Kauai Vacation - Day 6 (Thursday, December 3)

Justin took some lovely photos on his morning run.

Clearly someone was still just a bit tired when they woke up this morning.

The girls have each been working on homework throughout the vacation – usually at night when Justin and I sneak out for a few hours, but they also sneak in a little time some mornings.

We headed back to the end of the northern road to hike the Kalalau Trail. We opted to only do the mile hike since the trail gets much more strenuous and dangerous beyond that. It was a tough hike - muddy of course, but also really rocky which made for a slippery climb.

Drew sure got off easy 

   

But oh, the views!

Had I know this would end up being our Christmas card perhaps we would have dressed a little differently – nah! 

The way down always seems so much faster

We were prepared with a light lunch so after the hike we returned to Hanalei Beach to spend the rest of the afternoon. We were surprised to find that the bag we'd accidently left on a picnic table the previous day was still there waiting for us to return. Thankfully, there wasn't anything valuable in it – just a few drinks and Drew's swimsuit and rashgaurd.

After we ate it started to rain - yes, Kauai is the Garden Isle for a reason. When it rains it really rains, but it never lasts long and since it’s still 80 degrees so it isn’t really a big deal.  Drew and I stayed in the van and waited for the sun to return before joining the others.

Another perfect afternoon on the beach. This time Abigail was able to convince me to get out there and enjoy the ocean. I'm not a good swimmer and so being the water makes me nervous, but I felt comfortable very quickly and had a blast boogie boarding with the family.

Me and Abigail waiting for the perfect wave 

   

We tried another shaved ice joint (JoJo's) before heading back to the condo to clean up. Thumbs up all around.

Justin cooked some pork and french fries for dinner and then we cooked up another batch of cookies from the massive tub of cookie dough we'd purchased at Costco. Justin and I snuck out after the littles were in bed and got some ice cream at Pink's Creamery in Hanalei. Since I hadn't had much to eat for dinner {no pork please}, I also ordered a pineapple grilled cheese sandwich, which was surprisingly very, very tasty.