First Day of School 2021-22

The kids were excited to go back to school!  Carson is a Junior, Kaylee is in 8th Grade, Alivia is in 5th and Preston is in 3rd.  It is going to be a great year!! 

Back to Real Life

We went to church the next day and by the time we got home the kids were there!  It was so good to see them.  We are so grateful for Nick's parents and for them being so willing to help watch our kids.  Carson was the only one we left at home so he could work.  Luckily, he had his friend Ethan from our ward that kept him entertained.  

We had just a few days left of summer before school started, so we did some shopping on Monday and stopped at the Health Dept to show our support of NOT having to wear masks to school this year.  Saw some pretty cool friends there!  

We made it back in time for back to school night so we could meet Alivia and Preston's teachers.  Alivia has Mrs. Stoddard and Preston has Mrs. Hatch!  It is going to be a great year! 

Carson got his bottom braces off and is now officially out of braces.  This kid is so cute!!!  

On another note...we are now doing some remodeling in the garage, which was started when Alivia drove into the stair case wall (with Nick in the driver's seat with her).  Still not sure how it happened, but we are grateful that no one was hurt!  And now we can get up and down the stairs so much faster.  

 

Last Hours in Paradise....

We left the ranch and grabbed some lunch and went to the beach to eat it.  As we were pulling up, we saw a shark!!  I grabbed my phone and got most of it on video and before I could get all the way out of the car it was gone!  But if you zoom in on the picture, you can see the shark!! Crazy, but so cool!  

We drove around the island a little more that day and discovered the coolest blowhole.  It was so cool!  We checked out a few more beaches and stopped into Duke's for one more piece of Hula pie!  This time we got a table right on the beach!  It was so neat! 

 We made it back to the airport just in time to return our car and get all checked in for our flight.  It was a LONG flight home and I am not a fan of red eye flights.  Luckily, when we got home the next day, we were able to unpack and catch up on some sleep since Karen didn't bring the kids home until the next day.  We missed them so much, but it was so much fun having a vacation with just the two of us!  

Goodbye Kauai Ranch!

After breakfast on Friday, we headed down to the beach to do morning stroll.  We had the beach to ourselves and it was heaven!  Afterwards, we headed back to the ranch and took one final swim in the pool before packing up and checking out of the ranch.  It was sooooo sad to have to leave.  It will always be one of the best vacations I have been on.  

 

Rest & Relaxation!

One of the things we loved most about our trip is that it was so nice to just rest and relax.  We didn't have a big agenda.  We didn't have to worry about the kids or go to work.  It was the best week ever!  We lounged, we ate, we played games and we swam in the pool every day.  It was so fun.  I am sure we could have done more things around the island, but besides everything being booked or closed, we knew we could never come back to this property ever again.  So we did our best to just enjoy the property and take advantage of being there in that moment! 

Friday morning was our last morning in Kauai.  We got up early to watch the sunrise and it did not disappoint.  We took a million pictures of it.  Eric and Jasmine made us a yummy mexican breakfast that we ate way too much of!  It was the perfect way to spend our last morning there.  

 

Kilauea Lighthouse

It was such a beautiful and HOT afternoon when we met up with Kathy & Kerry Buxton at the Kilauea Lighthouse.  Unfortunately, the lighthouse wasn't open for tours, but we at least could kind of look inside through the windows.  The views from the lighthouse were amazing.  I could have spent all day there, but it was REALLY hot, so we found our way back to the airconditioned car before heading back to the ranch to take a swim in the pool.  The pool was one of our favorite places to hang out.  It was so private, with the most beautiful views.  We swam in it every single day! (See next post)