South Side, HI

This is out of order but my posts about Tunnels and Hanalei have tons of pics so I am saving them for last. This was from a day that Tara and Mimmi were with us. It was super stormy on our end of the island so we ventured down to the south side. This is the only beach we have ever been to on the South side. Neither Jon or I know it's name but we both think it's pretty special.

It took me until almost the end of the trip to figure out how to take underwater pictures with my phone. I think these are the only pics I got.

In Town, HI

Whether it was to sip hot chocolate in the rain or eat shaved ice in the sun almost every afternoon brought us into town.

You can see from all the below pics that Zi took his shaved ice pretty seriously.

Look at all those GROMS! It was so fun to spend our last couple of days with Makai and Finn!!

Secrets, HI

Secrets is one of our favorite beaches. However, the trail down to it is steep and muddy and filled with mosquitoes, which makes it quite a commitment to come here, but worth every ounce of the sweat and blood. This is another spot that works best when the waves are small and it hasn't rained too much or too recently, otherwise the mud becomes unmanageable with the two little ones. The first time we came down here with the Smiths it was too big and/or too high tide to get back into the pools but it was an incredibly fun day nonetheless.

I love this pic of Jon throwing Zi in the air.

Trent surfing

Part of the kid crew Dom, Nicole, and Zi are missing. From left: Eden & Trent, then Collin (Bus), Olivia (Bus), Nathan (Trent's friend), Jason (Tanner's friend), and Tanner.

The below pics are from the middle portion of our trip, when the Smith's had gone home and Tara and Mimmi had yet to arrive. The pools at this beach are pure magic. It's like time is frozen when we are here.

Eden is holding the first hermit crab we have ever seen in Hawaii. I had been lamenting the fact that we had never seen a hermit crab for the entire trip which made this little guy a pretty special find.

It's hard to see but Zi is jumping to Jon in this pic.

In these pics Eden is sneaking up on a fish in a pool that keeps poking his head in and out of a little hole. Eden could have hung out with this little guy all day.

"Quiet! Don't scare the fish!"

There he is. Pretty cute right?

This pic so reminds me of Proverbs 27:19 (one of my favorite verses growing up) "As in water face reflects face,  so a man's heart reflects the man."

One of the only times we were ever able to actually watch Jon surf, as most of the waves are pretty far out to sea on a reef.

Around the House, HI

This year (for the first time) there was a pair of bikes at the house. We were beside ourselves to see them there and figured we would be going on bike rides daily. But the only bike ride that Jon and Eden went on was on the first day, then it never happened again. /: I think we just got a little carried away with spending almost every breathing moment at the beach and in the water, and it hindsight, I wouldn't change that for the world.

Zion's surfboard bed (compliments of Aaron Shook). He was obsessed with it. (:

Eden, squeezing in a moment with all the boys.

Eden's flower arrangement for Thanksgiving

There were four families (16 people in total) that gathered in the house for Thanksgiving. We feasted on poke and seaweed salad in true Hawaiian style. It was perfect!

Zion and Tanner. Zi loved Tanner and he was always so sweet to Zi.

One of Zion's favorite things about Kauai. Even now he is telling me: "I want a 'cocka-doodle' to come to my house".

This is one of the first projects Eden and Tara did when Tara and Mimmi arrived. A Hawaiian Rudolf. (:

This is a long story, but a moment I don't want to forget. Eden put her thumb in her mouth after picking a spicy pepper off the pepper bush in the back yard and spent the rest of the afternoon suffering the consequences. It was actually pretty brutal for her, and I did everything I could to just keep her mind off of it.

This was during the first big rain of the trip. Zion posted up on the porch singing and dancing in the rain - stoked to be soaking it all up.

This is a beautiful tree near the playground by the house. I wish I had one in my backyard.