Smiles that make a Difference

FRIDAY - 8-19-16 - CELEBRATING MAKAYLA'S BIRTHDAY EARLY! 2nd DAY ON KAUAI. We surprised her early in the morning and brought her a "breakfast roll" and decorated her door. Heidi taped the paper up with bandaids. Talk about creative decorating! Heidi is amazing! We celebrated it early because we will be traveling on her Birthday on the plane. We wanted it to be a special day for her. She is turning 14. Holy Cow! Crazy how time flies. It seems like it was yesterday that we were in Iowa and she was a little cute baby. People say that all the time, but it's true. Makayla is so great and we love her so much! She has been amazing this whole trip and its been fun to spend a ton of time with her. We did some great things today to have fun on her special day. One to remember! We went to the fern grotto that is by the Wailua River State Park. It's a lush river valley with a river running through it. It has lots of history and is beautiful!

We took a riverboat cruise to Fern Groto which is an unusual fern covered cave set in a tropical garden. We had an amazing band of gifted musicians that sang Hawaiian songs to us as we took the riverboat cruise. They showed us traditional dances and taught us traditional songs.

The family having a good time on the riverboat cruise.

This is the Wailua River State Park.

The Fern Grotto. You can see the cave that is set back in there. It looks small, but really is very large. It can hold up to 120 people. They don't allow people to go inside anymore because the tropical storms have made it unsafe. There are beautiful ferns that are growing down from the rock. As the years go by, more and more ferns will grow there unless storms interrupt the process again.

Family in front of the Fern Grotto

The Smith's Tours did a great job. They sang to us and danced for us. They said that they sometimes do weddings here. I can see why. An amazing place to have a wedding!

One of the singers brought his grandkids. Braden and them were strumming the guitar strings. He was kind enough to show them some things about the guitar.

Makayla took this picture of the trees. Amazing huh! I call it "Heaven's Windows".

Heidi came up with a genius idea! When we got back to the cruise ship, she divided us into two teams and we had to do a race. She had 10 things we had to do. The above photo was just some of the things we had to do. The following pictures are us doing the tasks Heidi wrote down. Crazy? YES! Fun? YES! Some fun for Makayla's Birthday! Makayla, Maddison, and I were on a team and the others were on a team. GAME ON!!!!!!

We all had to climb into the tiny little cruise ship shower and take a picture.

We had to go to the kitchen and make ourselves a little shish kabob with a toothpick and cheese.

We had to find some of the people working on the ship that clean the rooms, thank them, and then take a picture with them.

We had to go to the top deck and do the pose, "I'm sailing!"

Had to do the "Bunny-Hop" down a hallway.

We had to play a few rounds of "shuffle-board"

We had to find the library and act like we were reading a book.

We had to take a picture on the famous wall and strike a pose. The girls are awesome POSERS!

We had to go on the elevator and go from the 5th floor to the 12th floor. After the race, we went and watched Jurassic World (the movie) in the theatre. The reason they played that is a lot of it was filmed on this island of Kauai. After the movie, the cruise shipped sailed pass the cliffs and pinnacles of the Na Pali Coast. It has served as a backdrop for major Hollywood films. The next few pictures are of the Na Pali Coast taken from the ship. It was an amazing treat given to us by the captain!