Hawaii

WARNING: This is an extremely LOOONG post, but we had an amazing trip so it kind of has to be! :)

To say it simply, we had an amazing time in Hawaii. We had so much fun spending time outside enjoying the beautiful weather and hanging out with our family. Cameron was ecstatic to play with her cousin Cole and swim in the pool, and Sydney, well she just took it all in. I can't believe that it's already over, we've been planning this trip forever and now it's just a memory. An incredibly awesome memory though! :) Here is an overly detailed description of everything we did on the trip. I'm pretty sure you probably don't want to read it all, so feel free to just skim the pictures...I just wanted to write everything down for memory sake.   

Tuesday - We flew out of DIA Tuesday morning, had a short layover in LA and were on our way to Kauai by 3:oopm that afternoon. We got into Kauai at about 6:00pm Hawaii time (10:00pm Colorado time). We were exhausted, but overall the trip went really well. The girls did great on the flights, minus the slight fit (ok, a huge tantrum) that Cameron threw because she didn't want to put on her seat belt, but once we made it through that everyone did ok. To get the girls adjusted to Hawaii time we kept them up until their normal bedtime even though that meant it was midnight or 1:ooam in Colorado.

Wednesday - To say Cameron was excited about the pool is an understatement. We barely got sunscreen and a swimsuit on her before she was rushing outside on Wednesday morning. It was a little cool, but that didn't stop us, we spent the day exploring the pools and the beach at the resort. Since it was a little cold, we let Cameron warm up in the hot tub for a few minutes and she became obsessed immediately! She wanted to sit in it forever and every time she saw hot tub she said, "That one, that one!". Silly kid.

Wednesday night - We went to dinner at a great seafood restaurant Wednesday night. The food was amazing and we had a perfect view of the sunset—beautiful! As part of our starter we had fresh ahi tuna. It was so good...seriously I've never had fish that tasted like that, it melted in your mouth! There's just something about fresh fish, yum!

Thursday - Kauai is a beautiful island, so Thursday we decided to go out and do some exploring. We drove to the other side of the island, did a little window shopping, had lunch at Bubba's Burgers (apparently a lot of famous people go there), and took a short hike to Queen's Bath. Queen's Bath is this little hidden pool in the middle of a lot of lava rock cliffs. Ryan's parents have been there before when the water has been really rough with lots of huge waves breaking on the rocks, but the day we were there it was really calm. So calm, that Ryan decided to take a little swim in the "Bath".

Friday - Ryan, Ryan's dad and I went for a run Friday morning and watched the sunrise. Then we packed up our stuff and headed to the airport because part one of our trip was over. We were headed to Maui to meet the rest of Ryan's family for part two of our Hawaii adventure. We were really lucky and got a fantastic room with a view of both the ocean and the pool, and lots of extra space which was really nice since we had so many kiddos bunking with us. We didn't waste any time, while we were waiting for Ross, Nick, Annie, Cole and Finley to get there we changed into our swimsuits and headed down to check out the pool.

Random side note about Kauai - There are a gazillion chickens and roosters that run around wild on the island of Kauai. Completely random, but quite fun. They are really beautiful birds, very colorful. Cameron thought it was pretty cool to chase the birds, which was a hoot.

Friday night - I have some college friends who live in Hawaii. They don't live on Maui, but they happened to be vacationing there over the weekend. On Friday night after we got the kiddos to bed, Nick, Annie, Ryan and I went and met Jackie and Kelsey for dinner. It was so awesome that we got to see them! I love when things work out like that.

Saturday & Sunday - The resort we stayed at was truly amazing. The pool (complete with a pirate ship, waterfalls, a slide, etc.), beach, bar and lawn are all right there providing endless hours of entertainment. We spent the weekend at the resort enjoying all the outdoor activities. Jackie and Kelsey came down and hung out with us for a few hours before they had to leave to catch their flight on Saturday. Sunday afternoon, Mimi stayed with the girls while they napped so Ryan and I could go for a run along the beach. It was really nice...two of my favorite things, the beach and my honey-poo! Then on Sunday night we drove down the road and went to Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner and spent a little time exploring the shops near the restaurant. Another notable part of the weekend, Jackie and Kelsey introduced us to Hula Pie a.k.a. an AMAZING ice cream dessert. Needless to say I craved that thing for the rest of the time we were there (don't worry, we had it two more times before we left).

Monday - We couldn't get enough of the pool, so Monday was filled with more pool time, and then a little shopping at the shopping center that was a short walk from our resort. Ryan, the girls and I had lunch at a nice ocean side restaurant and then we went home to rest up because another fun adventure was planed for the evening—a Luau! The Luau was a ton of fun, but the best part was watching the kids react to the dancers, especially Miss Finley. She had her hands up in the air and was dancing right along with them! It was so funny. Cameron and I even made a special appearance on stage and learned a hula dance.

Tuesday - Another day in paradise. We spent more time at the pool, reading and having quality family time. So much fun, I could do that all day every day!

Wednesday - The Maui Ocean Center Aquarium was on the agenda for Wednesday. We got to touch a starfish and see a ton of different fish, turtles, and sharks. The highlight for me was probably seeing one of the aquarium workers in the tank with the sharks! It was really cool. After the aquarium, we had a quick lunch and headed back to the resort to rest up, because we more fun things were planned for Wednesday night.

Wednesday night - The Volks have a family friend who lives on Maui and is a professional photographer. So Wednesday evening he came and took some family pictures for us. I haven't seen them yet, but it was a beautiful setting and we are beautiful people :) so they had to have turned out great, right? ;) Here are a few behind the scene shots.

Thursday - Our last full day in Hawaii, so what did we do, we went to the pool, hung out, relaxed and had fun. Then after the kiddos went to bed, Ross, Nick, Annie, Ryan and I left the kids in the care of Papa and Mimi and went out for a few drinks. It was kind of nice to just sit and not have to worry about the kiddos for a few hours.

Friday - Our flight didn't leave until 9:15pm Friday night, so we got to enjoy most of the day at the resort. Ryan and I even got to sneak away for a while so we could go swimming in the ocean (something that we really hadn't been able to do a lot of during the week). Then we cleaned up, had a little dinner, said good by to the resort and headed to the airport. Flying home on the red eye actually worked out great. Both girls were exhausted and conked out for the majority of our flight. We ended up getting back home about about 2:00pm on Saturday afternoon. It felt good to be home, but at the same time we were a little sad that it was over already. It's crazy that one minute you're in a tropical paradise and just a few hours later you're laying on your living room floor trying to recuperate from an awesome trip.

Thank you Papa and Mimi for making it possible for us to go to Hawaii! We had so much fun spending the week with you guys. It was truly a wonderful trip.