Paradise Found!

Tuesday morning, Peyton and I woke up and hit the beach alone. Micah needed to sleep after not sleeping much the night before. We put on flip flops with pajamas and headed to the sand. It is difficult to describe the beauty and magic of spending quiet time together in a place like Kauai. Walking hand in hand next to the beach, listening to her sweet voice tell me all about the ocean, the birds, the sand, and the sunshine is something that I will forever hold dear to my heart.

After our walk, we had "sand therapy." The place that we are staying has a sand pit with a bunch of sand toys in the middle of a large grassy area. It took some serious convincing, but I was able to get Peyton to sit on the grass while we built a sand castle, put sand on our toes, dug in the sand, and held it in our hands. She actually didn't want to leave the sand to go wake up daddy, so I think we're making progress!

When Micah woke up, Peyton indicated that she wanted to go to the pool again. So, without hesitation, we loaded up and headed downstairs for a little R and R. We stayed by the pool most of the day soaking up the sun and splashing in the keiki pool.

At 3:30, Lois and I had a beachside Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage which was absolutely amazing! Lying under a palm tree with the Kauai breeze blowing, listening to the sound of the ocean was truely therapeutic. Much better than any massage I have had before, and hearing the waves break in real life not on a CD was awesome!

Peyton took a huge nap while we got pampered and then we headed to the North Shore for dinner. We ate at a little place called Lighthouse Bistro in Kiluaea. Contrary to the "Blue Book's" descriptions, we loved this place and would definately eat there again. My coconut crusted pork chops with mango reduction sauce were fabulous, Micah and Lois enjoyed the macadamia nut pesto, and Sonny loved his hazelnut baked chicken.

No photos for now, but I'll add some from Tuesday soon! We're headed out for some brunch at Eggberts now :)

Sunny skies, warm weather, and sandy toes

First I have to explain to all of you why I have not been blogging every day from Kauai as promised. The resort that we are staying at is robbing guests by charging $9.95 per DAY for internet access. We mostly don't need the internet since Micah and I both get email on our phones, so to pay an additional $70.00 just to blog is a bit steep. We move to a different location on Saturday night where internet is included in the price of your room so I will definately update more regularly then :)







OK, now that that's out of the way....here's our Kauai update! Monday was another perfect day! We hung at the pool during the morning hours, splashing in the Keiki pool and soaking up the sun. Then we headed to Poipu in the afternoon for Puka Dogs, the world's best hot dog, and Poipu Beach. A puka dog is really unlike any other hot dog, if it's even fair to call it a hot dog at all. They start with a polish or veggie dog, grill it, then stuff it into a blanket of squishy soft white bread bun, fill it with lilikoi mustard, a secret garlic lemon cream sauce, and add your choice of tropical relish. My favorite is coconut, but everyone else had mango. They also shake fresh squeezed lemonade for you that goes perfectly with the dog. Sooo yummy! After lunch we headed down to Poipu beach where we swam in the ocean and watched a sea turtle lounge on the beach. We had made reservations at Keioki's Paradise for dinner, but had to head back to Kapa'a early b/c Micah's mom wasn't feeling well. We went to Coconuts for dinner instead and loved our dinner. I had tempura ono that was covered in wasabi cream sauce served over a bed of ginger rice....talk about delicious! Micah loved it as well, but unfortunately, it didn't love him. He spent most of the night awake every 2 hours with his beloved allergic reaction to fish, that almost lead to a very early morning trip to the ER. Fortunately, he was able to calm his body down and catch up on rest Tuesday morning.

The photos are of: Peyton and I from the Lanai of our room; Peyton enjoying an otter pop by the pool, notice Pink Beary is with her every step of the way; and the view of the ocean from our Keiki pool.

Enjoy!!

Aloha from Kauai!

Yesterday was our first official day on the island and it was filled with lots of fun. We arrived on Saturday night at 6:55 p.m. which was 40 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to get here. I thought that this would be good b/c we would have lots of time to get our car, eat dinner, check in to our hotel, then go for a walk on the beach. However, I forgot about "island time." It took us 2 hours to get our luggage and rental car! Typically this is about a 30 minute process, but not on Kauai!!! By the time we left the airport, the only places open to eat were fast food restaurants. McDonald's seems to be our arriving night restaurant of choice. Every time we get here, we end up eating our first meal on the island at McDonalds...not exactly the tropical meal we hope for upon arrival. A quick trip to Walmart to get milk, snacks, diapers, etc. and we arrived at our hotel, which is amazing!

Sunday brought an early awakening at 6:45, as usual Peyton isn't adjusting to the time change when we travel. We went for a beach walk, and had breakfast at Eggberts (our favorite breakfast place on the island) and had the best eggs benedict in the universe! We were at the pool by 8:00, soaking up the sun and playing with Peyton in the kiddie pool. Unfortunately, Peyton still HATES the sand and wouldn't even walk on it with shoes on yesterday. Our beach walk turned into Micah hauling her on his shoulders through the sand. When he attempted to put her down she pulled her legs up like a stink bug and started to cry. We'll keep trying, but it looks like our dreams of sandcastles and running in the surf with her may be a little far fetched! We ate lunch at Scotties, a delicious BBQ place on the island w/ an amazing view. Then we went to Costco and ran around trying to find a camera lens for our new camera. We were unsuccessful, but it gave Peyton time to take a nice long car nap. Outside became pretty gloomy and windy with very dark skies so we headed back to our rooms to sit on the lanai and watch the storm. It never did rain, but Micah got some pretty awesome pictures of the dark sky and all the trees blowing around. For dinner we went to Wahoo, which we had never been to before. We loved it and will visit again before we head back to the mainland.

Today, we're headed to the pool now, then on to Poipu to visit the beach and Puka Dogs for lunch. Hopefully we'll have the same luck as our dear friends and get to snorkle with the sea turtles.

The photos are of: Peyton getting ready for the pool, before lunch at Scotties, the view from our table at lunch.

Aloha!!

All packed!

After a VERY LONG day, I think we're finally ready to go! I just have to check in on Jen to make sure that her bags are also packed and waiting by the front door. Dad will be here at 10:00 to get us, then we're headed over to get Sonny and Lois, and then after a quick loop around the neighborhood are coming to get you! I really don't think that it's entirely fair that you get to go back to Kauai so soon after just leaving! Make sure you're ready for 10 more fun days!!

Ohio photos

Sorry, sorry, sorry to all of my family who have been asking me for pictures from our trip in April. I literally just took them off of my camera! These are just a few of the pictures that I took: Peyton tackling her Aunt Maranda after Maranda kept trying to tickle her; Peyton eating the white bread that we were supposed to be feeding to the ducks at the park. She had never eaten squishy, soft, non-nutritional Wonder Bread before; playing with Woody, my Aunt and Uncle's newest family member; and with cousin Hailey showing off their tummies. Enjoy!!

Yucky Beach???

Kauai is coming! We leave in 4 days to go "home" as Micah and I have so lovingly started to refer to the magical island. We have been preping Peyton for the trip again, telling her that we will be going on a big airplane again, with Grammi and Gramps, and that we are going to the beach. She has overall been pretty receptive to the idea, and will often repeat "big airplane, beach Grammi," etc. However, yesterday as I was starting to pack some clothes she was unpacking them. I explained to her that the clothes needed to stay in the suitcase and went over the whole spiel again. "These are the clothes that we are taking on the big airplane with Grammi and Gramps to go to the beach." She stood there listening for a moment, then shook her head not, removed more clothes and said, "Yucky beach mommy."
What???? I'm beginning to wonder if there was a mix up at the hospital, as clearly these are not the words of my babe!

A note about my sis

For those of you who may not know, I am in the largest compound family in the universe! While I am sure there are those more complicated, here is our complex make up (see if you can follow along): I am the only child of my "real" mom and dad; then my step-dad and mom have two girls, Andrea and Cassie, my half sisters; my step-dad has a son from his previous marriage, John, my step-brother; and last but not least, my dad and step-mother have a daughter, Maranda, my half sister. With all of the halves, wholes, steps, and close friends that we consider family, talking about my family can by all accounts be very confusing to any listener! Since we were all little, we have never considered eachother less than "brother or sister" and have been close as can be at differing points in our lives. Obviously, I love each of them more than I could ever mention, and each of them is very special to me in their own unique way. When you have a family as large as ours, it seems that we have our moments of togetherness and our moments when are not as close as we have been or could be. Getting close to each of my siblings has been something that I will never be able to place value on.

Having said that, I have had the honor of getting to know my sister, Cassie the best over the past 2 years. She is amazing and I wouldn't be the person that I am without her. She is constantly busier than anyone in town, yet finds time to go out of her way to do nice things for others. She has dropped what she is doing on more than one occasion to come and watch Peyton on a whim, and does an incredible job. She is loving, supportive, caring, generous, and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. I thank the Lord for her every day and am saddened that she will be going far far away for school in August; but look forward to the summer that we will share with one another.

The photo is on the day of her senior prom in May (note we look absolutely NOTHING alike).

I know I usually post about current events and trips, etc. but I had to take a moment to appreciate a key person in our day to day lives :)