Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had fun dressing up at work! From left to right, our Director, Stephanie, Financial Secretary Teri, Payroll Secretary Leslie, Receptionists Joy and Me, I am a person you can count on.....in case you didn't know! Have a scarey, fun and safe Halloween!

Grapes Make Me Happy!

There is something so cathartic about the process of making grape juice. For me it is the whole process of growing the grapes, picking the grapes and processing the grapes into juice. I just love it! This is the first year I have had the fun of actually growing the grapes. Even so I used to go and pick them at a little old lady's house who used to live on State Street across from Macey's. Now her house and all of the others that used to be there have been demolished and the field that used to be covered in grape vines has shiny new buildings. Progress....I guess. I will always remember her and her grapes and how hard she worked to tend them along with her aging husband.

Day 8: Nearing the end.....we are so sad!

Day 8 was Sunday and we started the day by attending the Lihue Ward Sacrament Meeting. It was a wonderful meeting and at the end they had all of the visitors stand up and all of the ward members went to the front and sang "Aloha" to us. During the song the Relief Society passed out hand made, knitted, leis to each of us. It was the sweetest thing....it made me cry. (Well maybe I was crying because it was almost time to go home.)

After enjoying an especially delicious breakfast at our favorite Kalaheo Cafe and snagging one last shaved ice at our favorite JO Jo's, we set off to explore the rainforest by taking Kuilau Ridge Trail Hike. It is a beautiful and easy hike that takes you along the ridge with lush rainforest on either side. The kids and I had a great time and Liz had lots of photo opps. Very fun.

Day 7: Too Tired to Post Anything but Pictures

Surf's Up
The Kauai Chickens....well this happens to be a rooster but they run wild and you see them all over the Island. The story goes that during a hurricane the chickens got loose and they never rounded them up and so now they are jokingly referred to as the Kauai State Bird.
Enjoying the sand between our toes.

Day 6: Happy Birthday to Mackay

Day 6: Happy Birthday to Mackay

A birthday in Hawaii! It started out with surfing lessons at Honalei Bay Beach, really beautiful! We spent most of the day on the beach and ended with a beautiful meal at Roy's. What a birthday Mackay! Fourteen wonderful years, cute boy, tons of fun, makes us laugh! We love you Mackay!

Day 6: Surf's UP

Day 5: Just hanging out.....or ummm hanging loose!

Day 5: Food, Food and more Food...some of our favorites!

These were some of our favorite places to eat!

Did you know there is a Brick Oven Pizza in Kauai? It was GREAT Pizza!

Mackay has a typical plate lunch and the other picture is the Fresh Fish of the Day and it was spectacular!

Day 4: The Napali Coast Adventure!Lots of Dolphins

It was so fun to see this pod of dolphins. I always wonder why they stay with the boat, it is almost like they are playing with us. Actually the dolphins are in sleep mode and that is why they can always find them on these tours. Here is a fun fact about dolphins: Dolphins have to be conscious to breath.[1] This means that they cannot go into a full deep sleep, because then they would suffocate. Dolphins have "solved" that by letting one half of their brain sleep at a time. This has been determined by doing EEG studies on dolphins. Dolphins sleep about 8 hours day in this fashion.

A dolphin's behavior when sleeping/resting depends on the circumstances and possibly on individual preferences. They can either:1. swim slowly and surface every now and then for a breath 2. rest at the surface with their blowhole exposed 3. rest on the bottom (in shallow water) and rise to the surface every now and then to breath. [2]

You can see the Napali Coast behind us! A gorgeous View!


We love Joe, he was part of the crew and he went to take a picture of our family and when we got the camera back we had this great picture of HIM! Very funny Joe!




We started out dry......and ended up very WET!

Day 4: The Napali Coast Adventure

Day 4 was the Napali Coast Adventure. The Napali Coast is the wild side of Kuaui Island and is only accesible by hiking in or by boat. We of course chose the boat and if you ever come to Kuaui I highly recommend this boat tour. It is a fabulous day filled with dolphins, sea turtles, snorkling and great food. The crew is always friendly and fun. We just had a blast! I will let the pictures tell the story. Aloha!

Day 3: Banana Pancakes.....Who Knew!

We woke up to a steady drizzle of rain. Our appetites were not dampened so we headed off to the Kountry Kitchen in Kappaa. You can see in the pictures my fabulous breakfast of 2 poached eggs, papaya, bacon and banana pancakes. Topped with their coconut syrup they were the best pancakes I have ever had! Amanda had sweet coconut french toast and Elizabeth had macadamia nut pancakes. Wow! Who knew pancakes could be so good. After breakfast we headed off to the North Shore, which is the wet side of the island. It is so beautiful and green and we enjoyed the lush green scenery. We explored the dry caves and the wet caves, you can guess which is which in the pictures. The tide was way in and there was high swells which were beautiful to watch but not a good day for swimming. We stopped to visit the Kilauea Lighthouse and bird sanctuary, saw some cute baby birds and lots of big ones. Next was Wailua Falls, who knew that the main attraction would be a tiny wild kitty that had a plastic cup around it's neck like a collar. Several people were standing around trying to figure out how to get it off for the poor little thing. Oh yeah, the falls were nice too. We ate dinner at Kauai Pasta, a complete sucess, everyone loved their dinner. The highlight for me was the appetizer of carmelized onion and green apple ravioli with a butternut squash sauce, it was complete heaven! A very full day took us gratefully home to relax on our own beach and sink into a hot tub or two.

Day 2: Too much fun in the sun!

Day two started out with a drive to the West Shore of the island. We were searching out a beach called Polihale. It was as far as you can drive on the highway and then about 4 miles down a long, long dirt road. The beach was beautiful, and mostly desereted. We played in the swells for a while, Brad and I keeping a close watch on our playful kids just to make sure one of them didn't go out with the tide. (Kind of scarey!) It is surreal to be at the beach and have the beautiful mountains of the Napli Coast in the back ground. Breath taking! As we lay on the sand...everyone was quiet and all of a sudden a huge swell came up and washed over us, towels, cameras and all. Luckily the cameras weren't wet but the towels were a disaster. We all laughed and went to wash off in the showers before heading out for lunch. We stopped at a wonderful little spot called the Kalaheo Cafe and had turkey burgers & cilantro garlic fries, sandwiches and salads and some really killer cookies too. Double chocolate macademia nut brownies were my favorite. Yum! On the way home we stopped at the local farmers market and it was so cool to see all of the unusual produce. After lunch we were a little worn out and a LOT sunburned so we headed back to the hotel to rest up! Because of the time difference here we have been getting up at 5am and so we are ready for bed by 8:30pm or 9pm.

DAY 1: The Amazing Race to Hawaii

We had the Beagles version of the Amazing Race to Hawaii. Liz and I were team 1 and Brad and Amanda and Mackay were team 2. We had different routes, Liz and I were to go from SLC to LA to Kauai. Brad and the kids from SLC to Ohaui to Kauai. On your mark......get set......GO! To see who won check out the pictures!! Aloha!

Does Everyone Have Everything?

As we headed down the hill after loading everyone in the mini-van, we asked, "Does everyone have their driver's license?". Knowing that our girls are sometime absent minded about making sure they have their ID and knowing how hard it is to get on a plane these days even if you ARE who you say you are. Everyone assured us they did....until we stepped onto the airport shuttle after parking the car. Liz casually says, "I can't find my wallet.....Oh I remember, I left it sitting on my bed!" Complete panic set in as we tried to decide what to do. We called Dodie (my sister) and her husband Bruce, who happened to be staying at our house and asked if one of them could grab the wallet and jump in the car and bring it to the airport. Bruce headed up and we decided to just try and get through without the license. Guess what! It worked. I just handed both boarding passes to security and they didn't even question it.....good thing Liz looks so young. Just hope it works on the way back! (A big thanks goes out to Bruce for his willingness to drop everything and help out!) A great high stress start to the trip!!

Wow! Another One Bites the Dust!

Birthday cake anyone? What a surprise to have my teenage daughters make me a home made poppy seed cake for my birthday today! It was delicious and not an easy task considering they had to learn how to whip egg whites and fold them into the batter! A special thanks to Mason Cragun (Liz was babysitting) for helping me to blow out the candles. We only had to relight them 3 times because he couldn't wait to start blowing! Mackay scored big points by getting me the ear phones I had been wanting and a coupon for a new bike was a hit too. It was a fun day filled with surprises, like having my friend Tonya at work show up with a beautiful platter of pumpkin bars, treats dropped off on the doorstep and ending with a beautiful dinner at Market Street Grill with the FAM! Just goes to show you that turning 48 is not that bad! Thanks for all of the LOVE!