Kauai, day 6

Let's start with the good stuff first! :) Dessert!
We got to eat at a restaurant right by our place called The Beach House. It's right on the ocean-at a point where lots of people go surfing...and it has one of the best views of the sunset on the whole island! Our dinner was amazingly yummy! I had a beef tenderloin and added some shrimpies to the plate! YUM!!! Jason has some fish and shrimps. After our dinner our server brought us this dessert!!! The card was a Happy 10th Anniversary card and they gave us the dessert for our anniversary! :) It wasn't much but it was enough! Our tummies were so full! And the presentation was beautiful!

A view of the sunset from our table.

When the sun starts to set you will see most of the people dining in the restaurant walk out onto the grassy area to take pictures. And so, we followed :) Here's our sunset picture!



Earlier in the day Jason went snorkling right by where the Beach House is. Can you see his silly face, kids?? :)

We drove to Waimea Canyon today-it's the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. We didn't go all the way but went far enough :) After this we went in search of a beach area on the West side of the island. We went to about 3 places before we ended up back at the beach by our place.

It just wasn't our day! :)

Kauai, day 4 & 5

Learn a Hawaiian word today!! :) KEIKI (pronounced kaykey): Hawaiian word for child

We went to a little Hula show...just for you, Alia. :) There were about 5 girls dancing and one of them was YOUR age!! They were cute! I took some video and I'll show you when we get home. They were selling some leis and I thought you'd want to see them! They are made of real flowers! Aren't they beautiful!?

I only got to take one picture of the hula girls dancing. My camera's battery died. I am hoping that the battery will work tomorrow.


We saw a picture of this in one of the Hawaii books we checked out at the library. This is the Kilauea Lighthouse.

Yummy yummy!! We ate shaved ice! Daddy's had a scoop of ice cream on the bottom! :)

Kauai, day 4 & 5, continued

Here's a picture of us in front of 'Opeaka Falls. You see that little stream of water behind us? Well...this stream is actually a 151 foot falls!
Alia, since you mentioned you like to see us in the pictures I've been trying to take more pictures of us...for better or for worse. It's amazing what the humidity does to my hair! ;)

Do you see all of the black rock in this picture? All of this black stuff is hardened lava!! Years and years ago lava used to flow out of volcanoes and when it hits the water it solidifies, or hardens. These black lava rocks are all over the islands of Hawaii!

This is a picture of Spouting Horn. As the waves crash against the rocks some of the water goes into a cave underneath and then gets pushed up in the air through a hole in the rocks! The height of the "spout" depends on how big the wave is that hits the shore. It also makes a blowing noise like a horn.




Haha! Mommy and daddy ate our lunch out of this truck! WHAT!? Yep...not quite McDonald's! Gramma and Grampa Jim said that the shrimps from the truck were really good! And they were right!!! Big and juicy! I had the garlic shrimp and smelled like garlic all day long!

Pics for the kiddos :)

Here's a pretty flower, Alia. This is actually a Plumeria TREE! These trees are all over the island and I love them! They are beautiful!! I've seen these trees with white flowers, pink flowers, yellow flowers and I saw one today with orange flowers with the petals outlined in red! If I could grow a Plumeria tree, I would!



ELIJAH!!! When we were talking to you yesterday I saw this bright green lizard!!!! And I thought of you! He was pretty cute-just like you :)

...and as we were driving on the Island we drove by these-COCONUT trees!!! Remember the book/song that you sand in Mrs. Judy's class last year! Here is a REAL coconut tree!! Those green ball things are the coconuts.

Kauai, day 3

(please keep in mind that these posts from Kauai are mostly for my kiddos...and so from now on I am going to write them as such. enjoy!)

Aloha kiddos!!! Here's the view from our lanai, or patio, from our condo! This is the sun rising over the island! Isn't it beautiful! We get to see this every morning! Although we do miss seeing your faces every morning :)

GUESS WHAT!?!?!?! Your mommy and daddy went snorkling this morning!!! YEP! We got to see some beautiful fishes swimming under the water in the ocean!!! It was a bit scary for mommy since I don't swim well...but I DID IT! It was super fun!
AND GUESS WHAT ELSE!!! We didn't get to see any sea turtles this time BUT...we got to SWIM WITH a monk seal!!! CRAZY!! He was probably a bit bigger than you, Alia and he was swimming around. We did get a bit nervous because he seemed like he was following us...kind of scary. (especially since the life guards said the last person that messed with him got bit four times!) After we saw him in the water he decided to come ashore. So I took a picture of him for you guys to see!! These monk seals are endangered species-as grandma or grandpa to tell you what that means.

So after we snorkled and took pictures mommy got another headache, so we came home. It was a LONG hour and a half ride for me. Maybe tomorrow we'll get to swim with sea turtles! When you pray tonight, please pray that I wouldn't get another headache. It's made mommy very sad.

I love you kiddos!!! More pictures for you guys tomorrow!

Kauai, day 2

We ate dinner at Scotty's beachside BBQ in Kapa'a. It tasted pretty good...especially since it was my only meal of the day. After Jason and I went for a short run I showered up for the day...and got a migraine. So I got back in bed and Jason got to play golf! I was able to get out of bed about 1pm and sat in the sun for a couple of hours before our early dinner.

It has been pretty windy...while we were sitting outside our plastic bag was blown into the ocean!!! Upon seeing some sea turtles about where the bag was Jason decided to jump in the ocean (he had to climb down a cliff) and get the bag. It was his good deed for the day-he saved the life of a turtle! :)


These are some pics for my kids. These are some shots of the sea turtles we've seen. I sooo wish I had a better camera that could take close ups. We've seen a TON of sea turtles! they are everywhere! I can't wait to really see them when we snorkel.

This pics if of a huge sea turtle under water. He's the dark shape in the middle of the pick-sort of to the bottom.

Turtle head popping up-right in the middle of the picture. This picture was taken off of our lanai (patio). There were at least a half dozen turtles right where this one is.

aloha!

Jason and I are on vacation!!!

Aloha from first class! We were blessed to use frequent flier miles to get ourselves first class tickets to Kauai, HI!!!

Kauai from the air.

Father's Day!

Here's me and my daddy! :) Happy father's day, dad! Thanks for making the trip!

For Father's Day this year we had my parents and Jason's parents in town. It was fun to be together!

Jason's dad playing catch with Elijah.

Jason with his kiddos! :)

Alia's Recital

Alia had her first ballet recital on father's day night. She did so well!!!

She was very excited to get flowers after the show. Isn't that the face of joy??

Here she is in front of the theater. Her ballet was The Secret Garden.



Me and my little ballerina!

Toy Story 3!!!!!!!!

We were sooooo excited for Toy Story 3 to ocme out!!!!! We got to go on opening day! The theater was crowded and excitement was in the air!! Daddy took this picture of us.

Here's how Ethan watched the movie. We weren't sure how he'd do in a theater environment...but with some popcorn and his stroller he did great! He was pushed into our aisle (I know, a fire hazard!) and could see over the seat in front of him. He ended up falling asleep for the last 30 minutes or so.

We loved the movie!! And would suggest you go see it too!

Alia's Day-June 17

For her birthday breakfast Alia wanted waffles...so I broke out the waffle maker and the eggs, flour, oil...and other stuff. They were yummy waffles.

We traveled to to the library for a Marionette Show! It was pretty cool!


After the show they let the kids come and see the animals up close.

Alia and Elijah with the Big Bad Wolf. Don't ask me what's up with Elijah's eyes. Don't know.

After the show at the library we had a surprise pizza picnic with some friends. Jason got a pizza from Costco and met us ont he grass.

Elijah, Alia, Jenna, Haley
(missing: Ethan & Isabella)

After Alia's last ballet practice we went to La Colima's for dinner. Check out her plate!!!! It's huge! She wanted 2 enchiladas, beans and rice. She's pretending to be excited in this picture. Silly girl. After dinner we walked around the farmer's market...fun!


Then it was back home for cake and presents.

Alia was VERY excited about all her presents!! We got her some Bitty Baby clothes...and she was super duper excited! She got a matching pajama outfit and posed for some pictures. And, yes, that's Ethan in the backgorund watching a show on TV :)

Sting!

Last week we went to a Sting concert at the Hollywood Bowl! It was amazing! Thanks, mom and dad for taking care of our munchkins!!!!

Summer Reading!

This past week the kids got a prize for their first reading log! They were the very first kids to get a prize! The kids thought it was great!


Afterwards we checkout out some books on Hawaii, some grandma and grandpa books, and some sea life books. While we drove down south to Long Beach they read. I thought I took a picture of Ethan...but apparently I didn't. His version of reading was putting the book on his head. :)