Hawaii!!

I'm finally sitting down to write about Hawaii.  I've been waiting to post until I had the pictures from Jake's phone, but he's gone so much lately I never get them.  I finally decided I'll at least get everything written out so I'm ready to go when I get the pictures.

We had a great trip to Kauai.  This was the kids' first tropical trip, and I think they liked it.  The weather was perfect and it only rained once the whole time we were there.  Yay!  When we were skiing Saturday I asked Sage, "Would you rather be skiing or on the beach?"  She said, "On the beach duh!"  So we've definitely established that the beach is good.  The condo we stayed at had two bedrooms and a nice big kitchen so we could cook and didn't have to go out so much.  It also had a cool river thing to swim in with water slides.  Sage wished we'd spent more time swimming there.

We went on a few really fun hikes.  The first was along the Na Pali Coast.  So beautiful!  However, we did the hike the one day it had rained a little, so it was really slippery and muddy.  The hike was 4 miles round trip and it took an hour for us to go 1 mile, so I made the executive decision that we needed to turn around.  Jake didn't love this, but he doesn't realize what a disaster it would have been if we'd continued.  So really I saved us all.  We went on two hikes to waterfalls.  One hike took us through these crazy trees with branches that wound all around the path.  It reminded me of my Dad's weird ghost story where the bushes slowly get closer and closer to the path until they overtake everything.  There were also vines hanging from the trees that the kids were able to swing on.  Cool.  One of the waterfalls had a pool of water at the bottom that we were able to swim in.  Everyone got in except for Kate.  That water was cold!!  Like the coldest water I've ever been in.  Sage lasted all of two seconds.  The last hike we went on was called the Sleeping Giant.  A beautiful hike with amazing views all along the way.  So beautiful and green!  Basically the opposite of where we live.

The beaches were amazing.  Because it was winter, the beaches along the north side of the island had huge waves and horrible rip currents so they weren't letting anyone swim.  But it was still fun to walk around and they were still beautiful!  We were able to do some snorkeling and swimming on the south side of the island.  The kids really liked snorkeling, even Sage.  We also had fun playing in the waves.  One day Zack had fun trying to body surf, so the next day we rented a couple of boogie boards so he could try that.  Big mistake.  His autism self came out and he got so made that we weren't able to give him exact instructions that immediately resulted in him catching a wave.  He wouldn't let it go and proceeded to tell us what horrible teachers we were for the next hour.  Luckily it was funny so we were able to refrain from drowning him;)

The food was hit and miss.  The shaved ice was delicious, of course.  We got fruit from farmers markets and that was the best.  I LOVED these grape things that had skin you had to peel off.  No idea what they're called, but I wish we had some here.  Macadamia nuts are my new favorite, especially with ice cream or coconut.  Jake had his all time favorite dessert called Hula Pie.  He still talks about it.  It was very delicious.  We also got to go to a luau where they cooked a pig in a pit.  They had a big buffet and Sage's favorite food was pork.  Zack ate more food than I thought possible in one sitting.  Then we got to watch a hula show thing, where Sage of course got up to hula with everyone. 

We went on a boat ride along the Na Pali Coast.  We also got to stop and snorkel off the boat.  We saw some amazing fish and amazing scenery.  We saw tons of whales and even some dolphins.  After we saw the dolphins Sage turned to me and said, "Mom I literally had tears in my eyes.  Literally"  That girl is drama.

I can't talk about this trip without mentioning the fact that Jake was pretty sick for half of the time.  Poor guy.  Right before we left he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  The first night we were there he had such a rough night that we took him to the clinic the next day.  They gave him a huge steroid dose, which helped him feel better but also made him quick to anger.  Cuz that's what steroids do.  So if you ask him about this trip his report isn't super favorable, but that's because he was sick and ornery the whole time.  He definitely needs a do over.  Bad, bad timing for being sick.  Not to worry though, the rest of us had a great time!

And finally, I'll end with the missile strike.  Or should I say the fake missile strike.  On Saturday morning we were on our way to the boat ride.  Well, we were trying to be on our way.  There was a bad accident and we hadn't moved in 30 minutes.  We finally had to call and reschedule.  It was a definite bummer, but we turned around and went back to the condo to regroup.  A few minutes after we got to the condo we got a loud message on our phones that said, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”  What??  At first I thought this can't be real, but I turned on the tv to see if there was more info.  Sure enough, the same thing was going across the screen also saying to pull over or get away from windows.  Find shelter (not sure what shelters you from a missile).  The girls started crying.  I was looking out the window at the beautiful blue sky wondering if this could really be true.  But our world is a mess, Korea is really a mess, so I figured there was a chance.  Then I decided there was nothing I could do about it so there was no reason to freak out.  I got some games out and played with the kids.  They calmed down, and 30 minutes later when they finally told us it was an error we went on our way.  I think it was a blessing that we ended up being in the condo and not out and about.  It sounds like people were freaking out and not handling the missile news well.  It would have been a lot harder to stay calm and keep my kids calm with people freaking out around us.  So horrible accidents and traffic can sometimes be good things.  Never thought I'd think a missile was going to hit while in Hawaii.  Very weird experience.

Anyway, if you've made it this far you win.  I should have done a couple of posts.  Oh well.  Now here's a million pictures:)

We made it!

huge snail

Na Pali Coast

Roosters that were everywhere

This was the hike we had to abort.  Really muddy and slippery.  And all of the hikes were either straight up or straight down.

This trail is 22 miles one way.  We ended up doing 1 mile.  Jake and Zack would love to return

Waimea Canyon (aka the Pacific Grand Canyon)

See the little arch on the edge of that mountain?

Too far away but this is me celebrating that I actually got in the cold water

A cool swinging bridge we went on

The luau! 

This is what Zack does when you tell him to smile

Sage learning to hula

Waiting for dinner.  I think Sage was hangry

The trail with the crazy trees.  Kind of claustrophobic

The locals were jumping in the water.  We did not

This is how Sage hikes

Beautiful views from the sleeping giant hike

We made it back to Utah!

On our way! (in the last row)

The river at the hotel

Cool pond at the hotel

The kids room (I included this so you could see how weird Zack's thumb is)

Jake's all time favorite dessert, the Hula Pie

On the boat

The Na Pali Coast (beautiful!)

Kate was busy being sea sick for this picture