We flew in on a Monday. Our plane left at 7 a.m. and got into Hawaii around 3:30 p.m., meaning 7:30 p.m. Utah time. It was a loooooong day! Ellie was a perfect angel the entire time. Fitz loved looking out any window but angry screamed the last hour or so of the flight. It was completely horrible. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! There are very few things worse than being trapped in a confined area with 2000 people and no where to go...with a screaming toddler. I locked the both of us in the bathroom a few times and cried some angry/embarrassed tears myself. All of these pictures were before our 7 hour flight. We were so naive.
Luckily, Gary, Lisa, & Tori met us at baggage and loaded up our cars seats, luggage, and kiddos into their car so Jeremy and I could have a little break to get our car rented. The rest of the day was pretty much history. We were SO tired! We all stayed at Gary and Lisa's and bless their patience for housing so many people while they were packing up to move! Some might say crazy, but we really appreciated it. They move home a week from today, so you can imagine the chaos they were dealing with. Jeremy did go out and got me a musubi. I think I ate one everyday but 2 of the fourteen days were were there! They're my favorite Hawaiian treat! If you don't know what musubi is, it's sticky rice with a slice of teriyaki spam on top, wrapped in seaweed. Yes, I know, it sounds horrendous, but please if you go, give it a fair chance! You can find them at any grocery store or gas station, though the grocery store ones are a bit better...except for Foodland, their seaweed is too thick. After that we all passed out and slept great!
On Tuesday, Jeremy, Tori, Gary, and Ellie went and hiked the pillboxes in Lanikai. Fitz and I opted to stay home a rest. I hate missing out but I was just barely 13 week and I still had a bit of lingering nausea. The 2 of us explored Nana & Papa's tropical backyard and chased the ants. We took the rest of the day pretty slow and picked up a few things at Costco and Target. That evening we did a Kailua beach sesh with Gary & Tori that night. As I hoped, Ellie basically ran straight to the ocean and dove in. Fitz, on the other hand, touched the ocean with one toe and decided that the water was not for him. He did love the sand though, and I'm pretty sure he could have sit in it all day every day. Every time we got to Hawaii we have loads of Asian tourists who want to take pictures of or with our kids. It weirded me out at first, but now it's just funny because I can't imagine what they say to their families when they show them their trip pictures...and here's a random very white baby? Who knows. Anyway, there was a couple who kept watching Fitz, would come up and take some videos of him, go to the water and come back. Finally they came up and the girl hopped next to Fitz (holding up a peace sign of course!) and the guy started saying, "FITZY! FITZY over here!" I was dying. Fitz was also amused. Anyway, it was so fun to watch the kids on the beach. It was definitely a highlight of the trip for all 4 of us.
We took it easy on Wednesday as well. We hit up the swap meet and found little treasures for everyone. Ellie got a cute little Hawaiian print bag, Jeremy got some shirts, and I got a little fan that plugs into my phone charger (so Hawaiin, right?). Ellie and Fitz slept through most of it. We also got the most delicious calzones. Why is food like that the best? After, we planned on going over the Pearl Harbor after but it was so dang hot that we opted for shave ice instead. Gary and Lisa told us about a place called Shimazu and it did not disappoint. Ellie wanted pink, I stayed with my old favorite, tigers blood, and Jeremy got melon cream with haupia on top. I think he's addicted to haupia.
James, Melinda, and their family got in Wednesday night so on Thursday we opted for another slow day. That morning we went to my all time favorite breakfast place on the island, Boots and Kimos. If you go, get the banana pancakes with the macadamia nut cream. It is heaven on earth. My mom even sent me to hopefully get her a bottle of it, but alas, it's a secret family recipe and they don't share. Also, they only take cash, so go prepared. After we did the beach. We ended up staying for about 4 hours and everyone got a little burned darn it. Fitzy got it pretty bad on his alabaster skin, but he recovered quickly. Nothing feels worse than a baby sunburn being your fault. We had a blast though and of course there were many musubi involved. Jeremy, James, and the girls built little pools for teh babies to play in and Fitz loved it! He mostly loved that the waves couldn't reach him, because heaven forbid! Ellie loves nothing more than playing with her cousins and declared that she never wanted to move back to our house with the bricks. Living with Nana and cousins was so awesome! The girls passed out together watching Moana that night.
On Friday Nana and Papa treated the kids to the character breakfast as the Aulani resort and the adults were lucky enough to tag along. Ellie was stoked. She was jumping up and down with excitement and could not wait to meet Minnie Mouse. It was so fun to watch them. The food was also delicious. It was a buffet so naturally I ate myself sick. Fitz had a pastry in each palm and went to town. Papa took great care of him and made sure he got to try all of the good stuff. Ellie and Brooklyn sat together and kept giggling and just died every time a character came around. They got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. Fitz was a little apprehensive but always warmed up to the characters right at the end and gave them sweet little snuggles. Thanks again Gary and Lisa! It was such a fun memory! After the breakfast we headed up the coast to visit the mermaid caves and Makua caves. Tori was our tour guide a lot of the trip and showed us some amazing things and places. Ellie was bummed she didn't find any mermaids, but she loved collecting a millions pieces of coral. That night J.rue took me on a date to Cookies and Cream in Kailua (thanks for that reco too Tor!) and we had delicious ice cream sandwiches. It was fun to get away, just the 2 of us for a minute.
On Saturday we watched General Conference, made a trip to Ross, and went to the beach. Side note: in the first picture there is a gallon of POG, which is one of my favorite Hawaiian drinks. It stands for passion fruit, orange, guava. Again, if you go drink as much as you can! The Ross's in Hawaii are amazing. They have the cutest clothes! I think we hit up 3 different ones during our trip and found good things at all of them! That evening at the beach was a little windy, but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast. Really, the only downside to the beach was washing the dang sand off of everything, especially the kids. Our car slowly filled up with gallons of sand during our stay. As I unpack, it's ingrained in EVERYTHING!
On Sunday we finished up conference, napped, and decided to hike Hamama Falls in Kaneohe. It was so beautiful! The hike wasn't too difficult but it did rain on us quite a bit, which from Ellie point of view made it so much more fun! She was able to walk to whole thing and Jeremy carried Fitz in the Ergo without any issues. She kept saying that we were either in Neverland or Jungle Book and spent the majority of time playing Peter Pan and saying. "off to Neverland!". Oh, I love my spunky girl. She was so excited to get to the top, but then about died when I told her we had to walk down. After we started she said, "I'm ok mom, I have skills". She also found some huge snails that she was in love with! I though she'd freak but she's surprised me many times (including loving snakes.). She found 3, put them together to be a family, and sadly went on her way. It was so cute.
There were so many good memories this first week! Believe it or not, this was our slow week. So to sum things up: Kailua beach is beautiful, I highly recommend it. Aulani has a delicious character breakfast and a beautiful calm beach for kids actually, we just didn't make it this time sadly. Everyone goes to the swap meet, but that's because you should. It's where all the good cheap souvenirs are that everywhere else charges 3 times as much for. Hamama Falls is one to add to your list as well! Just go and do it all!
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