Hawaii Here We Come

Okay I know you have all waited and waited for some updates. So here is the starter. Although lots more has happened since Hawaii, we'll go in chronological order.

So we left for Hawaii on the 14th. On the 13th we had the worst winds by our house. That night our house was literally creaking and weaving because it was sooo windy. So Van would not go to sleep. He kept trying but everytime he would get close, his window would start shaking and it would completely freak him out. Because he was in and out of his room so much and crying, Ava couldn't sleep either. Therefore, Mike and I were trying desperately to get our little ones to sleep knowing we had to leave for the airport at 430am. Of course they pick this one night out of their lives to not sleep...Murphy's Law huh. Well they both finally calmed down around 1030ish and we managed to get them a few hours of sleep.

Mike and I were both dreading the plane ride a bit just because not only did we have our little ones on it, but Mike's cousin Janelle had her 3 little ones on it. We just felt bad for the other passengers and were praying for a good and easy flight. Surprisingly, the flight there went very smoothly. All of the kids behaved greatly and they were so excited once we got to Hawaii. However, an unforseen problem, there was a 3 hour time change going to Hawaii, we gained 3 hours. So not only did the kids not sleep really well on the plane, but by the time we actually got to Hawaii it was 7ish Cali time and only 4ish Hawaii time. This dumb time change really screwed the kids up for most of the week. We finally put them to bed around 7ish Hawaii time that first day and hoped for a better outcome the next. However, we did end up getting up every morning around 4am because their little clocks just woke them up then. As the week progressed they got a little better everyday but it wasn't until the very last morning that we were there that they actually slept until normal morning time, and even then we had to wake them up to go to the airport to go home. Ughhh!!!

Overall our trip was very nice. It was really relaxing. As I've been telling everyone, we did a whole lot of nothing. Mike and Van went snorkeling with some more in our group, we did a Luau with the whole family, visited the black sand beach, went swimming, played a lot of tennis, and just enjoyed some downtime. Other than the time change, the only downside for us was that Ava was sleeping in our room all week and she's a pretty light sleeper so we had to tip toe around all night and if she woke up, we were pretty much awake because we didn't want her to just cry herself back to sleep and wake everyone else in our condo up. Little Van man did get sick about half way through the trip. Still not sure what that was all about but he ended up with fever, achy, and just poor icky. He was that way for a few days but seemed to be better a day or so after we got home.

It was definitely a new adventure traveling with 2 kids. They were both exhausted when we got home and after a week of being around lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles, we had to really work on Van's listening skills. Well here are some pics for you to enjoy...of course there are lots more on our flickr site (use the link to the right).

Black Sand Beach

More Black Sand Beach

at the Luau in matching outfits (thanks Grammy)

Van and Kyler getting ready for snorkeling

almost ready...

at our last night at Bubba Gump's for dinner

oh yeah, did I mention Ava is so over baby food, she gobbled Pappy's tri-tip too

I know I have so much more to post about, so keep looking daily. I know I've got Halloween and just a good 'ole update on the family too. Should be coming shortly.

B