Kauai

Jay and I just got back from Kauai and we had a WONDERFUL time. Our friends Matt & Megan came with us and we met both of my brothers and their fabulous wives there too! To say the least, with 8 people together, there were LOTS and LOTS of laughs! Jay did tons of boogie boarding (which I didn't get a picture of), I laid in the sun every chance I got & we ate lots of yummy food. Jay and the guys played golf one afternoon and I was able to get away and have a massage at one point. Then there were the "adventures". One was planned, the other...not so planned! You can read about those by the pictures below! Its always so nice to get away with just Jay...we were able to spend lots of time together and had lots of good talks...which are my favorite! =)

This picture was taken the moment our feet hit the sand for the first time!!

This is the Napali Coast line...one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen!

This is the Waiohai (where we stayed) and Poipu Beach (where Megan swam with the turtles! it was on her check list.....CHECK!)


This my friends was the unexpected "adventure". We rode in this boat out in the OCEAN for a good 5 hours! I was pretty sure I was going to die! Yes, I'm afraid of the ocean and so why I got in this boat to begin with is a mystery....I guess I just didn't want to "miss out". It started out pretty fun....the boat is speeding along, bouncing along but about 40 minutes into the ride as we are being slammed into the boat over and over and over and over, I start to wonder (along with EVERY OTHER PERSON ON BOARD) what the @*%# we got ourselves into! People were getting sea sick, there were times when we couldn't see anything but GIANT waves in front of us, our hiney's were taking a beating along with our backs! Our hands (which were holding on to ropes for 5 hours) were cramped and as red as you can imagine! And NO ONE was wearing a life jacket! "It makes me look bad" Captain Joe said! He said no one had ever fallen out of his boat....I think he's a liar. The whole point of the boat ride was to ride out there to see the Napli Coast line which you cant see from anywhere but a boat or a helicopter, but because we were so afraid we kept our eyes peeled on the rolling ocean most of the time. Did I mention that the wind was blowing like a mad man and when we left it was raining??? Bitterness was starting to set in as we headed back....going through sea caves, seeing turtles, dolphins and whales was promised and up to this point we had seen ONE turtle. LAME! But, the trip was redeemed! Going with the waves proved to be much easier than going against them (although we were all so exhausted and beat up it was still hard). But the most exciting was that we came across a pod of dolphins! The Captains 1st and only mate, whose name by the way was Chance, told us that there were probably 300 hundred! It was awesome and totally made the trip for me! Once we finally got back to land (praise God we made it!) I looked at Megan and said "WHAT was THAT???" Everyone was....well I don't even have the words to describe it....we were just happy to be alive! The rest of the week was filled with jokes and life and death tales from our trip and we all decided that THIS would be the adventure that we would never forget!

Lovin my man at one of the Wiamea Canyon look outs.

Jay and I at the Luau...no I'm not leaning on Jay....My brother Chad who thinks he's "Artsy Fartsy" took the picture with the camera at an angle...He said it would look cooler...what do you think?? =)

This was our planned "adventure" which none of us were really looking forward too...we had all had our fair share after the Zodiac trip, but it was paid for and we couldn't get our money back so we went. 7 hours, that's right people, 7 hours is how long this one lasted, but it was much more mellow, in fact we were bored. We took a 2 mile kayak trip down a river, hiked a very short distance to a tractor that pulled us around the ranch that some of Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones had been filmed at. It took us to the zip lines (3 to be exact) where we stood in line for who knows how long to wait for everyone to go. The zip lines were....fun? They were OK...nothing special. I think because it took 7 hours to do, well, not really anything was a bummer. Plus we had a tour guide who SERIOUSLY didn't stop talking THE entire time! But here is me and Jay in our Kayak. Jay said it was good for us to do this together in case we ever got our selves in trouble and needed to know how to work a kayak.....huh?

Dinner at Tidepools with the whole gang! DE-LISH

The Phillips sibs and their mates!

Here are those dolphins I was telling you about! Pretty awesome!