Last summer we booked a family trip to Hawaii. Aubrie and Boston have been asking for years, especially Boston. Ben and I decided that it would be most ideal to wait until Sophia was 5 so that all our kids could appreciate it and remember it! I think the kids finally gave up on ever going, because by the time we booked it they weren't asking anymore. That made it even easier to surprise them. We kept the trip a secret from everyone, minus a few family members, knowing that if anyone in the Ward knew, it would definitely get out. Well, I didn't realize that our Spring Break fell over Ethan's baptism date, so in the last week it got out where we were going. I threatened (lol) the people who knew with secrecy! I was so nervous the Sunday before we left that someone would mention something. When we sat down in sacrament a guy behind us said, "Are you excited for your cruise?" Luckily he was misinformed and we went on the Disney Cruise last Spring Break, so we were able to play that off. We made it out of church with no spoilers!
The kids kept asking what we were doing for the break, and kept begging to do something. Whenever the boys would ask, "Can you take me to Jump Street?" or " Can you take me to (fill in the blank) over the break", I would just say "Sure!" They thought I was the best Mom ever, and I knew they would forget all about it when we were in Hawaii! Aubrie wouldn't settle for any of those things, and kept begging me to convince Ben to go to Rocky Point. On Sunday, I pretended to have a "talk" with Ben in our room, and then told the kids that we were going to California to go to Disneyland. We told them we were going to leave really early so we could get to the park early. We all hurried and got to packing. Some of my friends thought it was nuts that I waited that long to pack, but that would have ruined the surprise, and besides its not hard to pack for Hawaii! If you forget something, you can buy it there.
We had to leave our house at 5 am to get to the airport on time. That meant I was up at 4 and the kid up at 4:30. We successfully made it out in time, and stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way out. We took took Happy Valley to the 17 to throw them off our normal route. As we took the exit to the Airport the Aubrie said, "What are we doing here?" We yelled "Surprise! We are flying to California!" They were so excited. Sophia was squealing with delight! When we got the Hawaiian check out counter, they started to get suspicious. We convinced them that it was only a leg on Hawaiian that stopped in LA, and that the tickets were cheap because they didn't have enough Phoenix flyer's going to Honolulu. They finally bought that when I started to make them feel guilty for thinking we would go to Hawaii after we just went on a cruise. When we were at the gate and handed them their tickets, Aubrie saw the destination as Honolulu. They weren't jumping around in excitement like I thought they were. Aubrie said later it was because there were people around. If I had to do it over, I think when we got to the airport I would have told them then. It was still a great surprise and they were excited!
The flight was a long 6 1/2 hours. For some reason I thought it was 5. It made me even more grateful we waited till Sophia was 5 to make the trip. A new iPad (Ben's little surprise), iPods, etc. entertained them. Boston also had his Hunger Games book to take up some of his time. I was SOOOO tired that I couldn't see straight to read, but couldn't sleep either.
We arrived in Honolulu around noon. Our first stop was Big Kahuna's Pizza. I emailed my friend Molly who lived there, and got all the good eating spots, etc. The pizza and cheese balls were Super yummy, but we ordered way too much. We took our full belly's to the hotel. We stayed at the Marriout Ko Olina Beach Club. It is so Heavenly there! We didn't realize check in wasn't until 4. We walked the premises, and crashed on the couches in the lobby for about an hour, before our room was ready. We got settled and then headed by the pools. The pools are so great. They have an adult pool, a kid pool with a beach, and they have all these Lagoons that connect to each other. There are about 6 hot tubs around all these pool, and by the Lagoons there is a slide. On Monday's the Resort has a show. They have Hawaiian dancers, and singing, and the famous Samoan guy that used to be at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Now he works for that resort and does a small show on Monday, and a Huge Fire show on Tuesdays. Part of the Monday show they invited the kids to come up on stage and dance. The guy then picked three kids for a dance off. The first child he chose was Sophia. She stole the crowd with her cute self, and her awesome hip shaking. She thought it was so cool that she got to do that, and she wasn't shy one bit! She liked being up there. I think we have a born performer on our hands!
After the show the kids swam, and Ben and I sat in the hot tub. We met so many people that night. One couple in particular comes with their family every year, and we hit it off really great. We look forward to seeing them there again, and in the meantime are staying on contact through Facebook. After soaking ourselves for awhile, we headed back so we could go out and get groceries. OUCH!!! The food prices are ridiculous in Hawaii, and even more ridiculous at the Safeway in Hawaii. They are building a Walmart that opened a few days after we left. We are looking forward to that next time, since we realized that Target was even cheaper than Safeway, so Walmart must be even better. When I got back to mainland and went grocery shopping everything seemed so cheap! After shopping we went home and had cereal for dinner. LOL We felt heavy after the pizza. Oh, Ben did get Wendy's and said that was the best hamburger he has ever had. I think he just said that since we gave him a hard time for getting Wendy's. We were so tired, being on Arizona time and waking up so early that day, we went to be before 10. It was a good thing because we needed all the sleep we could get for the big day that laid ahead!
e.g. scooters, vacation, fall
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| Big Kahuna's! |
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| Cheesy Balls! |
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