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.