In March we headed off to Oahu for a two week vacation with my parents and some of Dan's family. We had a great visit with lots of pool and beach time, beautiful walks, some touristy activities, and some down time hanging with the family.
We started our vacation off with a short three night stay at the Disney Aulani (thanks Steve and Debbie!) just a short walk away from our Marriott timeshare in Ko Olina. Lena still hasn't had a true Disney experience so we were excited for her to meet Mickey and enjoy the resort for a few days. The resort was AMAZING. It had a lazy river, multiple water slides, great pool areas for kids of all ages, characters walking around everywhere, a really fun technology scavenger hunt, an awesome free hula show, a place where we could check Lena in to do activities while we did more adult activities around the resort, snorkeling in a huge man made reef....the list is endless! We never left the resort during those three days and just soaked up all the fun. One of the most fun activities we did was go to the character breakfast one morning. That is where we got to take
pictures with Mickey and several other characters and Lena got to dance and do other fun interactive things in between eating her breakfast.
After our Disney stay we checked into our villa at the Marriott Ko Olina and we met up with my parents and Dan's family. The Marriott resort is gorgeous. We had stayed there before but were really busy doing touristy things on the island. This trip we stayed at the resort more. The highlight for most of us was the beach time. We loved snorkeling in the lagoons. We swam with sea turtles, saw every kind of tropical fish, and even got close (kind of by accident) to a monk seal! Kinley was fighting a bad case of the croup so she didn't get a ton of pool/beach time but when she did she loved it! She is definitely a "water baby".
During our stay we visited the Polynesian Culture Center and stayed for their awesome show at night. Lena had fun learning hula, going on a canoe, and fishing. We also booked a few boat rides during our stay. The first boat ride was for Dan's birthday and we went on a catamaran dinner cruise at sunset. We had great views of Diamond Head and Honolulu. The second boat ride was on a pirate boat! Lena LOVED this activity and the people who ran it were seriously awesome. There was sword fighting, water cannon shooting, treasure hunts, and all sorts of fun while we cruised the waters outside of Honolulu.
Because of the time difference the girls were up EARLY the entire trip. Most mornings I would snatch the girls before they could disturb the peace too much, toss them in the double stroller and we would take our morning "donut walk" as we called it. First we stopped at the resort grocery store to buy a super delicious but over priced "Long John" donut (creme filled with powder sugar). Them we would stop and say good morning to the koi fish and king fisher bird. Then we would leave the resort and walk along the beach path and head to the Aulani to wave at Mickey while he greeted buffet guests. Then we would fly down the fun downhill sidewalk like a roller coaster and head back towards the Marriott stopping to watch waves, say hi to strangers, and see if any sea turtles were beached on the sand. It was a ritual I ended up really liking being a morning person at heart.
We had a great time with family and the girls LOVED Hawaii!
