We had a fabulous trip and a unique experience celebrating Christmas in Kauai.  I am so grateful that all of my family could join us.  The thing I love most about having a timeshare is that we are already planning our next trip back…

 

The Kalalau Trail – it’s rugged, narrow, muddy, rocky and certainly strenuous.  But, more than anything – it’s drop dead gorgeous and well worth the effort spent to hike it.  This was a highlight of our trip and we loved every minute of it.  We hiked a total of 8 miles – 2 miles along the NaPali coastline to Hanakapi’ai Beach and then two miles inland to Hanakapi’ai Falls – roundtrip.  We had a great time along the way.  We were in a hurry to get back to make sure we had time to take some family pictures, so we kept our pace up pretty fast.  As we past one hiker, he said “have a nice run”.  We hiked the entire thing in 6 hours including stops.  That’s pretty great for this hike.

Let’s get this party started!  Will hadn’t hiked much and was a bit skeptical at his point.

 

Hiking through the LUSH jungle in the mud and up the rocks – fun!

The first of many gorgeous views of the NaPali coast.  Breathtaking.

By now, Will had turned into Indiana Jones and had become a hiking convert.

A tropical haven

Doesn’t it look like I was photo shopped into this picture?  Jeff took this gorgeous and perfect picture. And yes, I was actually there – not edited in :)

Look at this crazy trail.

Time to cross the river to get to the beach…start boulder hopping and hope you don’t fall in! 

We made it to the beach!  No swimming at this beach – too dangerous.  Time for a little snack.

Time to hit the road again

The hike to the waterfalls goes through a bamboo forest – too cool!

Jason on top of the world.

We can see the waterfall…almost there.

Time to change into water shoes and get ready to get wet.

More river crossings…in water shoes now…much easier!

This part was too funny.  My dad was leading the way and here is where he lead us on the “trail”.  We were knee deep in water climbing boulders and Jason comes cruising along to the side of us on land.  I guess my dad had led us astray – but we had a fun time doing it anyway!   Every time we chose the harder router someone would yell “Parkour” – a joke from the TV show “The Office” where the goal is to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible.  It became quite the joke and we had a fun time yelling “Parkour” and getting a good laugh every time the hike got sketchy.

Getting closer…

We made it!!!  Stunning!  Jeff got an awesome picture with his tripod.  Hiking with a tripod…now that’s hardcore photography.

Time to jump in for a swim – but it’s COLD!!!!  Brrrrrrrr……

But, you have to get in anyway…because you can’t miss getting a picture swimming under a waterfall :)

           Jeff’s tripod coming in handy again to get a group shot of us.    

The views of Ke’e beach on the hike back.

We made it without any major injuries!  Lisa won the record for most falls…Dad had one bad fall while crossing a river and landed straight on his back (slippery tivas)…Jeff had a rock slash his leg and a few good bumps on the heard from trees (Heads Up Jeff!)…other than that – just some sore bodies the next day.

Jeff hiked the entire trail with this huge backpack containing 30 lbs. of camera equipment and his tripod.  He must be in shape though – because he kept up his pace with no problem.

Check out those shoes – Muddy!  We used our old shoes and mine were falling apart anyway – so they went straight in the trash as did Joe and Lisa’s.  A few people got a good laugh out of that.

Hitching a ride back to the car, muddy and shoeless…but Happy!

Well, we didn’t quite snorkel with the turtle – but at the same beach as this big guy.  He decided to hang out on the beach and take a little nap.  We didn’t seem to bother him as we snapped a picture. 

 

We decided to get in one more day of snorkeling at Poipu Beach.  Joe and I went out pretty far and saw a HUGE eel.  At first, I was pointing to Joe, like “hey, check it out, cool”.  Then, Joe saw it and immediately freaked out and we both started swimming away as fast as we could.  At first I thought it was a water snake.  But, come to find out it was a very dangerous and poisonous eel.  Scary and cool all at the same time!

 

 

 

P.S. – Doesn’t my mom look fabulous?

We spent a great day with our little family at the beach by our hotel.  Our kids LOVED the beach on the trip.  I am so glad we brought their life jackets so they could really enjoy playing in the ocean.  

Dawson loved body surfing, building sand castles and getting buried in the sand.

(Nice boobs Jason made them)

 

Taya loved playing in the sand and laying in the water.

 

 

Holden loved dumping sand on his head.  I am not sure why. He understood the concept of putting the sand into the bucket.  He just did not think it was as much fun.  So, wherever he was, there was sure to be a big pile of sand around him.  I still found sand in his hair after we got home from our trip :)