I am a really lucky woman! I have a wonderful husband who likes to take me away for a few days and have some time for just the two of us. We live very busy lives! His job is quite busy, with shifts always changing. He's Young Men's President, so the couple of days off that he has over the week are Sundays and usually Wednesday nights. I keep busy being PTA President and of course, we are both busy with our 6 children - who are involved in lots of fun activities.
Jon had never been to Hawaii and had always wanted to go. In looking at the calendar several months ago, we chose a week in November and it ended up being a wonderful time to go.
I will admit, that I'm the type of mom that hates leaving the kids. I just do. I love having the break, but I hate being away from them for very long. So, we decided to leave on a Monday morning and take a red-eye flight home on Friday night.
We were so, so, so lucky to have Rich & Misty watch the kids. They did such a great job and the kids had an absolute blast! It's not easy to be dropped into a busy household with 2 little ones in tow, but they were amazing! We can't thank them enough for loving our kids and taking such great care of them!
We were also so lucky, because my cousin & his wife, Brad & Mary, have traveled to Hawaii many times and literally gave us the best suggestions ever. We had so many yummy restaurants to try and we appreciated their recommendations so much!
On Monday morning (which happened to be Veteran's Day), I went for my usual walk and realized that it was a day for the scouts to put up flags. When I got home at 7, I woke up Jon and he had to quickly go put them up. Thankfully, some wonderful people in our ward, saw him doing them and jumped in to help.
Rich drove us to the airport and we had a direct flight right to Oahu. I had strep throat and didn't feel great, but it was a nice plane with individual TV's and movies to watch.
We landed, got a rental car, and drove to Halewai. There, we ate dinner at a yummy restaurant and then found our way to Turtle Bay Resort. The Resort was beautiful & amazing and we were so glad for Brad & Mary's recommendation to stay there.
At 9 p.m. (Hawaii time), we were exhausted! We got up early the next morning (because we were still on Utah time).
We exercised, drove to Ted's Bakery for a yummy breakfast, spent the morning on the beach, got ready and then spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
The pool at Turtle Bay
The view of the ocean - gorgeous!
It was fun to occasionally see these gecko lizards on things.
Jon tried snorkeling and loved it.
Samoan village - trying to make fire
Samoan village - the guy climbed the coconut tree - amazing!
Trying the ball game from New Zealand
Tongan show
Entertainment during the Luau
Jon & I right before the night show!
It was a great day! We were completely exhausted again by the end of the day, but the weather was beautiful (we didn't even need jackets).
