Kauai Part Two

It's 2pm Hawaii time. Dae jumped at my suggestion that he have a golf outing, and the kids just went down for a nap so I am indulging in a Corona and 'unwinding' by blogging. We took the waterproof camera to WalMart today and had a CD made. While we were browsing the store waiting for the CD Dae came across a little USB port for $8 that we can insert our disk into. Yahoo! For some reason I was really fretting about that underwater camera and lack of being able to upload photos.

Anyway, the past couple of days have been nice. We took the kids to Poipu Beach yesterday and as expected both were terrified, and vocal, about the water. We stuck it out and by the end of about 2 1/2 hours Leelee allowed us to push him around on the boogie board in (totally) calm water and baby was happy sitting in the water with me. Just now I brought both kids to the pool and Leelee stayed in the shallow end with his feet barely in water while I did some exercises with the baby (dunking his head, swinging him side to side in the water - he did alright and was even smiling a little bit. I found that if I sing while we are swimming he enjoys it and smiles).

Today we took a ride on a 40 minute train at the Kauai Plantation Railway. It was really interesting! They had all sorts of fruit trees: banana, papaya, avocado, lychee, cashew, macadamia nut, and like 40 others or something. Cashews are so strange...each cashew dangles from this red bell-pepper looking fruit off of the end of the tree and apparently they are poisonous if eaten raw. And avocados literally just dangle from trees looking exactly like the avocados you can buy at the grocery store. It's really nice to see where things come from since so often I have no idea. They had a lot of pigs/hogs and other farm animals that we got to feed at a little stop on the train ride. Leelee wasn't terrified since there was no actual interaction with the livestock, just throwing food over the fence. hehe.

Also, I gave Leelee a haircut yesterday on the deck. It was moppy and all over his face all the time and while I kind of like long hair and the curls, it was a little too moppy for my taste. Once again my barber skills are seriously subpar but thank goodness for curls!

The boys, safe on land at Poipu Beach.

At Roy's for dinner wearing my favorite $24.99 dress from Target. I love this dress and wear it every opportunity I can! 

Doesn't this look like a senior photo? Leelee took this shot.

 

On the Kauai Plantation train

I love this photo

Papaya trees

Pigs and baby piglets, 8 days old

Throwing the food over the fence. 

Watching with a safe fence barrier.

Tomorrow we are going on.....a helicopter ride!!! Dae and I figured there was no chance they allowed kids, but we happened upon this activity booth at the store yesterday where another family was also asking about kids and whether or not they could go on the helicopters. There is no minimum age and in fact Olin will be free (Christian will be full fare).  So I went home and immediately did some more research on the different helicopter companies in Kauai and decided to splurge a bit and do the best-reviewed one, since helicopter rides are no time to be looking for the deepest discount! I am so excited. I have heard of the beauty of Kauai and have heard there are places that can only be seen by helicopter. Dae was really surprised I was willing to splurge on the ride, since he knows how cheap I can be (frugal I say!), but he was all over it when we realized kids could go. One funny thing is that they weigh you before you get on. Apparently the lighter passengers sit in the front and the heavier in the back? I'm hoping Leelee's 30 pounds will help shift us toward the front seats! Speaking of, I have been 'jogging' every day since I've been here except today, and I would be really proud of that except for the fact that every day has seriously become sadder and sadder. I started off with a good 2-3 mile jog. Each subsequent day became less jog, more walk, until my latest run was really more of a pleasant stroll than any kind of cardio-vascular thing. I can feel it, too - my shorts are a little tighter than when I came just one week ago. Not good.

Here are the photos from the underwater camera.

Hanauma Bay in Oahu

The pool outside our condo in Kauai. Olin is attached at the hip to somebody, anybody.

In a safe place at Poipu Beach

The norm 

The biggest turtle I've seen in Hawaii was just hanging out at Poipu Beach