S&N 3: Kapa'a Bike Path, Ono Ono and Kalipaki

Monday morning, we went to the Kapa'a Bike Path and biked along looking like a family of polygamists without Brady.  The kids were nervous to do this adventure because they were afraid of falling off the path into the ocean, but after getting on the trail, they realized there was nothing to worry about.

Kate wasn't concerned at all and fell asleep within minutes.

We finished off the adventure with a trip to Ono Ono Shave Ice, getting there just before the rush.  I can no longer count my shave ice purchases on one hand, and decided that shave ice really is pretty tasty.

Scott and Natalie's family went to Kealia and boogie boarded for hours (I had to pick up Zac from school and get him to basketball practice).  Our favorite story from the trip was when they got stuck driving in the sand.  They dug and dug, and tried and tried to get the car out.  A nice man came over to them and said, "Isn't this a Pathfinder?  Don't you have 4WD?"  Sure enough, 4WD was activated and off they went.  Love!  Also, again love their endurance--they stayed at Kealia for more than 4 hours.

Monday night: Lapperts.  Everyone was so nice and kept it from sleepy Kate, who wasn't deprived because look at the pic above.

Tuesday, Audrey joined Kate at ballet.  One of Kate's favorite memories from Utah this last trip was going to Audrey's gymnastics class with her.  She seriously talks about it all the time, and couldn't wait for Audrey to come to her class.

Then, we met Brady and the family at Kalipaki.  The day started with rainstorms but after the first downpour at the beach, we had sunshine the rest of the afternoon.  Perfect day for drip castles, paddle boarding, and Porky's hot dogs with pulled pork and BBQ sauce.

I need to do some fact-checking, but I'm pretty sure they took out all of their kids on the boards.

We finished off the trip with dinner and graham crackers with peanut butter and chocolate chips (we only do fancy around here!).  Zac was so excited that his cousins liked his treat.

Ahhh, then it was departure time.  Tears for everyone and a week later, my house still feels empty.

Thank-you, thank-you Scott and Natalie for bringing your family.  One-on-one time with families is my favorite way to socialize.  I love that I know about Easton's classes, Parker's fearlessness in the water, Brynlee's wide-eyed expressions, Audrey's laugh, and Maddie's observations.  I love that Natalie and I talked late in the night with our sleepy husbands next to us.  I wish this was an annual thing.  Love you all!

S&N Fam Come to Town--Hanakapiai, Turtles, and Sunset

Next up: Hanakapiai Falls hike.  I forgot what being in a big family looks like until we were prepping the night before.

Scott and Kate:

Overlook to Ke'e Beach:

It was super windy at the .5 mile lookout over the Napali Coast.  I made some comment about holding on to your hats...and then watched as mine flew off my head and over the cliff.

So glad we took the time to take sunny pictures, because on the way back it was rain, rain, rain.  Rain is fun on hikes.  No biggie.

Natalie was a trooper and hiked with Audrey on her back most of the way.  Audrey and Kate are about the same size and carrying Kate any significant distance on my back sounds like torture.  Way to go, Mama.

We reached Hanakapiai Beach and ate lunch, played in the stream, and added to the cairns.

We made it to the bamboo forest before Brady and I turned around with Zac, Brynlee, and Kate.  We had a meeting we had to make that night.  Brynlee and Zac tried to swing from bamboo vines.

Kate let us know that she was getting "really, really tired."

She looked like this precisely 30 seconds later.

Once we got back to the river, Kate woke up and hiked the entire way back by herself.  It was raining hard at times on the way back.  The kids made themselves umbrellas.

Brynlee and Zachary were mountain goats on the way back.  The best part of having Brynlee with us was how impressed she was with our stories.  We make up stories when we hike and she was all ears. It made me feel like a million bucks every time she gasped and when she was so obviously caught up in riding dolphins to escape pirate ships.

The kids also made rivers of water to clean their dirty hands.

On the hike, a couple right behind us said they saw my hat and it wasn't very far off the trail.  Brady had just spent the night before telling Scott and Natalie about many questionable decisions we've made in the outdoors, and this wasn't going to be another one of those stories.  We realized it was really close, though, so he hopped down and retrieved it (his hands were covered in mud).  I love this hat.

Scott and Natalie's gang pulled in after 9pm that night, successfully reaching the waterfall and grabbing some souvenirs on the way home.  It rained and rained on them, too, but they came home impressed and excited to tell us about the falls.  Those are some tough kids!

I love this picture of our shoes drying out after the hike.  Thanks to the power of Oxy Clean, our clothes are red-dirt free.

Sunday morning, we all went to church.  S&N originally planned to drive up the canyon, but decided against it and hung out with us all afternoon.  It was so relaxing and fun to have a day to kick around the house.

We went and checked out Koloa Landing, ate dinner, and then ran off to see the turtles and sunset.

The turtles were hands-down the best part of our time with them.  We've taken a lot of excited visitors to this spot to check out a few and sometimes many turtles, but none as enthusiastic as their family.  There was at least one baby and one mama, and one other.  Every time they came to the surface, it was a chorus of squeals, jumping, and pointing.  Even Zachary, who has seen these a hundred times, thought this might be the most exciting sighting of his life.

We ran to the point and even caught the sunset.

After a charming evening, we ended with chocolate tart.  Yum.