KAUAI part 1

Hi guys! I'm months behind on our family news and pictures, of course, so I know I've got a bunch of catching up to do once I'm home. BUT, Dave and I are in Kauai now for a much needed vacation and I promised the kids I'd send them updates of what we've seen and done so far. We've been here since Thursday (one more week still to go), and have been incredibly busy playing. (I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!)

We've spent a day at the beach surfing (a 2 hour lesson for me!), gone on a helicopter ride, went on a 5 hour long boat/sailing/snorkeling trip, and on a 6 mile hike down the Awawaapuhi Trail to the cliffs above the ocean. Everything is beautiful, the weather is awesome, and we are loving it. We're able to Skype with the kids most nights and are relieved that they're so happy without us. (We're hoping Dave's parents are too!) :)

I didn't bring the right cord to connect our good camera to the computer, so everything is either iPhone pictures, or from the Flip camera.


Here we are, in front of the Welcome to Kauai sign with leis on, at the airport. (Can you even see it? Sorry, no flash and the rental car guy took it.)

Here are a few videos from our helicopter trip. I definitely had a queasy tummy during that ride! Dave kept the camera on, trying to catch me with the barf bag, but I conquered it. :)




Here are two videos from our snorkeling trip!

We saw pods and pods of dolphins, 25-30 at a time, surrounding and swimming with out boat and doing flips.


Dave took this footage of two sea turtles "swimming together", hoping to sell it to Animal Planet. :)


We also saw a humpback whale jumping in the water not far from our boat, but the footage of that makes me nauseous all over again, so I'll do you a favor and skip that one.

Here are a few videos from our hike!


The most random thing we've found out is how common chickens and roosters are here-- and they just run loose all over the place. There's like 1 rooster to every chicken, also, so the population just continues to grow. The locals hate them like stray cats or ants... I think it's funny. :)


The view at the end of our hike is probably the most beautiful vista we've ever seen.




Our rental car is a green car, an electric hybrid car. It's eerily quiet and super fun to drive (it came with an iPad, so thats been fun to play with too!). We've had to drive a little bit between excursions and Dave made up a funny game to play in the car, where we take turns singing whatever Hawaiian word we just read...but you've got to hold out the last note until you start the next new word. It's pretty funny. Especially my honey's vibrato. ;)


We're loving Kauai! I'll update again in a few days! Next we've got a kayaking trip, a beach/surf day, another hike and snorkel, and a stand-up paddling experience that should be pretty comical. :)

Love, mommy (jen)