Fiji Part 2 (River Tubing and lots more resort time)

We did one big excursion while in Fiji! We spent the day exploring the Navua River: first we rode in boats up in the river, we explored a village in the Namosi Highlands, we visited a waterfall, had lunch, and then finally rode in tubes down the river. We were nervous about it raining all day, but decided to just go for it! It definitely rained, but was totally still worth it. 

Two of our nannies, Kathy and Nathan, came with us. This is the only picture we have of Nathan. He wasn't exactly a stellar nanny to Andy and Max.

This is the village we visited! It was really cool and felt surprisingly authentic.

Cutest kids watching us from their house.

I think they said that they pay money to the village for allowing tour groups like us to come in and it's helped them get solar power.

Hiking up to the waterfall.

We were all too cold to get in the waterfall.

I think this picture is from lunch. We chatted with another family that was visiting their parents who were serving a mission in Fiji. Small world! Not pictured is the ride down the river. I think normally it's pretty mild and fun. But because of all the rainfall that week it was actually pretty terrifying, especially considering we had Davis and Violet with us. Davis was terrified the entire way down, as we traveled through some legitimately big rapids and he was almost thrown off his tube multiple times. Violet fell out of her tube. Luckily each kid had their own guide, but it ended up being a scary 45 minutes and I was very relieved when it was over and we'd all survived.

We loved riding through our resort on bikes.

The resort surprised us with yummy drinks on our back patio. 

We finally got to enjoy the beach for a couple of hours!

The back of our gorgeous villa.

The resort chef prepared the tuna that we caught for us for dinner. It was delicious. A plate of sashimi and then a plate with more traditional preparation.

The kids loved their morning hot chocolates with their name written on the top.

Violet loved her sweet nanny Kathy. She made her this cute coconut bowl.

We had such a fun time exploring the tide pools! The highlights were seeing a shrimp, an eel, and a big crab.

Our resort meals were so delicious and the atmosphere was top notch.

The one day we got to play in the ocean!

It was too cold to use our private pool we'd been so excited about, but we forced ourselves to take a quick plunge in it on our last full day.

Violet and Davis dressed up for the torch lighting ceremony on our last night.

Can you handle the cuteness? 

We had a big seafood dinner for two our final night. Max joined Cameron and me. Violet ate in the kids club most nights and Davis was invited to eat there every night. :) 

Andy could be found most of the time in the resort lounge watching whatever sport was on the TV, which was usually rugby or soccer. Apparently all the staff noticed and thought he must be a big rugby fan, but I think he was mostly just sick of his family ha ha. If you don't see him in some of the pictures above, this is where he was. 

I think this was our final morning. Cameron and I snuck away on a quick jet ski tour where we snorkeled too. We had been trying to go all week and the weather finally cleared up enough we got to go. We went to an area where we got to see huge nurse sharks swimming right under us. It was incredible. And then they took us to an incredible reef where we snorkeled. I think it was the coolest snorkeling I've ever done.

They surprised Davis and sang happy birthday to Davis on our last lunch. (His birthday was two days later.) Davis loved every second of it and had the biggest smile on his face.

We had to drive 3 hours to get to the airport and began our long journey home! Why does Violet look like a teenager here?

I was on Davis duty on the long flight home. I also came down with shingles on the flight home, which is apparently stress induced. Probably not a coincidence. :)

Fiji Part 1 (Resort time, Church, Kayaking, and Fishing)

We had a wonderful week in Fiji! We stayed at the Nanuku Resort in the Pacific Harbor area on the southern part of the main island in Fiji, Viti Levu. It's about a 3 hour drive from the Nadi Airport. We got in very late, like 11:30 PM. The resort was so attentive and thoughtful though--they had six warm meals ready for us in our room that we gobbled up. 

The resort was easily the nicest place we've ever stayed. This is from our first breakfast. They had live music at every meal--you can see the guitarist in the background. The breakfast buffet was delicious and and we all quickly decided on our favorites. I loved the Chia Seed Pudding and the Mango Oatmeal.

We had a magical time exploring the resort the first day! It was rainy and a bit chilly, so we didn't really go in the ocean or the pool. But definitely spent some time in the hot tub (which unfortunately was more like a warm tub). The resort grounds were so beautiful! Perfectly manicured. 

Every night they have a torch lighting ceremony and let the kids dress up in traditional Fijian clothes to help with the ceremony. Violet was all about it! Here she is with some Australian friends we made on the trip. Nancy and I don't remember the other girl's name.

Here are Violet and Davis with their nannies Kathy and Tina. The resort came with a personal nanny for each of them that was available from 8 AM to 8 PM. We definitely utilized this service. It wasn't perfect and there were some weird parts of it, but overall it was amazing and it saved us since we were very worn out from our Vanuatu trip at this point. The boys' shared a nanny, Nathan, who was not super into his nannying job. The boys said he mostly spent time with his other nanny friends ha ha. But he did take the boys on a few bike rides.

We went to a coconut bowl making class. Here's Andy learning how to husk a coconut.

Turns out the bowls actually require a lot of work and lots and lots of sanding time. Most of us gave up after about 30 minutes when we realized we weren't even close. Violet was quite determined though and wanted to do hers all by herself. She brought it back to our room to finish later.

Violet weaved these crowns with her nanny Kathy.

One of the nights we let Violet and Davis have dinner in the kids club and we took the older boys to dinner with us. It was so fun to have a little time with just them and talk about big kid things. :)

I don't remember what we were laughing about it, but I sure love Max's laugh and joking around with him.

The weather was a major bummer when we were there. It rained basically the entire time we were there. The first couple of days we had hope that it would improve...but soon we faced the reality that our visit to Fiji would be very different than we imagined. We were imagining a tropical trip with lots of swimming in our private pool, snorkeling, playing at our private beach in the ocean, etc. And it was more like visiting Seattle or the Oregon Coast. We still had a good time and tried to make the most of it, but it was tough because most of the activities were outdoor activities. We tried to schedule cool excursions, but they kept getting canceled. It wasn't really the rainy season, so I think we were just very unlucky. That being said, we were also on the more rainy side of the island. The resort was a big splurge, so we (I) tried to not think too much about it. It did let up slightly the last couple of days, so we did eventually get to get in the ocean!

There were people weaving baskets every morning! They were so skilled.

We went to church, and it was so great. Church days were my favorite. This is us in primary. The kids all had the strongest voices. It was so fun listening to them sing. The nursery aged kids all just played in the middle of the room. After singing time we had class time. I went with Max and Violet, and they practiced being missionaries and teaching people about Heavenly Father.

Davis found this moth and took care of it all of primary. It may have not been alive after he was done taking care of it, ha ha.

Then there was a frog jumping around everywhere.

Our nannies came with us

The pretty beach right in our bungalow's backyard.

We went kayaking that afternoon just right at the resort.

Lots and lots of hot tub time during the week! Wish it wouldn't have been too cold for the pool. 

Violet braved the pool a few times.

We went out for a full day of fishing one morning with Andy and Max! Violet and Davis stayed back with their nannies. It was very affordable (that is a joke), and we had a great time!

We ended up catching a couple of beautiful tuna. We had bigger things on the line a few times, but they got off as Cameron reeled them in. The rest of us were too scared to reel anything in because we didn't want to be accountable for losing a big fish.

Poor Andy was sick most of the time, but the rest of us had fun being on the boat. We had been worried about the rain, but the weather cooperated pretty well. We had the boat to ourselves with three helpers. They were nice guys and it was fun chatting with them for the day.

That night they had a "fire walkers" night at the resort. A bunch of guys walked on hot stones over a fire. It sounds cooler than it actually was. ;) But still cool! I think the kids were impressed.