Hualalai, The Big Island, Part 2 - 4th of July!

Aloha! We woke up early on our first day in Hawaii because it was July 4th & our resort had a stars & stripes 5k that we all signed up for:

Bryan & Sadie ran it competitively, but this was Sophie's first time to officially run that far & she did great! I stayed with her most of the time & she did stop to walk occasionally, but for the most part, she did better than I thought she would do. The course ran through the golf course & along the ocean: 

I never got a picture of Bryan & Sadie because they were so far ahead of us, but they were waiting for us at the finish line & took great pictures of Sophie as she finished strong - you should see the video, that girl turned it on to sprint mode at the end:

We found these 2 at the end waiting for us:

And no surprise, guess who won 1st place in the women's division?!

She sure did! Guess all of that soccer training helped! There were a few men who beat her, but she beat several women, including some serious adult women who weren't verry happy when they gave her a prize gift certificate to the spa for a free lomi lomi massage! 

You can't really tell from my pictures, but behind the runners, there were families walking with their strollers & then a few golf carts followed as well. Everyone was dressed up in their patriotic colors & the golf carts were decorated also:

It was a fun way to kick off the holiday!

We celebrated by eating brunch then heading straight to the beach to cool off:

They gave the girls welcome gifts to the Surf Shack to get free shaved ice:

Fun fact, I think I know why they do that because they proceeded to continue to go back to the Surf Shack every single afternoon to continue getting shaved ice. Ha!

Cheers to the perfect holiday! We ended the evening by going to the party on the 18th hole:

I mean they did it right - they had it all set up with tables, lights, a band & a buffet with countries from around the world:

They had a beautiful firework show & while we were watching it, the resort next door had one also, so we actually got to see two at the same time, in front & behind us:

We missed the girls during the fireworks because they were running around dancing with friends, getting tattoos & jumping in the bounce house:

Eventually they found us & we danced the night away. Literally, we had so much fun & the band was so good, we stayed until they shut it down:

It might have been one of my favorite July 4th holidays to date! Such a fun way to kick off our vacation!