Hawaii

The last time I flew anywhere was 12 years ago when Carson was just 18 months old and we took a trip to South Carolina.  The last trip Tony and I took without any kids was for our 6th Anniversary when Carson and Alaina were just little, and that was just a long weekend.  So to say that I was excited would be an understatement!  We planned this trip to celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary a few months before the job change so all of our flights were out of Seattle.  When we tried to change our flights to fly out of Boise instead we learned it would be cheaper to just buy an additional flight out of Boise to catch our flight out of Seattle.  So we left from Boise, flew to Reno, flew to Seattle, flew to San Francisco, then flew to Honolulu.  After lay overs and "trying" to sleep in airports and on the plans we finally landed in Hawaii. Thankfully we didn't have any delays!   

Getting ready to fly out.

Where we "slept" while in the Seattle Airport.

Our view from the plane as we came into land!  Beautiful!

The first day in Hawaii was just checking out the Island, the beach and our Condo.  That night we crashed and it was wonderful to get a whole night of uninterrupted sleep!  No kids in my bed and no alarm to wake us up for work or getting kids ready for school.

Peace and Quiet!

Our ride for the week.  A free upgrade from the compact car we had reserved.  I did notice a lot of white Jeeps while driving around.  It must have been the go to vehicle for all the rental car places.

Of course we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center!  It was so neat!  Our guide was actually from Mongolia.  We did some fun activities, went to a Luau, and saw an awesome show!  We even went a second day to catch all the things we missed.

 

There were rain showers off and on the whole time we were there.  But it was never cold and it never lasted for very long. So we didn't really mind.

We hiked Diamond's Head and it was beautiful!  One of the only sunny days we had and had a great view of the Island.

Visiting the Honolulu Temple and Snorkeling at Sharks Cove.  Snorkeling was so much fun!  It made Tony a little nervous at first but once we got the hang of it we really loved exploring and seeing all the tropical fish.

 

Tony said that the one thing he wanted to do was drink out of a coconut on the Beach.  We made sure it happened so his Hawaii experience would be complete.

 

Visited Pearl Harbor Memorial.  A pretty humbling experience.  A bit surprised that the visitors weren't more respectful when we went out to see the Arizona.  Regardless it made me thankful for the sacrifice of those men.

The whole week was busy!  We packed in a lot of activities but loved spending so much time together.  We are already planning to go back in a few years.  We missed our kids and were ready to be back with them.  Our flights back were just as crazy and bouncing from one city or state to another.  But we'd do it all again in a heart beat!  Loved Hawaii and being together!