Kauai Hawaii

As our first Hurrah in years and a last hurrah for the next couple years, we went to Hawaii for two weeks! Terry and Geneil own a beach house in Kauai Hawaii  "Kawaii"   that they rent out year round and as an especially awesome graduation present, they reserved the first week in May for us! It was awesome! The house was huge (we didn't know how big it was; in hindsight; we should've invited people to join us!) and beautiful and perfect for a dream vacation in Paradise!

The kids were pretty naughty in the airport, but once on the plane they actually behaved surprisingly well, with only a few fights along the way...

Once we landed, we got our luggage and car, and hit up the first burger shack we found. Rocco refused to sit at the tables inside, he wanted to look at the beach while he ate... Our cute little guy is a total beach bum!

We didn't switch over to Hawaii time very easily, so every morning we would wake up super early and take a walk. Then we'd either make breakfast or go get some. It was a delightful way to start the day! 

The Kauai beaches in the town of Kapa'a are awesome to take walks along because they have swings every 25 yards or so... 

 But our favorite place to take early morning walks was along our own practically private beach! Every morning when the tide was low there were lots and lots of tide-pools with little sea creatures for us to "oooh" and "awe" over...  Rocco and Zeegan LOVED it! And to be perfectly honest, I was almost as excited about the tide-pools as the kids were!

We would walk until it was warm enough for swimming. Then we would run home, change into our swimwear and start enjoying the water! There was a little stream that ran into the ocean right there on our practically private beach that was perfect for the kids to play in. They would work real hard EVERY SINGLE day to build a dam and then they would spend hours trying to catch the little tiny fish that would swim around in the now slower moving water....

Each day around eleven in the morning it would start raining. It was still hot out, but the kids didn't enjoy the cold sprinkles, so we would go back inside when the rain started. We'd eat lunch and spend an hour or two reading books, napping, and watching movies, and then the rain would clear up again...

Around one each afternoon, after the rain stopped, we would head out for a family adventure!

THe first day we went to spouting horn where the water shoots out of hole in the rocks hundreds of feet into the air. We saw Sea turtles from our lookout point and Rocco was ecstatic.

Another day we went to the Secret Beach. It was Gorgeous! a bit hard to find and you have to hike a treacherously steep hill to get down to the beach, but it was so worth it! Absolutely Beautiful.
Of course we were literally only on the beach about 45 minutes when it started pouring like it was Noah's Ark all over again... We had to leave.

 ANother day we went to a park and then took the kids mini-golfing. Rocco's a pro! the kid took to golfing like he'd been playing it his whole life (all four years)! Seriously tho, he was good! And he loved it! ZZ lost her ball in the first round and her club somewhere near the middle round, but she still had a fun time.

 On afternoons that we went back out to our beach, we would first walk down and see our Monk Seals. Monk Seals are endangered, and a mother monk seal and her pup were right next to our beach. Normally an area of beach with monk seals on it is roped off and you can't get anywhere near the monk seals (endangered!), but because the mum and her pup were right by the road; we got to closer to them than people ever get to in the wild! We will never be able to do that again, practically guaranteed. 

We found another fun park, right next to a real cool kids beach! We only went there one day though, because it was pretty over-crowded. But the kids REALLY enjoyed that one day!

Our last day in Kauai Hawaii (as Rocco like to call it!), we walked down and visited our Monk Seals one last time.

 Then we went on a bike ride! It was SOOOO much fun! Sorry for the blurry pics, I was trying to take them over my shoulder while I rode. LOL.... Anyway, Zeegan fell asleep about two minutes into the ride, but the rest of usl thoroughly enjoyed our little bike trip.

Then we hopped on a plane and headed for Oahu! 

Thank-you Vines family for helping make this WONDERFUL vacation possible for us! We love you guys and we loved our time together in your beautiful home :)

Kylene and Fred we wish you guys could have come with us! We definitely need to plan a vacation for the whole clan in Kauai Hawaii!