Back to the Stream

After church we decided to take a walk on the beach in front of our condo and return to the calm little stream we found. Ava was excited and ready to go. We were happy to take her and better prepared by wearing our swimsuits and not pajamas.

When we got to the stream Ava charged right in. She didn't show much fear or hesitation this time. Rich started skipping rocks and Ava copied him by throwing sand. Ava had so much fun getting dirty and throwing sand everywhere. When it was time to head back she didn't want to leave and we pretty much had to drag her out.

On the walk back we found a few ways to distract her. We found some tiny fish trap in a rock pool. Ava liked to look at the fish as long as someone was protecting her from the waves. Ava and Nona also threw a little more sand on the beach while Rich and I took some fun pictures.

This is Ava the Diva ready to go.

"What's taking you guys so long?"

"Come on people! Are we going to the beach or what?"

This is me doing a cartwheel. I have a friend that does cartwheels where ever she goes and thought I would give it a try.

Kauai Lihue Ward

While in Kauai we attended a local church. It was just a few miles away in Lihue. The people were so kind and welcoming. They gave all the visitors a crocheted lei and sang to us in Hawaiian. It was a great way to start our Sunday and the leis are one of Ava's favorite things from our vacation.

The leis in these pictures are the ones my parents bought for us to welcome us to Kauai. Ava was sad when the flowers died and we had to throw them away.

Spouting Horn

McBryde -- by Lisa

McBryde -- by Rich

Recently, Rich has expressed an interest in photography. He hasn't had much time to explore this new interest, but I'm excited we can share this hobby. For this trip we bought a new point and shoot camera. Our other one was pretty old, so we decided to get a Canon Powershot SD3500IS. We were excited to upgrade from 7 megapixels to 14.1 megapixels. It actually has more megapixels than my Canon SLR. We now own 3 cameras: 1 digital SLR and 2 point and shoot. It is nice because now we both can have fun with our hobby and not feel like the other one is not sharing.

McBryde Garden

One of the things I really wanted to do on Kauai was visit one of the botanical gardens. Last time we were on the island (10 years ago) I wanted to go, but it didn't work out. It is something I've always regretted. This trip I was excited to have another chance and made sure it was one of the first things we did.

Kauai is known has the garden island and has at least four botanical gardens. It is a beautiful lush place. It is filled with exotic trees, plants, and flowers. We learned that most of the vegetation on the island is not native and was brought from around the world. All of the green and exotic vegetation is one of the reasons I love Kauai.

We chose to tour the McBryde Garden because it was self-guided and was the best for our whole family. Hopefully we will be able to go back and visit one of the other guided tour gardens. We will have to wait until Ava is much older or go by ourselves though.

We had to take a 15 minute tram ride in and out of the garden.

Daddy helping Ava down the long staircase. Ava did really well and walked almost the entire time.

We really liked these cool twisted trees. Ava had fun playing in them.

Ava enjoyed smelling the flowers.

Ava loved playing in the dirt.

Rich by the pond garden.

Me taking pictures. What a beautiful place to photograph.

Ava on the tram ride out. She was exhausted after touring the garden for 2 hours. She had a lot of fun though and didn't complain at all.