Sky High

Happy 10 years to us! Our friend Chase (see pilot above) does helicopter tours of the island, and offered us a great deal. We've been told by many people that this is the best thing they've ever done, so while I was skeptical that it would be that awesome, we were looking forward to it. We strapped into the door-less ride and took off. At first we seemed close to the ground, but right before hitting Waimea Canyon, Chase told us to look down. Suddenly, it was like the ground was taken out from under us as we swooped over the canyon.
It was fun to have Chase point out hike after hike that we've done.
The NaPali is never a disappointment.
Here's the famous arch that Harrison Ford flew through in a helicopter. We were bummed that Chase wouldn't fly through, too.

The waterfall at the 6 mile mark on the Kalalau Trail (this is where I got 150 mosquito bites several years ago).

See the kayakers below? They are paddling into the sea caves. We are doing that in ONE WEEK!!!



The reason I wanted to do a helicopter tour is to see the waterfalls coming down Mt. Waialeale. When the weather is not cooperative (about 50% of the time--it is the wettest spot on earth, after all), they won't take you into the crater. We woke up Sat morning and it was rainy, windy, and cold, so we were completely afraid we wouldn't get to see this. Chase told us at the beginning of the flight that the crater was wide open and we'd definitely get to go in, so we breathed easier and enjoyed the ride. Here we are, coming into the crater:
Nothing disappointing about it! There were hundreds of waterfalls.

My favorite spot of the trip:
We also got to see the "Jurassic Park" waterfall. The land surrounding this fall is owned by the Robinsons, so you can only stop here if you are on a tour with them. Maybe someday...

I made an anniversary book for Brady, full of pics over the past 10 years. In one of the picture books I pulled photos from, I had captioned that our 1st anniversary steaks were "delicious." Brady and I crack up over that, because seriously, that was the worst meal EVER and we will always eat out for anniversaries from now until death-do-us-part. That little experience taught me that it is comical and unnecessary to sugar-coat your memories.

So, with that in mind... Brady loved the tour. He loved it, loved it, loved it. I'm not sure where he ranks it in terms of island highlights and must-dos. I liked it. I do not appreciate immediate payoffs nearly as much as when I have to work and sweat for them. I LOVE hiking miles and miles for one view. I've also always had a grudge against helicopters--having them spin overhead after you HAVE hiked miles and miles and you are finally alone on a breathtaking vista is..ugh. I couldn't help thinking about that each time we saw trails. Even though I didn't get off the helicopter thinking, "WOW, that was the best thing ever," I did enjoy it. I'm glad we had the opportunity and now the pictures. This island is gorgeous.

Quick story: Our friend Julie was watching Zachary and Kate for us. About 20 minutes after we dropped them off, she left a message on my phone saying, "Zac fell on legos and I can't get it to stop bleeding. I think we are taking him to the ER." Twenty minutes later, she called and said she got the bleeding to stop. My phone was in the car, so we didn't miss the trip or have a chance to worry. Zac still has a bit of a fat lip, but he was fine. Say what I may about no-effort thrills, but going on a helicopter ride is a hundred times better than spending all afternoon at the ER!

Pirates, Fireworks, and Sand Monsters: Our 4th of July Weekend

Zachary had a fling with the show, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" on the Disney channel. It is a silly little cartoon about three mini-pirates who are trying to resolve problems that Capt Hook creates--all while following their slogan, "Safety First!" and wearing life jackets. It is one of those shows that sort of makes you want to stub your toe rather than sit through the 20 minutes of politically-correct conflict resolution.

...But Zac loved it. One morning, we created a shoebox for a treasure chest, and created "gold dabloons" for it. For the next two weeks, the most effective discipline method was to threaten removal of a gold dabloon. Fantastic.

Terrified by stories of older-sibling-beating-up-baby, I have only just started leaving Kate in a room unattended with Zachary. No kidding, I took her everywhere, even if I was stepping out of the room for a minute or two.

The very first time I left her was this past weekend. Zac came rushing into the bathroom, saying, "MOM! Kate is Capt Hook!" My only thought was "Oh, no! What did he DO?!!!?" I ran into the living room, and this is what I found:
Besides poor restaurant selection, Kauai is also not famous for fireworks. You could have fooled Zachary. We took the drive out to the military base (which, thanks to a DUI checkpoint, resulted in a 1.5 hour one-way drive) for their beach fireworks on July 1st, and although the fireworks lasted a whopping 6 minutes--MAYBE--we came away thinking that it was terrific. Zac kept screaming, "WHOO-HOO!," "OH, YEAH!!!!," and "DID YOU SEE THAT, MOM?" He was easily the most vocal kiddo on the beach. We couldn't stop laughing at his reactions to each (tiny) explosion.

I'm pretty sure this was the finale.
Saturday, we kept it local at Brennecke's. We are becoming a bit disenchanted with this beach (which is .5 miles from our house) due to huge crowds and waves that are less than stellar lately. They usually pick up during the summer, so we'll see if this beach can pull itself back up into our good graces.
I'm in the middle with the pink swimsuit bottoms.

Brady is on the left, body surfing:

Here's a pic of my birthday man, who is still lookin' dapper at 32:

On the 4th, we went paddleboarding at Kalipaki. I wanted to try waves on a paddleboard, but at best they were ankle-slappers, and at one point, I fell and scratched my tummy on the reef (it was that shallow). I did catch 2 on the paddleboard, but I definitely prefer catching waves with a smaller board. Brady did much better than me, leading me to analyze my performance for about an hour while he patiently listened. I am a sucker for feedback.
Zachary wanted to get buried in the sand over and over again. Sand is his element.



Kate is such an easy-going baby. She was content to hang out in the shade while we played in the sand.
We finished off the holiday with 4th of July waffles. Yummy.

Rainy Days of June

We had one of the rainiest and coldest months of June in Kauai's history. Somehow, we still beat the system and enjoyed ourselves. Here we are out at Kalipaki on June 4th, a day that started out beautiful but ended in tons of rain. At least we got in our couple hours of fun before the clouds below nailed us.

Brady took this picture while I was in the water. There is something eerie about being way out in the ocean when it is this dark outside. It feels like a movie set and you are certain something is going to bite your toes.
Zachary's favorite thing lately is hiking. He is a little super trooper on the trails. We went up and did the Canyon Trail--one we haven't ventured onto since Zac was bottle-feeding. He did at least 50% of it (so probably about 3 miles).

A clear view of Niihau on the way up to the trail.

Here we are, thankful for our 4WD on the muddy back roads. (Here I am, comforting our poor baby who still just hates the car.)One of our favorite views on this hike.




Brady loves this picture of him with his little man.

The blue picnic table where we took a 10 minute nursing break before those storm clouds raked us in.
There's nothing like watching a wall of water come towards us when we have two children who are not going to dig the wet way back. We beat most of it, though, and the kids stayed partially dry...
...and happy.


The next Saturday, we asked Zac what he wanted to do. "HIKING!," was his enthusiastic response, but when we reached the trail head, he was less than excited and expected to be carried. That is a no-go now that this kiddo is a hefty 38 lbs. (I checked out of the carry Zac responsibilities when he hit about 30 lbs, so now it is Brady that has to grit his teeth and take it!)

We've done this East side trail three times now, and the last two times have resulted in semi-disasters. Most recently, we went when I was a couple weeks from delivery, and we got rained out. This time, we decided to tough out the mud and clouds, and we paid for it by getting rained on no less than 7 times in the 2.25 miles we made it.

The following Friday/Saturday, we took our first camping excursion since Kate was born. It was terrific, minus the 3:30am wake-up by Miss Kate. She was ready for the day and refused to go back to bed, which was a little rough considering we went to bed at 2am. Oh well! The next day made up for the headache with perfect boogie boarding waves and a nice, hot day at Polihale. We even tested out our sweet new sun umbrella that stakes into the ground and keeps our maybe-redhead from burning. It passed the test!

Other than that, we built a lot of towers in June. Good times.