I took a red-eye flight and an almost 5 hour flight home less than 48 hours later than my red-eye, just to go on a date in DC with my honey. He actually took the red-eye with me, and we ended up with the very front seats which were big and roomy, but he didn't come home with me. He had to stay in Baltimore for a conference for work. In truth, I was reluctant to go, but I am glad I did. I was in need of a mom break, and in need of some one-on-one time with Josh. My parents were nice enough to come pick up the kids, take Payson to his soccer game, and even bring the kids back to Vegas Sunday night.
Our hotel was in Baltimore, so we trained it to DC and spent the whole day there. Our first stop was the Postal Museum. Then we snagged (rented) some electric scooters and rode them to the National Mall where we saw all the monuments, except Jefferson. Then after realizing we already saw the Natural History and American History museums the last time we were there, we headed for the Air and Space Museum and Botanical Gardens. (At some point, we got lunch at a couple food trucks).
Our next stop was the Nationals Baseball game. They won! It was fun! The weather was perfect! We ended the day eating seafood by the river. As soon as we got back, we crashed. I took more pictures, but they are taking too long to upload, so you get one! :) (I will probably regret not posting the others on here, but at least I got a blog post even done at this point- life is busy).
Avenly turned 4 on July 26, and I haven't blogged about it. I mostly want this post for the memory, pictures, and birthday interview. We had a small birthday party at my parents house with a unicorn theme. My little girl is becoming a delight. Her crazy 3 year old drama is turning into not so crazy 4 year old drama. This is such a fun age, and they learn so much!
Our little Labor Day trip wasn't actually so little. We ended up going to Kauai Hawaiian Island.
To say it was a wonderful trip would be true!! It really was wonderful. We stayed at 4 different resorts, swam, snorkeled, swam some more, played in the sand, swam some more, saw some beautiful nature, swam some more, ate some food, and swam even more!
We are unique in that we like to try different resorts. That way we get to see different pools, try different beaches, and enjoy different views. We did stop at Costco right after we landed to buy a gallon size of POG (Passion Orange Guava juice). Unfortunately, we left in our second hotel, so we only drank half of it.
*Note- some of my pictures around the water are not perfect. My camera is amazing on my new phone, but I kept my phone in a waterproof bag that aloud me to take pictures.
Sheraton
This was Josh's favorite. We had the pool to ourselves first thing in the morning since we all woke up early from our bodies being on Pacific Time- Not Hawaiian time. The beach was nice groomed sand, but the waves were a bit rough, so the kids did not play in the ocean. Once you got past the breaking waves, it was actually quite calm, and we saw some cool fish snorkeling. The kids, of course had a blast in the sand. (Don't worry- every time Josh or I snorkeled, there were other people snorkeling near us, so we were never alone in the ocean).
Lawa'i Beach
The was the best spot for snorkeling for me. (Josh's favorite snorkeling was at the Sheraton's beach). I have video of me swimming with a huge school of fish. I also saw an eel squirming in and around some coral. We tried to get the kids to snorkel, but they just wanted to play in more sand.
Hyatt
This was my favorite resort. It was huge, and had lots of fresh water swimming pools, a lazy river, water slide, salt water pools, and sat on yet another beach. The waves were big and crashy, and we saw a couple people get wiped out. We also saw some impressive surfers, but that wasn't too unique because we saw awesome surfers everywhere we went. We didn't play too deap in the ocean, but it was fun to let the end of the waves hit our feet. Of course, Payson and Avenly's favorite was playing in the sand some more. (All my pictures from this beach were actually weird selfies of me-lol. It was bright outside, and I couldn't really see the screen very well. I had somehow switched the camera to selfie).
After swimming and being in the sun all day, I dressed the kids up for some pictures and dinner. The Hyatt had really pretty grounds, and we had a backyard outside our hotel room. Apparently, this is where lots of the families with littles got put in the hotel because the kids made friends with lots of other little kids playing on the grass.
We had some fun Hawaiian entertainment during dinner. The kids even got to go up and dance. Payson cracked me up with his hula dance moves. Avenly enjoyed dancing by our table more than on the stage. (See my video for clips of their dance moves). After dinner we took a walk around the grounds, and stopped to lay on a big hammock to look at the stars, which were so amazing. We saw the milky way bright and amazing.
Church in Hawaii
At the end of Sacrament meeting during church on Sunday, the local ward members sang us a Hawaiian welcome song, and then they all came around and gave us homemade yarn lei's. It was so thoughtful and we definitely felt welcome. Also, the church building was unique in that it had a large room for the chapel, but the rest of the building could only be accessed by going outside. All of the classrooms windows were open, and the building made a u shape around a big lawn.
Oh- and the church grounds had a breadfruit tree that Josh thought was pretty cool.
Grand Canyon of the Pacific and Waimea State Park
When we first arrived in Waimea State park to see the beautiful view of the Waimea Canyon (also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) we couldn't see much. Kids were sleeping in the car, so I actually walked the short path to see the view first. I saw a little, but not much. When Josh went to look, he saw nothing. The clouds were thick and there was no visible view. There was a fruit stand, however, so of course Josh got some fruit, and while we were snacking in the car, the kids woke up and the clouds rolled away. We all went up the small path to see the view together, and it was like night and day. The Canyon was absolutely beautiful.
We then attempted to see the Napali Coast from the land side. We saw a glimpse of it, but I think I actually deleted the picture thinking it was just a cloudy picture from the canyon. There were even more clouds at the coast, and you really couldn't see much. The kids, however, had a great time playing around on the grass.
St. Regents
Our room had an amazing view of Hanalei Bay. It was beautiful, like the rest of Hawaii. This resort had yet another pool by the beach, and since it was a Bay there weren't really big waves. Supposedly the snorkeling can be pretty good here, but I guess the fish are sick of the people by the end of the summer, so they move further out. I didn't think it was horrible, but I do think this is where the meanest fish live. ha ha Maybe it's because they are sick of the people. lol- Actually, the reason I think they are mean- is because I swear I got bit by a fish. The hotel guy who gave me a disinfectant wipe thought it was coral, but after the initial redness cleared away, I had a distinct ring like a bite mark on my hand, and I saw the fish swimming away from my hand that was not by coral when it happened. Anyway, I got over it, and we enjoyed a nice little lunch by the pool, where the birds were not afraid to join us on the table and eat our scrapes.
We had some fruit Josh had picked, and a pineapple we bought. We called the hotel for a knife, so we could cut it up for breakfast. They just took the fruit, and cut it themselves in the their kitchen. We are pretty sure, they just threw ours out and gave us fresh fruit, and they also made this beautiful display of the fruit when they returned.
Oh- and one other little adventure at this place... We were headed to go to another beach to check it out because we heard it was great for little kids. Zaylee and Payson were in the lead to the elevators. Payson pushed the button, Zaylee went in first, and the door closed. Uh- my 1 year old was riding the elevator by herself, to who knows what floor. Josh began searching other floors, and I went down to the the lobby with the other two kids, and asked for security to help. Luckily, the elevator stopped on a floor, where a couple was about to get on. They saw the baby in the elevator by herself, so the wife watched Zaylee while the husband went back to his room to call security. Seconds later, Josh checked that floor, and sure enough Zaylee was just hanging out with this nice couple. He called me, and relief flooded me. He waited for security to get to that location, so he could verify he was Zaylee's dad.
Anini Beach
This was the beach that was supposedly good for kids, and the water was actually the best place for the kids to play in the ocean of all the places we went. The waves were small and calm. The beach was more natural, but it had a huge sand bar jutting out from where the river met the ocean. Payson actually went out snorkeling with Josh, but they didn't see anything. The girls had a grand time playing in the water on the sand bar.
Wailua Falls and Old Temple
I would have loved to hike to Wailua Falls, but that didn't happen, so at least I got to see it from a distance, and get a picture! I was the only one who got out of the car, but I am glad I at least got to see them. We also stopped at a historic Temple land mark. We found out our flight was cancelled, so Josh was on the phone with the airline company, and this was the perfect place to stop. The kids were asleep, so I got out, and enjoyed the scenery, the sacred temple site, and the many many chickens that were there. (They were actually all over the island).
Marriot
Since our flight was cancelled, we got one more day and two nights on Kauai with resort paid for by the airline, as well as, food vouchers. We didn't complain too much! Josh worked all morning. The kids did school work, as well, and I even did a little business, but after a bit, Payson, Zaylee and I walked to the little shops and restaurant area away from the resort. We bought lunch, and brought it back. The walk was nice, but it made me hot because I had Zaylee in the wrap on my back. After lunch, I was ready to swim again. The kids and I headed to the pool before Josh finished working, and we were at the pool and beach for over 5 hours. This did include our dinner at the pool side restaurant, which was a nice break from the sun. It was a nice filling dinner, too, since we had a food voucher from the airline.
The kiddy pool had a fast kiddy slide, and the big pool had a bridge that Payson jumped off before they told us not to. It also had hot tubs that you had to swim to to sit in, which was kind of fun. The beach was the perfect one to end our trip on. The waves were small, but fun. Payson had a great time riding them in with his puddle jumper on until one of them took him out. He wasn't too thrilled about that, so he didn't ride them in after that.
We can't have a story about Zaylee and Payson and not have one about Avenly... The swimming suit I had packed for her was pretty worn out. Of course, I didn't realize that until we got to Hawaii and she was wearing it all the time. Anyway, I threw it away knowing we were flying home that night. Too bad I didn't know we would have a cancelled flight. She ended up wearing Payson's swim shirt and Zaylee's shorts for our last extra day.
As stressful as getting ready for trips are and as much work as they are after getting home, I suppose this trip was worth it. ;-) We all got pretty tan, but more importantly- we all spent a lot of wonderful quality time together.
Here's the video I made of mostly video footage from our trip:
*Note- This was a quick made video, so don't judge my video making skills:).
