The Big Island is, as the name describes, big – and there’s so much to explore. With six days there, we didn’t have time to visit all the places we would have liked, but we did get to hit some old favorites (like an incredible snorkeling spot called Two Step, shown in the first photo) and do some new things (like explore the Northern tip of the island on ATVs). Here are some photos of us out and about.

-M

Now, some photos from the first part of our trip, which included a lot of playing in the ocean, swimming, enjoying Hawaiian treats (like shave ice and malasadas) and posing.

-M

The Big Island of Hawaii is my happy place, and also one of the family’s favorite destinations – so several months ago we planned an end-of-summer-break trip there. Here’s one of our family pics, taken on the Kohala volcano. More soon!

-M

Though Avery’s the family comedian, she’s not the only to make funny or wry comments.

Zoe and I were recently talking about our shared interests and I commented how alike we were – “except,” I said, “I talk more.”

“That’s for sure,” she said.

-M

We haven’t seen tons of photos from Zoe’s camp adventures – there’s not great service in the mountains, and the camp director only posted on the blog every few days. She promised that we’d get a link to all the photos shortly – until then, here’s a taste of her time. She looks happy!

-M

Here on the blog, since I haven’t written much lately, it probably doesn’t feel like Zoe was gone for that long. But 2 1/2 weeks felt like a long time – believe me – and we were all very excited to pick her up at the Oakland airport on Sunday!

-M

A few photos from a recent sunny-Saturday trip to Treasure Island. We were without Zoe, but Maddie came along as our fourth!

-M

Things have been so nutty here (lots of work things happening) that I’ve barely had a chance to catch my breath – let alone share here how things have been since Zoe left. Alas, things have been… okay.

As mentioned before, we’ve been without Zoe before but never without the possibility of real-time communication! Stalking both the camp blog and our mailbox became daily occurrences, as we anxiously awaited word on how she was. We finally got updates and knew she was doing well and having fun – but I still felt terribly sad, wishing I could talk with her directly and missing her a lot! We’re very much a family of four – it felt really strange to be missing a piece!

Here’s one thing that made me happy, though. Before we left we told Zoe to give a thumbs up in her photos if she was having fun; our thought was that if the photo was posted before we got a letter, we would know she was okay. Imagine how we felt, then, when we spotted the photo exactly one week after she left: She showed up not one thumb, but two!

-M

We stopped for ice cream while in Sonoma recently, and I was instantly reminded of a classic photo of Zoe and Avery from many years back. (It was a bittersweet memory, really, because the pic was always one of my mom’s favorites.) The girls were game to try to re-create it and, well, we sorta did.

-M