Happy New Year from Hawaii

We spent the New Year on the Big Island of Hawaii with my sister Carolyn's family and the other extended family hanger's on! We went to bed the night before our trip around one am, satisfied that we were packed and the house was sparkling clean. Around four am Madeleine woke us up by saying the dreaded, "I feel like I'm going to throw up." And throw up she did. Five times during our three flights to Hawaii. To make it extra fun Katherine ate too many snacks and then became air sick, and at one point we had TWO girls puking at the exact same time. You can imagine how popular we were on that flight.

But when we woke up the next day the pukes had disappeared and what we found was beautiful beaches and a handful of that alien species... little boys! My sister has three beautiful,wild little boys and I don't think my girls quite knew what to do. They waffled between joining the wild rumpus and trying to force their boy cousins to "snuggle." We had such a great time and I was so impressed with how fun and smart my nephews are. They were truly delightful!

At home we live a very structured life based around bedtimes and naptimes. But since we were on island time, poor Elisabeth was forced to nap the good old fashioned way. Wherever she happened to fall asleep.

Saying goodbye was difficult. Our three day trip felt much too short, especially since "next time" is lost to the indefinite future. But one of my new favorite sayings is, "Don't be sad that it is over, be happy that it happened."

And be happy that when we left it was to fly on a puddle jumper over to the island of Kauai.
Not the worst way to begin 2011.

My kids went crazy over the feral chickens and roosters that roam all over the island. They hung out along side us at the pool and wherever we went. Sometimes we tried to gently cluck at them and lure them over to us. Sometimes we chased them and shrieked with laughter. The game never got old.

There are nearly fifty monk seals living around the shores of Kauai and since they hunt nocturnally, they spend their days lying in an exhausted, sound sleep on the local beaches. We saw two sleeping monk seals out on our beach during our one week stay.

Business as usual! Jane recently bought dad a Kindel to make reading more convenient with his constant traveling. So Dad promptly downloaded his crossword puzzles. There was much clucking from all of us during this vacation at Dad's abandonment of the whole "read a book" idea in favor of doing his beloved crosswords. I love this photo.

Seven is the perfect age. She swims like a fish, self-entertains, and enthusiastically appreciated the smaller delights of an island vacation, like body surfing and fruit smoothies. After our exhausting New Year's festivities Madeleine started off in Kauai as Little Miss Grumpy, and my dad commented that she may have frown lines by age twenty, but she recovered and the rest of the week was a delight. Especially following my eleven year old sister Nicky around.

"Look at me guys!" was the phrase of the week. The middle child syndrome was alive and kicking during this trip. Katherine couldn't decide if she wanted the attention of her baby sister, or if she wanted to be included with the bigger girls.

Elisabeth turned two yesterday. Her tantrums were frequent enough and loud enough that three separate guests at the resort came over to tell me that they had noticed what a strong personality our little girl has. That's one way to put it.

There are many adventures to be had on the island of Kauai. We experienced very few of them, opting to stay close to the water.

It was perfect.

And we can't say thank you enough to my dad and Jane for bringing us along. We definitely had a HAPPY start to our new year.