Kauai Trip- Days 2 and 3

Day 2 We wanted a low key beach day so we headed to nearby Anini Beach. I had read that this beach was great for kids and it did not disappoint! Many of the Hawaiian beaches have huge waves this time of year that make them unsafe for swimming but this beach is totally calm and shallow several feet out. Ben Stiller also has a house on this beach! Too bad we didn't see him. On our way to the beach we stopped at a famous lookout point!
 


Then it was time to hit the beach!
 


A beach man made by Jared and Mason

 


Day 3: One of our favorite things each morning was to sit on our lanai and watch the chickens and roosters! They are everywhere here! The ones near us realized early in the week that our kids drop a lot of food so they came to visit us pretty frequently! A few times we even had chickens get in our condo! LOL Here's one of our rooster friends

 


This morning we visited a lighthouse
 

Afterwards we took a hike to a waterfall. There are tons of hikes you can take in Kauai and this was definitely one of the easier ones. I would love to do more when the kids are older! Mason was such a trooper....he walked the entire way without complaining once!

 

 It's hard to tell from the picture but this frog was HUGE!
 

That evening we went back to Anini beach right at sunset!
 

Kauai Trip Report: Day 1

We are back from a great week in Kauai! We had never been to Hawaii before and...wow we are hooked! It is just such a beautiful place that is still so natural and fairly untouched by commercial things. Already dreaming about going next year! I have soooo many pictures that I thought it would be easier to break up these posts by day.

 We left Saturday morning and faced an 8 hour flight to Honolulu, then an short flight from there to Kauai. I hadn't bought a seat for Connor and was hoping there would somehow be an empty seat for us to use. When we boarded the plane we were so excited to see that the entire flight was full except for TWO seats directly across from us! Not sure how we lucked out to pay for three seats and end up with five! Mason did great on the flight, played a lot of games and slept. Connor was definitely tougher, he didn't sleep so it was pretty hard to keep him entertained. When we finally arrived at our condo we had been traveling for nearly 16 hours! We all went straight to bed and woke up super early the next morning thanks to jet lag! I immediately searched for a nearby coffee spot! We found one in Hanelei, a cute little town about 5 minutes away. We left before dark and got there just as the sun was coming up!
 

 After coffee, we headed out to the beach! Mason was sooo excited! Poor Connor was a little terrified of the waves. If you have seen the movie "The Desecendants" with George Clooney, this is where a lot of the beach scenes were filmed!
 


After leaving the beach we took a little drive to explore!
 

That evening before dinner we took a little hike to a deserted beach! It's so crazy that you could spend
probably a year here going to different beaches and still not see them all!
 


Sorry for the ten million pictures! Stay tuned for day 2!

This and That

I'm trying to clear out my memory cards and found a few photos I love that I forgot to share. So here you go!


Little tough guys on Thanksgiving :0)





My dad and his grandsons

 



Mason and Presley! I love that these two have been friends since birth!


 




Little best buds

 

Wedding in Austin

I've was trying to be better about blogging but now its been forever since my last post...AGAIN! The thing that has kept me the most busy over the past month is photography! I like to have between 4 and 6 sessions a month, just a enough to keep my busy but not enough to be stressful. Well in November, I had 20 sessions! It was tons of fun but definitely crazy! With the exception of a few small sessions here and there, I am done for the rest of the year though! We are also preparing for our Hawaii trip and leave on Saturday! I absolutely cannot wait! I'm definitely dreading the 8 hour plane ride, but am hoping after that the kids will do fine! Last weekend we took a trip to Austin for Jared's Aunt Carole. She is such a sweet person and we were so happy for her to find her new husband Rich! We enjoyed the wedding on Saturday night and then had fun doing some of our favorite Austin things on Sunday! Have I mentioned how much we LOVE Austin? Here are some pics from our trip!

 Before the ceremony!
 

 Jared's Family! (minus Jeff who couldn't come because Megan was sick)


Daddy and his boys


 

 The happy couple!


 Mason and his cousin Wesley had so much fun on the dance floor. Wish I had a video, it was hilarious!









 The next morning we had brunch then headed down to Zilker Park! All along the road, people had decorated evergreen trees! So fun!


Of course we had to pull over and get a picture! They are both holding up rocks they found...LOL


Balloon Sword!

Walking with Uncle Dru

 Waiting for the train ride!
 


We were both so pleasantly surprised at how easy this trip was with the boys. It was the first time going somewhere with both of them that we felt that way! They both did great in the car and the hotel! We are hoping Hawaii will be the same way!