Part I

At the suggestion of some friends we were going with, we decided to go to Hawaii a few days before the company portion of the trip started.  We spent these two days exploring the east side of the island (Hilo) where the volcanoes and more "Hawaiianesque" tropical beauty was.  For those of you that have been to The Big Island, specifically Kona, you know it is quite a shock when you you fly in and see miles and miles of flat land and lava frozen in time...not the Hawaii you would expect, especially if you watch Lost.

Here are some pics from our beautiful drive from Kona to Hilo and our volcano seeking adventures!

The following are from the site of a fatal tsunami from the 1940's

which killed dozens of school children...sobering.

Beautiful Hawaiian Flowers and Waterfalls...Breathtaking!

I never got tired of the amazing flowers!

Okay, I had to throw in the pic of the HUGE avocados from the farmer's market in Kona.

Volcano Adventures!

Lunch from the "famous" Verna's!

I

I found this sign funny...the distance to the volcano?

In front of the massive fuming crater!

Nate checking out one of the many steam vents.

Lava tubes!

Lava at night.

We arrived at the lava viewing area when it was dark and we began our hike over frozen lava in the pitch black with flashlights in hand.  The lava we were walking over was actual lava flow from only 6 months ago.  There were random warm spots as you walked over it and we even found a spot that smelled like baking cookies.  Sounds funny, I know, but all 6 of us agreed!  It was quite fun finding our way through the dark night trying not to trip over the uneven terrain of frozen lava.  What an amazing site!

Aloha!

Nate & I were so blessed to spend a week in Hawaii  (The Big Island) with all of our expenses paid because of the Rock Star agent Nate is with Country Financial!  I am so proud of how far Nate has come in his career in such a short amount of time.  To qualify for these trips takes a lot of hard work and dedication and only the top percentage of agents in the nation qualify. Nate has a special gift in working with his clients and those that are serviced by him can attest.  His motivation in working with people is to honestly help them and see that they are taken care of not only presently but to make sure that they are set up for their future. He's built his business with great clients and solid ethics! 

This was the first time we both left Josiah for an extended time.  Nate was gone to China for a couple of weeks, but I was still with him and I've spend the weekend away, but Nate was still with him.  I knew he would be more than taken care of by people who love him (Mima & Papa, Auntie Jenny and Gramma & Grandpa Mike) but being a 6 hour plane ride away in case something did happen had my stomach turning a little bit.  I think it was the build up to leaving him that was hard because as soon as we were on our way I was at complete peace and never felt anxious during the week.  We missed him like crazy (and were able to talk and even Skype with him) but we savored the adult time we had. He did awesome and was super spoiled!

I don't know how I could even begin to encapsulate our experience into one Blog entry...or into words at all.  I think the photographs we took explain things perfectly. I am going to break this down into two different entries as we had two parts to your trip.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter in typical Zimmer holiday fashion...here, there & everywhere!
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Josiah would see the "Easter Bunny" in the mall and talked about wanting to see him/her.  Knowing how fond (not) of Santa Clause he was this past Christmas we were pretty certain he would not really want to see the Easter Bunny if we did indeed take him.  Well, he was a little better than at Christmas.  He would get close enough but didn't want to touch her.  He would hand something to the big bunny but would quickly back up. 

It is extremely important to me that Josiah understands why it is we "celebrate" Easter.  It was really easy to communicate "Happy Birthday, Jesus" at Christmas time.  The Resurrection is a lot harder to put into 2 year old terms.

 Checking the Easter Bunny out from a safe distance.

 And that is as close as he's going to get.

My side of the family (both my dad & stepmother and my mom & her hubby) LOVE holiday's with the kids!  My dad & stepmother decided to "do Easter" the day before so they had ample time with all the grandchildren so they could do an Easter egg hunt.  I have to applaud them as they filled 80 plastic eggs with little plastic creatures, coins and balls.  Only 18 of those eggs had a package of mini M&Ms knowing we (the parents) didn't want a ton of candy. Of course the festivities didn't stop with the egg hunt.  We had an incredible meal and we also celebrated my birthday.  :)

 Searching for eggs.

I spy an egg.

 I love this...he's checking out an egg while there is another in the upper right hand side 

of the picture that hasn't been found yet.

Checking out his findings.

Dinner time at the kid's table with the cousins.

An attempt to get a picture of all the grandkids with Grandpa & Nana

(Yeah right....FOUR 2 year olds makes that virtually impossible!)

Siah & Grandpa

Helping mommy blow out the candles.

Easter morning Josiah got his basket from mommy & daddy (not the bunny) full of goodies from Toy Story...his current obsession.  We headed off to church so we could be there at 7:30 (which is normal wake up time in our household) since Nate & I were on worship team that morning.  Josiah LOVES hanging out with the band during sound check.  

Josiah brings his own set of drum sticks so he can play along.

Hanging out while "Mr. Travis" goes over the list before service.

After church we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Mike's house for a little relaxation (and a nap for Josiah).  Uncle Tim, Aunt Kim & Cousin Christian came over and there was another egg hunt.

Josiah & Christian after the egg hunt.

Cousin love.

The final destination of the day was Papa & Mima's house for dinner with some of the Uncles, Aunts & cousins.  I took less and less pictures throughout the day so I really only have one to share from the evening.

Josiah & Cousin Owen sitting at the table having their own "discussion".