~Visiting the Volcano and the Zoo on Thanksgiving Day~

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We headed out early in the morning to visit an active volcano.  When we left the chateau it was so warm and beautiful.  We drove several hours on the bus and traveled high into the mountains.  When we got to the volcano, the elevation was so high that it was freezing!!!  None of us were prepared for that.  Luckily there was a gift shop, so we all bought sweatshirts to keep somewhat warm.

Garrett got tired of walking.  He really enjoyed his ride on Dave's shoulders.

Dave had fun flying his drone down into the volcano.  He had several oriental people surrounding him, watching to see what he was doing, lol.  They even started clapping when he landed his drone back to where we were, lol.

Group shot.

Hunter wanted to keep going higher once we got to the volcano.  So I decided I'd walk on the trail with him through the jungle higher up the mountain.  It was really cool.  The scenery was beautiful.  There was a mist everywhere, so it looked like you were walking through a storyland.

This picture doesn't do the mist justice.  It was almost like you were walking through a cloud.  It was so cool!!!

The trail led up to a gorgeous little lake.  Hunter and I knew the trail lead back down to where the bus was, so we kept walking along it (which may have been a mistake because the trail kept going and going and going.  Everyone was back on the bus waiting for us.  Whoops!  Dave eventually left to go look for us, we got to the bus right after he left I guess, so then we had to wait for him.  Needless to say, he wasn't happy with Hunter and I.

After visiting the volcano, we headed to a zoo that had a butterfly garden, humming bird area, monkeys, tigers, and many, many waterfalls.  It was a lot of fun.

They girls LOVED playing with the butterflies.  They would come and land right on you.

This butterfly landed on Lexi's shirt, then proceeded to crawl up her neck onto her face.  It was so funny to watch her expressions.

I LOVE Lexi's laugh!!!

This was a beautiful spot for family pictures.

Hunter cracks me up, lol.  We asked him to take a picture of the two of us inform of the waterfall.  I guess we were lucky he got one shot with the waterfall in it, lol.

The whole group minus Jerry and Darinda (they didn't want to hike down to the waterfall- Jerry's got bad knees).

We saw about 7 different waterfalls, and got some great pictures!  After are fun packed day, we headed back to the chateau for our Ropelato Thanksgiving dinner.  It was amazing!!!  The food was out of this world, and there was a lot of it.  Everything was perfect from the turkey right down to the stuffing.  The chef really outdid himself.  After dinner, we headed up to the balcony for our own personal firework show.  It was a fun, and memorable Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for this family I have.