HI

This post has been on my "to-do" list for an entire week but between reminiscing about the trip, doing loads of laundry/unpacking, preparing for Mack's (minor) surgery, and getting my classroom ready for the start of school. This post has been put on the back burner, until TODAY!

Let me just start by saying, vacations will never be the same. They will never be the same as before babies or BB. I'm sure the idea of what is "fun" shifts a bit from BB to AB, but vacations still aren't nearly as much FUN, in pretty much every sense of the word. That being said, we got an entire week to hang out with family and be in paradise. It was about as fun/beautiful as it could get, albeit not super restful.

My idea of a perfect vacation usually involves a beach and warm sun, and we got both of those at the Ko Olina resort outside of Honolulu on Oahu. I told Nick, several times, that this would definitely be a place I would come back to in the future. It was off the beaten path, about 30 minutes away from the airport and an hour from the chaos of Waikiki. It embodied everything perfect about Hawaii, with the ease of getting there. (I didn't want to have to take two flights, by myself with two kids, so we flew out of Stockton, straight into Honolulu. It was about as easy as it could be.)

Ko Olina has three hotels on the property, a small shopping center, four beach lagoons and a three mile running path. Again, it was pretty perfect for our family on vacation. We hit up the shopping center, got enough booze and food to get us through the week and essentially hibernated by the pool/beach for six straight days.

 And thanks to my Dad for the plethora of blended mai tai's, it was really fun getting to spend time with you and your family.

Charlie had so much fun with his Uncle Jake!

We did drive into Waikiki for a little day trip, which was a beautiful reminder of why we decided not to stay in the city, but we got to see Uncle Skip, look at Diamond Head from a distance and walk around the city, which was nice for a few hours, or until my kids started crying...

 

...now on to planning our next vacation!