slice {DAY 7}

DAY 7: TUESDAY FEBRUARY 4th

it was sunny at hanalei bay.
for a few minutes;)

shave ice shack closed.

for the third day in a row.

tragic.

boogie boarding addict brennan spent 3 hours at it at the hanalei pier.

he swerves now.

fancy.

so fun to watch.

chase is a man of steel.

who likes to ride boogie boards to the "wa-wa,"

but who does not like it when the waves take him out.

ignorance is bliss, hahahahaha.

max is possessive over her sand holes and digging equipment.

mostly just over the holes she digs.

she doesn't have to have it all to herself,

but she does like her own personal space.

she yelled "privacy!" at lot at chase today.

it was so so funny.

we all drank fresh coconut water from a coconut that fell off of the palm tree this morning.

just off of the pier.

that our new hawaiian friend cut for us with his big fat knife.

it was the peak of my day.

SLICE.

just like that he was taking the top off,

3 inches from max's face.

hole on the top.
the coconut.

he paid brennan a $1 to try it.

and then he actually did it.
both of them.

max made us pour it into my empty water bottle before she'd drink it.

sean and i drank it right out of the top.

then grandma.

i wished we had it on tap at home.

then our hawaiian friend drank the rest we left inside.

and scraped out all of the fresh coconut for us to take home.

baths.

naps.

luau.

hula.

flame thrower we know.

heat on your face he was so close.

flames that curved around him like snakes on a tree.

best taro rolls of my life.

kailua pork on a whole new level.

coconut cake. WOW.

and my virgin pina colada with pinapple and flowers in it.
sean all to myself.

dream 

come

true.

driving home at 9pm in an island city that's already completely asleep.

with no street lights.

sean is the master kauai driver man.

i can't stop thinking about the flame throwing luau.

we are living in a dream.

don't

wake

up:)

"did you see what brennan did to me?!"

hahahahahaha

ruuuuude!

look, after 7 days on the beach,

you just give the baby what he wants.

and it's a great moment of freedom and independence.

for everyone:)

note: my hair just called,

and told me to come back.

it was on their bucket list to burry me.

i called this good.

CHECK!

above: freshly sliced coconut,

wrapped up and ready to go.

see big fat knife?

above: just give him a water spicket 

and he'll die a happy man.

THE LUAU

my favorite drink:)

 ...

i miss the way i slept on Kauai.
and the way everything just glowed.

take
me
back:)

it's like you're hooked up to an IV drip {DAY 6}

my favorite part about this picture is the lower right hand corner.

you know, just so everyone knows we're keeping things legal, hahahaha!!!

...

DAY 6: MONDAY FEBRUARY 3rd

...

sean and i ran up the mountain to see the view of the ocean before breakfast.

on the way home it started raining.

a misty rain.

but warm.

it was on of the peaks of my day.

running in hawaii is like running in your own personal oxygen bar.

at least when you're used to exercising in utah.

or not exercising at all.

whichever.

the thick rich air is intoxicating. 

it's like you're hooked up to an IV drip,

and you've never breathed so easy in your entire life.

i could run a marathon on this island and never get tired.

that's what i told sean this morning.

ok, maybe just a half.

that's what i really told him.

then we talked about life, 

how much we hate video games and phones,

and how much we love vacation,

and stuff like that.

it rained the rest of the day.

so we sat under towels on the beach at the hanalei pier so brennan could boogie board with the best of them.

max found a friend who spoke spanish.

the spain kind.

and chase kept yelling "HOOOOLA!!!" at the girl's dad.

it was so so funny.

until it switched from light rain to pouring rain so hard that it sent us running for cover.

at which point we bought our second batch of carne asada tacos of the day from Pat's. 

my mom and Pat are friends,

and let me tell you,

Pat does something to those corn tortiallas--mmmmm mmmmm mmmmmm.

Pat told sean that she tells tacos by the pier so she can surf in the mornings there.

oh the life of locals. 

we blasted the heater to 80* to dry us off all the way to mom's old cabana house,

where chase slipped in the mud by the banana trees,

and had to be stripped down and hosed off twice.

we said our goodbyes and made our way to Ke'e.

where chase CHASED the roosters,

as usual,

and max peed on the beach in the sand,

and brennan thew himself in the sand like a ball over and over again.

so chase did that too.

monkey see, monkey do.

except he face planted and ate so much sand that he will probably be gnawing on sand at breakfast tomorrow.

on the way home we bought 20 diapers for $14 from big save.

i bought some extra bags of chocolate covered macadamia nuts and some ice cream snickers.

$45 later we were on our way back to the jungle house.

where we hosed sand off of our children,

threw them into the tub,

fed them,

and sung them to sleep in 2.5 seconds.

vacation life is the best.

brennan told me every day here is the best day of his entire life.

"just peaks, no pits."

i laid with him for a little extra tonight,

just to soak it in a little more.

tomorrow: LUAU DATE:)

below:

we are still laughing at this picture 

and how stiff chase's body was at the hose off showers. 

oh the agony.

below:

check out the massive gecko on the right hand side.

GINORMOUS!!!

you must see stars in the jungle at night {DAY 5}

the only picture from the entire trip with all 6 of us in it.

we get an F for group picture.

how did this happen???

rats!

...

DAY 5: SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2nd

we went to church at the hanalei branch today.

and there's always one thing to be true about going to church anywhere in the world.

no mater where you go to church,

sacrament is always a big fat joke with 3 kids 5 and under:)

that's what i was thinking at 9:35am this morning.

also,

we saw more whales.

and by more,

i mean TONS.

we saw them off of the shore at the kilaeua light house.

then off of the shore in princeville.

apparently we have amazing whale watching luck

because right when we walk up

they are JUMPING and breaching themselves out of the water

before our very eyes.

what i would give for a pair of binoculars and a fancy camera.

we ate burgers and some of the best fries of my life in hanalei.

except for the $4 part.

that part was barfy.

we hiked past the waterfall on the way to Queen's bath,

but decided to skip the actual Queen's bath.

the waves and swells for the day proved imminent death,

and because we didn't want to be added to the statistics of tourists that die on kauai from being stupid,

we called it good and turned around back through our hike.

it was a great great time.

we starved the kids out for the rest of the day,

and took them to the park in princeville.

like i was guarding crackers under lock and key.

so that their tummies would be ready for steak an chicken for dinner at mom's friend's house.

every mom knows there's nothing worse than kids that aren't hungry for dinner.

they proved to be real champs,

and even got invited back.

christmas miracle indeed.

i would have bought them a puppy i was so proud.

good thing they didn't ask

because then we would have had a puppy

and

i

do

NOT

want any puppies:)

we talked about swapping houses,

and sean checked out a physical therapy clinic office in hanalei to buy.

not at dinner.

that was at lunch.

by the end of the night we decided there was no way i could handle the bugs,

and maybe we'd better just come to terms with the fact that we will not be moving to kauai after all.

then we talked about which beach we wanted to try out tomorrow,

and how we could work the wishing well shave ice shack into all of it.

choosing which beach you're going to go the next day is about as stressful as it gets around here right now.

that and where to eat.

#vacationlife

it's a rough life.

then we missed our turn to the jungle house

because there are no, i repeat NO street lights on kauai.

ok,

there are two.

just not anywhere near our turn off.

we were saved when sean and mom spotted the juice shack.

phew.

when we got out of the car brennan was like,

"what are those lights in the sky??!!??"

and we were all,

"STARS!!!!"

and then we all stood there staring up into the darkest sky full of bright white stars

like we had never seen stars before.

until our necks got cricked and we called it a night.

oh boy,

how i love how dark it is in the jungle at night.

YOU MUST SEE THE STARS IN THE JUNGLE AT NIGHT.

i've never slept like this before.

it's so dark

and quiet

and dark.

did i mention it's really dark?

except i almost shot the rooster this morning that crowed all night long.

BANG!

BANG! BANG!

that's what i was thinking laying in my bed last night.

max's face,

hahahahahahahahaha

'cause when ya gotta go,

ya gotta go.

above: 

me with a tan face. 

oh yeah:)

the part of the hike where it turns to queen's bath.

the part where we turned around.

because we didn't want to turn into the tourists they write about in the guide book:)

30 foot waves and wet rocks.

death by drowning, no thanks.

note to self: january and queen's bath=no.

hike=yes.

ABOVE:

whale watching again.

so many!!!

the kids could never see them,

they always ended up crying and fighting about who could or couldn't see them.

we finally just told them they were all gone,

but they weren't,

we just said they were.

you know:)

this might have been his favorite hill rolling hill ever.

it really was great.

the day sean hit a rooster {DAY 4, pt 2}

above:

the hosing off ritual 

we performed on all humans 

before entering the house

multiple

times

a

day.

endless fun for all.

sean noted there was a handy bidet like function

that worked great for bum holes and sand.

good times. 

brennan sprayed the hose into our bedroom window 

{our OPEN bedroom window}

about 15 times.

it was awesome.

also shown:

"the gecko patch"

one day brennan and i counted 31 out on the big jungle leaves.

some of them we saw through the leaves by their shadow.

it made me want to bring some home as pets.

until i took into account that the utah climate would kill them,

so then i decided to not.

above: the flowers max and i picked 

on the way home from the shell hunt.

above: i'm basically drooling from the mouth 

and looking like i have rabies staring at this picture.

DAY 4 {Part 2}: SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1st

...

things to note today:

i wore clothes all day for the first time.

because on vacation you can just do what you want.

and i did.

and it was great.

i meant to put my bathing suit on all day,

but we were out of guava juice

and toilet paper

and paper towels

and coconut syrup,

and i was like,

"let's get shave ice at wishing well,

and go to the store after."

and sean wanted to look at the surf shop shoes one more time.

and brennan wanted a rash guard

because of the gnarly rash he still had from the first day on the beach.

and then max was all,

"ME! ME! ME! ME!"

and then grandma wanted to stay home and hold the fort down while

chase took a nap.

one pair of sunglasses

a hat

a rash guard

a hanalei t-shirt

toilet paper

paper towels

guava juice

2 coconut syrups

and 4 wishing well shave ices later,

we were home.

at which point god decided to flood the earth a second time,

except without the arc and all of the 2x2's.

so we hunkered down for movies with the kids,

and pineapple by the slice.

and i was still in my clothes.

fresh hawaiian caught fish for dinner

and a game of checkers later

and then it was off to bed.

and that's when i realized i got dressed for all day.

and it was just really nice.

you know,

to wear a bra and shorts and stuff.

mostly it was just really great to wear a bra

for

the

first

time

in

3

days:)

in other news...

sean hit a rooster

on our way down the road to hanalei.

BANG!

right under the wheel by my feet.

and then up it flew off of the back side of the car,

flapping and moaning a sad rooster sound.

in sean's defense,

he did swerce to miss it,

but the rooster still got hit.

brennan looked like he was going to cry,

and my mom told me the natives would have given sean a high five.

because they don't like the roosters there anyway.

nevertheless we MAY have stifled some laughs and covered our mouths

with big "did that just happen?!" eyes

and stuff like that,

but felt a little badly too.

i hope i don't stay dressed all day tomorrow.

that's not what i meant.

you know what i meant.

and i hope we don't hit anymore roosters.

except for the one that keeps roosting outside of our window at all hours of the day.

him we can hit.

just sayin'.

goodnight moon,

emily