Our Final Days in Kauai :(

Day 6

We woke up to a beautiful day! We grabbed some breakfast and headed off to Po'ipu Beach for some snorkeling. Conner loves to snorkel. He dives way down and brings up all sorts of stuff from the ocean floor. He is turning into our little fish.

Victor and Conner snorkeling.

My Mom didn't have any meetings so she went with us and helped watch the kids so Vic and I could go out snorkeling together. I forget how pretty everything is. All of the colors on the little fish and the water is just amazing.

My Momma. She is going to love me for posting this picture. Love ya Mom!

Totally something you wouldn't expect to see at the beach. . . except when you are in Kauai. I guess after their hurricane in '92 the chickens started to take over the island and you see them everywhere! I think the rooster in this picture is Chicken Joe from Surf's Up. ;)

Later that afternoon we did some shopping and went to Roy's for dinner. Roy's had great atmosphere but the food was so-so. It had great reviews in all of my books, but I left a little unimpressed.

We didn't have any huge events for day 6, but just like all of the other days, we had a great time!

Day 7

It rained off and on for a bit in the morning. So, we decided it would be a good time to get our stuff rounded up and get some packing done. After the rain cleared off we went down to the beach and lagoon one last time.

Trying to catch geckos one last time.

Me and Victor.

The boys trying to find crabs. Also, the only time we could get Zack to wear a hat!

A little crab in the bucket. Can you see him? He is on the right where the sand meets the bucket.

Great photography by Conner- Erin aren't you proud?

The boys had great fun running around catching the little white baby crabs and collecting them in Conner's bucket. Watching them do this reminded me of when we lived in WA. Conner's favorite thing to do was go to Stielicome Beach and collect the baby crabs. It made miss WA! Conner was such a beach bum, that is what he wanted to do every day. . . and so we did!

After a little while my Mom and Dad came down to get us and we went off to do some site seeing. We ventured over to the East side of the island and went to the Kilauea Lighthouse and Wailua Falls.

Kilauea Lighthouse was beautiful! It was seriously postcard perfect. Actually, Victor took a picture and it is now his screen saver on his phone! ha ha Zack and Mace were asleep, so we took turns getting out to observe. I can't say the little guys would remember it anyway.

Kilauea Lighthouse.

Next up were the falls. They were so pretty, defiantly not a site we get to see all of the time.

Wailua Falls.

Day 7

The flight home. :( Does anyone ever want to go home after a vacation? Especially a Hawaiian vacation? We are thinking Maui for next year. . . with no kids! I guess we will see.

Mace was the only happy one to be flying home.

Aloha Hawaii! Til' next year!

Our Kauai Trip- Day 5

Day 5

Every morning when Zack wakes up the first thing he wants to do is go out on the lanai. He says, "Oh Whyee. . . bee". In our language he is saying "Oh Hawaii. Beach." Then he gets so excited to sit there and watch the birds.

Day 5 started out cold, rainy, and windy. We decided to try a "local find" in my Kauai guidebook for breakfast, Joe's on the Green, and it was simply delicious! I get a craving for coconut macadamia nut pancakes and Joe's hit the spot! We didn't know however that it was a totally open restaurant and didn't bring any sweaters and we all froze.

We then took a little trip to Spouting Horn. Spouting Horn is like the Old Faithful of Hawaii. It is a small lava shelf where water from waves is thrust through an opening, causing water and air to squirt out a blowhole.

Spouting Horn.

Cold in Hawaii?!?!

We hit the vendors after that and the boys find a million souvenirs. Everything Conner picks up Zackie runs over to him and tries to take it saying, "Za Za try!" Poor Conner. I score big on some hand crafted jewelery and am quite pleased with my awesome finds!

We then decide to check out a beach not far from our hotel that is supposed to have excellent snorkeling. The beach looks great and we plan to hit it up tomorrow, but while we are there we find a couple more beached seals.

The boys at Po'ipu Beach.

Monk Seals.

Our hotel has parrots scattered at certain locations across the grounds and every couple days they do a parrot show. The boys are quite excited about this. . . for the first 10 minutes. We thought the trainers would do a little show, but he just stood there and talked about birds. Interesting for Victor and I, but not so much to a 9 and 2 year old. We leave the show a bit early and go back to our room to put the little ones down for a snooze and order some room service for lunch. I wish I could order room service when I am home, I may have to talk to Victor about this one! hee hee

The Grand Hyatt's Parrot Show.

The sun comes out and the rest of the day is just beautiful so we spend it at the beach and lagoon again.

I love this picture of Vic trying to get Mace to sleep.

Me and Zackie were doing some wave jumping. He was so cute he would keep telling me, "Jump Ma! Jump!"

Conner was so proud of his sand castle. It is amazing it lasted because Zackie wrecks everything he makes.

This was the ONLY time Mace was at the beach and wasn't asleep or crying. We had to document it!

The biggest beach bum of the fam.

We had reservations at the most fun restaurant called Tidepools. It is right on a lagoon that is filled with koi fish. We couldn't have had a better table! We are right on the edge and could jump into the water if wanted to. Every restaurant needs to be like this place. Zack never tried to get out and run around once! And it is again a good thing they boys get a 5 course meal because the fish enjoyed almost every bite! Mine and Victor's meal is fabulous!!!! After dinner I start to wonder to just how much weight I have gained while we have been on vacation. . . but only for a minute! The food is too dang good to pass up!

The fam Kauai 2009.

Ohhhh, aren't we just so cute???

Tidepools restaurant.

Our awesome table.

The boys had such a good time a loved dinner. Especially desert!

We all must have stuffed because it was the best night sleep we had the entire time!

Day 4 of Our Kauai Trip

Day 4

Yippee! We woke up to sunshine!!! Having the two little ones holds us back a bit on a few of the adventures we would like to have, but that is perfectly OK with us. All of the members of our family are beach bums (with the exception of Mason, I will explain more later) so we are thrilled to death to hang out at the beach all day!

What's more fun than burying your Dad at the beach?

Awe, cute brothers.

Zackie's cutest footprints in the sand.

Conner getting ready for some boogie boarding.

Seriously, EVERY picture I tried to get all 3 boys would turn out like this!

At the lagoon.

Rented a canoe at the lagoon.

Zack pulled Conner all over the lagoon on his boogie board, it was funny.

We spent all of day 4 playing at the beach, pool, and lagoon. Mason absolutely hates the beach! I think it is just to bright for him. He would start rubbing his eyes and I think he would always get sun screen in them and he would cry until we could get him to sleep. He would wake up and we would repeat the same pattern all over again.

Trying to get Mace to sleep.

Yes! Finally got him to sleep and he let me put him in our make shift shade.

For those of you who have been to Hawaii you know there are Geckos all over the place. Conner loves them! He and my Mom keep count at how many they see and I think there total count was 72 for this trip. Conner was even fast enough to catch a few this year! They are fast little suckers! When Zack would see one he would start to yell "Geckum! Geckum! See dat?!?!"

Fun in the sun for the little geckos.

Dad got one! Victor looks totally hot sporting the diaper bag. Such a good little Dad!

We went to dinner at Keoki's Paradise. It was cute little breezy restaurant with a really fun tropical ambiance. Victor had the best fish ever! There were little birds that would swoop in and snatch up any morsel on the ground they could find. The boys were loving the birds. Zack fed all of his first course crackers and cheese to them. He calls the little birds "Toot toots". When he couldn't find one for a few minutes he would ask, "Toot toot go home?"

After dinner we did some shopping. I was trying on some dresses and when I would come to see what the boys thought Zackie would always say, "Ohhh nice!" On one of the sun dresses that I thought was cute Conner said, "Mom, I don't think that one is really your style." I didn't know I had a "style" so I asked him what my style was and he responded, "Something nice, that dress is ugly!" There is nothing better than the honesty of a kid!

Got the kiddos ready for bed and I found a baby Gecko in our room. It was so itty biddy it didn't seem real. Conner caught him and he and Zack gave it a little pet and set him on his way on the lanai.

Good night little gecko.

Day 4 was a blast and went by much to quickly!

Our Hawaiian Vacation- Day 3

Kauai Day 3

Victor, Conner, and I got up early to go out on a snorkeling/whale watching/site seeing boat. My Mom watched the little ones for us so we could do this, thanks Mom!

The day started out a bit rainy and cold but the captain told us this makes for calmer waters. That sounded great to me! We have done things like this in the past and I have gotten a little sea sick but nothing major. This time was a different story! I got soooo sea sick. I spent most of the time puking in a bag. Thank goodness there were only 6 other people on the boat with us. I did however manage to check out the beautiful views from time to time.

Just getting started out on the Catamaran.

Conner and Victor were really cute and excited about the boat trip. When Conner gets excited or nervous about something he clinches his hands together. I swear the first part of the trip he sat there with his little hands clinched in excitement.

We started out at the south side and traveled almost half way around the island up to the Na Pali coast line. It was absolutely beautiful! Even though I did spend most of the 5 hours wondering when the heck I would be able to get off the dang boat, I am still at awe of the Na Pali coast line.

The Na Pali Coastline. Isn't it breathtaking?

This arch is supposed to be famous and in a lot of movies. The only movies from the list the captain told us that I had seen were 40 Days & 40 Nights and the original King Kong.

We saw a momma whale and her calf, porpoises, sea turtles, and a manta ray on the trip along with all the colorful tropical fish when we snorkeled. We lucked out when we stopped to snorkel, the sun came out and it warmed right up and was perfect weather! The water was still a bit cold for Conner though. He only lasted about 5 minutes snorkeling. It was a great trip. We are always so amazed at what Mother Nature can produce, but it is a whole other experience to whiteness it first hand.

Porpoises.

Baby Whale.

Victor and I really need to get dive certified. It is something we have talked about for years! I keep putting it off because I am so worried about being claustrophobic. Those of you who are dive certified, what do you think?

We got back to the room and it started to rain on and off again so we just got cleaned up and went exploring with the kids. Right off the beach from the hotel we found a Monk Seal who had beached himself to take a little rest. He was fun to see!

These trees are so cool!

The seal was so cute. I am not sure if you can see his eyes, but he just laid there and watched us the whole time.

Zack is also having a wonderful time telling everyone "Aloha!" When he says it, it actually sounds more like "Ahhh ha" and "Mahalo" which means thank you actually comes out like"Halla". He also invented his own language while we were there. He points his finger down to the floor and when he wants Conner to go to him he says "Beow Ca Ca". Beow? Where the heck did that come from?

My adorable boys.

Conner had us pose for him. Isn't he a good little photographer?

Victor and I are huge sushi lovers. We head out for sushi at least once a week so we were so excited to get our chance to consume some Hawaiian sushi. It is the best I swear! Well maybe next to sushi in Japan, but we are yet to make it Japan so Hawaiian sushi takes the cake so far. Last year I was pregnant when we went to Hawaii so I had to sit there and watch Victor enjoy every last bite! We went to an amazing sushi restaurant that night. When we met with the concierge to have them make reservations at all of the restaurants we wanted to eat at while we were on the island I was a little worried about taking the kids to a few of the places. Some of them are definitely not places I would take my kids if we were back home. The concierge assured me that almost every restaurant on the island, no matter how fancy they are, cater to kids and have elaborate menus for them. I guess most families are in the same boat we were in, we want fine dining while on vacation but have kids to pack around to!

When we are seated at the restaurant people are looking at us. There are no other children in site! I am bit worried thinking, "Oh my gosh! What are we doing!?!? Maybe we should have not brought the kids in here." But sure enough, they bring over the high chairs, coloring for the kids, and a 5 course kids menu!!!! All of the restaurants ended up being this way and were so great with the kids! Victor and I got a kick out of the kids having a 5 course meal whenever we went out to dinner. Zack loved it! Conner is our simplest and he told us all that he wanted was a ham sandwich. He is so funny.

The sushi is wonderful! We ate so much and are stuffed!

Yum Yum! Almost too pretty to eat. . . almost.

On the way to our room to get everyone to bed for the night the nightly entertainment they have on the terrace are a few young girls about Conner's age doing the Hula. They were cute and fun to watch.

I was going to post days 3 and 4 together, however just like I promised I am sure I overloaded you with pictures! I decided with the millions of pictures I put on here I better post the days separately.

Day 4 coming soon!