Hawaiin Get Away!!

Ben and I have been long overdue for an extended vacation get away. Our last one was our trip to Italy when Ethan was 1! We planned on going to the Mediterranean for our 10 year anniversary, but then he started his new company. We then said we would go when Sophia was two, but then he started another business venture. So FINALLY we made it a priority, and after 5 years of putting it off, we decided to make another trip to Oahu. Last time we did Waikiki. While fun, it didn't leave much time for just relaxing on the beach. This time we stayed on the west side of the island at Ko' Olina. Marriot has an amazing resort there, nestled up to a lagoon. We toured it last time we went and had decided we would stay there if we ever came back.

Never in my life has preparing for a vacation been so involved. I was in need of a vacation after all the planning that I had to do. Just writing down the kids schedules was exhausting. My Mom watched the kids, and I hired a babysitter to run them to all their activities. Knowing they were in school and staying busy made me feel better about being away so long. I think that vacationing during school is definitely the best option.

We left for Hawaii early Friday morning. We arrived in Oahu at 11:00. We went with some friends this time, but we stayed at opposite ends of the island and only met up for dinners. That arrangement worked out perfect, because it allowed for us to have much needed alone time, but a little more socialization at night. Anyway, after getting our rental, grabbing a bite to eat and dropping the Jarvis's off at their hotel, we didn't make it to ours until around 3:00. Ben worked his magic and had them upgrade us to one of the nicest rooms by the water. This was the view. I think just being up one more floor would have been better, but I'm definately not complaining! It had a great patio with nice patio furniture, and a bathroom bigger than my kids rooms!

We quickly threw on our suits and headed to the sand. We were able to soak up a few hours of the sun, before we got ready and headed out for dinner.

View of Hotel From the Beach (our building is 4 story peaking out on the left hand corner)

We ate dinner at Dukes, a restaurant in the beautiful Surfrider hotel in Waikiki. I got a macadamia nut crusted chicken and virgin colada. The food was yum, and the dessert was even better. Unfortunately the airplane food worked me over, and my stomach wasn't right. So after dinner and a little bit of walking around, I had to head home.

Saturday Ben and I started the morning right with the breakfast buffet. Marriot resorts have the most incredible breakfast buffets. Last time we came we got free breakfast every morning, and so we engorged ourselves on their amazing food. I felt like I was on a cruise. LOL This time, breakfast wasn't free, but I told Ben we had to bite the 60 dollar bullet and have it at least once. After stuffing ourselves to oblivion (wanting to get our money's worth lol), Ben and I headed out for a drive around the island. We drove as far west as we could, and found a nice secluded beach and quickly plopped ourselves down by the water.

It was so pretty and quiet, but soon after getting there we were blasted with sand as the winds picked up. I think I had sand in my hair for the rest of the tip from that! We quickly picked up our stuff and found refuge in our car.

We then headed to the other side of the island, called Kailua. There is a 45 minute hike to Maunawili Falls. I found the hike online, and it looked fun. On the way there, we made a quick stop at the Pali lookout. The weather was clear this time, and the view was awesome.

It was just a tad windy!

After taking some pictures, we hiked the old Pali road. This is what it looked like.

I would have loved to have walked the trail a little further, but we had to get started on our hike.

The hike was interesting. It was muddy and full of roots, rocks, steps, etc. It took about hour and 1/2 to hike there.

When we were almost there, there was a lady coming back with her daughter and I asked her how the falls were and she said, "They're OK!" I'm thinking, "Great! That is not what I wanted to hear after all of this!" The falls were nice, but the funnest part of the falls is supposed to be jumping in from three different height levels. We didn't even get in the water. I wasn't scared of jumping (I jumped comparable heights at Havasupi). I was a little nervous about the water. There was a sign warning us of Leptospirosis, and that was enough to keep me out. I did enjoy the hike though, and it was fun watching other people make the jumps!

After our hike we stopped along side of the freeway to watch the Blue Angels air show for a bit and then we headed off to the Dole Plantation for some of their yummy ice cream. We then went back to the hotel and caught the last few rays of sun (about an hour), and then freshened up for dinner. We met up with the Jarvis for Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, such authentic Hawaiian cuisine, I know! LOL To be fair they had things on their menu that you could only get in Hawaii! After dinner, we made a stop at Target to get some food and other essentials. It was so funny being at Target there. It was so weird to me how people live their day to day lives in such an amazing place. I thought, "where do these people vacation?" Then we got talking to someone on the trip and they said they came to Arizona for vacation, and they loved it. I was thinking, "Really? You surely are just being nice!"

Sunday we spent the whole day at the Hotel relaxing. We woke up at 9:00 am and stumbled to the beach around 10:00. The weather was PERFECT, a little cloud cover, which made the beach awesome.

If you look at the top of this picture you can see a bride. They had several weddings a day at the chapel nicely located on this private lagoon! It's no temple, but definately a nice place to have a wedding.

Ben and I also enjoyed these amazing drinks!

It was probably the best iced drink I have every had! The pinapples were frozen so it kept your drink cold for a long time, and kind of made a slushy on the sides. It was so yum!

For lunch we walked across the street and grabbed a sandwich and bought some souvenirs for the family.

On the way back I noticed a building for the Disney Time Share Property they are building next door. Ben went back to the hotel, and I went in to get some info. They gave me a quick tour of their rooms (which were amazing) and showed me pictures of what their grounds will look like. Disney always goes above and beyond in everything they do.

After the tour, I headed back to the room, and then we hit the beach a bit longer. We came back to our room to watch the sunrise from our balcony!

Later that evening the Jarvis's met us with the car (they took it for the day) at our hotel, and then we grabbed some Outback for dinner.

Monday we woke a little earlier to get up to the North Shore for our Shark Tour Adventure. I I talked Ben into swimming with the sharks. It's not as scary as it sounds. They put you in a cage and let you float out in the sea while the sharks swim around you. I was so excited when I heard about it, and knew it was for me! The rid

e on the boat was a nice perk to the activity. It was another beautiful day, and it was great going out to sea and watching the landscape of the island behind us. I was able to see the beauty of the island in a single snap shot, instead of bits and pieces.

It was amazing how blue the water was. It looked like they put dye in the water!

When we finally got the spot where we anchor the boat, it was amazing how quickly the sharks started to surround us. Apparently they come to boat because they hear the sound of the diesel engines, and think they are the crabbing boats that come to dump out their left overs. Ten years ago a man on the island figured that out, and thought he would try making some money off of it. So their first cage was made out of PVC piping spray painted silver to make it look like metal. LOL (We got all this info off one of the captains who Ben was talking it up with). Anyway, when I first saw the fins, I started to feel uncomfortable enough not to volunteer to go first. The whole boat volunteered a group of 4 young oriental boys to lead the way. Once I saw how easy it was, and that the sharks wouldn't try to go for my hands that were holding the bars, I felt much better. We offered to go second, and I'm glad we did. When our turn was up the weather started to turn south, and the last group had rocky waters to contend with. Ben got some great video with our underwater camera, and he was brave/stupid enough to reach his hand out of the cage and pet one. I was content to just watching them pass by. It was definitely worth the money, and I cant wait for the kids to try it when we take them. Ben and I already made bets that Boston would chicken out, and Aubrie and Ethan would be the first to volunteer! ha ha

After the shark tour, Ben and I just drove around the island.

Our first stop was the temple. When we made our travel plans we were looking forward to doing a session, and was so disappointed when we found out it was being renovated!

Our next stop was down the street at BYU. We stopped to get the boys BYU shorts or something, but their selection was pathetic. I was disappointed to walk out of there empty handed. It was cool to be on campus when classes were in session (last time we went over Christmas break). I kept thinking how cool it would be to go there. Ben and I could totally see Boston loving it there.

After BYU we stopped for lunch and ice cream. We then stopped at a beach for about 30 minutes and enjoyed the waves and weather. While we were on the sand we started seeing all these little crabs pop up out of the sand. We had fun tormenting them, and watching them pop up somewhere else. After our beach stop, we started our search for the Black Pearl. They had been filming Pirates 4 over there, and had been parking the Black Pearl in various locations. We never found it, but had a nice relaxing drive seeing parts of the island we didn't see the first time.

We finally made our way back to the hotel and freshened up for the Luau at Paradise Cove. We did the Polynesian Cultural Center last time, and knew we would do it again when we take the kids, so we decided since its one of the most popular on the island and conveniently next door to our hotel, we would give it a try. We took a nice walk through our hotel grounds (below) to get there.

This picture is bit of a joke. Ben was always carrying my purse for me which is far from subtle!

When you first get there give you a complimentary drink and put on your lei!

Afterward, they have a "hostess" take you to the table. On the way to the table I told her we were celebrating our 14 year anniversary and expressed the hope that there was some good seats left. We had arrived a few hours after they opened, and even though we bought premium tickets, I was afraid ours would still be far from the stage. When we got to the tables the only thing she had for us were two seats about as far as our tickets would allow them to seat us. I was a little disappointed, but knew we were there late, and so I didn't think about it again. We walked around watching the pre-shows, making lei's etc, when the hostess who sat us came up to us and told us she found us better seats and to find her when it was time to eat. The Headdress making station!

After the final pre-show, we grabbed her and she directed us to the best seats our tickets would allow, right in front of the catwalk. I was so happy I opened my mouth for once, that's usually Ben's department. The seats were awesome! I almost felt a little guilty having them.

Before the show, they served dinner. Most of food was really good, but the fried chicken and salad were something they could improve on. Seriously, who serves salad without ranch!? They had a fish dish that came with a Macadamia sauce that was so delicious, and the coconut cake was yummy, too!

Paradise Cove at Dusk

Yummy Food

Complimentary Virgin Coladas

During dinner they performed, and then took a short break while they asked for volunteers to come up to learn the hula. I volunteered because they had about 40 on the stage (safety in numbers).

I'm in the the middle covering my face!

My hula certificate! LOL

After dinner, the main show started. The dancing and singing was great.

Toward the end of the show the same hostess that sat us came up to Ben and asked him to come with her. He looked nervous, thinking he was in trouble for something, but I knew that they were going to have him dance. After they took him, they had a few people from the audience up on stage, but there was no Ben. At the very end, they said "we have a special treat to end the show". Out comes Ben in a grass skirt, lei, head dress, and Hawaiian maracas. He did a dance with two of the girl performers, and then they both planted a huge kiss on his cheek. Luckily I had my video camera ready, knowing something had to be up. The kids got a huge kick out of it!

BUSTED!

After the show, we headed back to the hotel and took a 30 minute walk around the shore line. On the way back we plopped our tired bodies down in the lawn chairs on the beach. The weather was just the right temperature, and the sounds of the ocean crashing on the shore was like a lullaby. I could have laid out there all night if we didn't have to get up at 4:30 the following morning. We reluctantly dragged ourselves back to our room, and tried to rest up for the long day ahead of us.

Tuesday we caught an early flight to Kauai for a day tour. It was a bit pricey, but definitely worth it. We were torn between the Big Island and Kauai but heard that Kauai is the prettiest. . There isn't a lot to do there, but I would love to have several days to hike their trails! It's so plush! This island is used over and over for tropical settings in movies including, Jurassic Park & Indians Jones. Even the aiport looks great!

When we first arrived we met our tour guide, who was a white old guy named Larry. Our first thoughts were, "we got ripped off". We couldn't be more off base. He lived on the island for over 40 years and knew so much. I loved soaking in all the information he had. That's one reason I like tours. They tell you things you would never know, and show you places and things you would never notice. The tour took us up the beautiful Waimea Canyon. That took almost half the day, but it was very beautiful.

So far up, we are in the clouds

There are chickens all over the island!

Other spots we saw included the famous Opaeka Falls

and Spouting Horn.

We stopped for lunch and had shave ice (its shave not shaved over there) at the famous JoJo's. It was very good. Mine had a scoop of Macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom, and coconut cream on the top. After eating, and picking the brain of the tour guide, we headed out to the other side of the island for our river boat cruise. For some reason, even though I had used the restroom at EVERY stop, I had to go again really bad. I don't' know if it was the huge shave ice I just had, or the fact that the ride was so bumpy, but I knew I couldn't' make it to the next stop. The driver had to make a little diversion at the airport (which we were passing) so I could take a potty break. Ben likes to tease me about that. After the potty break, we went on the river boat cruise to the Fern Grotto, a famous romantic Hawaiian spot where people often come to get married.

The river Grotto from above

There the boat performers sang to us, and then they performed for us on the way back. It was a nice way to end our trip in Kauai.

We got to the airport with a few hours left before our flight back to Oahu. Luckily there was an earlier flight, so we paid the extra fee so we could get back to the hotel and enjoy our last night in Hawaii.

We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant by our hotel, that we had been wanting to try. We ate out on the patio and enjoyed our last dinner in Hawaii outside. After dinner we walked to the beach and laid on the lawn chairs again. The temperature was a little cooler, and we finally resigned ourselves to our room for the night.

Wednesday we woke up early to enjoy a few last hours on the beach. We spent 2 1/2 hours soaking up the sun and finishing up our books. ( I read Into Thin Air and the Hunger Games) As I took one last dip in the ocean, I was sad as I walked out of the water. And as we left the beach, I was sad to leave the sand. It was such an amazing trip, and it was so hard to leave. The only thing that made it exciting to come home was that we got to see the kids. We missed them very much. This time we didn't come home a day early from our vacation, but I was excited see them.

We spent the 6 hour flight home reading, playing games on the I pad, and watching Valentines Day. The movie ended right as we started to descend. The flight home went much quicker than the flight there. We got in at 12:15 and got home at 1:30. I thought 6:30 scripture study would be so hard to get up for, but waking up to Sophia's sweet hug and saying "Mommy, your home", got me right out of bed. After scripture study we brought out the kids gifts, and then went back to business as normal. Despite the fact I was fighting exhaustion all day, I was such a better Mom. Amazing how a trip can do that. I'm thinking we won't be waiting 5 years for the next one! Of course, I'm always a sucker for my kids and want them to join in all the fun. So who knows?! Thanks sweetheart for an amazing way to celebrate 14 years or marriage!!