Hawaii

It feels like so much time has passed since we've been home from our vacation to Hawaii. We opted again to go to Waikiki and it was great to be back. We stayed in the same building but different suite and so we knew what to expect and were happy with everything. This year we arrived in the middle of the day and that seemed to help a lot with adjusting for the time difference. The kids still woke at 4am for the first day or two but they adjusted to the time change better than last year. We had some good days of beach and pool for the first few days. Then the clouds came and a few rain days. Luckily the rain in the Hawaii was nothing like the rain here in Vancouver. We did go Children's Discovery Museum one rainy day and the kids loved it.

Maddy the mermaid!On our last day, someone gave us their air mattress. The kids had a blast.

The Children's Discovery Museum

We also decided to go to a Luau this year. We waited until the kids were firmly on Hawaii time and booked online. What a savings that was! It was a good year to do this because the kids were free and you get to go to the buffet line first if you have young kids. Double yay! Ethan's favourite was the fish and once he started dipping the fish into chocolate icing on his dessert, he was 'dance eating' as I like to call it. (He starts to dance in his chair when he is really enjoying his food.) Maddy was mesmerized by the dancers and tried to sway her hips herself. She later came to the conclusion that Hula dancing is really hard.

My handsome boy waiting to go to the Luau.

We also took a day trip to Sea Life Park. Here you can swim with dolphin, feed the sea lions or have other close encounters with other sea animals. We opted just to go into the park because the kids weren't really old enough to take part in the encounters. Maddy was so impressed with the dolphin show that she now claims to want to be a dolphin/penguin trainer when she grows up. It was pretty fun to watch the kids play 'dolphin trainer' back in the hotel and I have to admit to being Maddy's dolphin back in the pool at the hotel one day.

Watching the penguins at Sea Life Park

We also went to a few favourites from last year as we revisited the Honolulu Zoo and the watching a group of young Hula dancers at a free evening show. Maddy has been watching these girls for a whole year thanks to videos we took last year. I think she felt like she kind of 'knew' them so during their breaks from dancing, she'd head over and try to talk to them. We have many pictures of her with the dancers.

During the 11 days we got our fill of the beach, pool, yummy treats and relaxing atmosphere. I wasn't quite ready to leave the warm weather or lose the awesome family time, but I was ready to come back to the comforts of our own home. Our flight home was the red eye and the kids did alright considering it was...well the red eye. Maddy had no problem and slept without too much trouble. Ethan slept at first then woke and couldn't find his comfy spot, which resulted in a tantrum. Finally he found his 'sweet spot' and slept the rest of the way home.

This is what happened while we waited for Josh to get the car at YVR.

We do have a nice family shot, but we have to Photoshop someone's eyes before posting. (I wonder who that could be!?!?)