that we got a new roof while we were away in Hawaii? A hailstorm in February (which happened to occur on our Gourmet Club Brunch day) caused major roofing issues all over town. Enough for our insurance companies to declare them “totaled”. We chose to have them come replace it while we were away…much easier on the ears that way. Our neighbors/friends, the Brooke’s, took these pictures of the process.
My mom’s husband, Steve, loves to take the kids on adventures. He sends them invitations via e-mail to special “events” and outings and they love every bit of it. On Saturday, he took them to the Heard Museum, where there was a butterfly exhibit.
He brought us all McDonald’s for breakfast (which I love…shamefully). And then with me and Nana in tow, the boys all headed to the museum. The butterfly exhibit turned out to be smaller and less spectacular then we had hoped, but thankfully for us this was not the only thing they had. They also had some animal exhibits (ring-tailed lemurs (which as a sidenote I SWEAR I saw in Hawaii but no one believes me), porcupines, wallabies, and other animals whose names I cannot remember or pronounce!). AND they had what turned out to be my kids’ favorite exhibit – SNAKES of Texas! One rattled at us. Several hissed (smelled) us. Some climbed the walls of their very small cages. And some laid there like all snakes and people should when it’s over 100 degrees outside. They even had a little snake “whisperer” who gave us some interesting facts and let the kids touch a corn snake. Very fun.
I love outings like that, and so do the kids. Thanks for the adventure, Pops and Nana. And for the stuffed snakes and t-shirt from the gift store!
On Friday night, Jacob had scheduled an outing with Derek as part of his “Faith in God” program. A goal-oriented program from the Church for kids aged 8-12. This particular goal was planning a parent-child activity. It was no surprise to me that he chose Derek and that he chose fishing. He made a checklist of supplies and necessities. He packed a dinner for them. And they had a great time. They went fishing at Lewisville Lake…caught a catfish and (according to Jacob) lots of bluegill. They even rented a paddleboat.
In the meantime, I didn’t want to sit at home with the little guys twiddling my thumbs (or worse, cleaning), so we ran some errands and went to Gattitown. All-you-can-eat-albeit-nasty-pizza. But games galore, including a photo booth, which I’ve been dying to try. After it took my money 3 times without working, I gave up. But I decided to try one more time right before we left, and it finally worked. I love these pictures. Just a reminder of a fun time with my little boys.
You may remember that I have mentioned in previous posts, that we have been having bunny “issues”. They’ve been eating our plants, and our tomatoes. They poop in our yard. And there’s several of them. We don’t have a pool. We don’t have a dog. So I guess that makes us very vulnerable. You’ll remember that we have had bad experiences with bunnies before, which leaves us especially sensitive. (It’s starting to sound like we need counseling instead of an exterminator!).
But – my three “men” would not allow us to be overrun. Remember they made a trap? While I was away at Girls Camp. Well, the trap was too small. We would watch bunnies jump on top, sniff all around it, but never go in. So they made another…bigger trap. Still no luck. For TWO MONTHS they have been trying to catch those darn bunnies. Nothing.
In the evenings, they would chase the bunnies. Reminiscent of the gardener in Peter Rabbit (one of my favorite books). Several times I would walk in to a room and find Derek like this…
My sweet, gentle husband has turned into Elmer Fudd. No kidding. On three separate occasions, when he thought I was not around, I walked in on him loading the BB gun and running to the backyard. And while working from home, he would keep it loaded next to him, watching and waiting to see the little critters from the Study window. Has he lost his mind?
(I’m sad to report that he was successful once and apparently I have a bunny buried somewhere near my home. I don’t ask – Derek doesn’t tell. Please don’t call PETA).
But on Tuesday morning the boys woke us up with hollering and screaming…”we think we see gray in the trap!”. The alarm was set and they could only look from windows. Derek was skeptical – we fell back asleep. Half an hour later, “we saw it move!” Derek jumped up, got dressed, and they all went to check and found this:
You would have thought it was Christmas morning! I’ve never seen so much jubilation in all my life! Their trap had finally done it’s job. It was jam that had finally done the trick…red plum jam! I thought Derek was going to cry happy tears!
They drove it up to a field about a few miles up the road and let it go. Before letting him go, they named him “Jack” because they thought he looked like a Jack Rabbit. I hope Jack doesn’t have some built-in GPS home tracking device.
Wednesday, July 16th
The morning started with an early tee time for the guys at the beautiful Princeville Golf Course. I drove them over and was thrilled to see this rainbow over the course…end to end. Isn’t that spectacular?!
Meanwhile, Dana and I got ready and headed down to the pool at their resort (Westin Villas) to relax. It was a gorgeous day and perfect temperature. I went to pick up the guys when they were done. We had a yummy lunch at the Westin. Then sunbathed some more.
Around mid-afternoon we decided to venture out to one of the places we had read about just a few blocks from the resort. It’s called Queen’s Bath…another secluded little area tucked in a lot of volcanic rocks. It’s a “pool” that you can swim and snorkel in.
After enjoying the fish and calm waters there, we looked over to what we named “King’s Bath” and saw some “kids” (people younger than us) swimming and jumping from the cliffs. This is what King’s Bath looked like.
If you know me well, you might know I have a history of jumping off things. For some reason, jumping gives me some sort of “thrill”. I like the challenge. I like being able to say I did it. So, of course, I decided that I MUST jump King’s Bath. Dana, always the sane voice of reason, decided to take pictures. Derek, always the other voice of reason, decided to jump off the “low” rocks with us, but not go any higher (he snorkeled instead). Matt and I, always the voices of insanity decided to attempt all three heights (small, medium and high). I will demonstrate now with Dana’s awesome pictures:
SMALL:
MEDIUM:
HIGH:
First we needed to contemplate our options (and our fate if it went wrong).
I went first, with the help of some onlookers counting for me! (That’s Derek in the water.)
Then (finally – poor Dana was getting a sunburn waiting for us to get up the courage to jump) Matt went. But first he had to wait for a sea turtle to swim out of the way (how cool is that?!).
THAT.WAS.FUN!!
That night we went out to a restaurant called “Postcards” in Hanalei. It had been recommended by my flight buddies (Rick and Sarah). And it did not disappoint. It’s a little house and they grow some of their herbs and vegetables in the backyard. Everything is organic and gourmet. It was great! I loved it.
Got this great picture of Dana and Matt out front:
Sidenote: While I was typing up this post, Samuel decided to peel and eat his own banana. You can imagine the mess that made. I guess he was feeling neglected! 🙂
Yesterday we went over to Highland Village where my brother, Michael and his wife, Olivia, recently bought a home. After living in Austin for 5 years, they decided to move up here. And we couldn’t be happier! We’re so excited to have them close (only about a 40 minute drive – shorter when they finish a new bridge over Lake Lewisville). We went to lunch and took a tour of their house…it’s beautiful! Uncle Mike and Auntie Liv are so fun to be around and the boys adore them. So glad they’re close!
Tuesday, July 15th
We started out the day early with a drive down to the airport. We had been told by everyone that the BEST way to see Kauai was to take a helicopter ride. Leading up to our trip Derek was convinced that he would let me go, but sit the helicopter out. But he was easily persuaded once we got there, and it turned out to be a GREAT experience for all of us. This helicopter had windows from floor to ceiling and the island is SPECTACULAR! We all had a great time. It was a beautiful day…very clear…and the beauty of the island is indescribable. After seeing the NaPali Coast from the helicopter I couldn’t wait to go to it in person (more on that on Day Five).
After the heli ride we stopped for some lunch. When we went on vacations as teenagers I remember my mom asking us questions from a book called, The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock. Actually, she used a “Jr” version. It’s just a little conversation-starter type book with lots of get-to-know-you-better questions. So I pulled it out on day three and it was so fun to hear the answers…some of them serious and introspective…some of them funny. You just pick and choose – some questions are better than others, and some are skippers for sure. I had a good time being the moderator of that game, which meant I wasn’t answering any of the questions, until they caught on and made me participate. We did that everywhere we went on Tuesday, and we laughed and laughed. It was a highlight for me.
After lunch, we headed to the south side of the island. The men really wanted to SURF. During the winter the best surfing on the island is right by where we were staying, up in Hanalei Bay on the north side. But in the summer, we had heard that the best surfing was in Poipu. So we headed there to look for a surf shop that rented boards and gave lessons. It took a little while, but we were persistent and found a surf school next to the Sheraton. Matt and Derek got “schooled” while Dana and I lounged on the beach (I fell asleep). I think surfing was more physically taxing than they had anticipated but they had a great time. And – bonus – now they can say they surfed the waves of Poipu in Kauai!
We ended the day with more questions 🙂 and an early dinner at Brennecke’s Beach Broiler – which had great open air windows and a view of the beach. Early to bed that night – we were tired!
I know what you were expecting – you were expecting me to blog about my whole trip in one nice little blog post. But I can’t do it! We packed so much in – took so many pictures – have so many stories to tell. I just can’t do it all in one big post. So I’m breaking it up. That way I’ll get to tell more of the details.
DAY ONE – SUNDAY, JULY 13th
Our first day was Sunday. After picking Derek up at the airport, we drove around the south side of the island. We stopped for a yummy brunch at a cafe. Then headed back up north to let him change. We went to our church services there in a beautiful open-air building. The chapel was lined with big windows and doors and all of the classrooms are in a big open pavilion. We stayed for the three hour block and enjoyed the welcoming nature of these Saints. They were warm and faithful and very kind to us. We also enjoyed getting to know another family from California who were vacationing. At the end of Relief Society, one of the sisters shared some mango sorbet that she had made for all the ladies. Score for me! Then we once again made the drive down to the airport to pick up the Hickens. Yeah, they’re here…let the fun begin.
DAY TWO – MONDAY, JULY 14th
That morning we were greeted once again by our red-feathered friends, the roosters. They were in the gardens at the resort, in the parking lot, around the pools…cracked me up!
We started the day with a little poolside meeting to discuss our plans. Then headed into the small town of Hanalei to get some groceries and have some lunch. We ate at ‘Tropical Tacos’ – the men had fish tacos and we all enjoyed the chips and salsa.
After shopping we headed down to a secluded beach that had been featured in some of the literature…called Hideaways. It’s quite a hike to get down to it (not long, just very steep), but it was well worth it. Beautiful, quiet, uncrowded beach just outside the Hanalei Bay. Derek and Matt snorkeled. I made a weak attempt at snorkeling, but the waves were too big for me.
Shortly before leaving, we saw something swimming a few yards out from the shore, and realized it was a seal. So fun to see that!
That evening we met at the Princeville Hotel for a luau. Lots of food, pog juice, and a good show. It was a necessary part of our Hawaiian experience.
It was Dana’s idea to pose like that, and then she left me hanging! If you know Dana and I at all, you will surely doubt that. 🙂 These guys were great performers.
And then once again we were awed by the beautiful sunset in paradise. Here’s a shot of the moon:
Some more fun pictures of the kiddos. These were all last Monday night. We were working out in the yard. Samuel was sweeping. Jacob was the water-boy. Caleb was giggling. Derek was mowing/edging (working hard). I was pulling weeds taking pictures. 🙂 A normal Smith summer evening.
In this shot of Samuel, he had seen a flock of birds and was pointing and gawking. That child loves animals!
**Warning: Get a drink and settle in…this is a long one… 🙂
As usual, we had a plan. On Friday of last week we had packed up and had the Suburban packed to the gills, including the bike rack. We were headed to Austin, where the kids would be staying for the week. We were leaving promptly at 11 am, in order to make the 4-hour drive before Derek had a very important meeting with his boss at 4 pm, which he would take on the phone in Austin.
At 11 am, while we are standing in the driveway making last minute luggage adjustments, Derek confesses to me, “I feel horrible – I’ve been nauseated all morning.” Uh, oh, I think. That’s not good. He had just started a strong antibiotic that morning, and I was positive that was the cause of his nausea. He had been having splitting head pain all week and had seen a doctor. They thought it was fluid in his ears and gave him the perscription.
Next thing I know he’s inside vomiting. He came out saying he felt better and we should go. We make a quick stop at the Hickens, but have to pull over to allow him to throw up again. Again, he thinks it’s better and we should press on. We make another quick stop at Wendy’s to feed the boys before the trip. Derek spends the entire half-hour in the Wendy’s bathroom, throwing up. Finally I say, ok this is not going to work…let’s get you home and in to bed. On the way home Derek is vomiting outside the car window and I’m trying to pull over as quick as I can. It won’t stop!
So we spend the next 4 hours trying to assess this situation (and washing the Suburban). Actually, I was assessing…he was vomiting. For four hours! It was awful. But we had flights leaving from Austin the next morning, and somehow had to get our kids settled there to. So I got on the phone with the airlines and found Derek a flight leaving from DFW to LAX, where I had a 5-hour layover. He would get to sleep and recover in his own bed, and take a later flight. We would meet up, fly to Kauai together, and everything would work out great! So after Derek stabilized around 3 pm, I left with the kids and most of the luggage and drove to Austin. My Dad and Christy were sweet and met me about 3 hours in, for dinner, and some help driving.
We got the kids set up and to bed. I got some sleep. The next morning I choked on goodbyes to the kids (so hard to leave them!) and my Dad took me to the airport. My flight from Austin to LAX was quick and painless. We even landed early making my 5 hour layover closer to 6. No problem! I had to wait in line for a seat at times (that airport is packed all the time) and had to do some serious navigating for outlet plugs, but it was fine.
Then I got a call from Derek about half-way through. He’s feeling much better. But he’s sitting on the tarmac in Dallas…with a plane that is leaking fluid. It looks like he will not make the window of time to fly to Kauai. Should I go on? Should I wait for him in LAX?
We decide that I should go on to Kauai…all of our luggage will be there. And I will have a place to stay. I’m exhausted at this point and frustrated, but agree. I fly the almost 6 hours to Kauai by myself (although I sat by a lovely couple named Rick and Sarah, and we talked much of the way). I get there around 7:30, stand in line for the rental car with everyone seeming to be on “island time”. They finally give me the keys and the “stall” number and I head out with my 4 big bags looking for our vehicle. It’s dark by this time, and I’ve spent the last 12 HOURS in an airport or airplane. And I’m on my second honeymoon, without my husband. Enough said.
Most of the cars on the lot are modern, normal looking sedans. So I start heading for the one that seemed to be in our slot. Wait a minute…that’s not #87…that’s 89. I turn my head towards 87 and have to fight back tears. Ok – no big deal. It’s a Grand Marquis (no offense to anyone who has one). With a trunk that is so deep you could bury people in it. And I can’t adjust the seats enough to be able to see well above the steering wheels. I’m not kidding. This is not what I had in mind for my dream vacation. I take a deep breath, load the car and head out to the main road.
I realize that I don’t have an address or detailed map showing where the resort is. And then I realize that I don’t have a phone number either. Derek usually takes care of those details. So I head in the direction of Princeville (north shore of the island), hoping there will be signs to direct me.
At one point I pull over in a dark parking lot and say a heartfelt, pleading prayer. I’m lost, in a “foreign” place without my husband, in a Grand Marquis! I plead for help in finding the resort so I can get some sleep and be able to enjoy my vacation.
Shortly after that I’m able to make my way thru the Princeville area and find signs to my resort, which happens to be at the end of a dark culdesac on a residential street…prayer works!
I get settled in our room, unpack a little, and fall asleep easily. I woke up at 3:30 am, and can’t sleep (time change) and then hear the roosters start to crow around 5:30 am (there are roosters and chickens roaming everywhere in Kauai). But oh is the view beautiful, which buoys my spirits!
Meanwhile, Derek has been working the phones, and finds a way to make it to another island on Hawaii! He flies from LA to Kona, and then asks the airline to put him up in a hotel. They oblige! He sleeps there, all of 5 hours. Then on Sunday morning, flies from Kona to Honolulu, and from Honolulu to Kauai, in an effort to get there as fast as possible (he’s now seen 3 of the Hawaiian islands!). I return the 45 minutes to the airport on Sunday morning, greet him with a big hug and kiss. And tell him that I will not drive one more minute in the Grand Marquis. He laughs, and trades it in for a new model of a Ford Taurus (TAU US – inside joke). Much better, thank you.
Pheww! That makes me tired just writing it. Quite an adventure, and the vacation hadn’t even started. Thankfully it only got better from there…
Stay tuned.
Site Title 