Na Pali boat ride

We went for a sunset cruise boat ride up the Na Pali coast today on a 65' catamaran. It was absolutely amazing. For four hours we escaped onto the sea, up the uninhabitable northwest shore of Kauai. The water was choppy, we hit a rainstorm, saw sea turtles, flying fish, and rode the front of the boat that hit the waves the hardest. It's late and I hope to write more at another point or maybe post some video, but wanted to share a couple of pictures tonight.

They served the kids virgin mai tais.

And, of course, eventually Kenzie was captaining the ship.

Falling water

From water slides to water falls...we are officially baked to medium-well. We spent hours this morning in the pool and everyone, I mean everyone, took their turn on the water slide. We were all impressed when Grampy climbed the stairs and saddled up. We waited for the big splash. And waited. Finally he putted down, trying to gain some speed with his hands. Evidently there's another variable to the "mass * velocity = momentum" equation that needs to factor in width relative to a narrow tube.

Cindy and Kenzie

Grammy

Grammy and Grampy

Grammy, Grampy, Kenzie, Mason, Julie, Devan, Emily, Carol

Kenzie, Devan, Emily

Kenzie, Julie, Carol, Emily, Devan

Grampy and Emily

Carol and Emily

Grampy, Kenzie and Mason

Kenzie

Lisa and Emily

Mason

Emily, Kenzie and Devan

Then we went to see a couple of "real" waterfalls, including the beautiful Wailua Falls. By this time the kids were completely spent and Mason was just flopped on my shoulder. He never did give in to take a nap, so he's quite loopy at this 7:00 hour, which is 10:00 to his clock. We're waiting for dinner to cook and the kids are throwing an old coconut that we found underneath a tree. (The joke is that last time we came to Kauai I shook a tree, made a coconut fall, and then spent a frustrating amount of time trying to crack the sucker open. All the while Carol was video-taping me, much of which was unbeknown to me. Let's just say that there are possibly dents in the tile floor of the last place we stayed.)

Finally, Grammy, Cindy, the kids and I stopped by Lydgate Park on a whim. What a great park for the kids with an amazing beach! Since I've already exceeded my own standards for number of pictures per post, here are a few more:

So, sand and water. Mix them together and you get a boy who needs to change his clothes. Then he sits down in the sand and you get a boy who needs to be rinsed.

From mountains..to the valleys...to the ocean

As soon as we woke up Mason started asking about swimming. He was not satisfied that we were going to see the Grand Canyon (of the Pacific). Every chance he got -- all day -- he asked about swimming. We did find some amazing vantage points of beautiful scenery, birds, and water. Good for some of us, but by about 2:00 the kids were ready to swim! We found Poipu beach...and the great snorkeling we were seeking yesterday!

All the kids, Devan, Emily, Kenzie and Mason got a peek at fish swimming just below our feet. We had our processed cheese and delighted the palettes of angel fish, parrot fish, and a rainbow of others. They were beautiful. We were just inside a shallow reef (waves were broken, no sharks allowed), and used an entire can of cheese. Kenzie was my little buddy, calm and diligently doing whatever I did. She would hold my hand to Maui if felt so inclined, but I need to get some aqua socks before I go too deep on those rocks. Luckily we had good viewing over a shallow sandy area.

Mason still has no fear whatsoever of the water. He'd see a big wave coming and would say with delight, "it's the Big One!" and then swallow a cup of salt water. He couldn't figure how to breathe through his mouth so he had to just hold his breath, but that didn't phase him. He took a gasp and then put his face in, over and over. I had to make sure I was holding on tight because he was completely comfortable just drifting away, possibly to China. We finally had to call it a day when the clouds drifted in and all teeth were chattering.

No swimming in the resort pool at all today, much to the disappointment of K & M. Tomorrow morning we're planning to start the day with the waterslides, but I'm pretty sure that there's no way the day can improve from that point forward. (Next vacation - save airfare, just hit Wild Waves.)

All the cousins are having fun together. Emily and Mason rode in the car together today and entertained each other the whole time. There's no sibling rivalry and it was a very peaceful ride! We had fun at some of the tourist stops too. Oh, and we made a detour to find a place with decent reception so Cindy could have a phone interview for a coaching job. I'd put the picture of her standing in someone's yard with her hand over her head trying to break the noise of the waves, but I know she'd just make me take it off...

The touristos

Land of Hanalei and chickens

What a beautiful island we are on! We went north today, stopping at everything that looked interesting, even Puff the Magic Dragon's Land of Hanalei. We saw some beautiful beaches, lush tropical plantation, a couple of caves...and a lot of chickens. This was funny to us because a year ago when we were in Mexico we spent much of our driving time looking at cows. We took pictures of cows, stopped to moo at them, honked at them, and were just generally enthralled. It wasn't until that last day that Grampy finally spoke up and wondered how he could have possibly raised such a group of city kids. So, chickens are the new cows, and have completely captivated us....Mason in particular. And, we warned him. These are wild Bantam roosters and hens. Yes, they look cute. Yes, that hen with her two chicks were just too cute. He still thought it was fun to chase her. She tried her hardest to ignore him, but he persisted. Finally she flipped a 180 and ran straight toward him. With no delay he turned on his toe and darted toward me. I've never seen him run faster than he did being chased by that chicken. She gave up rather quickly and he broke down in tears. It was a well-deserved lesson and gave the rest of us a good kackle (sorry).

We also went snorkeling for quite a while. I headed out at first with Mason, who was like swimming with an anchor in the shape of an octopus wrapped around my neck. After enough of that, I took Kenzie. We had our fair share of waves, but she kept floating beside me. She put her head down in the water and held my hand as we searched. We went out quite a ways. I even had my processed cheese in tow to bribe them, but we didn't see more than one spotted fish and a dead eel. Emily and Lisa saw puffer fish, and one of the beaches was cleared due to a shark sighting!! But, we're still in search of good snorkeling.

We planned a BBQ down by the pool, but didn't beat the rainstorm, and turned around to eat in our room. It didn't last long, though, and Kenzie and Mason went for a late night swim. I joined them, but only made it as far as the hot tub. Cindy held out for quite a while with two kids jumping on her from pool-side. Both kids are learning, even from yesterday. Mason is actually learning how to swim! He doesn't want to be outdone by his sister, of course.

Aloha from Kauai!

We popped out of bed at 4:30 this morning, our flight was on-time, and we landed without much fanfare, just the way we like our trips. Both kids were great little travelers - probably because they were excited about the destination. (We'll see if our return trip proves that theory.)

We have a great condo with a view of the pool, which has two water slides, a lazy river, and a couple of waterfalls, all of which we tried out already. It'll be fun to watch the kids swim this week. Kenzie is conquering her fears. When she first went in tonight, her skill level exceeded her confidence (she didn't even want to attempt to swim). By the end of our swim, her confidence exceeded her skill level. Yikes! She would swim toward the water slides, only to realize about 3/4 of the way that perhaps she should have an insurance plan. She's doing pretty well - she puts her face in, paddles her arms, kicks her feet - if she could just figure out how to make her butt float she's be a fish.

Mason, on the other hand, can't swim much at all, yet has absolutely no fear. We put water wings on him, which he asked to take off several times. I finally took them off of just to prove to him that he does, in fact, sink. I lifted him off the bottom more than once. He likes to have his face in the water. I think he also likes that feeling of near-drowning. I'm trying to sell him on the merits of water wings...

We also ran into this monk seal just hanging out on the beach by our condo. Evidently he's a regular and can be a bit grumpy. He sneezed on Kenzie, quite literally.

The three friends

Once fish and another fish were playing and they were friends. There was another fish too, but he was lonely. He did not have friends, he did not know how to make friends. So he decided to say "hello, what is your name?" And they said "go off, we don't want to play with you."

They were being mean to him. So he just went and told his mom and dad. So he tried again and they said, "We're sorry," then they were freinds. The end.

Brother in Hawaii

Kenzie drew this picture of us in anticipation of our upcoming trip. In it I am floating in the water, Cindy is quite skinny with lots of muscles, and Mason..."he's shivering." Trying to find the positive I said to her, "well, as least you gave him a little flower that he can look at." She replied, "Mom, that's a dandelion."

At least he's smiling.

Angel

Mason went to a baseball birthday party today, so he had occasion to wear the baseball uniform that Uncle Randy wore when Grampy was playing for the Angels.

It's 90 degrees out, and...

Mason sleeps with his gloves on.

The Bad Shark, by Mason

Once upon a time, there was a little toy story. And there was a little bad whale and a bad shark. They were friends. And the bad shark bite the other one. And the other one got attacked and poked the other one, the shark. The end.

Park portraits

The Octopus and the Slide

Car fun

I love it when they laugh. I was messing around with the camera and snuck this video.

Glasses

Mason demonstrates the cool factor of glasses at one of our Tuesday evening concerts at the community center.

It's pickin' time

It's that time of year where our fingers are purple and our bellies are happy. Blackberries are in season!

Dear kids

[Spoiler alert: PETA, if you're watching, just skip this one.]

Mike and Mary had the kids overnight a couple of weeks ago. Their beautiful new lawn, complete with the an incredibly intricate Automated Watering System...has been invaded by...moles. The kids were fascinated by the concept of a "trap," but didn't what a mole looked like. Mary said they checked the traps 5 or 6 times a day, but no luck. The kids went home without seeing a dead mole.

So, of course, when the little mole finally was executed, Mary has to send us this picture of my proud brother with a note:

Dear Mason and MacKenzie,

We finally caught the mole in our back yard. Remember when you where here and Mike was checking the mole traps and we never were able to catch the mole? Well, we finally did. Here is a picture so you can see what they look like.
Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike

[PETA, continue reading here]

By Kenzie. Picshers by Kenzie.

The littel Girl + her Brother + his mother. By Kenzie picshers by Kenzie
The Girl the boy + his mother went waking [walking]. The boy was 3. The girl was 6. And the mommy was 38. Thaw [they] loved waking. The boy allwas [always] sed [said] "I am tiyrd [tired]!" Thaw had so much fun. Win [when] thaw got home thaw playd [played] on ther [their] funhose [funhouse].
The End