Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends (and friends who feel like family)!
We hope you are enjoying this special day with those you love. We appreciate you so much and are so blessed to have each of you in our lives.
Our time in Hawaii will soon be coming to an end and I’m not looking forward to going back home to the cold, although I’ve heard it’s been unusually warm (and snowless). Yesterday we went on a “Wild Dolphin Encounter” off the coast of neighbouring island, Lana’i. We woke up early and were out at the harbour at 7:30am. The captain said that the waters were pretty rough, just so we knew what to expect. About 1/2 way to our snorkel site, we came upon a group of 50-70 spinner dolphins! They are the ones that leap out of the water and do 7 spins in a row! They were amazing to watch.
Once we were at the snorkel site, we decided Cory would go first (kinda impossible for all 5 of us to go at once, since none of the kids know how to swim!). Isabella was all ready to go in with him but then she got scared and decided not to. Once Cory was done, it was my turn and I told Isabella that this was her last chance. She couldn’t make up her mind so I told her she would regret it if she didn’t. She said she would. Once we went down to the platform to get our flippers on, she started to freak out and I told her she wasn’t allowed to chicken out again and, if the only way to get her in the water was to throw her in, I would. (Aren’t I MEAN?!? She had a lifejacket on and there were about 7 crew members who were all lifeguards.) Once we were in, she said, “Mommy, you’re right, I’m so glad I’m in.” Then I had to try to convince her to put her face in and look at the coral and fish. She did, and she was glad she did that too! The visibility was amazing and every time I’ve snorkled (all 3 times now!), I find it incredible, the world under the surface of the water.
Once everyone was back in the boat, we had lunch and then it was time to head back and the captain warned us again that it would be even choppier on the way home – gulp! (Layla got a little sick on the way there, so I wasn’t sure how she would respond to even worse conditions…) Ben, on the other hand, LOVED it. He and Cory were up at the front of the boat, holding on for dear life! (Cory is VERY excited that Ben did so well on the boat – now he knows he’ll be ok on a fishing boat.) It was so bumpy…Isabella wasn’t holding on to her seat and one one bump, she lifted about 6 inches off her chair. I was starting to get a little worried that she might get sick when all of a sudden THERE WAS A WHALE RIGHT AT THE FRONT OF THE BOAT!!!!!! Because the humpbacks are on the endangered list, there’s a law that says you aren’t allowed to get closer than 100 yards. However, the whale came up to us and so the captain had to turn off the engine and we were “hostages” until the whale left. It swam around the boat for about 15 minutes and it was amazing. The crew figured it was about a year old so it wasn’t a full grown whale, but to us, it was HUGE. It stuck it’s head out of the water, swam under the boat, did a few dives and blew out it’s blow hole (some people got “whale snot” on them). Honestly, when I think of it, all I can say is, it was so amazing. I felt so blessed that we got to see it up close like we did and for as long as we did. After we were off the boat, Isabella said to Cory, “I’m going to keep that in my memory forever.” (Layla kept asking me to take her back into the cabin because the whale was “creepy.” I didn’t – there was no way I was going to miss seeing that whale.
From that point on, the water was much calmer and we were back in the harbour before we knew it. For the rest of the day we spent time at the pool (Isabella and Ben love the independence of floating around by themselves, hanging on to a pool noodle for dear life. They have gotten much braver in the water!) and we went to a restaurant called Honu for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner.
This morning, we got up, had our traditional Christmas breakfast of apple pie, read the Christmas story from Luke, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and let the kids open the couple of small gifts we got for them (a t-shirt and towel each – we were planning to get those for each of them anyways, so we figured we’d wrap them up so they had something to open). We told them that going to Hawaii for 3 weeks was our “gift” this year, so we wouldn’t be buying presents – so they weren’t expecting to open anything! Their eyes lit up when we brought those gifts out for them! We phoned our parents to say merry Christmas and then…off to the pool again! Now we have the rest of the day ahead of us…Merry Christmas – and don’t eat too much turkey and pie!
Again, we hope your Christmas has been wonderful, filled with much joy and many wonderful memories!
Wishing you the blessings of the season,
Natasha
Natasha Reynolds 