hawaii

kind of out of order, but here goes.

below is our last day (sunday) in kauai, hawaii. we just relaxed outside the marriott and watched the surfers and families and the ocean. our last photo (to paul's great relief) was the big one on the tree, below.
below (except for the top right pic) is hanalei bay, voted the #1 beach in the world, or something like that (although...how can you choose the #1? i mean, really). we caught a beautiful sunset the night before we flew out. oh, and although it's not documented here, i also tried shaved ice over macademia nut ice cream on this night. hawaii really is paradise.

great, i'm already forgetting the names of these places. paul (or tonya) will have to help me. but it was awesome. i love how there are waterfalls everywhere, and little pools, and geyser-like wave explosions on the lava rocks, and the ocean, and and and...

sunset from queen's bath, one of my favorite places on kauai. honestly, it does not get more beautiful than this. we took a cheesy photo shoot of all the couples in the sunset...and then got some shots of perfect strangers, because they thought it was such a great idea. regardless of the cheesiness (which paul is having a hard time stomaching, looking at these), just check out that sunset. enough said.

i love this man. bring on eternity!

we took a helicopter ride with tonya & jeremy around the island. these photos from above don't even do it justice. breathtaking. our pilot, mike, was sooooo chill -- the epitome of hang loose. a typical comment: you gotta do it, it's smokin', yeah? oh, and we had a 6-year-old with his dad on our flight as well, who pretty much screamed into the mic in a shrill little soprano voice, "I SEE PEOPLE! I SEE CARS! I SEE A HOUSE!" maybe you had to be there, but it was so funny, slash, painful on the ears.

queen's bath, during the daytime (our first discovery of the place). it was awesome. by the way, i'm the large white thing in these shots...the other girl is beautiful tan tonya. lest you be confused and excited for me about my new look.... (love you, tonya!)
boogie boarding (that's a leg workout, seriously. i was beat after not very long. but LOVED it...one of my favorite beach things to do). and sunset sail, where we went up around the napali coast and back. it was sooooo relaxing and beautiful. am i sounding like a broken record here? sorry.
i noticed that, for the first few days, i felt a little incomplete, leaving without 10 diapers, a few meals' worth of snacks, and a couple changes of little clothes. by the end of my week, i was kind of like, "wait, how many kids do we have again?" i love my kids, don't get me wrong. but i surprised myself at how easy it was to slip back into just being paul & me, as far as responsibility goes. a million thanks to john & jenn and jordan & katrina for carefully watching our little fam. i can't even say. notice the sign, below, that says "don't feed the feral cats or chickens" and the girl blatantly disregarding that. there were a MILLION chickens and roosters, who were not ashamed to be cockadoodling the entire island from 3 a.m. until nightfall.
a hike and some more beach time.
happy to be back, love being with my kids, i can't believe how much addie's changed (honestly) in just a week. makes me realize i wouldn't change motherhood with these 3 for a hundred vacations to hawaii...but paul and i did discuss the possibility of moving there, living in a shack, and working at bubba's burgers for the rest of our lives. things could be worse...

the end.