Kauai - Part 1

We had the most amazing time in Hawaii, the beginning of the week we stayed with Brady and Karen and their cute little Zac.  We had so much fun spending time with them and they spoiled us rotten!  They sure know how to host their guests.  Besides feeding us and giving us a place to sleep, they gave us beautiful lays right off the airplane and awesome Hawaii gifts in our room.  Not to mention they let us borrow their truck, boogie boards, surf boards, and snorkeling gear.  They gave us awesome advice for places to go, took time to go lots of places with us, and Brady gave me some very helpful photography lessons.  I am sure there is more that I am forgetting, they are just awesome.

Our first day in Kauai was amazing!  We spent the the day in Poipu swimming, snorkeling, and boogie boarding.  We saw a bunch of whales!  One was breaching so close to the shore but I didn't get the camera out in time to get a picture.

Beau and Brady 

I loved this view, it was just a quick hike from Brady and Karen's house.  I got caught in the rain on the way back but it was worth it!

Look closely and you can see two big sea turtles!

I could not sleep in here, every time it would start to get light I would wake up and be too excited to go back to sleep.  I caught some awesome sunrises!  This was probably my favorite.  I love love love this picture.

Shipwreck rock at sunrise.

Waimea Canyon 

(some call it the little Grand Canyon but I have never seen the Grand Canyon look this green!)

There were wild roosters EVERYWHERE on the island.  Another reason why people probably could never sleep in there.

Lookout over to the private island

Lookout down into the Na' Pali coast

Another awesome lookout at the bottom of our hike.

Brady was telling us that they were filming some of Pirates 4 just off this beach.

This was our view at lunch in Kapaa

Karen, Zac, Brady, Beau, and Emily

Hanalei - probably my favorite beach ever!

Have you ever seen South Pacific?  This should look familiar.  

I have to get the pictures from Karen but we spent the day up here getting surfing lessons from Brady, so fun!

On Wednesday night the Thomasons flew in and we checked into the Worldmark in Kapaa.

Our first adventure with Aaron and Lindsey was kayaking up the Wailua river and hiking up to secret falls.

We all headed up the wrong channel at first into a swift current and Aaron and Lindsey flipped their kayak.  Lindsey was clinging onto a branch and Aaron was trying to locate a lost paddle.  Luckily we were able to find it when we came back after the hike.

We had gotten so much rain that the river was really huge and muddy.  Normally these river crossing aren't nearly so difficult, but it made the hike really exciting.

Normally secret falls is just a trickle and you can swim up here but not the day we went.  One of the tour guides from another group was saying this was the biggest he had ever seen the falls here.

The trail was so muddy, there were times when we were up to our knees in mud.  This is one of Beau's favorite pictures from the trip.

There was a little Hawaiian village that we walked through at the end of our hiking/kayaking trip.

Afterwards we headed back into Kapaa for some shave ice.  After this one Beau declared that he was going to get a shave ice ever day until the day we left.

View from The Beach House- an amazing place to eat dinner and watch the sun set.  The fish was so delicious!

I think this was an awesome picture I got of Aaron and Lindsey!

Another beautiful sunrise in Kapaa