Hawaiian Vacation

We are glad to be back home and getting back into our normal routine but we had a blast with my family in Hawaii last week. I don't like to advertise to the whole internet world that we will be leaving our house unattended so that is why I didn't blog about this prior to going on the trip. But now that we are back I can tell you all about it!!

We left last Wednesday evening and flew to LA to meet up with my family to head to Honolulu. I was a little concerned as to how Maddox would do on the long flights (6 hours there and about 7 hours coming back) but he did AMAZING!! I gave him a dose of Benadryl about an hour before each flight and gave him a bottle right when we took off and he slept the entire way both times!! Thankfully, on both trips we had an empty seat to lay him in so that made things much easier!! Now on to the actual trip.

~THURSDAY~

We landed in HI at like 11 pm on Wednesday night so we just got our rental cars and headed straight to the hotel for bed. The next morning we got up (all of us at about 4 am because we were still on Colorado and Texas time) had breakfast at IHOP and then headed to Hanauma bay to lay on the beach and snorkel. It was beautiful...sunny and warm!! The girls all just layed out and they guys went snorkeling. Maddox absolutely loved playing in the sand!! He even took a little nap in his stroller on the beach (one of many).




~FRIDAY~
The next morning (Friday) we went to Pearl Harbor and looked around there and took the ferry to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was all pretty cool and was another nice and toasty warm day!! On the way back we stopped at China Town to get fresh flower leis and to have some lunch. It wasn't exactly what we expected so we just got our leis and bypassed lunch (the food all looked disgusting!!!) That afternoon we walked over to Waikiki beach from our hotel and spent the afternoon catching some rays!! (My favorite thing to do on a beach vacation!!)





~SATURDAY~
On Saturday we were woken up by texts and calls from people back home asking if we were OK to which we responded "What are you talking about??" But after turning on the TV we quickly found out that the huge devastating 8.8 earthquake had hit Chile the night before and sent a tsunami towards the Hawaiian Islands. We didn't really know what to do at that point and were somewhat freaked out. We decided to go to McDonalds across the street to grab some breakfast but found it to be closed. So we went a little further down the street and ate at a little local diner that ended up being one of our favorite places the whole trip (we ate there 3 times total). We decided we would do as was recommended and wait this thing out in our hotel rooms and see what happened. What a bummer!! Collin and I walked down the street to the grocery store and stood in line for 30-45 minutes to buy bottled water because they were saying on the news that if this was bad we could loose water and we needed to have a way to make bottles for Maddox. After that we went up to Heather, Morgan and PJ's room to wait it out (they were on the 15th floor so we were safe there!!). We played a game of scrabble and stayed glued to the TV. The time that the tsunami was supposed to hit came and went and nothing happened. All in all I think they said the only thing it did was raise the tide about 3 feet in Hilo but nothing actually happened where we were. This was the best news and the worst news. It was great that nothing happened but a total bummer that we wasted half of our day sitting in our hotel room. Once the warning was lifted around noonish we headed out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and to see the North Shore beaches. The Plantation was really cool and we got to have some yummy pineapple!! After that we went to Sunset Beach on the North Shore and watched the sunset while taking lots of fun pictures!! Besides the tsunami warning it turned out to be a fun day!!

~SUNDAY~
On Sunday morning Collin, Maddox and I got up and went to a local church service at the New Hope Church. My family all wanted to hike up this volcano called Diamond Head and we determined it would be too hard to try and do it with Maddox so we just went to church instead. They did the hike and got some awesome pictures at the top but from what they said about the difficulty of the hike I think we made a good decision not to do it. That afternoon we drove back up to North Shore but found it to be too cold and windy so we came back down and the girls and Maddox walked back down to Waikiki to lay out while the boys rested in the hotel. Another good day!! (Sorry no pictures from this day)

~MONDAY~
On Monday we got up and drove out to this ranch and did a bus tour. It was really cool because there have been several movies and TV shows filmed here so it was neat to see all of those places. That afternoon we went back to North Shore because there was a wind and surf advisory and we wanted to see the giant waves. Man were they HUGE!! Some of there were as high as 20 ft. All of the beaches were closed so there weren't many surfers out but we did see a few brave souls attempting to ride the monstrous waves!!

~TUESDAY~
This was our last day of the trip but we didn't fly out until 8:30 pm so we still had the whole day to do stuff. We spent the entire morning just laying out on Waikiki beach and catching a few more rays. We then went and showered and had to check out of our hotel. We had lunch at PF Changs (my FAV!!!) then did a little more shopping before heading to the airport!! (I got some super cute pictures of Maddox on the beach this day but they are for his 8 month post so I will put those up either tonight or tomorrow!!)

We had an awesome trip and I am so thankful that we were all able to go together!! The weather was great (except for one morning of rain) and everyone got along great!! It was so much fun being able to all be together again since we don't get to do it very often anymore!! Overall, it was an amazing trip and I am so glad we were able to go!!