We've gotten the invite several times to go and visit our friends, the Paskins, when they spend part of the summer in Hawaii at their AMAZING home. For one reason or another, we haven't been able to make the trip. Over dinner about a month ago with friends, they extended the invite again and while I am sure they expected the "I really wish we could pull this off but we can't this year" again, I went home and researched flights, sent flight info to the group, and within that week we were all booked! It all happened so quickly which made it even more exciting because we didn't think we were going to be going on a vacation until the end of the summer and just like that we were headed to the island of Oahu a couple weeks after school got out.
We had a chauffeur for the drive to LAX so vacation started as soon as we left our driveway.
The ride to LAX is fun when you are with friends!
A quick bite to eat before all TWELVE of us were to board the same flight.
Talk about being lucky as far as seats on the flight. We all were surrounded by empty seats so our big group was able to spread out and pretty much have the middle of the plane to ourselves!
We even let the Pirozzi family crash our area since they upgraded to more legroom only to find out we had a better set-up in the middle of the plane.
I mean, the seats don't even recline on this airline!! But the funny thing was, the seats had more legroom and were just as comfortable without reclining.
Unfortunately, we sat on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for a mechanical issue to be fixed with the plane. We began sending panicked pictures back and forth to Sarah in Hawaii showing our disdain for Allegiant Airlines which is the cheap airline carrier that we chose. It is absolutely bare bones when it comes to any sort of amenites and the few they have, they charge you for them. BUT, we all got round trip flights SUPER cheap.
Soon they asked us to de-board and "you get what you pay for" has never rang so true.
This is the text I got from Sarah.
I returned this.
and got this.
The good news is, after waiting on the tarmac, deplaning, frantically calling other airlines for a way out of LAX to Honolulu airport, an angel came back on the loud speaker and said the mechanical issue was fixed and we could board again. Phew!!!
Take off!
Things were looking up again on our flight. The kids were making friends with the others around them and the flight attendants were awesome. I don't think our kids ever sat buckled during the flight. They moved up and down the rows, switching seats, watching movies, listening to music, playing games and reading. We really lucked out with the seating arrangement.
Check out Beck, the lady in front of him was watching "Wreck it Ralph".
Thatcher moved Beck out of the way and spent the rest of the flight watching movies through the seat crack in front of him. Take that Allegiant, we DID have an inflight movie! ;)
Watch out Paskin family, this crazy group landed and was on their way!
Sarah picked us up from the airport, gave us a tour around the area and then took us to their home. I can't explain in the right words what this place was like and I know my pictures won't do it justice. It is a breathtaking, beachfront property with ocean views all around. The large glass walls open up so that it has the coolest indoor/outdoor feel. The weather was warm and the air smelled like plumeria, coconuts, suntan oil and all things Hawaii. Each of our families had their own rooms and all 16 of us fit more than comfortably. It was perfect!
This was the view from outside our bedroom.
Mid-house tour Selfie with Jillian.
We were pinching ourselves that we were actually going to stay the week in this home.
Sweet notes from the Paskin kids were on our beds.
I loved the geckos hanging out all over the property.
We arrived to lots of wine and gourmet pizza.
Night swimming!
Smores!
Stella and I became quite close on this trip ;)
After a long day of travel and excitement of arriving to Hawaii, it was time for bed!
The time difference between California and Hawaii is awesome because you end up waking up super early which makes for the LONGEST beach days. Perfect for wanting to get the most time out of your vacation!
I spied Todd outside taking sunrise photos.
And here are some pictures from my morning run:
It was a balmy 80+ degrees and it began to rain. I ran for about an hour but I am sure my heart rate never got to the proper point as I kept stopping to take photos. The colors were unreal and they kept changing each minute.
Early morning swimming.
Then dressed and ready to head to the Farmer's Market.
With 16 of us, there were always two carloads of us wherever we went.
Fresh green smoothies were a good way to start the day!
Fresh coconut milks with bamboo straws carved by the Coconut man.
And then this is what we did for hours and hours for the rest of the day. Kailua Beach is stunning! The water is warm, there's clean white sand, no seaweed, no bugs, no trash, just absolutely perfect. The complete opposite of our beaches here in California. Oh and while there is public access to the beach nearby, we were usually the only ones at this part of the beach because it is quite a process to get there unless you have a house right there. Lucky us, we had a beachfront house for the week ;)
Thatcher literally learned to swim a week before we left. Phew!
We had a kayak, a paddle board, boogie boards, sand toys and a comfortable set-up underneath a canopy with comfy chairs. We were steps from the house so we could go back and forth for food, drinks, the swimming pool, food, drinks, the swimming pool, food, drinks, the swimming pool. You catch my drift?
#blessed (which is an inside joke with my girls) ;)
After a long day of playing in the waves at the beach and swimming in the pool, Leanne and I headed out in the "Coconut" (the name of the VW bug) to get stuff for dinner.
There's always time for Legos even in Hawaii ;)
We fed the kids an early dinner and got them off to bed.
Then the adults enjoyed a peaceful outdoor dinner.
We were thankful no kids woke up to see the adults doing Smores without them ;)
More coming soon!
