All Night Raves and Law Enforcement

We finally satisfied our camping itch by heading to our favorite destination: Polihale. 17 miles of uninterrupted beach, crystal-clear waters, and beautiful sunsets. Zac loved his crawling freedom, and got right to work finding all the choking hazards/teething biscuits he could.Megan and Matt issued the invite, and we spent the weekend with them. Last time we camped here, it was with two less children and almost a year ago!


Evidence of the purposeful "face plant." He throws himself down and licks up as much sand as he can.
Yum...tin foil dinners and s'mores kicked off the evening.
After the sun set, we gazed at the stars and talked for a few hours. Megan taught us about the Milky Way. I feel like researching astrology.
The night was peaceful, except for the huge group of drunk teens having a rave down the beach a bit. They really only bothered us when they drove at our tent around 11pm. I was terrified they would run us over in their drunken (and who knows what else) stupor. The rest of the night, they flashed their lights and played their music. The next morning, cops came by asking for permits at 6am. My first reaction was irritation at the early wake-up, until I saw them writing out tickets to every one of those teens. Vindication. Sweet vindication.

We had a great morning--pancakes, a long run, and beautiful, clear water. We were even visited by the biggest sea turtle we've seen to date. We boogie boarded, played with Zac, and got a little sunburned despite massive applications of sunscreen. Zachary wouldn't take a nap until almost noon, when his little body couldn't take it anymore.

I often define my week with my weekend. It was a good week.

Adventures with the Youth (and who I voted off the island)

Yesterday I took the Young Men on a moderately difficult 7 mile hike to Hanakaipiai Falls on Kauai's north shore. The Bishop and one Young Woman decided to join us as well--this turned out to be a very interesting adventure. We started hiking at about 8:15 am. The falls were incredible.

Karen had a prior commitment to attend a baby shower and was unable to go. I've listed below several reasons I'd rather hike with Karen than with yesterday's group.
1. She's infinitely better looking.
2. She smells a whole lot better.

3. She would think this declaration carved in bamboo was as funny as I did.

4. She would not complain of being too tired the whole way to the falls.

5. She would not be afraid of jumping into this water jewel and swimming under the falls.

6. She would be able to keep/set the hiking pace. I started exploring at this beach below (the halfway point) while I waited for Bishop. I ended up waiting for nearly an hour. The views were spectacular.

7. She would pack enough water to complete the hike. Everyone ran out of water, but me. After I finished hiking, I had to get an extra water bottle and backtrack over a mile to find Bishop and give him water. He was experiencing some serious cramping with a lack of water. We finally finished the trail at 5pm.

Fortunately, when I arrived home Karen, Zachary, and I all hit pool. Zac loves water--can you tell by his facial expression?

Zachary, 8 Months Old

We are crazy for this little boy. He wakes up early, ready to play and with a huge grin on his face.
Sporting his new shoes, as of yesterday. His tiny toes were getting so skinned up from crawling all over the house, so a friend gave us these tiny crocs. He immediately worked to pull them off, unsuccessfully.

His favorite position: standing. He's finally mastered the "fall" so he doesn't bonk his head ten times a day. It's hilarious to watch him get down. He lets go with tension and anxiety written all over his face, squats down a little, and waits for his bum to hit the tile. Thank heavens for diaper padding.

He is a fast crawler now, and even crawled into the shower this morning before I could grab him.
Serpent-tongue:

Already working on his education (notice the direction of the book):

Another important part of his education:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

• BYU beat Pac 10 team Washington, and we actually got to watch the game
• Beautiful hike to Ho'op'i Falls
• Boogie boarding twice this weekend

The Bad:

• BYU Defense
• Camera battery out of juice, so no pictures of the woods and second (and more scenic) waterfall

The Ugly:

Labor-Free Weekend

After counting on a camping trip to our favorite destination on the island, we were disappointed to cash in for "average" adventures. The weekend ended up exceeding our expectations, even though nothing was really out-of-the-ordinary.

We started our weekend with our typical Brennecke's boogie boarding. The waves were exceptional--with side waves coming in from multiple directions that gave us air time when they were hit right. Very nice. We stayed for hours.
At several points in the evening, we commented on how much Zachary loved to play with the sand, and how good he was about not eating it.

This is the angle we see him from 85% of the time, now that he has this crawling thing down.
Saturday morning, we cleaned the church and ate breakfast with the ward. After our typical Saturday cleaning and grocery runs, we took off for the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We haven't been to the west side for a couple of months, and there was a particular hike Brady went on when I was still in California that he wanted me to do. It was only a couple of hours, and Zachary handled it just fine. We are ready to try some longer distances with this fellow.
Waimea Canyon is cloudy in the afternoon most of the time. It never fails to amaze me how different the landscape is from one part of our tiny island to the next.
Most of the time we would dip in for a swim at a natural pool like this one, but it was beyond disgusting and smelly. Two things to look for in the picture below: Zachary's crazy ear and the brown water.
I told Brady he could not consider purchasing another lens for the camera until I knew the camera features as well as he knew them. He spent a lot of this hike explaining aperture, lighting, shutter speeds, and other settings to me. (He believes his job is complete, but I still have to prove that I can actually apply the information before he gets the okay to hit "purchase.") This picture was taken with very slow shutter speed.

The destination for this hike? A bright blue picnic table--the essense of beauty in nature. It must have been airlifted in. We all ate some snacks,...sported crazy hair,
...and got excited about our spectacular views.
This waterfall is viewed by most visitors on the opposite side.

On Labor Day, we went for a company picnic to Kalapaki Bay. We both had a chance to surf for about an hour each. No, Julie V., we were not cutting up the wave curl, but they were still great rides.

Shaun, Brady's boss, hard at work on the grill.

This trip to the beach, we were impressed with the amount of sand Zac did eat. Six times in a row, he face-planted, then stuck his tongue out to eat. It took me that long to realize it was deliberate. I'm curious to see his diapers tomorrow.
Jeff, using his well-honed construction skills to build castles.

The highlight of the afternoon was paddle-boarding. Shaun rented a couple of boards, and most of us took turns trying out this new fad. None of us were successful in the big waves, but on the rolling current, it was completely refreshing and fun. Here's Brady (and at this point his desire for a new lens with more zoom actually makes a little sense):