We went for a sunset cruise boat ride up the Na Pali coast today on a 65' catamaran. It was absolutely amazing. For four hours we escaped onto the sea, up the uninhabitable northwest shore of Kauai. The water was choppy, we hit a rainstorm, saw sea turtles, flying fish, and rode the front of the boat that hit the waves the hardest. It's late and I hope to write more at another point or maybe post some video, but wanted to share a couple of pictures tonight.



They served the kids virgin mai tais.


And, of course, eventually Kenzie was captaining the ship.

From water slides to water falls...we are officially baked to medium-well. We spent hours this morning in the pool and everyone, I mean everyone, took their turn on the water slide. We were all impressed when Grampy climbed the stairs and saddled up. We waited for the big splash. And waited. Finally he putted down, trying to gain some speed with his hands. Evidently there's another variable to the "mass * velocity = momentum" equation that needs to factor in width relative to a narrow tube.

Cindy and Kenzie
Grammy

Grammy and Grampy
Grammy, Grampy, Kenzie, Mason, Julie, Devan, Emily, Carol
Kenzie, Devan, Emily
Kenzie, Julie, Carol, Emily, Devan
Grampy and Emily
Carol and Emily
Grampy, Kenzie and Mason
Kenzie
Lisa and Emily


Mason
Emily, Kenzie and Devan

Then we went to see a couple of "real" waterfalls, including the beautiful Wailua Falls. By this time the kids were completely spent and Mason was just flopped on my shoulder. He never did give in to take a nap, so he's quite loopy at this 7:00 hour, which is 10:00 to his clock. We're waiting for dinner to cook and the kids are throwing an old coconut that we found underneath a tree. (The joke is that last time we came to Kauai I shook a tree, made a coconut fall, and then spent a frustrating amount of time trying to crack the sucker open. All the while Carol was video-taping me, much of which was unbeknown to me. Let's just say that there are possibly dents in the tile floor of the last place we stayed.)

Finally, Grammy, Cindy, the kids and I stopped by Lydgate Park on a whim. What a great park for the kids with an amazing beach! Since I've already exceeded my own standards for number of pictures per post, here are a few more:






So, sand and water. Mix them together and you get a boy who needs to change his clothes. Then he sits down in the sand and you get a boy who needs to be rinsed.

As soon as we woke up Mason started asking about swimming. He was not satisfied that we were going to see the Grand Canyon (of the Pacific). Every chance he got -- all day -- he asked about swimming. We did find some amazing vantage points of beautiful scenery, birds, and water. Good for some of us, but by about 2:00 the kids were ready to swim! We found Poipu beach...and the great snorkeling we were seeking yesterday! All the kids, Devan, Emily, Kenzie and Mason got a peek at fish swimming just below our feet. We had our processed cheese and delighted the palettes of angel fish, parrot fish, and a rainbow of others. They were beautiful. We were just inside a shallow reef (waves were broken, no sharks allowed), and used an entire can of cheese. Kenzie was my little buddy, calm and diligently doing whatever I did. She would hold my hand to Maui if felt so inclined, but I need to get some aqua socks before I go too deep on those rocks. Luckily we had good viewing over a shallow sandy area.

Mason still has no fear whatsoever of the water. He'd see a big wave coming and would say with delight, "it's the Big One!" and then swallow a cup of salt water. He couldn't figure how to breathe through his mouth so he had to just hold his breath, but that didn't phase him. He took a gasp and then put his face in, over and over. I had to make sure I was holding on tight because he was completely comfortable just drifting away, possibly to China. We finally had to call it a day when the clouds drifted in and all teeth were chattering.

No swimming in the resort pool at all today, much to the disappointment of K & M. Tomorrow morning we're planning to start the day with the waterslides, but I'm pretty sure that there's no way the day can improve from that point forward. (Next vacation - save airfare, just hit Wild Waves.)

All the cousins are having fun together. Emily and Mason rode in the car together today and entertained each other the whole time. There's no sibling rivalry and it was a very peaceful ride! We had fun at some of the tourist stops too. Oh, and we made a detour to find a place with decent reception so Cindy could have a phone interview for a coaching job. I'd put the picture of her standing in someone's yard with her hand over her head trying to break the noise of the waves, but I know she'd just make me take it off...

What a beautiful island we are on! We went north today, stopping at everything that looked interesting, even Puff the Magic Dragon's Land of Hanalei. We saw some beautiful beaches, lush tropical plantation, a couple of caves...and a lot of chickens. This was funny to us because a year ago when we were in Mexico we spent much of our driving time looking at cows. We took pictures of cows, stopped to moo at them, honked at them, and were just generally enthralled. It wasn't until that last day that Grampy finally spoke up and wondered how he could have possibly raised such a group of city kids. So, chickens are the new cows, and have completely captivated us....Mason in particular. And, we warned him. These are wild Bantam roosters and hens. Yes, they look cute. Yes, that hen with her two chicks were just too cute. He still thought it was fun to chase her. She tried her hardest to ignore him, but he persisted. Finally she flipped a 180 and ran straight toward him. With no delay he turned on his toe and darted toward me. I've never seen him run faster than he did being chased by that chicken. She gave up rather quickly and he broke down in tears. It was a well-deserved lesson and gave the rest of us a good kackle (sorry).

We also went snorkeling for quite a while. I headed out at first with Mason, who was like swimming with an anchor in the shape of an octopus wrapped around my neck. After enough of that, I took Kenzie. We had our fair share of waves, but she kept floating beside me. She put her head down in the water and held my hand as we searched. We went out quite a ways. I even had my processed cheese in tow to bribe them, but we didn't see more than one spotted fish and a dead eel. Emily and Lisa saw puffer fish, and one of the beaches was cleared due to a shark sighting!! But, we're still in search of good snorkeling.

We planned a BBQ down by the pool, but didn't beat the rainstorm, and turned around to eat in our room. It didn't last long, though, and Kenzie and Mason went for a late night swim. I joined them, but only made it as far as the hot tub. Cindy held out for quite a while with two kids jumping on her from pool-side. Both kids are learning, even from yesterday. Mason is actually learning how to swim! He doesn't want to be outdone by his sister, of course.

We popped out of bed at 4:30 this morning, our flight was on-time, and we landed without much fanfare, just the way we like our trips. Both kids were great little travelers - probably because they were excited about the destination. (We'll see if our return trip proves that theory.)

We have a great condo with a view of the pool, which has two water slides, a lazy river, and a couple of waterfalls, all of which we tried out already. It'll be fun to watch the kids swim this week. Kenzie is conquering her fears. When she first went in tonight, her skill level exceeded her confidence (she didn't even want to attempt to swim). By the end of our swim, her confidence exceeded her skill level. Yikes! She would swim toward the water slides, only to realize about 3/4 of the way that perhaps she should have an insurance plan. She's doing pretty well - she puts her face in, paddles her arms, kicks her feet - if she could just figure out how to make her butt float she's be a fish.

Mason, on the other hand, can't swim much at all, yet has absolutely no fear. We put water wings on him, which he asked to take off several times. I finally took them off of just to prove to him that he does, in fact, sink. I lifted him off the bottom more than once. He likes to have his face in the water. I think he also likes that feeling of near-drowning. I'm trying to sell him on the merits of water wings...

We also ran into this monk seal just hanging out on the beach by our condo. Evidently he's a regular and can be a bit grumpy. He sneezed on Kenzie, quite literally.

Once fish and another fish were playing and they were friends. There was another fish too, but he was lonely. He did not have friends, he did not know how to make friends. So he decided to say "hello, what is your name?" And they said "go off, we don't want to play with you."

They were being mean to him. So he just went and told his mom and dad. So he tried again and they said, "We're sorry," then they were freinds. The end.

Kenzie drew this picture of us in anticipation of our upcoming trip. In it I am floating in the water, Cindy is quite skinny with lots of muscles, and Mason..."he's shivering." Trying to find the positive I said to her, "well, as least you gave him a little flower that he can look at." She replied, "Mom, that's a dandelion."

At least he's smiling.

Mason went to a baseball birthday party today, so he had occasion to wear the baseball uniform that Uncle Randy wore when Grampy was playing for the Angels.

Mason sleeps with his gloves on.

Once upon a time, there was a little toy story. And there was a little bad whale and a bad shark. They were friends. And the bad shark bite the other one. And the other one got attacked and poked the other one, the shark. The end.

I love it when they laugh. I was messing around with the camera and snuck this video.

Mason demonstrates the cool factor of glasses at one of our Tuesday evening concerts at the community center.

It's that time of year where our fingers are purple and our bellies are happy. Blackberries are in season!

[Spoiler alert: PETA, if you're watching, just skip this one.]

Mike and Mary had the kids overnight a couple of weeks ago. Their beautiful new lawn, complete with the an incredibly intricate Automated Watering System...has been invaded by...moles. The kids were fascinated by the concept of a "trap," but didn't what a mole looked like. Mary said they checked the traps 5 or 6 times a day, but no luck. The kids went home without seeing a dead mole.

So, of course, when the little mole finally was executed, Mary has to send us this picture of my proud brother with a note:

Dear Mason and MacKenzie,

We finally caught the mole in our back yard. Remember when you where here and Mike was checking the mole traps and we never were able to catch the mole? Well, we finally did. Here is a picture so you can see what they look like.
Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike

[PETA, continue reading here]

The littel Girl + her Brother + his mother. By Kenzie picshers by Kenzie
The Girl the boy + his mother went waking [walking]. The boy was 3. The girl was 6. And the mommy was 38. Thaw [they] loved waking. The boy allwas [always] sed [said] "I am tiyrd [tired]!" Thaw had so much fun. Win [when] thaw got home thaw playd [played] on ther [their] funhose [funhouse].
The End

Our day started last night. On our way home from Grammy and Grampy's, Mason complained of a "brain freeze." We thought he was joking, but he held his head for a good fifteen minutes, just leaning on the car door in obvious pain. He then told us to pull over because he had to throw up. He made good on his promise, which caused us to wonder if he had banged his head earlier in the day and caused a concussion. He's always crashing into one thing or the other, we really had no idea. So, I called the nurse on-call and by the time she called back he was doing better. But, I didn't want him to sleep alone in case he puked again...and so the most restless night of my life began. I woke up about 78 times, once when he had me in a full head-lock, once when his leg was across my neck, another time when he was gently stroking my hair as he slept.

Anyway, he woke up fine and we wrote it off as too much sugar from Grampy the night before. We heard of cream puffs, ice cream and a popsicle, who knows what else there was.

So, we got going in the morning. But we soon realized that in our haste last night we left poor Jordan outside all night long! She's 12 and was frantic. Cindy felt so guilty that she was rather distracted and dropped (and shattered) a clay platter. As I made coffee, the pot leaked all over the counter. Before I could clean it up Mason dumped his entire bowl of Cheerios on the floor, splattering milk to at least a 6 foot radius. We finally got out of the house and Mason hit his face on the car door, putting a scratch down his cheek. We got in the car to realize that we had also left the interior light on all night (thankfully it started). The kids got into a fight as soon as we left and Mason scratched Kenzie so she had a cheek scratch matching his. Less than a mile away from the house we realized we forgot our camera card, so we had to turn around! The second time leaving the house we were successful.

It wasn't until we were getting ready to leave church. Kenzie was hanging onto the car door and Cindy opened it, accidentally removing her brace and Kenzie fell flat onto the pavement, forehead first.

Luckily, our day took a drastic turn for the better.

We officially joined our new church and got a very warm reception. We have found a home with incredible people and a very progressive atmosphere. There were nine of us who joined and we shared lunch afterward.

After church we went back to our West Seattle neighborhood for a mini-reunion. Mandy, who works for the Mariners, decked the kids out in Ichiro and Ibanez gear.

Then, we wanted to take our picture on our old front steps (just like the one two years ago), so I introduced ourselves to the new owners, who let us take a walk through the old house. We eventually talked them into not only moving their car for us, but also taking the picture of the old gang on their steps.



Oh, and the kids got some new walkie-talkies from our friend Taj. Roger that. Except in the car.

We had an Averill family reunion at our house last weekend.

We're heading to Hawaii! Kenzie called Grampy to talk to him about it. He asked her "do you know that Kauai is IN Hawaii?" In a rather pejorative tone, she said, "yeah, that's why they call it Kauai. You just add a 'k.'"


We got tickets yesterday and are gearing up to leave in just a few weeks! Kenzie is so excited. Well, we all are really! She's counting the days on our calendar.