Livin' it up!

Saturday morning and our last day in Hawaii. Good thing we saved some fun things to enjoy for our last day, starting with a celebratory breakfast at Disney Aulani after we got all checked out of our room. Everyone got up and at them to pack up our bags, load the car, return our towels, and get ready for breakfast with Mickey. For my birthday and our Christmas present, Dave and Kara made a reservation and paid for our character breakfast, which was a treat.

We left the car at the Marriott and walked along the lagoons to get to the Aulani. Beautiful morning walk and we were able to wander through the Aulani resort on the way to breakfast. Natalie and Evan was sure that their pool was better than ours.

We took pictures with Mickey, got seated, and ordered drinks. The kids were thrilled to have drinks included. :) We enjoyed all the delicious Disney buffet food - Mickey waffles, caramel and coconut syrup, tons of fresh fruit, yogurt, hash browns, omelettes and so much more. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore. So fun and a great way to leave the Ko Olina area.




It started raining while we were there and we had to walk back to our hotel in a drizzle. We drove to the Dole Plantation in the rain and it just continued ... however, we had a plan so we pressed on. We wanted to do the giant pineapple maze and also get Dole Whips, so we had to buy ponchos to make it work. It rained off and on and actually were so glad for our sweatshirts. We felt cold in rainy Hawaii in January and it made us appreciate how amazing the weather was all week for us. (We enjoyed sunny, 80 degree days, which was unusually warm for January and so perfect for all of our water activities.)

After the pineapple maze, we got our huge Dole Whips (whipped pineapple ice cream ... so delicious!) and ate them before heading to the North Shore to watch surfers.




Unfortunately, the wind and rain made for a terrible day at Pipeline and while we stopped, there was NO ONE in the water. We got pics and paid homage to the greatest surf spot in Hawaii, but wished we could have seen someone catch an epic winter wave.

Instead, we pressed on to return to the PCC for one more hour to enjoy our bounce-back passes and pass some time before going to the airport. Evan and Michael wanted face tattoos before we went home, and we had a few more fun activities we wanted to try. So glad we could return and the rain let up before we got there so had a fun time. We could only stay an hour so that we had time to stop for dinner at Giovanni's shrimp truck (nearby McDonald's saved the kids!). The garlic shrimp was spicy but good ... we also had some delicious pad thai from a local Thai truck.





Our last stop of the day was Matsumoto's for our last shaved ice. We should have gone there more than once ... it was the best shaved ice and even as I write this, my mouth is salivating for the pink coconut cream. We enjoyed our shaved ice and headed to the airport for our flight home.

The first flight was an evening flight to Denver. We got everyone settled and comfortable and tried to get some sleep ... all went well until the end of the flight when Natalie said she was sick to her stomach. I had about 10 seconds notice, but Natalie and I are old pros at throwing up on airplanes so I quickly found an airsick bag and got it open in the nick of time. She threw up a few times as we landed. We arrived in Denver early and found some floor space to spread out and try to rest. Poor Natalie continued to be sick. I think by the time we were done, she threw up six times between the two flights and our layover. Needless to say, we were all glad to be home!

It was an epic trip for us and we made so many wonderful memories that we will hold onto forever.

Friday. We had accomplished all our big goals for the trip except for seeing the surfers on the North Shore, and we decided to do that on Saturday afternoon before going to the airport. So today we relaxed more at the hotel and planned to get one more surfing outing in. We all started to feel a little sad realizing this was our last day at the Marriott and last full day in Hawaii.

More morning swimming and then we decided to check out Pokai Bay Beach. It is right by a military base and just up the the road from where we were staying, but there was some construction that made it a longer drive than we anticipated. We got there, checked out the surf (strong but good), rented boards and went to the beach. Only Brooke and Mike were up for surfing in the bigger waves, but Evan and Natalie had a blast diving headfirst into the waves on the shore. Then we relaxed, built sand castles, and enjoyed the afternoon until Mike and Brooke came in.
























The waves were strong and swimming out was a huge chore ... they caught a few great waves, and even caught one and surfed together, which was fun. We saw some great surfers there, including an 11-year-old boy who was awesome on his little short board.

After the beach, we went back to the hotel to relax on the chairs by the pool. It only took a few minutes before Evan, Natalie and Michael were back in the pool swimming and playing until the sunset. Brooke and Megan took a walk and caught some beautiful sunset pics, Mike and I read books, and then I caught the tale end of the sunset.

We ended the day teaching Megan how to grill chicken and letting her cook our dinner and straightening up to pack up and get ready to go. We loved, loved the Marriott Ko Olina as a great place for our family to stay! We all felt a bit melancholy as we went to bed, knowing the trip was wrapping up.

Thursday morning. We've been running hard this whole week so we took some quiet time this morning to relax and enjoy being "on vacation" at the hotel. The kids and I went swimming and played on the waterslide and the "cave" in the pool. Mike spent a few hours catching up on work and email. Loved taking a slow start knowing that we had a full day ahead of us.

Brooke also had a terrible cancer sore so we called an online doctor and got some prescription medicine, which ended up helping so much. Mike filled the prescription and grabbed a few things at Target while the kids and I ate lunch and got dressed.


We drove to the Laie Hawaii Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center for the afternoon and evening. The drive along the North Shore of Oahu was so peaceful and relaxing, aside for a little traffic trying to see the surfers in the water. We drove by Bonzai Pipeline and wished we had more time to stop and watch the surfers. Next time, we would recommend getting an earlier start, stopping at Matsumoto's for shaved ice, watching surfers, and then heading over to the PCC ... but live and learn!

We made a quick stop at the temple, took pictures, and then went to the PCC. We watched the canoe parade right after we got there and got oriented to the various countries. We went to New Zealand and while some watched the cultural presentation there, the little kids and I played with poi balls and learned to play the stick game.

We quickly learned that the younger kids were so excited about trying all the hands-on activities and we wished we had more time before the different villages closed. They went fishing and caught fish, wove bamboo leaves to make toy fish, and got tattoos. We tried coconut bread and watched the Tonga presentation with the fire dancers and the teen boy who scampered up the coconut tree. A cool breeze blew the whole time and we loved our entire time there.

For dinner that night, we skipped the luau and instead took advantage of the Island Buffet, which was included in the price of our tickets. We had hoped to see more of the villages before dinner, but quickly found out that everything closes about 5:30, so we meandered to dinner and enjoyed the buffet and a little shopping before the evening show, "Ha."

"Ha: Breath of Life" is a wonderful show that tells the story of the different islands, including dance and traditional costumes. The highlight at the end is the fire dancers who were so fun. The boys loved the show as much as the girls did, so that is saying something!

We had gone to bed so early each night that it felt late to be out until almost 10:00, but it was a wonderful day.

Wednesday morning we again woke up early (I'm sensing a theme here...) to get to Honolulu so we could get on the sailboat we chartered. We wanted to take the kids on a snorkeling outing but the big boats we looked at were expensive enough for the family that it was nearly the same price to just charter our own sailboat with our own captain. Captain Dave took us out in his 42" yacht to sail around Honolulu, stop at Turtle Canyon to see the turtles and do some snorkeling, and to look for whales.

The sailboat was so fun! The company we used, Tradewind Charters, was wonderful to help us craft an outing that worked for our whole family. The kids got to take a turn at the wheel, we found several sea turtles, and when we stopped to snorkel, those who wanted to were able to get in the water and snorkel and we were able to leave some comfortably on the boat. Brooke really wanted to swim with turtles so she and Evan headed in with Mike and I. We swam all over looking for the turtles we had just seen above the surface, but we never found them. Still fun to snorkel and look around on a beautiful morning.

Finally we went whale watching but unfortunately didn't see any. The kids were disappointed since I had seen them the day before, but we hope this won't be our only chance to look for whales in the wild. The kids loved the free soda on the boat and going down to use the "head" (bathroom). We loved relaxing in the sun on the front of the boat and just being together. It was money well spent for a fun experience.








 After our sailboat ride, we grabbed lunch at KFC (Megan was so happy!) and drove to Manoa Falls to do our jungle hike. I told the kids we had to do at least two hikes on this trip - a jungle hike and an ocean view hike. We could do more if we wanted, but two were required. The Manoa Falls trail was perfect for our ages. It didn't take long to reach the falls and it rained on us most of the time we hiked, which felt appropriate for being a rain forest.

Michael slipped once and went down in the mud, but we were glad for all our Keen sandals that washed so easily and had good traction on the slippery roots and mud. We took pics at the waterfall and then headed back down.

Mike and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary in Hawaii, so we decided we could sneak away for a few hours for a scuba date. It was so perfect to be able to get in some scuba diving while on vacation with the family. We went to Waianae on the west coast to dive since it wasn't too far from our hotel. Our first dive was to a shipwreck. It was a great dive with plenty of fish, a nice shipwreck to explore, and a line attached to the ship to descend on. For me, this was a great refresher dive. The highlight of this dive was the amazing, huge sea turtle that came swimming around. I was so lucky to get to swim right by it. We loved the colorful fish and enjoyed the dive.