And more Kauai

The Wainiha General Store. Our favorite over-priced treat stop.



The boys went through Nintendo withdrawals at first. I didn't want games to even be an option, so I decided we wouldn't bring ANY. No Game Boys, DS's, NOTHING! Not even for the flight. It was a little rough at first, but eventually they realized that there WERE other things they could do, & the world did not end!!






This is pretty much what Zane looked like most of the time. He lives in Zane's Fantasy World.
I have about 20 shots that are a variation of this one. I thought I would just post one.





We took a boat trip along the NaPali Coast. It was AMAZING! The water was calm enough to maneuver into sea caves & under waterfalls falling into the ocean. We stopped & snorkeled in a super-pristine spot. Great snorkeling. Spinner dolphins would swim close by the boat & jump out of the water! It was a fabulous time!










Jo Jo's Clubhouse Shave Ice, with Macadamia Nut icecream on the bottom, with Grandma............AWESOME!




When you got it, flaunt it!!!!



We loved having Grandma O (Brian's Mom) join us the first week. She's so much fun & so easy-going & was such a trooper hiking to remote beaches & braving the nasty minivan crammed with quarreling kids.

I love this lady!!




Zane had a coconut obsession for awhile, & would point out every coconut palm we passed by (they're EVERYWHERE, mind you), & ask if we could pick one of the coconuts. We finally found one that had fallen that didn't appear to be on anyone's property & took it home. They're HEAVY! He couldn't wait to drink the coconut milk. The coconut milk was not what the kids had expected (bitter, or "DISGUSTING!"), and I didn't hear much about picking coconuts after that!

My sister-in-law, Amberly, taking a rest from the constant snorkeling my brother, Ben, was having them do.

It was SO fun having them here & hanging out with them....in between the snorkeling!

Mmmmm!! The BEST onion rings I've ever had! Ono Char-Burger. We went there 3 times in 5 days!!

Marlee, Jake & Max took surf lessons from Mike, the surf instructor. They did AWESOME! and were catching waves the first day. Hanalei Bay is PERFECT in the summer for learning how to surf. Once they learned how to catch a wave, they could ride it all the way in, then step off on the beach.

They were lovin' it!

Brock & Jake, doing............whatever they felt like doing.

Classic Hanalei stop sign. This is the one where we'd always turn to get to our favorite part of Hanalei Bay.

Love it!

My little surfers!



Brian & Evan would surf every morning at 6:30. He thinks he needs to get his own board now. Right.

Ready for war!!!

The boys would have sand fights that lasted, like, ALL DAY! Jill & I gave up trying to keep it under control!

Keaton............Post - sand fight.



I LOVED looking out my kitchen window at the bananas hanging from the banana tree.
It gave me such great joy!

Fun day at Poipu Beach. We had a monk seal & a sea turtle swim up on the beach for a little sun right by us!!

A little much-deserved down-time for Brian.

Notice the book on his chest. Yep. It's Twilight. He read the whole thing. He SAYS he "just wants to know what the big freaking deal is".

He won't admit it, but he's HOOKED! He's reading New Moon right now as I'm typing this.

My sweet boy. What did I do to deserve such a GREAT kid?!!!

Jill & Ev........2 of my favorite people. We had such a BLAST on our Hawaiian adventure!

This was our favorite beach (which we called Baker beach because it didn't really have a real name), until a rogue wave came & plastered Brian & some of the kids on the rocks. It was kind of scary. All the kids were crying. Brian caught the whole thing on his water-proof camcorder.



What is this? Oh, that's right. It's the CUTEST little puppy-dog face IN THE WORLD!!

Max is my little mango man! They're my favorite, too. And we ate some SERIOUS mangoes on this trip!

Kipu Falls. Someone put a huge rope swing here years ago. It was WAY fun. Zane even jumped off the waterfall with me.

We hiked through some sugar cane to get there.





The Bakers.

Brian's last sunset with us.

We always tried to be on the beach at sunset.........SO peaceful & beautiful.

We had previously found out that these vines don't hold much weight ( I about peed my pants watching Brian try to do it). But Max was just light enough.

Brian & I would laugh at this sign. Apparently, when you're a local, you drive, like, 5 miles an hour. Hawaiian style. We wanted to post our own sign that said, "Aloha Try Speed Limit Mahalo".

There aren't a ton of shells on Kauai's beaches. So it was amazing when Max found this shell.

He found it by this big rock out in the water, so they named the rock Cow Shell Island. They decided to hang out on Cow Shell Island for the day, so they needed some supplies. So they would ferry stuff like their lunches & towels & the day's shell finds over to the "island" on the green raft, and set up camp. They weren't very happy that I wouldn't let them take a beach chair over (I don't think it would have even fit!). Soon after, it started to rain & get windy, so they had to abandon Cow Shell Island.

The voyage to Cow Shell Island.

Benj & Amberly...........hangin' loose.