Thanksgiving Weekend: Food, Friends, Wind, and a Sunny Day at Hanalei

 This picture is all wrong chronologically for this post, but it is the coolest shot we've had in a long time and I can't wait to throw it in a frame.  Hanalei!  The pier.  Clear water.  Sunshine off the mountains.  Perfect.

I typically dread Thanksgiving a little bit.  It's not my favorite kind of food, and I slave over it while I sweat my brains out in the kitchen when all I really want to do is take my kids surfing and call that our Turkey Tradition.  This year, I turned a corner and really loved it.  The weather all week leading up to the big event was rainy and cold, which meant my kitchen was not 90 degrees and I did not want to take my kids surfing.  Instead, they helped me peel potatoes, make salads, take apart pomegranates, and roll pie crust while we listened to music and danced all afternoon.  I loved the pride they felt with the contributions they made to our dinner assignments.  This year, we made the huge vat of mashed taters, a spinach/pear/pomegranate salad, pumpkin pies, and our (silly) raspberry jello/pretzel/cream cheese "salad".  

The morning of, I snuck out on my annual 7 mile run.  I'm not sure exactly when I decided my Turkey Trot needed to be 7 miles, but I'm pretty sure it happened at BYU in response to Kristen Edwards saying, "I think everyone should run 7 miles on Thanksgiving."  So I do, and I love it.  Brady took Zachary to play football at 9am, and they played their hearts out.  Zac wants it noted that he made 2 touchdowns and one interception.  (A few days later, after listening to the BYU football game in the car, Zac came to me and asked, "Mom, do you think I should consider playing football for BYU?")  While the boys played, Kate had a few friends over.  She also ran 2 miles with me because she wanted to participate in a Turkey Trot, too.  Way to go, little lady.  

 Heidi had her house beautifully decorated and the food this year was killer, even to someone who claims this isn't her favorite food.  My favorite was Heidi's sweet potato dish, but there were many contenders for best dish this year.

It dumped rain after dinner, but that didn't stop kids from playing outside and getting drenched.  They played for hours--long enough to dry off, play countless games of 4-square and basketball, and compete in washer toss.  Zachary and Jack played the washer game for 90 minutes straight, coming in only long enough to shout that they'd both "scored a cup!"  Ha!  We finished off with lemon meringue, pumpkin, blueberry, and banana cream pies.

The next day, we did a few chores and then left for Polihale to hang out with the Hadleys and Clarks.  It was extremely windy at our house, so we worried it would be a bad day on the west side (the sand blows hard on the west side).  Unfortunately, that was an accurate prediction, but we found a more protected spot on the beach and tried to surf the messy water.  The sand dunes were the winner with the kids and they climbed up and down all afternoon, playing King of the Hill, tag, and Capture the Flag.  This is the only picture we have the entire day.

Saturday, we carved out the entire morning to watch the OSU v. Michigan game.  It didn't disappoint, heading into double overtime, and ending with a W for OSU.  Zachary was into it the entire game, and the kids jumped around and danced after the final play of the game.

After the game, we jetted up to Hanalei, which felt more like a 2-hour crawl through traffic and reminded us that yes, Hanalei is further away than Polihale.  Whew.  The drive up, we were rained on over and over again, and we felt confident that we'd be sitting under an umbrella all day, but we were wrong and pulled in to sunny skies.  The boys darted off to surf immediately, but not before capturing Zac's mean surf face.

Zac "dropping in" on Ty.

We met up with Nic and Heidi and Nikki and Istvan's families.  They doted on Owen and built him a little sand bath to play in.

Zachary made himself a sand bath, too, because he's the original sandman in the Edwards' house.

The waves were nothing great, but they were fun enough.  Small and far between, but still surfable if you paddled really hard.

Sand never gets old.  Playing with friends in the sand is the best thing ever.

Sand booger!

Our friendship with these two is coming up on a decade.  Love them.  They've dubbed our families the Clarkwards.  A few things about the Clarks:  they never miss an opportunity to serve, they always beat us to wherever we are heading for the day, and they are really witty.  It's a big win for us in the friends department.

Finding little waves to ride.

A tourist came up with a bunch of tag games for the kids to play together.

Zachary body surfing.

Kate was lucky and found 4 of her preschool friends camped out right next to us.  They joined in the fun and played for hours, too.

The best part about Kate's boogie boarding style is that she rides the wave, and turns on a huge grin at the end when she sees the camera.

Brady surfing.

We cruised down the beach to the pier and the Kate and the Clark kids jumped off a few times before calling it quits because it was FREEZING with the wind.  Kate charged it and jumped off first.

This baby!  Sigh.  I can't believe how lucky we are to kiss his chub and rub his (finally-sprouting-hair) head on our cheeks every day.

 Kate impressed us big time with her resolve to surf.  She couldn't surf at Pavilions (where we were all day before walking to the pier) because the break was not good for her ability level and they were not rolling nicely.  Instead, she waited patiently until early evening and went out, shivering the entire way, to catch her goal: 3 waves.  She rode them in a hurry and so well!  I'm so happy with her balance!  She doesn't surf on her boogie board like Zachary used to, so I assumed surfing would be harder for her, but she jumps right up!

Her resolve to surf also scored me this gem, which is one of my favorites ever:

We snapped these just in time on Brady's phone.  Ahhhhhhh, love Hanalei.

 On the way home, we popped into Safeway.  Owen was irritable and sick of the car, but as soon as he got on Brady's shoulders, turned that frown upside down.  When Brady wasn't walking, he'd grab at ears and hair, but as soon as he walked, Owen threw his arms straight up in the air and giggled.  Roller coaster!

We came home exhausted from so much beach-hopping.  I'm joking.  You don't get that tired from beach-hopping--you feel amazing and refreshed and completely lucky and you come home and tackle huge piles of laundry (and sand).

Thankful.  That's how I feel.  I'm so thankful and my heart is so full.  I look at my kids and Brady and I can't believe how much love my heart can hold.  Happy Thanksgiving.