Well gosh be-darn, we went on a big family vacation in April! It was truly what dreams are made of. This was the first time that we took the kids on a trip that was larger scale than entering a car and driving for hours. Chad and I have taken several weekend trips over the last 8.5 years, but we always left the kiddos at home - NOT THIS TIME THOUGH!
We had been talking about going to Hawaii with the kids for a few years and even set the date before I knew I was pregnant with Gracie! Talk about a timeline. In fact, the night I told Chad baby #3 was on the way, we both were like, "well, what does this mean for our Hawaii trip?" Hahaha! Clearly our priorities were in order.
So anyhoo, we decided to go with Aulani because we would be travelling with baby G who was going to be a whopping 6 months old at the time. We knew that Disney would do it right for every member of the family, which would mean that we wouldn't have to rent a car and haul a baby around the island in pursuit of cool things to do. We wanted to check into a resort and just stay there the whole time. We'll do an adventure-filled Hawaii trip when the kids are older, but for right now? Hanging at a legit resort checked all of our vacation desires.
...but listen to this. So our plan was to go Monday-Friday (cheaper hotel room rates during the weekdays), but we sort of wished we could go from Sunday-Friday. That would give us an extra day to hit up the Costco we kept hearing so many great things about (where we would stock up on goods so we could actually afford the trip hahaha). But that was okay! We didn't want to be complainers about going Monday-Friday versus Sunday-Friday - we were just glad we were going at all. BUT THEN my father-in-law called me on my birthday and told us that he had a ton of points with the Marriott - how would we like to spend Sunday night in Waikiki and, while he was at it, would we like to use points for our airfare - UHHHHHHH WELL MR. FIL, WE SURE WOULD APPRECIATE THAT!
Because of his awesome generosity, we had a bit of excess in our little Hawaii fund, so we did end up renting a car for our first day in Waikiki to transport us to a few tourist locations and drop us off at Aulani the next day, and we were able to eat out a few more times than we had originally planned for (allowing the Costco trip to not be as important to us hahaha - it's a good thing too, because we discovered that when one flies across oceans to vacation, one does not enjoy eating Costco lasagna's just like they do at regular ol' home baha!).
So we flew on down to good ol' Oahu!!! It was so fun. The kids were stoked to go on a plane and Chad and I were happy that Gracie was pretty dang great the whole way. Once we secured the car, we checked into our Marriott and hit Waikiki beach - SO MUCH FUN. Not going to lie though, that particular beach is probably best for humans who are not walking around with three kids and a stroller - talk about chaotic. People were there to party - definitely a spot for just adults, ya know?
The next morning we checked out, headed toward North Shore (which I'm now obsessed with) and then got-to-goin' to Aulani. Chad then had to leave us to take the rental car back to the airport, leaving the kids and I to hit the extensive pools.
WELL I'LL TELL YA WHAT - IT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA TO LOSE YOUR TWO OLDEST CHILDREN WITHIN THE FIRST FEW HOURS OF HOTEL TIME. Yep! I lost Carter and Kota almost as soon as we got down to the pool area - talk about freaked out. They had both grabbed these huge floatie things that they would need to go down one of the giant water slides and then just disappeared! I wouldn't have been worried if it wasn't for those giant floaties - I mean, they could have gotten caught underneath them, ANYTHING COULD HAVE HAPPENED. I was trying to play it cool, so I casually asked a lifeguard if she had seen "a boy and a girl" - YEAH GREAT QUESTION TO A LIFEGUARD WORKING AT AULANI WHERE THERE ARE 5,000,000,000 "BOY AND GIRL" PAIRS WALKING AROUND.
But straight up - it was terrifying!!!!! FINALLY Carter was spotted and very quickly afterward we found Dakota. They both were like, "what's wrong Mom, we can swim!" Palm smack to the forehead.
Chad then joined us and we got to enjoying the rest of the BEST WEEK EVER.
^^^Oh you know, just some casual $27 GOGGLES!!!! I KNOW.
^^^Is this not the coolest picture ever? Grace was sleeping!
And then we went to the luau - IT WAS AMAZING. We even got seated next to one of the directors of Moana!!! How cool is that?!
Everything was just so dang pleasant and wonderful! We did take advantage of the kids club for about 1-2 hours a day. At first we felt weird about the whole thing - after all, we wanted to actually HANG OUT during this giant vacation we had been planning for months. But after taking a tour of the place, I really felt great about signing them up for a few activities (where they would be served dinner or lunch). Not only would it allow Chad and I to go on a date (with G who was usually sleeping), but it really did give them a break from the sun. Also, they swam from sun-up until sun-down - this was a great way to give their little bodies a break. It was great!
I mean, the whole thing was WONDERFUL. I'm so proud of us for setting out, planning for this thing and saving the dough to do so. Very cool!
We had so much fun. We all LOVED every minute - truly amazing!
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