Vacationing Part 2: Hawaii

29 July 2014

About eight months ago we were in Fredericksburg at my parents' church when some old family friends invited us to join them on their annual trip to their Awesome Oahu Beach House.

I remember it very well because I was standing in the church gym and I was a little distracted because four different people had come up and told me they'd "let Jake have some donut holes, but only two."

So as we got the invite to this Awesome Oahu Beach House, I was doing some math in my head that looked a little like this:

4 x 2 donut holes = Sugar Hell ----> Toddler Meltdown

There I was, in the middle of December, still very postpartum and getting this awesome invitation, and it just didn't quite register. I just kept nodding and smiling. I thought we were in the middle of Pleasant Conversation, not Invite of a Lifetime. And I stood their next to my mother and said something like "Oh, how nice." and then just kept nodding and smiling till Mom was like: "They're asking all of us. The whole family to come with them next summer. To Hawaii. Everybody. You and Jacob and the kids and all of us." And eventually it got through, but the whole yelp and high-five everyone in the building moment had passed, so I stumbled through something like, "OK. Yeah." 

Thankfully they didn't retract the offer despite my less than exuberant RSVP, and then began the months of waiting and planning and Hawaiian Air Mastercards. We decided to tack on St. Louis and Los Angeles to the front end of the trip, so we could get in some much needed visiting before heading to Hawaii. 

We boarded our plane to Hawaii on a Sunday evening, after six whirlwind days of visiting so many dear people, and since it was bedtime o'clock and we'd been going going going for days, I was prepared for a flight from hell. We trekked to the back of the plane, and I glanced up at the lucky man who got the fourth seat in our row. We scooted in with our baby and our snacks and our coloring books and our over excited toddler who couldn't go thirty seconds without talking very loudly about "CRASH LANDING." I gave the gentleman in our row my best apologetic-mom smile, and he smiled back warmly, so I relaxed a little. 

Five minutes into the flight, the man was fast asleep, and I was grateful that we didn't seem to be bothering him at all. Ten minutes into the flight he was snoring. Soon he was snoring loudly with a tiny bit of spittle flapping on his lower lip that threatened to fly at any moment. By this point I just wanted to turn to him and bark: "We get it. You're asleep. That's cool. More than cool. I mean, I basically haven't slept in the past four years and God knows I won't be sleeping on this plane, but you are asleep and that's great and all, but do you have to go and rub it in?!?" So I took some deep breaths, and Jacob reached over from the aisle seat and gave me a simmer down pat on the head, and soon enough we were landing in Honolulu. And soon after that we were overlooking the Pacific from our private deck.

As we expected it was pretty much the best vacation of all time. 

On this vacation we went to the beach. 

 We swam and kayaked and snorkeled in the reef.
We stayed in this amazing house with views like this:
and like this:
We drank adult beverages in the afternoons and listened to the waves crashing on the sea wall.

We played on the lawn which was literally nicer than the carpet in my last apartment.
And then we did that again and again and again.
We also played croquet.
A lot of croquet.
We also played this other game a lot. I don't quite know what this game is called.

Lucy June went from decently mobile to full on crawling.
 When properly incentivized.
 And we were still very much parents even though we were on vacation.

But we were cool parents.
 We also stopped to watch the sunset. Because:
I suppose it's good to be back, but my was it hard to leave.


11 comments :

  1. Wow is it gorgeous there! I love The matching picture of you and Lucy in the grass with flowers, two beauties! You all look so relaxed! :)

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  2. Ahh, amazing!! It's our dream to go to Hawaii for our fifth anniversary next year! The crazy thing is, it would be a lot cheaper than our "visit all the relatives on the east coast" trip we did this summer. And involve less time on an airplane with two little ones!

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  3. Love that picture of the fingernail clipping! Had to share it with my husband because our daughter never lets us clip her nails! I guess the beer is the trick heh!

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  4. I love all of this so much!!! Thank you for sharing! I went to Honolulu for 2 weeks fresh out of highschool to visit my best friend (and her Coast Guard family) and I will never get it out of my blood. That corner of the earth is seriously special.

    All of these pics of y'all are so adorable but oh my, the fingernail clipping. *heart eyes emoji*

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  5. Oh, I love these pictures so much! How beautiful. I honestly think Hawaii is a wonderland! I'm so glad the kids had fun!

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  6. Katie, this looks like such a peaceful and fun vacation (as peaceful as vacations can be with kids right?) And I love the photos of you with your kids :)

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