Hawaiian Punch!

Now that this post has been almost a whole week in the making, and we are all officially in various stages of having large parts of our bodies peeling away in this Northwest weather........

We have returned from tropical paradise! With Jeff's job the way it is right now, and actually, my job the way it is - we have not been quite the vacationing fools we once were. It just doesn't seem to happen as much without paid vacation time or free air passes. It has been a long time since our family took a real vacation together. Also - this was a wonderful opportunity for us to have a relaxing vacation before the 6th member of our family arrives and we are grounded for a little bit.

This past week we were able to go to sunny Kauai, Hawaii for almost a whole week. No one in our family has ever been to Hawaii before, and after this week, we will most definitely be back. It was so wonderful and also quite an adventure..................

This first part is mostly for moms with young kiddos -

To start off, we were able to save some money if we split up to fly. For anyone else considering this, please call me first! Jeff and Sarah flew from Seattle-Honolulu, then Honolulu-Lihue and I had a flight with Joshua and Benjamin that was straight from Seattle to Lihue. I was possibly drinking the day I thought that one out. :) While not complaining about being able to save some money this way - the arrangment was just a little too much for me once it actually materialized.

The fun with that started at the security line. I felt so horrible for all the business people with only their little laptop bags behind me, as I got to take off 3 pairs of shoes (which for some reason made Ben just lose all control screaming "my shoes, my shoes" at the top of his lungs.) So 3 pairs of shoes, 3 thin jackets, a car seat, the stroller that until then was successfully trapping Ben in, 3 carry on bags, and I had to take out the portable DVD player. That was quite a load of stuff! I also had to throw away a bottle of water I had taken for Ben that was with his bottle because you can bring liquid for a child but ONLY milk or juice, which I had purposely not brought because both of those can spoil, but whatever. And with Ben free from his stroller and screaming about his shoes, it was awesome. I think we took about 15 of those bins up with stuff.

Thank goodness for early boarding! Whoever came up with that deserves an award. We were able to carry all that junk onto the plane before most of the people were on it. We got to carry it all the way to the back of the plane - row 30. The most awesome place to sit if you want to talk to every single person lined up for the bathroom - since it is directly across the aisle from you. On a side note - who really has to go to the bathroom 5 or 6 times on a plane? I think once the seatbelt sign comes on people automatically have to get up to go.
Ben was thrilled to see his bottle fit perfect on the tray table - but it was before they made him put the table up to take off..............not thrilled then.

My kids were actually pretty good on the plane. Kids 9 and 2 still take a lot of energy - so I felt kind of like I was a ping pong ball going back and forth between the two the whole time but they were well behaved which I am very grateful for. And Josh really stepped up and helped out a lot with carrying a lot of our stuff for me. By about hour 4 Ben did not want to be in that car seat any longer and we moved his part of the party over to my lap.

There is nothing though to describe waddling through the airport with all that stuff and seeing Pam and Michelle there! AWW............2 more adult size people to carry stuff and entertain Ben! Many of you know, that my kids LOVE their cousins and aunts and uncles. They were so happy to see them and Michelle took the boys to run in circles a little bit while Pam and I waited for our luggage.

Once we had our bags, Pam even waited with all of them and the boys so I went BY MYSELF to go pick up the rental car.

Not long after that we were able to pick up Mike and Jacob from their flight from Honolulu and then Jeff and Sarah from their flight. Finally we were ALL there and ready for fun!!We were all ready to head to our condo. We stayed at a beautiful place! You never know when you find it online, but this place was awesome. We stayed in a 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom unit. The Sirrines had a bedroom and we had a bedroom. It was very nice. We were on the bottom floor and even though we had a "parking lot" view rather than an ocean view, that just meant we had a big nice grassy area on our porch for Ben to run around in the mornings while we ate breakfast out on the outside table. We didn't take a lot of pictures of our room - but this was when you walked in and our view...pretty beautiful! Wednesday - This was probably one of our busiest days. With the time difference in Hawaii (3 hours earlier than Seattle) we were all up and ready to go, even after we felt like we slept in by about 5-6am. I would say the kids were dressed in their swimsuits about 15 minutes after being awake. The pool opened at 7am, so after some quick breakfast it was down to the pool for our quiet group of 9 to wake up everyone with pool views. The pool was kind of like a lazy river, but with no current. There was 2 water slides and 3 hot tubs. The hot tubs had sand on the bottom, which even though it sounds weird was really nice and relaxing. There was also a little toddler area with sand that was a lot of fun for the little ones. This pool was very refreshing and definitely got a lot of use from us!

While we were swimming, there was a waterfall that you could swim under and there was a little cave with benches you could go in and sit on to escape the heat. Josh had been practicing with a snorkel mask and told us there was money on the bottom. Silly us to think he meant a few pennies - or maybe if he is lucky a quarter. Much to our surprise he came back up with $15!!

Since we had been swimming since 7am, by about 10am, we were ready to check out the beach. That was a lot of fun. It was so peaceful to just sit there and relax. The kids were playing in the waves and we moved the chairs out to the water so we were sitting in the water having the waves come up all around us.
Ben was very careful about "backing" into the ocean.





We then decided to head out and find a geocache that we had read about. It was located at an area where they filmed part of Jurassic Park. The only part still left were the poles that were on the sign when they drove into the park - but still very fun to go see. The roads to get there can almost not even be described - but thank goodness for rental cars. We had both purposely rented SUVs for this road specifically. After we found the Jurassic Park cache, there was another one about a mile up the road. We pulled over and the boys all hopped out to grab it. While we were sitting there, two people pulled up and hopped out in swimming suits asking if we had been to the "swimming hole" just around the corner. Needless to say, we were intrigued. So the kids followed them, and told the guys as they walked by them, Remember when I say this, that Jacob and Michelle are 17 and 15 - so this wasn't just my kids - but after they were gone for a few minutes we decided to go find them and see this swimming hole. After we walked about a mile (and not believing that these kids followed these people so far straight into the jungle) there actually was a swimming hole that was amazing. Josh, Sarah, Michelle, Jeff, and even Ben got out and swam for a little while. How often do you just head straight into the jungle to swim?

This is a waterfall we drove by on the side of the road. The land there is so pretty and lush.

We decided to do even more exploring and ended up at a beautiful beach for the kids to practice their newfound snorkeling skills. Thursday - Once again up and early - The majority of our party were signed up for a tubing adventure today. With me being too pregnant, and Ben being too young - he and I got to sit back at the hotel and just chill for awhile. It was actually a great chance for him to play in the toddler area of the pool. When everyone is there, he doesn't want to be there because he wants to be playing with his cousins - but with them gone it was a relaxing morning. The tubing part of our group had a blast - They got to go inner-tubing ourselves through the irrigation canals and tunnels of a long abandoned sugar plantation. They had a great time riding up to the mountains in Swiss military vehicles where we started our trip. We first thought the helmets were overkill but we turned out to be happy to have them as there were some good opportunities to whack your head in the tunnels. Friday morning we woke up and the kids were able to help feed the fish in the hotel's koi pond. There was an employee that gave each of them a little cup of fish food. Ben didn't quite get to give them a few pieces at a time, and just dumped his out at once :) Then off for more swimming..............

That evening was a very fun night for all of us. First off, it was Sarah's 13th birthday. We had wanted to so something really special for her, so decided to go to a luau that night. That was a BLAST! We all got dressed up and headed off for a fun night. Pam had gotten the girls real flower leis to wear that night and they wore flowers in their hair. During part of the show, they had people come up to learn a hula and both Josh and Sarah headed up and were not shy about it at all. They had a great show, performance, and dinner.

Near the end, the host called Sarah up to the stage for her birthday and the whole crowd got to sing to her. She then got to do a dance with a male hula dancer. It was a fun, fun time for all.

Saturday - Geocaching day! One really great thing about geocaching is that it takes you to places you probably would never see otherwise, many of them off the beaten path. This lake behind us is the lake that Indiana Jones takes off in a sea plane in the first of the Indiana Jones movies.
We stopped at one point to find a cache, and there was some little shops there for the kids to look at and find some knick-knacks to take their friends. There was a field there that kept Ben busy the whole time chasing chickens. There are chickens EVERYWHERE on this island. Because of a hurricane in 1992 a rooster farm had to release most of their chickens and they have taken
over the island. There isn't a road you drive down without seeing chickens walking down the side of it. Ben loved it. He called out chickens whenever he saw them, so being let loose in a field free to chase them was a dream come true to him. We even ate dinner one night at Costco (yummy hotdogs) and there was chickens walking around that we were throwing food to. Nothing like trying to throw food near each other's feet and seeing who freaked out when the chickens came close.........

I think Ben TRULY thought if he just kept trying he would eventually catch one.

These are some shops we stopped at that the kids liked looking around at while looking for souvenir for friends.
The guys searching for another geocache in the middle of the jungles.

Sunday was our last day :(

We had to be out of the condo by 10am so we ended up renting a room at another hotel so we could have a home base to keep all our stuff in and be able to still swim that day, and yet still take a shower before our flights home. To start the day we went on a river cruise up to Fern Grotto. It was very pretty but also frying hot with no wind, so would have been nicer in cooler weather.
We then spent the day at the swimming pool at our new hotel, and playing on their beach. We didn't get any pictures there which is too bad, because it was very beautiful there too.

That evening we all got off to our separate flights - Mike and Jacob heading off to Los Angeles, to head home the next day, Jeff and Sarah off to Honolulu, to head home from there, and Pam, Michelle, me and the boys straight home.

It was so wonderful to be over there in such a beautiful part of the world - but also there is nothing quite like the landing at Sea Tac airport and knowing you are back home!