Disney!!!! Aulani =)
Our Hawaii trip was amazing! I wasn’t sure how well the kids would do with such a long flight. I’m definitely glad we combined it with a Cali trip so we could get a direct flight. They were great! By the time we landed they were definitely ready to run around, which was a challenge while getting our rental and luggage, but it went really well!
The kids loved the beach! I’m so glad I packed our life jackets so we could all relax and enjoy it, because there were real waves to play in! They were SO excited to see Carson and Raegan and play with them, and they loved the beach! They had some boogie boards, so they got to play with that too. Amazing day!!!! Daddy told Maia she was in the Pacific Ocean. So she told me "Mama! I'n in the Terrific Ocean!!!!!" And it was! We also got to see an actual sea turtle on the beach!!! It was right by Alli’s beach house rental. Eric loved playing in the real waves. By the end we were so covered in sand we had to shower off with a hose before we could go in the beach house.
The Terrific Ocean! Forever will we call it that, yay Maia! =) The waves were perfect, enough to bob in and safe for the kids (with life jackets)
DZ was SO glad Carson was here! Buddies!!!
Serenity and Donovan, while waiting for their turns with Eric, loved sitting where the surf would just barely get them. They had a blast and are wiped out since this day started at 4am!
We saw a SEA TURTLE!!!!
Extreme sand. Maia wanted a bed made of sand. I had buried her legs and she decided that was sand covers so she needed a sand pillow and a sand teddy bear. It was good Alli's beach house had a hose... we were coated in sand =)
Aulani was amazing. We enjoyed every minute at our resort! The kids loved floating on tubes down the lazy river, and Donovan and Serenity and Eric went on the water slides a lot! There was a splash pad that Maia enjoyed. The lazy river was my favorite, by the end I had worked out the perfect perch in the double tubes so I could relax and Maia could either sit on my legs or on the edge in her own circle, or climb into my side, or most often, go back and forth between the three.
There was a beach at Aulani too! We borrowed sand toys and built castles, and boogie boards to ride in the water. The waves were much gentler here and the water got deeper much more gradually so the kids could swim easily. Mike’s group came to hang out with us on the beach one day, and Braley, J and Tiffany too! Maia and Serenity were ready for some downtime after a few hours, but DZ was still going strong on cousin fun, so he went back to their hotel and hung out in their pool until dinner. I love that they enjoy each other!!!
We had fun at Aulani's beach too! =) Cousin time!
Exploring the beach trails =)
DZ wasn't ready to leave the cousins after the beach time, so he went to their hotel with them for more fun!
The food was delicious, especially the snow cones! We had never had snow cones with condensed milk topping. It tasted like snow ice cream! SOOOO yummy!!!! We got at least one most days, some days more than one. =) The mickey ears were cute but hard to eat before they fell off so we just did that once. One morning we had a character breakfast. That was amazing too! I thought the kids might not be too excited, because we’ve never really watched any Mickey Mouse things. But Maia saw a few minutes of Mickey Mouse’s clubhouse, and from then on any time she saw him she’d say, “We NEED to see Mickey!” She adored it! She was so cute when we took pictures with Mickey. And at breakfast, Minnie came by wearing a pretty flowered dress, and she admired Maia and Serenity’s flowery dresses which made Maia giggle and grin and hug her. So cute! And all three kids enjoyed singing with Auntie, and we saw Pluto too! The food was yummy. I especially loved the mickey waffles with coconut syrup. MMMM. Kelly and Mike were with us too, and they had nice gluten free stuff for them. Such a nice time!
Character breakfast!!!! I wasn't sure if the kids would be excited to see Mickey and friends as we never watched Mickey shows, but They loved it and Maia was thrilled!!! She kept saying "we need to see Mickey" and she gave them so many hugs!
Snow cone, watermelon, mango and vanilla SO YUMMY!!!! Next time we are trying the sweetened condensed milk topping.
Hi Minnie!!!
Pluto...Not Goofy ;)
Love these girls =)
They had tons of fun activities at the resort too. The kids loved seeing Moana, of course! Serenity did her strong girl pose =) Their favorite thing was probably the Menehune hunt. It’s an interactive treasure hunt style game, where you wander the park and help the Menehune do good deeds. We protected baby sea turtles from getting eaten by birds, stopped a volcano from erupting, played Hawaiian drums, all with Menehune magic. We also got to see a bit of the luau right from our room! I loved having a ground floor suite! We could walk right out into the resort from our door! Eric’s favorite part of Aulani was going down the black tube slide with the kids over and over again! He also went over to play games every night with Don, Alex, Siqi and Laura. Oh, I nearly forgot about listening to Uncle tell stories! They had stories by the firepit every day, and we went to hear Uncle tell traditional Hawaiian stories. One night he told stories about Maui and Moana stopped by to say hi! All islander claim Maui is from their island. He told stories of Maui raising the Sky, stealing fire from birds, and giving it to humans. We loved Uncle's stories so much we went again! Tonight, he told stories about the Menehune. He taught us a chant to invite the menehune to help, Kukulei, Hana. Also, they love poi. The stories were wonderful! They also got to go to Auntie’s playhouse, where you can drop kids off for some playtime while the adults go have time together. We tried it out one morning and got to do a Hula Lesson too!
Strong Girl Pose!
Hula Lesson
DZ loves his menehune necklace =)
Menehune Magic
Sea Turtles
Hot Lava!!!
Fire pit stories with Uncle and Moana! In the morning we heard Maui stories. All islander claim Maui is from their island. He told stories of Maui raising the Sky, stealing fire from birds, and
Maia played dress up at Aunty's this morning. The Minnie love continues:)
Braley and Maia =) More girls I love!
I told the kids they could have a souvenir from Hawaii, but I asked them to think about what they’d really want. Serenity piped up that she wanted a Hawaiian dress, and Donovan immediately said he wanted a Hawaiian outfit too. I was surprised but happy! We went to one store, and they had very expensive stuff, but they had a dress that matched a boy shirt. Unfortunately, the shirt wasn’t in Donovan’s size, and the price was too much for me. But DZ REALLY wanted to match his sister. So in the next shop we went into, I asked if they had matching outfits, and the sales lady led us to the whole family section. We ended up with matching outfits for all 5 of us, and it was all DZ’s doing!!! So cute! And Maia’s response was, “now we’re ready to go to the ball!!!!”
We also got to spend some time with J, Tiffany and Braley on this trip, which was so wonderful! I don’t feel like we get to see them nearly enough. Also, all the kids love Jason Bair. It was so funny, we ran into each other at the little shopping center across from Aulani, and all the kids were hanging all over him. Maia even let us take a group picture, and she looked right at the camera and smiled while sitting with Uncle J. I told him he should save some of that magic for the wedding photos. They planned on having salsa at sunset, and I’m so glad we ran into them! We sat near the ocean and shared their chips and watched the sunset, which was gorgeous. I’m so glad we didn’t miss seeing a Hawaii sunset! With young kids you sometimes think so much about bedtimes that you don’t think what you are missing.
I told J he should save some of this magic for wedding photos. All those kids smiling and looking at the camera! They love Uncle J =)
Chips and Salsa and Sunset =)
