HAWAII

Aloha! We had such an awesome time in Hawaii! Our camera hasn't been working so I was afraid we had lost all of our pictures, but today I got it working! YAY!

So Zach earned this trip as a sales incentive for his awesome amount of sales last year (Go Zach!!). Zach and I went to Oahu on our honeymoon and we were sooooo excited to have the opportunity to go back as a family (and FREE makes it even better :)). Unfortunately, Graham started getting sick a couple days before we left. It peaked the day we were traveling. He was miserable on the plane. It was probably one of the worst trips of my life. We were so glad to get off that hot, crowded, tiny airplane and arrive in beautiful Hawaii where it was 70-80 degrees the whole week! And this was the view we had from our hotel room...

The first day we went to the Sea Life park. Graham was still pretty sick so he only lasted about 2 hours before he was crying and begging to go home. So we headed back to our hotel room to let him sleep.

(Sea turtles at the Sea Life park. This is the only picture we took that day because Graham was so miserable.)

Tuesday Graham was feeling a little better and was content most of the day. We went to the Dole pineapple plantation and up to the North shore to watch a professional surfing competition.

Graham loves anything that is cars, truck, trains, planes, etc. so the train ride at Dole was his favorite.

And of course the pineapple ice cream is a highlight!

Not to mention the CA-RAZY fish there.

Wednesday we went to the new Alani Disney Resort for the character breakfast. First of all, let me just say that that place is amazing! We wished we could have stayed there.

The character breakfast was so so fun! We have never been to one before and didn't realize how fun they are.

Minnie really liked Graham and danced with him and held his hand during the parades and songs, it was so cute! Graham LOVES Minnie now.

We spent the rest of that day lounging at the beach.

I think that was my favorite day. :)

Thursday we went snorkeling at Haunauma Bay.

Zach and I had to take turns snorkeling while the other stayed on the beach with the kids.

I could have stayed and snorkeled all day but the babies weren't having that. They lasted a couple of hours and then we left to go look at a natural blow hole and this cool Byodo-in temple.

Friday we were out and about early for our whale watching cruise. THAT. WAS. COOL. It was a two our cruise and we were seeing whales every few minutes! There were usually dolphins swimming along side them too so it was really fun to see.

(With a very slow camera, getting a picture of the whales was difficult, but check out this shot I got... that's a whale's tail on the bottom left.)

Zach took some Dramamine on the cruise and had a bad reaction to it. He was acting like he was drunk and literally couldn't keep his eyes open! It was pretty funny. So after the cruise Graham and I went swimming while Zach and Campbell napped the rest of the afternoon. They also did fireworks on the beach that night that were right outside ofour window. We had the perfect view!

Saturday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Zach and I had already been there and we knew our kids wouldn't last long so we met our friends there for just a couple of hours and for dinner.

Sunday we went to the Swap meet and bought lots of cheap junk! That is a great place to buy souvenirs. Then we met up with the rest of Zach's work people and went to a science museum and out to dinner. Our flight home didn't leave until 11pm Hawaii time and went all night. Campbell also got sick halfway through the trip and I ended up taking her to the ER early one morning to make sure it wasn't something serious like RSV. Nope. Just a nasty cold. So traveling with sick kids was pretty stressful at times but we still had a great time.