I’ll admit that I didn’t think you could get better than the Kea Lani. But by about day three, I realized that the Grand Hyatt on Kauai was the ideal resort for us. It was literally perfect. There was never a time when anyone was bored. But the two highlights were definitely the pool and the lagoon — and I guess the attached beach to the hotel was a close third (There wasn’t as much shade, and definitely no cold towels or Otter Pops coming around down there!)
DISCLAIMER–IF YOU DON”T SEE MANY PICTURES OF SCOUT IN THIS SECTION IT IS ONLY BECAUSE HE WAS NEVER AROUND. HE WAS ALWAYS OFF WITH HIS COUSINS! ALWAYS!!!
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The Lagoon
Here is the lagoon from our cabana. Not bad! Especially when your kids would hang out directly in front of you for hours on end.
See what I mean!
And it was nice because it was pretty shallow for about twenty feet, which gave me a bit of peace of mind.
Three of many weasels.
I love the goggle look!
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The Pool
This is what Icka looked like all day, every day. She was fearless, which made a mother fearful! Luckily I found a few babysitters along the way. but more than that, luckily she has a personality that charms her way into the good graces of everyone, so she was constantly played with.
Luckily at times, the pool toys slowed her down.
Here is a shot of Scout exiting the pool. It is about as much as we saw him! He is probably on his way to the “secret Kakoozie” to meet up with Grant and Covey.
Icka loved getting a flower for her ear — and based on this picture, I think I know where she got the idea.
Daddy was always a fun pool buddy. But wuite honestly, I think he took second fiddle to the cousins. I know I did!
Speaking of babysitters…..Abby and Hailey were top notch! I just wish I would have learned that on day one instead of day six! I rewarded them with a “golden coin” (gold dollar coin) and they thought they won the lottery. Talk about cheap help!
I just want to shout out to Red Balloon’s bows. They held up in the water like champs!
This is the only day that either of my kids took a nap. I knew they were running on fumes, but was surprised to see this girl sleeping. I guess the 24 hour fever she caught from Scout just did her in.
Night swimming with Scout was a blast! We snuck onto the slide, and when we were caught, we all ran from the security. It was a blast from our Kea Lani past, and was as much fun this time!
At 1 and 3 each afternoon, the Otter Pop guy would roll around his wagon. He would usually have to refill after he left our group, but he never gave one out where the child didn’t look in his eyes and say “thank you”.
But of all of the pool time escapades — the best was when Nonnie finally ventured in on the last day. Adn I quote, “This is so nice — why didn’t I do this earlier?” No duh! The cousins were beside themselves with laughter at her in the pool. And the morning Scout woke up when we got home, he told Nonnie his plans for the day — he was going to go swimming with Nonnie!
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The Beach
Although the beach isn’t really my thing, my kids love it. Therefor, in an attempt to have my kids really really love me, I am adjusting.
And let’s be honest — the beach is Kauai wasn’t shabby. In fact — it was awesome!
The boys were loving the cliff they could jump off. They were out there every single day. Too bad for Tristen — because when she finally took the plunge, she broke her tail bone. (According to a verbal acknowledgement by a doctor friend.)
Here are the boys discussing the jump!
Rose and Icka were buddies in the sand. That is until there was a little throwing involved.
Micah was making a sand tunnel for the kids when he thought he hit a rock. Little did he know that huge crabs like in the sand, and he hit the jackpot.
Here are a few more beach lovers! I love all of these boys!
I love this candid shot between a smitten dad and his girl.
(Apparently you are not “on the fence” any longer about Icka?!)
I guess a little sun bathing was in order.
We had perfect weather the whole time. It sprinkled a few times, but we invited every drop.
At the end of the day, it was the biggest reat to go to the hammock with B. Scout and Icka both got a few nights, and she sang to them, rocked them and usually put them to sleep!
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The best story of the trip was when Tristen got out of the pool and saw Micah sporting a Speedo. (He likes to do this around my family to get a rise, because we all get SO grossed out!) She started to complain and makes throwing up noises. Micah just looked at her, and turned over like he was ignoring her. When he did, we saw this:
WE DIED!!!!
I had no idea about this little personalized Speedo he had up his sleeve. But it was hilarious! And the timing could not have been more perfect!
In total, there were 45 of us. And I kid you not….there was perfect harmony throughout the trip. All of the cousins got along great, and so did the adults. Individually, many have said it was the best rip of their life. And I am one of them. I could not have figured out a way to have more fun. It was literally perfect! in fact — we all thought this was going to be our last major trip with EVERYONE because Jake is going on his mission soon, and everyone is starting to go different ways. Well, on the last day of the trip, my mom announced to everyone to gear up for two years, because we are doing it again! YAY!
This might be my favorite picture of the trip. It is Nonnie and her 25 most adoring fans.
And then a few more adoring fans had to jump in on the action.
Here are just the adults at our “adult dinner”. Unfortunately I wasn’t at all hungry, but some said the food was good:)! Notice everyone dressed pretty nicely, and then you see my husband in a WalMart camouflage hat. Way to represent babe. You make us bad! But all eyes were off us when Ryan showed up in his “Guess what” shirt that read “chicken butt” on his rear. Leave it to Ryan to make us all look a little better!
We made Sunday evening our picture taking time. The kids were troopers — especially since we only had about 30 minutes of good sun. Nice work Megan and Liza!
But when the sun was still a little too bright, we dove into our Sunday night activity. (We had one every night.) This night Brett was in charge, and taught us some really cool stories from history and the scriptures. I’ll have to say that the night activities were almost my favorite part!
Right when the sun was getting good, we had a little mishap.
But our tough little girl hopped up and fought through it. So I snapped a few of my kids and husband.
Scout was getting a little impatient by this point, but I really wanted one of my kids and Non.
So then she took them for a stroll to settle down a bit.
And then the love fest began. Scout adores his little sis, and Navy is obsessed with Scout.
I love this picture, because out of every cousin…..look at Navy’s face. She was the only one who somehow, some way ended up with dirt all over her in the end.
And let me not forget the teeny boppers. Talk about pleasant teenagers! I cross my fingers that my kids turn out like any one of the five above!
All I have to say is that traveling with a four and two year old can sometimes be a bother. BUT not when you have Chloe around! On our way, Chloe brought a packed bag specifically for Icka, and I didn’t hear a peep for the entire five hour flight. Trey was also a saint in the Scout category. Apparently there was even some fighting going on as to who got to sit by whom. I am proud my kids are so popular! Anyway — the traveling on the way out was great!
Here are the kids with their packed bags from me. Good thing I had them too because when you have to pay for everything on the plane — Ryan was loving my free treats!
Scout was beyond excited!
Navy got crafty in the plane and started showing off how she could eat with her toes!
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On the way back — due to an Email we never got that changed our flight time, 17 of us were stranded in the teeny tiny Kauai airport for 10+ hours. I’ll have to admit that it wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. To me, it was just an extension of our family reunion. Micah set up a movie theater for those who wanted to watch, and the rest just hung out.
I knew it was a bad sign when on the way to our return flight, Scout kept telling me that he was going to take a nap on the plane. And once we got there, he just lounged all over the luggage. luckily, he pepped up pretty soon after, and didn’t sleep for another 9 hours.
This is how everyone felt about hearing we would be hanging out an additional 10 hours.
But then it was all good with Micah to the rescue.
Although my kids were basically perfect for those long hours, Icka did have a run in with the blue time out spot for trying to ruin Bry and Trey’s chess game at 11:15 pm.
Scout luckily avoided the blue spot because Bella made it “night” with her eye cover, and I made him warm with whatever we could round up. This boy slept until about an hour before the flight was over. Too bad that i came at a high price. Poor Nonnie was holding him in the most cockeyed position that looked beyond uncomfortable. and Ryan — the third on their row — decided to give Nonnie a few more feet, and curled up in the fetal position on the floor in front of them. The poor guy was wedged in like you wouldn’t believe.
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All in all — two successful plane rides!
On our way to our second swimming lesson, Icka started singing, “I don’t like Donahoo, I don’t like Donahoo.” (Gretchen’s last name.) But by the fourth lesson, she and Scout were in love with Gretchen. In fact, they pray for her nightly, and if Icka forgets to mention her, Scout whispers over to Icka so that she will remember. They absolutely love her, and immediately look for her once we get to church.
So although it is great that my kids love her — the better part is that I love her! My favorite things from Gretchen — are the lipstick kisses they come out with all over their faces (she is like their very own grandmother), and her “old school” / no nonsense ways. The best example of this was when Gretchen arrived at the lessons and RoRo began crying and crying to his mom as he made up every excuse in the book of why he couldn’t swim (needed to use the bathroom, had a sick tummy, etc.). Britni tried to talk to him and console him — even bribe him to settle down. Nothing was working, until Gretchen marched right over and said to him, “You stop crying or I will throw you right in.” As the parents giggled, he immediately stopped and had a very successful lesson. And as a side note — Royal is a little fish due to Gretchen!
Scout has graduated! He no longer needs lessons, and is a literal fish. He even swam to the bottom of our 8 ft. pool a few days ago to retrieve a toy! According to Gretchen, “In all of the years [she has] taught, Scout is the very best at following directions.” That made me happy, and he totally gets it from me! Icka, on the other hand, had different reports from Gretchen. When she was supposed to “kick” she would cross her legs as tightly as she could. Gretchen would tell me she was as stubborn as a fox, and I would just have to laugh — because I already knew that! Then would Gretchen would have Icka on her back to practice floating, she would sing a song to make the time go by quickly. As Gretchen would sing, Icka would shake her hips and dance along — another thing Gretchen has never seen in all of the years she has taught.
RoRo and Grey joined the group a few weeks after we started, and after lessons, there is always a little love fest between RoRo and Icka.
Although Icka might just have the younger hunger for Grey.
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In the end, Gretchen is amazing! I give her my highest recommendation! And my kids do too!!!
One Sunday afternoon, our family headed to Newport Beach to walk the temple grounds. It was really beautiful, and I just expected that my kids would immediately turn into reverent angels once we got there. To bad that I might have had to reprimand and scold them both quite a bit while we were there. But regardless, we had a great time seeing the grounds and teaching our kids about the temple.
Here is one of our not so reverent moments — but it does capture our kids as they are.
But to be honest — this is also how the kids are. They adore each other.
The temple grounds are always maintained so perfectly.
Here is Icka trying to get in.
I love that ever since, every time Icka sees a big white building, she thinks it is a temple. I am trying to show her that most temples have the Angel Moroni on top — and that is a pretty good indication that she actually has a temple in her sights.
Throughout the winter, I gripe about not having a big grassy backyard. But when summer finally rolls around, I couldn’t be happier about having a pool to let my kids swim in. They are obsessed with swimming, and it is the perfect way to tire their little bodies out for nap time or a good night sleep. And then when lunch or dinner time rolls around, we make it into a picnic which avoids big messes, and lets the kids feel like they got something special.
When they picnic, they always lay on the warm cement to keep their little bodies warm.
We usually go pretty basic on the food scale — toast, fruit and chips were on the menu today.
Scout is my little pool safe boy. Gretchen has worked wonders with him, and he is now used as the example to the other lesson takers.
Sweet thing puts her all into swimming. She literally exhausts herself, but is about the cutest thing in the water. She is fearless like Scout, and might need a little help on understanding what danger really is.
We headed to out garden to pick our weekly bounty. We got a TON of green beans, a japanese cucumber, some squash and zucchini, a bunch of sweet peas and OUR FIRST CARROT!
Scout and I have been eying that carrot for a while, so when we finally picked it and ate it, Scout just kept saying, “This is the most delicious carrot I have ever had.”
He was kind enough to share his goods with Sissy.
And my sweet and sharing boy went around the house to give everyone a bite of the deliciousness.
And I will admit….nothing tastes quite like fresh, out-of-your-garden veggies and fruit!
Every day, I anticipate a few times. The first is when NayNay gets home from high school because my kids always break from me for just a few minutes and hang with her. But I will have to be honest….the very most anticipated time of the day is when B gets home. The same thing happens like it does with NayNay, but then B always wants to read to them or play with them. My kids are obsessed with BKaNayNay….but that is mostly because B is part of the equation.
Here is one such day when NayNay had them both mesmerized with Sesame Street.
(Ka — I love when you get home too, but lately you and Scout seem to butt heads, and it is REALLY annoying!)
While we were all eating at Cafe Rio, the cousins took Scout and Icka over to PetCo. To my surprise and disgust, they came home with a fish for each of my kids. Named by Scout was Boa Constrictor, and Nemo was by Icka. I gave them three days of survival, but the kids were determined to have them be life-longers.
Unfortunately, Nemo only lasted a day. And Boa’s obituary was written just a day after that.
I’ll admit that when they bought the fish, they forgot to buy any food. (Probably because food wasn’t “only 15 cents!”) So maybe it was all the bread that made for an untimely death of two promising fish. It was a sad day. Sadder when I realized that the fish would never get a proper burial/flush, because one day they were there, and the next, I was emptying the glass vase out of the dish washer.
I think it would be easy to say that if any mother out there is looking for tips on keeping “reverent” children in church — I won’t be getting any calls. There has definitely been improvement in the past year — especially from the day that Icka head-butted me twice which brought tears to my eyes while Scout was just naughty! But when I look around at all of the nice and quiet kids in church, I ask myself where I have gone wrong.
So my tactic this week was, “Hey kids….whomever is reverent in church gets to help pick and make our dessert after dinner.”
Well guess who was reverent!!
BOTH KIDS!
So no need to call all of you moms out there.
Promise what I promised, and you will have golden children like I do!
So a chocolate cake with pink and yellow frosting.
We settled on a chocolate cake, with pick frosting and yellow writing that said, “Scout and Navy were reverent.”
Baker/Cake decorator I am obviously not…..cool mom I obviously am!
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