Kauai 2013

My kids are back in school. Blogging has been on my to-do list nearly every day but still it falls to the bottom and a month later I'm finally getting around to it. Even Kirt has started to ask when I'm going to start back up. Please bless that I can make this a habit...
It's a good thing I have a great place to start.
Hawaii. Right before the kids got out of school for the summer, we pulled them out for an entire week for a big family vacay. We went with a bunch of other families and it was an epic hopefully-not-once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip. Our kids had grandparents from both sides come along. (I say the kids had them, but we enjoyed them every bit as much as the kids!) They even had Aunt Joni and Uncle Sean to play with in between their other friends. Yep, their friends. We managed to get two other families on board to come enjoy Kauai with us this time and let me tell you something. We nailed it. The company, the food, the weather, the activities - all perfection. Although, to be honest, we've always had a good time at this tropical destination. I think the trick next time will be to fill the entire resort with people we love.

 This post is what we bloggers like to call a 'photo-dump.' (I can call myself a blogger since only my grandmas read this and to them, I am a blogger!) I pretended to start organizing the pictures and figure out which ones to put in what order, but I'm just getting my groove back so here goes nothin'.

 Our go-to photo op spot. We always spend an hour here on our last day snapping pictures with heavy hearts. This trip we put off saying goodbye as long as possible and booked a red-eye flight back to the mainland. We were able to enjoy one last Hawaiian sunset, a few more minutes in the pool and a good-bye dinner at Duke's. Leslie says she'll never do the late flight again. I, on the other hand, loved it. Possibly had something to do with the fact that I had a kid by me that slept the entire flight home. She had Cal and they couldn't get themselves comfortable.

 Shave ice is an obvious pit-stop. This is our favorite shop, but this time the Hansen's alerted us to another pretty great option just a short walk from our hotel. I still can't believe I didn't get myself one the whole trip. The kids never finish theirs so I just waited for my left overs, which were fine, but none of them ever got macadamia nut ice cream at the bottom and that's my staple.

The kids got to spend a special date night with their grandparents at a local favorite pizza joint. I was a little nervous because there were 7 of them going to a busy restaurant with notoriously SLOW service that it was going to be a rough night. When we got the report later, they had no wait for a table, the waitress got the kids Shirley Temple's to drink and they were served and on their way in record time. Thanks for taking care of them Pizzetta!

 We tried a few new things this trip. Kirt and Cal joined Anneli and Gay for surf lessons just down the beach from where we were staying.

 And all the boys (and Joni!) woke up before the sun rose to get in some deep sea fishing. They had an amazing day out on the water. All of our precautions paid off and nobody got a drop of sea sickness. Everybody (except Joni?) caught a fish and we had a delicious dinner that night of snapper-jack tuna.

 Although there are no pictures of dinner it was in-fact delicious. Anneli and Cheeta made lemon-garlic rice and a few other fixings to have with the fish. With limited seasonings in the hotel, we were grilling the tuna and wondering (out loud) how best to season it. Another lady that was grilling chicken came over and started pouring teriyaki sauce all over our tuna. Anneli kept telling her, "Okay...Thanks...I think that's good...Okay...Thanks..." I could tell she was getting fired up and was DONE with the random sauce and the lady's heavy hand. Once dinner was settling in our satisfied tummies, Anneli admitted that the teriyaki treated tuna was her favorite.

 These little princesses talked Grandma Cheeta (Kalia and Elliana's grandma) into some sparkly pressies at a local gift shop. Be-jeweled boxes that holds some of Tessa's favorite treasures.

 Tessa Jane took a particular interest in the camera this trip and I loved it. She caught some great memories from a unique perspective and I loved having someone to share that with. How often do I wish I would have had more pictures of something, but I'm too busy living it to remember to pull out the camera?

  On our maiden voyage to Costco we made a mistake in buying these sea-salted caramel chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Our mistake was discovered as soon as we bit into the first one. The mistake? We only bought 2 containers. Don't you worry, we righted that wrong just a few days later as we passed through Costco again. Our carry on luggage was packed full of these containers just to discover that they sell them right here at Costco California for $1 cheaper.

 Our favorite picture-taking pose for Grandma Jackie.

Our family (grandparents and Sean and Joni included) all headed out on an adventure to see these waterfalls and valleys in the middle of the island one day.
 Kirt loves to get in the car and seek out adventures. While I am all about going for a long Sunday drive when we're home, it pains me to leave the beach and the pool (and the comfort of my lounge chair) for a day in the car while in Hawaii.  Towards the end of our trip Kirt wanted to check out a canyon that was a little over an hour away. A canyon that I had seen several years ago when the rest of our crew went on a whale watching excursion. (I was too pregnant to make the voyage.) It was so great that Kirt had his dad and brother that were more than happy to head out on the canyon adventure with him. I took the chore of waiting on everyone at the pool with turkey sandwiches, treats and the occasional pina colada. I ended up making so many pina coladas that my blender started smoking. Whoops!

 We were quite the crew when we took over the pool. 23 people in all with 10 kids. Not your typical bunch of mormons when the adults outnumber the kids. Then again, maybe we're not your typical bunch of mormons! ;)

 You know this little miss was all about having her POG juice in a fancy glass.

 Kirt's favorite pose in front of his favorite church on his favorite island with his favorite people.

 I can feel the sun and the breeze just looking at this picture. Pretend like you haven't seen it when you get it on your Christmas card this winter.

 This was one of the only new restaurant that we tried out this trip. Gourmet pizza and hamburgers and it was delicious. Add it to the regulars.

 While the above-mentioned surf lessons were getting started, another surf instructor took some of us back to these beautiful orchid gardens and gave us a little bit of a history lesson on them.

Each family took charge of a meal for the big group. For our turn we packed up tinfoil dinners and all the fixings for s'mores and headed out to a beach where we could have a little fire. I have done more cooking at the beach this year than I have in my own kitchen. Posts coming soon on my new fascination with dutch oven cooking. After dark we broke out the glow sticks and watched the kids dance in the dark.
This trip was incredible. One I hope all of us remember forever. Or at least until we go again in 2 years. Right everybody? Who else is in?