Hawaii Trip

David and I were in much need of some "together time". His travel schedule has been ca-ra-zy this year. So much so that one night at dinner Charlotte asked if daddy had moved out.... sad. I assured her that he had not moved out, but rather was working so hard so he could provide for our family. We were only able to escape for 5 days, which really was only 3 full days in Hawaii, which = NOT ENOUGH TIME. But I took what I got and loved every second of it. And I caught David one morning looking through the real estate section of the newspaper.

This was the amazing view from our hotel room. We stayed at the Marriott in Ko Olina.

 And we didn't complain once when we got upgraded to this suite. It was pretty amazing! And even had it's own hot tub.

We made a brief stop at Pearl Harbor. It happened to be right by the airport, so this was our first stop. However, it was about to close, so we took a quick look around, but weren't able to really go out and see the monument bridge over the ship. Our time was so limited that we really had to be picky about how we spent it. We decided our quick look around was enough.

We had a quick dinner and headed to the beach for sunset. Our hotel was on the western shore, so it was perfect for the sunset.

 

 We headed out to this rocky beach to watch the sun set.

 Don't you just love those self portraits!

 It was really breathtaking!

The next morning we headed to Waimea Valley and hiked up to this waterfall. It was a short hike, so just a small waterfall. But still beautiful and we even jumped in and swam around. I seriously referred to this area as the Garden of Eden because it was so stunning and perfect.

 We then headed back to Haleiwa for lunch, but first had to get some shave ice from Matsumoto. This was on everyone's Must-do in Hawaii list. To me it was just a giant snow cone. I didn't really see the big deal, but as you can see this line is always out the door for these things.

 It was refreshing on such a hot day though.

 We also snorkeled this day as well. It was so much fun!

 We snorkeled at Pupukea Beach. This beach has this great tide pool area that is really calm and easy to swim around in. We saw all sorts of beautiful fish and even a giant sting ray! After swimming here we decided to head out of the tide pool into the actual waves and deeper water. I was really nervous about this, but it turned out to be really fun and a great workout. I was exhausted after fighting those waves and current all day.  I was so sunburned and so sore the rest of our trip after this day. But it was worth it.

On Saturday we took the Circle Island tour with the Polynesian Culture Center. It was a super long day! But we saw so many gorgeous parts of Oahu that we would not have seen on our own. This is the Diamond Head lookout point, lots of surfers were down in that water.

Hanauma Bay - gorgeous! I would have loved to swim down there, but we simply didn't have time.

 Halona Blow Hole area

 Makapuu Point and Lighthouse

 Sandy Beach (real original name, right?)

We stopped at so many places, but one great place was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We literally were only given 15 minutes here. That was enough time to buy some of their delicious whipped pineapple ice cream, and six boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts that David so willingly lugged around the rest of the day.

Our tour bus

 Finally, we made it to the Polynesian Culture Center. It was like the Disneyland of Hawaiian culture. There was no way we were going to see it all in one day. But it was pretty spectacular and a fun place to spend out afternoon and evening.

 Me learning the Hula

 David learning some Tahitian dance

 Flowers galore here

 We made some cute little fish out of coconut leaves

 We took a boat rides through all the different "islands".

 And did a quick walk around the Laie Temple. 

We then returned to PCC for dinner and a show that night. The fire dancers were jaw dropping (and not just because they had their shirts off!). We didn't get back to our room until about 11pm and we were exhausted.

On Sunday we went to church and the it was their primary program. It was so cute to see those little Hawaiian kids perform all those primary songs. It was fun to watch because just the week before we had our primary program in our ward, and I was in charge of it. We then spent the rest of the day down in the bay by our hotel, swimming and resting. Monday morning was time to go home, but we still had not been to Hilo Hattie or really done any shopping. My mother would not let me live it down if we didn't make it to Hilo Hattie. So we made a quick stop on our way to the airport and bought some things for the kids. 

It was truly wonderful to spend so much time with David. We were able to rekindle our love for each other and also our children, as I really did miss them. ;) 

The Facts of Life and Pre Hawaii Preparations

Getting ready to leave on a trip is a lot of work. Especially when you are planning on leaving your kids. This was our first time having friends, not family, watching our kids while we went to Hawaii. I felt like the house had to be super organized and super clean. And I felt like I had to leave a lot of instructions for how things are done... like homework and getting ready for school stuff. 

I felt like the preparations were going great. I had most of the cleaning done, but still hadn't gone grocery shopping or packed anything the day before. That's when Carmen came home from school with lice.... I wanted to jump off a bridge right then and there! I did NOT have TIME to deal with this appropriately. I was leaving for Hawaii in less than 24 hrs. Luckily my mom came over and helped. We were able to "delouse" all the girls, including myself. I wanted to do everyone's hair just to be sure to nip it in the bud before it got out of control. We also got ALL the bed linens, towels, and stuffed animals washed and put back on the beds.

 

After that little fiasco was mostly under control, I had my mom fold 10,000 loads of laundry while I ran Carmen to ice skating lessons.  I quickly was separating the clothes so she knew what clothes belonged to whom. As I was frantically separating clothes before running out the door, I noticed this lovely art work on our tv..... Thanks Dallin. That would be crayon. I just ignored it and kept on going.

 

Once I got back from ice skating and the laundry was all folded and put away, thanks to my saintly mother, I realized Charlotte had almost no underwear. Just that day alone I had dealt with 4 accidents, mostly of the #2 variety and I had disposed of most of her underwear. I'm so tired of having to deal with this!!!! There must be some really great strategy on how to help your 4 yr old not poop her pants anymore.

 (I know... some of you readers will think "I can't believe she is sharing this story"! But lice and poop are facts of life and everyone is going to have to deal with them at some point.)  Finally about 10pm I started packing for my trip. I never made it grocery shopping and left almost no food for the babysitters. And things were not nearly as clean as I wanted them to be. I felt really bad about those things. But as the day kept progressing I kept telling myself "Tomorrow at this time I'll be sipping Pina Coladas in paradise". And I was!

Pumpkin Patch with Charlotte's preschool

I was so lucky with get to go with Charlotte on her field trip to Round Hill Farm in Culpeper, VA. It was a wonderful day! We don't get to spend much time with just the two of us together.

Princesses and Heroes on Ice

I took the girls to go see Disney Princesses on Ice. We have been before, but I think this was Charlottes first time. She thought everything was so magical and kept asking me "how'd they do that?!". And Carmen has been taking ice skating lessons for 3 months now and so she was really excited about the show. And Aliza just loves this kind of stuff!

These are all iPhone pictures, so super poor quality.... but I still want to remember that we went. It was a girls night out!

 Before the show started.

 The Little Mermaid was by far our favorite scene.

Carmen's ice skating coach, Sue, came to the show with us.