Kauai - Day 2

On Monday (our first real day there), we hung out at the hotel all day. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, and it was wonderful! It was so gorgeous - I could've spent hours walking around taking pictures. Edward Jones had breakfast for us that day, so we all got up early for that. Mom had one short spouses' meeting that morning, and Dad was in meetings until lunchtime. The kids went to "Camp Hyatt" during the meetings, and I lounged around in the room. :-) We spent the afternoon at the pool, which is just amazing! It really is ridiculous. There are three pools, complete with a lazy river and a water slide (which was really fun and made us all act like 10-year-olds). The pools are surrounded by rocks and waterfalls and actually look nothing like pools. There's also a saltwater lagoon in which we could swim. That was nice because there were no waves knocking you down, and the smaller kids could play in the shallow water while we laid on the beach. Somehow we were able to escape renting a kayak in the lagoon ($8 for 30 min!).

Here are some pictures from in and around the hotel...

the lobby

back of the hotel (and around the property - click on the pics to see bigger)

Apparently the housekeepers were not pleased with the way we left our shoes lying all over the room, haha.

the lagoon (with the beach behind it)

the pool area (notice we all enjoyed the slide)

That night we went out to dinner with another family from Memphis. It was the only night we got ready early enough to take any pictures before leaving. Oh well.

Kauai - Day 1

A week ago Sunday, we left the house at 4:15 in the morning so we could make our 6am flight! Ugh! We flew from here to Chicago and then had a 9-hour flight to Honolulu, followed by a short 30-minute flight to Kauai. Looooong day. But definitely worth it. :-) The kids did well on the long flight. Tekia slept 5 hours...due in part to the fact that she was up til 2am the night before (as were Mom and I) complaining of stomach pain. Fortunately that turned out to be hunger and was cured by a milkshake. We all tried to sleep on the flight but she definitely got more sleep than any of us. She's little enough that she can lay her head in a lap and stretch out. Jamal slept some and spent the rest of the time playing his or Kia's Nintendo DS. However, once we got to Hawaii, both kids were WIDE awake and ready to hit the beach!

Kia and me on the looong flight to Hawaii

long way to go...

finally flying into Honolulu

in the Honolulu airport, where the Edward Jones group was welcomed and given leis :-)

excited on the way to Kauai!

Kia gets her first glimpse of the garden island.Kia with all our luggage at the Kauai airport! (actually, the red bags weren't ours...not that that makes much of a difference)
got a car!
happy to finally reach the beach

There was a welcome dinner at the hotel that night for all the Edward Jones families (there were 96 of us!). However, it was raining, so I didn't get any pictures. We ate during a short period when the rain stopped and then ran back inside when it started back again!

the garden island

Sorry for the lack of updates! We got back from Kauai, Hawaii's "garden island", on Sunday. Our trip was wonderful! We had so much fun. The weather was great (for the most part), our resort was great, and Kauai is gorgeous! It's late and I have to go to work tomorrow, so I'm not giving a full report tonight (actually the full report will probably take several posts!); but I'll leave you with a few pictures. :-)