End of Summer

How has Labor Day already come and gone? Summer is over! Of course, that means something different here. In Kauai, you know it's fall when the trade winds stop and you sweat more--lots more. If I could have A/C for only 2 months of the year, it would be September and October.

End of summer means the start of Co-op Preschool for Zachary. Here he is on Day 1 at our house with his four preschool buddies.
Kate is 6 months old in about a week. I can't believe it. Zac's friend Will (see picture above) told me that she "still doesn't look like a girl," so I have amp-ted up the bows. She is getting great at grabbing items, definitely knows her mommy and daddy (and big brother), and is officially sleep trained.

This picture was cuter in my head, but I still like it. I wanted to get her toes a little more clear in the background.
Brady's work hosted a camp-out this year in Koke'e (the "mountains" here). It was nice to have chilly weather for a camp-out, and the scenery was gorgeous. It did put me over the edge with Kate and camp-outs, though. We've been camping 4 times since she was born, and all with the same no-sleep result. We're done for a few months!

"Hi, I had a GREAT time getting rocked and cuddled by Mommy and Daddy all night long."

We had to convince Zachary to take a hike with us and leave his friends behind for a little while. He was not happy about it. After we got started, he loved it. As soon as we were finished he asked to go again.


This was the greatest weekend for Zachary. He played non-stop, enjoyed creating this cereal necklace, and played in mounds of dirt for hours.

There were quite a few games planned. I got called to do the Vaseline/cotton ball game, and this is me realizing that Genevieve creamed me.

Jeff took pics of the event, and I don't see one of Brady in his game.
Zac in the kid relay:
The end of summer also ushered in a big swell. I love the south swells because it sounds like the ocean is just outside our windows at night.



Kate officially eats better than her older brother. All of her food with no battles!
She's also ready for sleeping by 6:30pm every night. It's weird to have my nights back.
This is proof that I also take pictures of my son. Most of the pics, however, look like this:
Although occasionally he doesn't pull a face.
Uncle Doug, Aunt Teresa, and their daughter Holly came out to visit this past weekend. We had a few beautiful beach days with them. Holly will be attending BYU-H, so we hope to see her again soon. We forgot our camera, but Doug snagged a couple shots of us boogie boarding at Kealia.

Look close: this has to be one of the silliest pics of us together.

Zac fell in love with our visitors as he always does! Holly was awesome to play with him in the sand.
We also enjoyed a gorgeous day at Polihale on Labor Day, a few surf outings, and plenty of trips to the pool. Our big news is that Zachary is officially swimming in the ocean now! He's been nervous since about age 2, and stayed mostly away from ocean water (but not sand!). He's suddenly jumping through waves and dipping his head under like it's no biggie. A little peer pressure goes a long with this kiddo!

Enjoy your fall leaves and crisp temps. This is the season I miss the most.

Ryan and Karen

A few weeks ago, Ryan and Karen came to town for two weeks of beach frolicking, boogie boarding, snorkeling, hiking, walks...and 2 days of babysitting. We loved having them here--they were super helpful and on top of that, they were terrific with our kids. Zachary is still praying for them three weeks later, and asks me if Uncle Ryan and Aunt Karen will "come play with me sometime." He's also repeatedly said, "Remember when Uncle Ryan and Aunt Karen played in the sand with me? That was fun. Let's do it again."

The first Saturday they were here, we introduced them to Brennecke's, Mahaulepu and Horseshoe Beach, and Keoki's (basically the same as Duke's, including the Hula Pie).


The following Monday, Brady accompanied them on one of our all-time favorite hikes which goes along the NaPali Coast to Hanakapiai Falls. Karen was 19 weeks pregnant and hung in there like a champ the entire way.
We took in a couple sunsets and watched the waves crash behind our house.

That weekend, they watched our kids while we did the Kalalau via kayak (that hardly anyone commented on, which leads me to believe you only look at our pictures on the blog...).

Brady took off work in the middle of the week, and we headed up to the north shore for snorkeling at Hideaways. I'd spent some time explaining to them that the snorkeling here is not great--the coral isn't vibrant and the only thing you usually see snorkeling are fish. Somehow, we scored a perfect day with bright coral, hundreds of fish, and lots of sunshine. To boot, there was a fire in our neighborhood which required all residents to evacuate for hours, and we missed the whole ordeal. Good timing!

Karen and Kate (By the way, it really threw off our ward when we introduced her at church as Karen Edwards.)Ryan was a great sport and buried Zachary over and over again.

"Fish out of water"

Zachary told us he was tired, and next thing we knew, he was sound asleep in the sand. Brady created some shade for the tuckered out kiddo. I wish we had a picture of his sand-imprinted face when he woke up.

We went to Secret Beach later that afternoon and took a pretty walk. It's not the best beach for water sports, but it is gorgeous and has lots of rocks to navigate.


Kate in her element, the carrier:


Ryan and Karen took somewhere around 800 (?) pictures, so we're expecting good things from their blog. We won't steal their thunder describing all their adventures. We will say that the best part for us was talking every night and getting a chance to know Karen better. We're definitely the outliers of the family, and we feel a little more "caught up." Of course we made Ryan do his Seinfeld impressions, too ("First place, second place, dead last").

Since they left, the weather has taken a nose dive. Muggy, cloudy, rainy, gnats, HOT, muggy, muggy, muggy, gnats, gnats. Please come back and bring us the two weeks of perfect weather you left with.