A week of adventure...including the $700 mistake

Where to begin... It's late for me and I know everyone is too busy to be reading long blog posts this time of year so I'll try to make it brief (there are pictures in the slide show and most can speak for themselves) but for record keeping and as a safety precaution for anyone planning on visiting us and trusting us to take you on any adventures I have to jot down a few words. My parents were our second group of visitors here and due to Theresa's "delicate condition" (if there was a keyboard function to indicate sarcasm, I would use it here because I've never seen a 7 months pregnant woman body board quite like she did, and she and I went on a shark hunting snorkel trip after Ben and Brady reported seeing one) we kept the high adventure to a minimum medium when they were here.

So on day one of adventures with parents, Ben had the day off so we decided to rent kayaks and head for the Mokulua's, a pair of islands about a mile and a half from Kailua Beach where we took off from. I had gone in a few days prior and asked them about going out there and they had said, yeah, it was a great thing to do and that they had a suggested path to take out there so we were all set. Unfortunately, no one told us about "the board" that changed daily based on the weather conditions and listed the boundaries for the novice kayakers like ourselves. I declined the safety instruction video, because, well, we have a kayak and we had left Miles with a friend and had limited time to paddle. I also thought for sure that when Ben and my dad got the kayaks that they would give them any instruction they needed. The waves around the island were approaching 10 feet and as we got nearer, it was fun but not unmanageable so we were charging along. An expert kayaker saw Avery in our kayak and told us that it was very difficult to land on the island with the current conditions so we stayed back, but my parents were already too far ahead to call to...or even see except between swells. They looked like they were going to make it just fine and I really wanted to go too but Ben was smarter (that day) and insisted we hang back and wait. And wait, and wait. By this time we have rung row row row your boat for about 30 minutes and we could see my parents (or at least my dad's bright yellow shirt) on the island. But then we realize that their boat is being tossed with every wave. Later we found out that they got caught in a nasty cross current and capsized, losing everything and nearly drowning them. A combination of shallow reef, quicksand and a strong undertow made it impossible to get back to the boat. There wasn't anything we could do having Avery with us but a surfer went out and towed their boat to them and collected all of the lost items...flip flops, paddles, life vests (oops), dry bag w/ the camera and my parents and ultimately got them out of danger. They looked like professional kayakers to me as they rode the waves out. Avery, who caught on to our distress and heard us talking about the many options of what might have happened, said "I wish they didn't have to drown, but they did. I want to go home" so she was most excited when we realized that they were headed back toward us. The only thing the kind surfer couldn't locate for them...their prescription (over $700 between the two) sunglasses. They found my mom's later when they turned the kayak in. A little beat up, but we say that Avery prayed them back, and I'm going to make sure and bear my testimony about that next month (it'll go nicely among the stories of how Heavenly father loves Hawaii the most because they won their last football game).

So that was the long story. We also went on some fun hikes. The Lanikai bunkers which has an incredible view (of the Mokulua's no less) and Manoa Falls, which is a pretty easy hike to a stunning waterfall (easy, but humid. in the pictures my shirt is soaked from sweat, not the falls). We ate good food and Miles got his first bike...with dimples like those you don't have to wait for Christmas for gifts. We only had one other near disaster during their trip and that was when we went to the Leeward side in the midst of an island-wide blackout (didn't you notice that I ceased to blog for a few days?) and got stuck in traffic with no gas and no functioning gas stations for miles (yet another little prayer saved the day). Really, we're all just lucky to be alive.