It took a 6 hour car trip to Las Vegas, followed by a 6 hour plane ride to get there, but a mere 12 hours later and we were loving life! (Everyone keeps asking so I may as well inject here and say the kids did great on the plane overall. My only complaint would be that Makelle still wouldn't take a bottle and I had to nurse her in the smallest, cramped up, non-private location possible. Otherwise she only fussed a little [thanks to her Daddy] and Corbin was an angel and read books, went through his preschool workbook, did puzzles and watched part of Finding Nemo, to prep him for the experience ahead :)
After our full day of traveling, we arrived late at night and went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up and everyone hung out at the beach in the morning. Since we were on the resort we had 4 private lagoons, the public beach and multiple pools to choose between lounging at everyday. Then that afternoon Caleb and I went shopping at the outlet malls because genius Melinda forgot her entire suitcase in Utah. That's right, I showed up in Hawaii, with nothing but what I was wearing. After nearly a full day of being ornery and on edge, Caleb talked me into looking around and getting over it and I decided everything would be okay. Later that night Aunt Mimi and Uncle George hosted a fun dinner outside for everyone to get together and relax.
Day two Caleb's cousin took us all surfing at one of the local beaches. It wasn't one of the fancy tourist beaches; so we showed up, dragging our borrowed surf boards, looking like idiots, nearly blinding the locals with our pasty white skin and headed out into the ocean. We were given strict instructions to watch his cousin go out first and pay attention to were he ended up, because we were informed that it was hard to find each other once we got out there, but of course we lost him right away and four of us ended up drifting off on our own. I quickly realized why surfers have such crazy upper body strength because after what felt like forever paddling out to what I thought was for sure insanely deep waters we were exhausted already and then started trying to turn and get ready to surf without his cousin's instruction or assistance (it can't be that hard, right?). Then some guy, who was there showing his little kid how to surf, comes WALKING out to us, grabs the edge of the boards and pulls us back to shore to teach us what to do. Apparently we stuck out like a couple of sore thumbs and he was concerned. At first I was kind of annoyed, because I always think I can do everything on my own. But he actually really helped us out and taught us what to do, and I got up on my board and rode all the way in couple of times. It was a BLAST! I wish we lived on a beach and I could go all the time. After wearing out our arm muscles during our surfing adventure we played games, barbecued poolside and then went and watched the beautiful sunset on the beach.
The next day was Sunday and we went to church, met some incredibly nice people with the most amazing spirits and relaxed around the house. It was a truly restful Sabbath day and a chance to enjoy doing nothing much.
Monday there was supposed to be a hurricane coming, but luckily Ko'Olina is on the other side of the island and we had clear beautiful skies all day. So Caleb and I went for a jog along the beach, then we played in one of the pools all morning before coming back for lunch, naps and more fun games with the Millers. Then that night we all went to a Korean restaurant, which was a trip down memory lane for Caleb reminiscing about all the yummy rotten cabbage he got to eat on his mission. (It actually wasn't that bad... but it wasn't that good either. I can't handle spicy food, so it didn't even taste flavorful to me, just ridiculously hot. Caleb really did love it though.)
Tuesday morning we went to the beach one last time and then headed over to the other side of the island to visit the Polynesian Culture Center. We didn't have nearly enough time to do everything they had there, especially with two small children in tow, but it was pretty cool. We went to some of the little villages first and saw a guy climb a coconut tree, start a fire, catch a fish, etc. Corbin's favorite part was of course the guy that licked fire and the presentation where they gave him a large stick to bang on the floor, supposedly to a specific beat. He sat with rapt attention during the first part of the big final show (literally on the edge of his seat), got a little bored towards the middle, and then they recaptured his attention when they started mock fighting and brought out the fire dancers again at the end. It took a little longer to walk around and I missed out enjoying dinner because we had to take care of children, but I am glad we brought him and he was able to experience a new culture. It is always fun exposing kids to new things.
We got back late that night and then had to leave early the next morning to begin our 12 hour journey home, but all the effort getting there was definitely well worth it. We had a great time. Big thanks to Aunt Mimi and Uncle George for hosting us.
3 comments:
A report on your trip to Hawaii without a single picture?
You have to watch the video to see all the pictures.
Cool.
The whole time that we were at Willard Bay a few weeks ago, Rachel kept saying that we were at the beach, just like Corbin was.
Um, yeah... Willard Bay is just like Hawaii.
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