Saturday, June 23, 2012

Leaving Hawaii

Today we woke up knowing we were heading home. I don't think any of us were ready. We thought 10 days would be sufficient but we were wrong. We could spend a month here like our friends were doing over on Maui. We didn't have to rush as our plane took off at 11:00 so we went for Starbucks and Jamba Juice and then returned our trusty jeep. We were at the airport quite awhile allowing some last minute purchases by the kids, stuffed animals and an ukulele. We were lucky as this flight was nonstop. We were back at PDX about 8 and Ben's parents were there to pick us up. The trip was officially over. Some last thoughts or pictures I wanted to share with you. Before we left I had heard about the Mickey lamps at Aulani. We are doing our room in a calm beach theme so I knew I wanted to buy the lamps. They do not sell them at there store anymore because they could not keep up with the orders!! I was able to have my name put on a list, and had a lady call me soon after we got home, so we should have 2 of them by the end of summer. The kids really enjoyed this vacation. I am not sure if it was going with friends or being near water almost every day but they would love to go back. I know both Ben and I wish we could go snorkeling more. I wish we had had more time at Aulani. We never got to see their Starlit Hui show, never played their scavenger hunt, didn't go snorkeling in their bay and on and on. We also never saw any of Oahu but the Memorial. If you have younger kids the Aunty's Beach House is great. My kids went the first day for about 45 minutes. I think it is probably best for ages 3-7. Ethan would have enjoyed it if he had someone with him and Alicia was just too old. It's free and they have a lot of fun things going on. They also have a great check in/out system so there is no way your child will be stolen. Aulani also has this water play area that Ethan enjoyed but again probably would have enjoed more with friends. When I was checking in for our flights I found they have a great area for those people who have late flights and need some where to stay. They also have computers for you to use for flight check-ins. Thank you for sticking with me as I took weeks to fininsh this trip report. I love looking back at the pictures and I know it will help me remember everything in the future.

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