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Three Weeks in Paradise

Okay, so it's true - we are finally home and back into our "normal life" in Orem, UT - but we were lucky enough to enjoy three weeks in hawaii.  We spent 6 days on Maui, 3 days on Oahu and the rest of the time on the Island of Kauai.  Each island is unique and each has something that we love - but we have definitely decided that Kauai is for sure our favorite.  However, this most certainly may take more "research" to determine.

When I downloaded my pics I had 273, when I got done deleting the ones I didn't want anymore there were 203 - so which ones should I share with you?  It's hard to decide - but here are few of my "favorites".

So is paradise really worth it?  Traveling with 2 small children for 12 hours?  Depends on when you ask us?  The flight over was awful.  We left Utah at about 1:00 pm - just about nap time for Jameson........no nap on the plane to LA - about a 45 minute nap on the 6.5 hour flight from LA to Maui with a cold, runny nose and cough, he was miserable and so were the rest of us.  Josh fell asleep for about the last hour of the flight and was LIVID with us for waking him up when we got there.  Another hour or so to get the rental car and then another hour to get to the condo........we made it to bed at about 2:00 am Utah time.  After Brad and I got the boys to bed and were laying in our bed we both said to each other, "We are NOT doing this again!"..... I said, "Maybe we will bring the boys back when they graduate from high school." 

However, the next day we hit the pool - which was awesome with 3 waterfalls!  and we'd had a decent night sleep, we were soaking in the sunshine and loving the warm weather - we were planning our trip for NEXT YEAR!

The boys were pretty good troopers on the way home - they slept almost the whole way home.  Good for them!  Mom and dad didn't get any sleep, but at least we didn't have to entertain them.

Beach Time:

Yes, we LOVED the beach - the boys could spend hours, digging in the sand, swimming, playing, splashing in the water, chasing crabs, collecting treasures, building forts, digging holes, chasing birds, looking at fish....etc.  So, we would usually either go swimming in the pool at the condo ing the morning come back for lunch, then head out to the beach in the afternoons.  Both boys loved the ocean!!!  Brad and Camille loved playing with the boys at the beach and

completely enjoyed the serenity of the beautiful scenery (that the boys were oblivious to).

Maui Ocean Center:

There is an aquarium on Maui that is just excellent.  It's beautiful.  We LOVE to go there.  We were extra excited to take Jameson this year because he loves fish!  He was in heaven - he loved to see all of the fish and the sharks in the aquarium.  We even happened to be there during feeding time and got to watch the sharks feeding - pretty cool stuff!

Speaking of SHARKS:

Brad and Josh went to a snorkel rental place to get some gear for Brad, but because it had been raining that day, the salesman wouldn't rent to him.....he said that the rain bring the sharks into shore.  Brad tried to convince him that it would be okay, he wouldn't go swimming with the sharks.   So, the man proceeded to tell Brad and Josh a story about a man who just the week before was snorkeling and got his ankle bit off by a shark because of murky water.....needless to say Brad and Josh left without snorkel gear.  

So, the following day we were at WalMart shopping for some snorkel gear and there is a man in a wheel chair with a prosthetic leg.....and Josh says to me with all affirmation "Look mom, it's THE guy who had the shark bite off his leg!"  He was pretty convinced.  

Snorkeling:

What a beautiful thing it is!!!  The water is so clear and fish are amazing!  Joshua has been practicing all summer in the neighbors pool so he would be able to go when we went to Hawaii and he did great!  We saw some pretty amazing fish - along with the octopus, beautiful corals, sea urchins.  There is something that is just so amazing about being able to be part of the ocean world for a few hours.  It's one of the most relaxing and awe inspiring things that I have ever done.  LOVE IT!

Creatures:

Wow - we entered a whole new world of different creatures.  We got to feed the pigs and goats (see pics) on the sugar cane plantation, chase hundreds of stray chickens, we saw a rare hawaiian munk seal (see pic), lots of sea turtles bobbing about in the ocean, a "man of war" jelly fish that we caught to keep from stinging anyone (see pics), toads and frogs on our nightly "frog hunt", crabs crawling across the sand and rocks and Brad even saw an octopus (body about the size of a coconut) while snorkeling one day.

What trip to Hawaii would be complete without tasting a coconut.  Joshua found this coconut laying on the grass at our resort.  We working on husking it for several hours, then asked for dad to step in an help us out.  Brad took it to the beach and husked it against a tree stump (a skill he learned a the polynesian cultural center a couple of years ago).   We then brought it inside and opened it up and tried it out.   Nobody was very impressed!  Too much work for something that doesn't really taste that good.

It's definitely Fall

What more can we say about fall?  It's fresh - it's crisp and we love playing in the leaves.  This is something that we love about our new house - there are plenty of leaves to rake and play in.  The weather has been so nice that we go outside for a couple of hours every day, rake into piles - jump and laugh and then move onto playing with other things like jumping on the tramp or throwing rocks digging in the dirt or riding bikes.

We have loved fall!

Begin at the Beginning - or somewhere:

So, having been inspired to create a blog of the goings-on in our daily lives - here goes:

We are sad to see the happy carefree days of summer go - just about every minute that we could, we enjoyed the fun summer activities of swimming, playing at the park, swimming,  riding the wave runners, camping, swimming, going to Bear Lake, picnics, bike rides and playing in our newly remodeled back yard..... oh and did we mention - swimming,  but now the days are shorter and the leaves are bright and the air is cold and crisp.  What will the next season bring for us?  Trick or Treating, racking leaves, fresh baked pumpkin bread and hot chocolate.....we can't wait to see.