Awake in Hanalei Bay

THE MORNING
How can you beat an awakening this beautiful? The open shutters and window allowed us to breathe in the wonderful island air and hear the crashing waves while watching the sunrise cast its spectacular colors on the verdant mountains. I could do this every morning for the rest of my life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIDE POOL EXPLORATION
From our window, we could look down and see the tidepools that we knew would entertain the boys for hours. Sure enough, they loved hunting around for all the different little sea creatures from crabs and snails to fish and sea cucumbers. They wanted to keep their new 'pets' but I reminded them that they needed their own habitat to survive. It reminded me of a trip I took when I was a girl where we really wanted to keep some starfish we'd found on the west coast. We did and the story didn't end so well for those poor starfish :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SWIMMING POOL

Apparently, one of the jacuzzi's just happened to be slightly broken, making it the perfect cozy bath water for us to hang out in. It was fabulous for Tiago's first pool experience. He loved it! The boys had a great time as well though the masks I brought from home didn't quite cut it since we didn't have snorkels to go with them :( They LOVED playing with our new underwater camera, purchased especially for this trip. I'm already happy we did :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEACH & FOOD
After spending the bulk of the day at the pool, I decided to move Tiago's view to the beach and the grassy area next the beach. He loved the change of scene and so did I. I just can't get over how beautiful it is here. Dezi was a great big brother and spent his share of time entertaining Tiago who began to crawl backwards for the first time! I simply enjoyed sitting and not having a million places to run to all day. I even figured out how to nurse semi-discreetly so I could stay put and enjoy the day as much as possible.
We did retreat to the room for a good nap and some lunch, not exotic room service though, but rather 'convenience food' packed from home. The boys are always dreaming of mac n cheese and ramen noodles and this trip will have those dreams coming true. I bought soups and indian food for Ryan and I and was grateful that my microwave request came through. Our hope is to save money (and time) on eating out for all out meals so we can use those American Express cash cards to pay for the second part of our trip that Vision isn't covering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY ONE ENDS PERFECTLY...Almost
We closed our first day here with friendly lizards and views of paddle boarders before going down to our Vision Solutions 'social'. We made the mistake of letting the boys nap too late in the day (equal to their bedtime in Utah). We had to wake them up to go to the party and they just couldn't snap out of it. They were anti-social and shy. Poor things. It was frustrating for Ryan not to be able to properly present his family to his colleagues and superiors, but I think they understood. I ended up retreating to put all three boys to bed while Ryan stayed to mingle. I have to admit I was a bit jealous. I must be a social person after all :)