Kauai

I'm very behind right now. On life. On updating this blog/journal. On so many things. But we just returned from a very nice trip to Kauai and I just can't pick up the pace. Island living suits me well. It's nice to escape from real life and demands for awhile. Wish we were there longer....10 days, even though the days were SO wonderfully long, was not enough. I don't like catch-up posts so I'm going to try to be brief. We rented our friends' home near the north shore and it was amazing. Like our own mini-resort. Private, quiet, and  breathtaking views.

When we got off the plane and noticed there were chickens all over, we knew this was the place for us! We went on hikes, there were chickens..the parking lot at the beach, chickens....Costco, chickens.....fancy restaurants, chickens.....side of the highway, chickens everywhere. So funny. There are no natural predators on the island so the feral chicken population is thriving, much to many of the locals dismay. We loved it though. There is so much abundance on Kauai. So many beautiful farms and gardens. There were so many almost empty pristine beaches. The people were so wonderful and the aloha spirit is really a way of life. We had 9 days of gorgeous sunny and mild weather. Lots of rain at night, and dry days.   

Farmer's Market

 We didn't do much on our list as far as activities because we were lucky to meet a couple local families whose kids were on break. We saw them in some way almost every day. They took us to the best beaches, on a hike to a rope swing where the latest pirates movie was filmed and we ended up looking at real estate a lot as well. For fun. I thought. We loved Hanalei Bay and Sela, Zig and I took surfing lessons. Sela did awesome and got up nearly every time. The waves were small and perfect for learning. It wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be and I didn't fall much either. But the waves were tiny and our boards were huge, so that helps tremendously. We tried stand up paddling which was also very fun.  

 Sela and her instructor, Moose.

We sought out the best fish tacos/burritos and on our second to last day, we found our very favorite. The Fish Market  is where it's at! I could live on fish tacos, and I pretty much did for the ten days we were there. Pat's taco stand was also a great little place we hit several times. We found the health food store and the Farmer's Market the first day we were there. And the shave ice. I almost overdosed on shave ice on our honeymoon. I love that stuff and I'm so glad we don't have it here. Someone needs to make all natural shave ice without all the dyes, but I figured our good eating the rest of the time canceled out our occasional treats. Zig was good, he did not partake.

Wild boar, there's a first time for everything. We stumbled upon this bbq place in someone's yard. It was incredible. We were nearly speechless. Best bbq I've ever had. And I'm from Texas!

There was a shave ice machine in this person's yard as well. Some little grandpa made these for the kids.

 Zig's mom joined us for part of the time which was very fun. She took hundreds of pictures, but I didn't take too many. Every time I took one, it didn't even remotely capture the scene so I stopped trying. Plus, I wanted to play in the water, since it was WARM. A beach is not a beach to me if the water is cold. I hate cold beaches. I love to swim, body surf, and be in the water. Not in a wetsuit.

 Zig's mom, Tina, and the gang.

 Rollin trying to make an extreme sport out of anything he could.

 This beach was a blast. The waves came in and then made this little boogie board area where kids of all ages had a blast.

 I saw this adorable little kid on the left and thought "I am home." My family will understand.

 A river flowed into the ocean here....so cool. I believe South Pacific was filmed at this beach.

We went to a small luau put on by one of the local families we met. Their girls had already babysat for us so Sela and Nina loved watching them dance at the luau. Zig was in charge of the camera when the kids were called on stage, so there are some issues with the pictures. This was my new point and shoot, easy camera. Sigh :) The blurs you see are Rollin, Sela, and Nina trying to dance. I was outside with shrieking Evan. We were like peanut butter and jelly this trip, inseparable. For better or worse :)

And here are me and my attachment. I took lots of pictures looking down at my leg because when not in my arms, Evan was permanently attached to my leg. Another little stage I suppose.

We celebrated our 11th anniversary, met up with my high school friends, Darron and Linda, and took it easy most of the time.



 11 (long) years! Just kidding! I love you, babe!

We have been home for a week. I got all the laundry done the night we got home, put away the suit cases and hit the ground running. Today is the first day I am finally taking a breath. We had a great week. Sela won the Eastside Final cross country meet, she began playing cello in orchestra, and I finally played a tennis match I could be proud of. Definitely the best tennis I've played since my big break from the sport (still a LONG way to go). I almost died of exhaustion in this marathon match I had on Friday. Afterward it felt so good to be utterly and completely worn out from doing something so fun. My opponent and I had ONE game that lasted 30 minutes. I thought my arm would fall off since I was the one serving that game.

Thankfully, we still have our weekends totally free (say no to soccer!!)  so we've all been home today taking it easy, working in the yard and in the house, and we made fish tacos for dinner.