Flying Home

As excited as the kids were to start our trip, they were also ready to head home.  A week was the perfect amount of time to be there and they were ready to see their relatives!  Here they are ready to board the plane.
 

Sunset

We were on the west side of the island, which meant we had a lot of beautiful sunsets.  Too bad I didn't always have my camera!  We really enjoyed walking over to the grassy area by our hotel and watching the sun set.  I hope the kids will have memories of this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matching clothes!

Before our trip, I had told Donald I wanted to get matching Hawaiian clothes to take some family pictures in.  I could tell he was thrilled!(haha)   I was really surprised when we were out shopping that he asked if I still wanted to try and do that.  I couldn't believe he was game for it, but then he is such a supportive, loving husband, I shouldn't have been!  So we picked out this purple print and got clothes for each of us, then went back to the hotel and tried our hardest to get decent pictures.  We had a few strangers take family shots, and they are really pretty good.  Elizabeth acted like a three year old, refusing to smile or look at the camera in a lot of them, so I am pretty happy with the shots we got and even used three of them on our Christmas cards!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the hotel

We spent the rest of our time at the hotel, mostly on the practically deserted beach!  It think taking the kids to Waikiki made them appreciate just how nice our hotel was!  We sure had a lot of fun!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning in Waikiki

I insisted we take a day to drive in to Waikiki and see the hotels and beach and do a little shopping.  We spent some time at the International Market Place.  I remember going there when I was in Hawaii during high school.  It wasn't very busy at all and everyone was really nice.  People said to avoid it, but I found it to be a pleasant experience.  This is where we found a good deal on our matching Hawwaiian outfits and let the kids get a few trinkets.  When we were done shopping, we went across the street to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  Very Hawaiian, huh?  Anyway, it was delicious.  Then, we walked down to the beach.

It was packed and we were totally overwhelmed.  Me especially.  We could barely find a place to sit on the sand and I just couldn't wait to get out of there!  I am so thankful we knew better to stay in a hotel there!  I'm sure some people love it (obviously) and there are a lot of upscale shops around there, but I hated it.  I wanted to get back to our quiet hotel and maybe even back to Turtle Lagoon!  The kids had a good time on the boogie board, but there were people everywhere.  I felt like I couldn't take my eyes off of Elizabeth and it was stressing her out!  The water sure is pretty though!

 

 

 

 

Lizzie at the hotel pool

While Donald and the kids were at Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth and I played at one of the hotel pools.  There was a pool for kids just her age with a sandy beach and zero entry.  They also had there little fountains, which she loved.  She would put her feet over the jet to block the flow of water, then let it go and it was a little geyser.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon for me to sit and watch her play.
 

 

Pearl Harbor

Donald and Sarah both really wanted to visit and pay respects at Pearl Harbor.  I had been there before and was worried that it would be too hard for Elizabeth to be respectful, so I stayed at the hotel with her and Donald took Sarah and Joshua to the memorial.  He said both kids handled it really well, but he also thought they understood the significance of the tragedy.  Sarah had read a few books from this time period, so she had a lot more background information.  It was all new to Joshua who is only 7 years old.  I think he understood as much as we would want him to. 
 

 

 

Donald said that the most moving part for him was this plaque that shows crew members who survived the attacks, but have since died and have chosen to be laid to rest with their ship mates.  I cant help but wonder what their lives were like, having lived through this attack.  I know we just passed the anniversary of the attacks, and I saw they had some services with survivors present.  How touching.

 

 

I think it was a good experience for the kids and they first time they were old enough to visit some place like this and understand it a little bit.  They were both babies when we were in Washington DC, so even though we visited a lot of sacred places there, they don't remember it.  I'm excited to share more of the world with them as they grow.

Lei making

One of the fun activities we got to do at the hotel was lei making.  I was astounded at how many flowers they had for us to make leis from!  They gave us each a long needle and showed us how to thread the flowers.  The kids loved it and Donald even sat with us and made one for Lizzie.