Through Lily's Eyes

Aloha!  It's about 11:00am here in Kauai and we've already been to breakfast, taken a drive up the north coastline, taken a dip in the pool, and walked the beach.  Time is on our side here.  We left Grand Rapids yesterday morning about 6:00am and after 12 hours of travel touched down in our happy place at 2:15pm Kauai time.  The trek was one of the shortest we've ever experienced - about 55 minute layovers in both Chicago and Pheonix - and we are thankful we had no delays and made every connection.  We had four hours of Hawaiian daylight left to kill and after hitting up a new restaurant, we were all sound asleep by 7:30pm.  When Lily started stirring around 4:00am asking what time breakfast was going to be served Mike and I couldn't help but groan....it also could have been way worse.

After some fruit snacks, a few cartoons, and some morning snuggles, we set off in search of an amazing breakfast place that Mike and I had stumbled upon about 6 years ago hoping it was still in business.  The building had a fresh coat of paint and had only opened about 15 minutes before we arrived but hadn't changed inside a bit.  We stuffed ourselves with Kalua pork breakfast sandwiches, fresh pineapple, and guava jam and toast and watched the sun rise over the beach.  

Now we're waiting on the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa before we can get back to soaking up the sun and stuffing ourselves with more good food.  Lily's struggling to keep her eyes open as she's "resting" on the couch and Mike's watching football (which has been on since 6am here).  It's amazing to be able to just sit here with the slider open, the sea breeze blowing in (and I mean blowing) and have a peaceful moment to update our much neglected blog.  I can't help but think of the stress we felt as we prepared for our trip - Mike entertaining vendors and sales reps getting home after 11 each night leading up to our departure and me prepping lesson plans and mid-terms for my subs.  Who would have thought ducking out for a vacation in higher education would have been more stressful than in public accounting?  Not me - and I'm glad DU honored my existing vacation plans but it's been made very clear this shouldn't happen again during the school year.

So we're living up the moment and trying to forget about the hustle and bustle of our lives back on the mainland.  We've both already had to take a few minutes to touch base at work and were reminded this morning how we need to see the world through Lily's eyes.  She begged us to walk the beach this morning after we went to the pool.  It involved a quick trek down some rocks and a wade across the river before we could get to the sand.  All of the islands are under a high wind advisory meaning the waves are huge and crashing up the beaches insanely high.  Our daredevil child got pummeled by a wave this morning and came up laughing as she was spitting salt and sand from her mouth.  After a quick drink of water she was back at it waiting for the waves to carry her up the beach.  The girl had (still has) sand in places sand shouldn't be.  But to see the look of pure joy on her face, we're so grateful to have this opportunity to spend this time with her.  So many people think we're crazy to have made the trek out here with her time and time again but I honestly couldn't imagine it any other way.