Hawaii

We were sooo lucky to get to go to Hawaii with Drew's family last week. I know now why Hawaii is such a popular vacation destination. It did not disappoint! It was so beautiful and warm. We have been going a little stir crazy lately being stuck inside during these cold months, and it was wonderful to be able to spend lots of time outside there.

Drew's grandparents on his mom's side have been going to Hawaii for a couple months after Christmas every year for the last 20-30 years. His grandpa's birthday is January 31st, so the family hasn't celebrated his birthday with him for those 20-30 years. This year was his 80th birthday and Drew's cousin Kyle suggested we all go to Hawaii to surprise him for his birthday. One of Drew's aunts and her kids couldn't make it, but there were 26 of us that were able to go. Not only did we get an awesome week of vacation out of it, but surprising Grandpa Bill like that was so amazing and fun. The look on his face when he saw everyone was priceless!

Get ready for some serious picture overload!!

Day 1

 At the airport in Seattle.

 The kids were so excited about the airplanes, and seeing the one we would be flying on was especially exciting.

 Ezra did amazingly well on the flight there. Everything was new and fun and I had movies for them to watch and backpacks filled with snacks and lots of new exciting things to do and play with. He ended up sleeping for almost two hours which was a HUGE bonus!

 Darcy did so well on the flight too. She was so excited about everything. She liked to go visit her second cousins Bronson and Avery who were in front of us a few rows. She was perfectly happy, but about 45 minutes before we landed she threw up all over herself out of the blue. (We're pretty sure it was motion sickness.) That was upsetting to her, but it wasn't that terrible to clean up. The flight attendant switched out her seat, and I had an extra set of clothes for her thank goodness!

 It was so exciting to finally have made it to Hawaii after months of anticipation! And Ezra was still excited about the airplanes. :)

 We got our rental cars and made our way to our condos. We were still dressed for Washington weather, and we were cooking! It was a relief to get to our cooler clothes. We walked down to the beach as soon as we could. I wasn't quite ready for how nervous it would make me for my little ones to run out into the ocean, especially Ezra. We had to work on getting him to stop right when he heard us yell stop.

 Day 2

 Day two we woke up bright and early (around 5:30) and headed over to Becky and Neil's condo for breakfast. I'm sure all the neighbors were happy to have us up and outside with our excited little kids that early in the morning. We had a little time after breakfast to do whatever we wanted so we went for a little drive and stopped at a park on the beach. 

 Our kids loved this park!

 The kids begged Drew to swing with them, so he got in on the action.

 While we were at the park we got a message from Bryce that everyone was heading to the pool, so we hurried back. Darcy and Ezra both love the water so much, and the pool at our condo was so perfect for little kids. There was a really big portion of the pool that was shallow water so they had lots of space to play.

 Ezra, Darcy, and Brayden

 Spectators

 Brayden diving

 After some coaxing Drew convinced Darcy to let him take her over into the deep water. She got braver and braver every day.

 After our swim we hurried and got ready for the main event. Grandpa Bill's surprise party! The party was at a restaurant called Mulligan's on a beautiful golf course.

 Grandpa Bill walking into the room full of friends and family he didn't know were going to be there. This was such a great moment. There were lots of tears.

 Greeting Justin and Misty

 Chatting with Drew (and apparently Ezra was really into the conversation too).

 Neil and Becky and their family with Grandpa and Grandma

 After the party we went to Bill and Donna's condo for some more swimming. Drew did so much playing in the pool with the kids. He made it lots of fun for them. Lots of horse rides and splashing each other.

 I love this picture of Drew with Case and Brayden on his back. This was obviously a really intense ride! :)

 Darcy loved having a horsey ride too!

 Ezra was pretty cold at the end of this swimming day and liked to get cuddled up in a warm towel.

Day 3

 Thank goodness we were already waking up nice and early from the time change, because we had to be on a boat for a whale watching tour at 7:30 a.m. on day three. It was pretty windy and cloudy that morning so the water was pretty rough. The captain invited the kids to go sit up right by him. 

 Darcy and Case getting a glimpse of a whale!

 Kevin and Jamie right before we set sail

 Darcy and Case hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

 Sharee, Miles, Ezra, and me. I was so excited about seeing the whales!

 The five cousins together. This was right before Case started the seasickness trend. Case, Brayden, and Jamie all ended up throwing up. Darcy and Miles both were sick but never threw up, and a lot of the rest of us felt a little queasy by the time we were done. Such a fun outing! Haha.

 After whale watching we did some shopping and then ate lunch at Bubba Gump's. Drew wasn't interested in taking Ezra shopping so he hung out with him and took this picture of Ezra in front of this amazing tree. This is all one tree! The branches have grown out until they touched the ground and then taken root again. 

Day 4 was Sunday. We went to church. For the most part church was just the same, but the people kissed each other on the cheek to greet each other which was kind of fun to watch. After church we watched the Superbowl at Drew's grandparents' condo where the Seahawks won!! Woohoo!

Day 5

 Monday morning we drove up to see the volcano. The scenery was beautiful but the road was really windy. I made it all the way up and all the way down and then threw up like crazy. We struggled with motion sickness this trip!

 Sadly, there were clouds at the top of the volcano, and we couldn't see anything at all. This is Darcy, Ezra, and Drew in front of the volcano. You can see exactly what we saw. :) It was also really cold up there!

 On our way back we stopped to see the first LDS church in Hawaii.

 This marked the place of the baptismal font.

 Darcy preaching a little sermon inside

 That evening we went to a luau (for a few minutes at least). Poor Drew was really having to wrestle Ezra at this point, and he told me he couldn't smile. :) After being there for only a few minutes they announced that they had to cancel the luau because of the rain. We were so sad to miss out on that. The few minutes we were there were awesome.

 We could have learned to hula

 Right before they called it, Miles, Darcy, and Case got to play these gourds. 

 I just love this picture of Ezra.

Thanks to some kind of glitch on my SD card that has me totally sick, this is our only family picture from the whole trip. 

Day 6

 Tuesday morning most of the guys went golfing with Grandpa Bill. It was supposed to rain, but we got the best surprise and it ended up being sunny. So Sharee, Jamie, and I headed to the pool with our kids. We were there for a couple hours and it was so fun. I only took pictures with my phone at the pool that morning, and Darcy informed me when we got home that she had deleted all the pictures off of my phone. Much to my dismay, once again. 

After the pool Darcy had to try out her grass skirt that grandma Becky got her. She loved it!

 She's a pro at the hula.

 After the guys got home we all headed to the beach, and we had the most amazing time that evening. Jamie was so great to help me keep an eye on Ezra while I tried to take pictures.

 Becky and Neil watching the big boys boogie board

 Darcy got to have a turn being buried in the sand which she thought was so much fun!

 The four brothers waiting for the next wave

 Darcy was in heaven with her cousins around. These boys are so fun! I seriously wish we could see them more often.

 Miles got a turn being buried too!

Day 7

 We woke up Wednesday morning and headed to the aquarium. 

 Darcy was more excited about being with her cousins, but Ezra was so mesmerized by the fish.

 He really loved the seahorses.

 Jamie picked up a starfish for Brayden and Darcy to see it a little closer.

 Darcy was the most excited about seeing a hammerhead!

 After the aquarium we all headed to the beach for the last time. We went to big beach which was beautiful, but a little more treacherous and scary for me than the beach we went to the night before. The waves were so huge and it was really scary for me to have Ezra run out to the water. We did get a good show from some whales not far off the shore though which I loved!

 We were so covered in sand when we were done. Drew took each of the kids out into the deeper water to wash them off, which they thought was a great treat. Darcy smiled and laughed the whole time.

 The whole time Darcy was out there Ezra was begging to have his turn. He was so happy when he finally got to go out there. Because I had been watching the vicious waves the whole time, I was anxious for Drew to bring my babies back to shore.

Day 8

The last morning we packed and cleaned our condos. Darcy and Ezra got dressed in their Hawaii shirts for one last picture before we left.

Unfortunately the flight home wasn't quite at nice as the flight there. I thought Ezra would go right to sleep when we got on the plane, but unfortunately he didn't fall asleep until a couple hours before we landed. Before that he was mostly crying or yelling or climbing his seat, or doing anything crazy he shouldn't be doing. Drew and Darcy also fell asleep around the same time Ezra did. I, on the other hand, tried desperately to sleep, but I was having restless legs and I could not make it happen. That felt like such a long flight to me!

We landed in Seattle around 11:00 and the temperature was such a rude awakening for the kids. We had jackets for them, but we really should have had coats. We had to wait outside for our shuttle for a while and Darcy cried the whole time. We eventually got to our car and drove to Mattawa on snowy/icy roads. We got to Drew's parents' house at 4 in the morning. 

This trip to Hawaii is something I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. The thing that really made it so amazing was how excited and happy our kids were to be there and to see everything there was to see.