Scout camp

Last week Eli had cub camp and I was asked to go help out.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from our week.

This strange little activity they were doing was fish racing.  That was Eli's fish Sharky who made it all the way to the finals and then decided to swim in the other direction.  I would love to do this with my classes some time if I can ever figure out a way to tie it into something we are learning.

Eli is 9!

My baby boy is 9 years old today.  But I have to say I feel like a terrible parent because I forgot to charge my camera so I got no pictures of the fun party we had for him yesterday.
The kids all started out in the pool with water guns.  We had way too much junk food (pizza, nachos, push pops, and punch).  Then after presents we set up a projector in the back yard and watched mirror mirror while laying on blankets on the lawn, eating popcorn and wearing glow necklaces.  Then we had an ultimate build you own sundae bar with everything I could think of to put with ice cream.  Watching a movie outside is so fun.  We are definitely going to have to do that one again.
I think all the junk food might have been another bad parent moment though because Eli ended up throwing it all back up in the middle of the night.  He said he still had fun, but I guess we will have to be a little more careful today.   Happy Birthday Monkey!  Love you!

Aloha Kauai!

Last week my whole family went to Hawaii together.  And by whole family, I mean all of us.

I have been to Maui twice before, but this time we went to Kauai and it was the first time Don and the kids have ever been to one of the islands.  We had such a wonderful time, I was sad to see it end.

 But really who wouldn't be when this was the view from our condo.  The entire back wall of the room was an accordion door window.  It opened up completely so that the whole wall was open to a grassy area and that amazing view.

 Out the front door and across the parking lot there was a river and a golf course on the property as well.

 Just beyond the golf course there was a lighthouse and so we went to look at it and found a beautiful rocky beach where the waves would crash and make an amazing spray.  It was too rough to swim at, but it gave us great pictures.

 One day we drove up to Waimea Canyon which is called the Grand Canyon of Kauai.  It is definitely not as big as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but it was beautiful.

 Another day we drove up to Hanalei which is on the north side of the island and went snorkeling at Tunnels Beach.  It is pretty calm there because there is a huge reef just under the water.  We saw lots of fish and my brother and sister saw large sea turtles.

 For dinner that night we went to Princeville and ate at a restaurant called Roy's.  It is on this beautiful golf course.  The sunset was amazing.

 One thing that I have been wanting to do since I got my new Nikon for Mother's Day was to do family pictures.  Our little family has not done any for over two years and my whole family's last picture together was about 5 years ago.  So we finally got around to it and I took them myself.  I think they turned out pretty good considering that I had to use the timer in order to be in them.

 Our last night there we went to a Luau and saw a lot of hula dancers.  The best part was the guy with the fire knifes.

 The day we left we decided to drive around a little since our plane did not leave until 9pm.  So we drove down to Poipu and saw the Spouting Horn (bottom picture).  It is on a beautiful beach full of crashing waves.

 We also went on a canoe trip one day where they rode us up a river to a jungle/forest.  Then we hiked through it to a waterfall and back.  After the canoe ride back we took kayaks to a place called Fern Grotto that has a small water fall and a cliff side covered in ferns and vines.  Then we took them up river a little more.  I took a few pictures, but something happened when I uploaded them so I will have to post some of those once I get some of the ones that my sisters took.   Another day we rented boogie boards and a surf board, which Donald and I both tried, but we did not even get close to catching anything.  One day Donald, Adin, Nathan and Iayn went on a ziplining trip throughout the jungle with Tina, Brian and Jackie.  Don went golfing twice, we did lots of souvenir shopping and had a shaved ice almost every day. 

We also spent time in the awesome pool with a waterslide, waterfall and hot tub and the kids spent a lot of time playing on the lawn outside our condos, catching frogs and chasing chickens.

There are chickens everywhere.  Apparently there were lots of chicken farms and then in 1992 there was a huge Hurricane that spread them all over the island.
I think I took about 300 pictures, but obviously I can't include them all in here.  We had such a great time, but the best part was sharing something new as a family.