Wednesday evening Darin and I went for a walk as the Grandparents were packing up.
It ended up being a short walk because the wind was crazy.
But it was worth seeing this beautiful sunset!
It is amazing how fast the sun sets in Hawaii. Within minutes.
This is also a picture of the condo we rented in the Mauna Kea Resorts in the Wai ula ula community.
We were in the bottom left. Wonderful.
Thursday Zach turned 6!!
He was excited with his Star Wars themed gifts and he picked out this cupcake for his breakfast.
Grandpa found this scorpion in his shower. Eeek!
When he saw it it was curled up ready to strike.
Darin got a sand shovel to take it outside.
Then it was time for the Grandparents to head to the airport.
The kids & I got dropped off at the beach while Darin took them in.
But not before coming to the pool area one more time.
Darin came back and we stayed the whole day at the beach and pool. The kids found friends to play with and we laid in the sun or played in the ocean.
A last mai tai before we left…..after 5pm.
Then we went back to the condo and showered and went and had dinner at the Mantra restaurant at Mauna Kea Beach Resort.
We were hoping to see manta rays again, but none came this time.
We got back to the condo and fell into bed. We were all exhausted.
Just before midnight we were woke up with Elissa telling us that Zach was throwing up. :(
I thought we had bi-passed Zach's travel sickness, but it caught up with him at the last moment.
He threw up a few times the rest of the early morning and then slept for a good long time.
We spent the early morning - well mostly Darin - cleaning up and doing laundry. It wasn't pretty.
I had a little attack of my own. I just couldn't take the smell that night.
In the morning as we were packing, we were praying that Zach could handle the long trip home.
Before leaving, we had this centipede frighten us in the bathroom.
Glad to leave these bugs behind.
Zach & Elissa slept on the ride to the airport.
He seemed to be feeling better after he woke up and was able to keep down some food.
The plane ride ended up going very well.
Zach slept 2.5 hours and Elissa slept a little.
We were all very excited to get off the plane 6 hours later.
Thank you Nana for picking us up!
This is what today is filled with.
Elissa has been to her friend Kendall's and went to her soccer game.
Now she is at her friend Olivia's house.
She missed her friends a lot. Such a social girl. :-)
Also as I'm cleaning up from vacation, I'm mentally taking notes on how to make the next trip better….BKM's (best known method - back from Intel days). (smile)
BKMs from our 2010 trip:
1) Get a direct flight. We did.
2) A pool for the kids would be nice. We had several to choose from this time.
3) Do not take long adventures with the kids. It is not worth it.
*We were pretty good about this also. We had no excursions planned. Simply go to the beach and pool.
-I thought the kids could take a "quick" trip into Kona (30 min drive), but I was immediately wrong. Zach had a melt down as soon as we stepped out of the car. It continued to go down hill from there.
-Darin talked me down from taking the kids to the volcano, Captain Cook's monument and City of Refuge. Good thing. Instead we did a close trip to Puako (where we usually stay) and saw big waves w/locals surfing and snorkeled with turtles. Perfect.
-Then at the last minute we decided to see if there was an opening for the kids to swim with dolphins for Zach's birthday. This ended up being a mixed success. In the end the kids really enjoyed it, but it was stressful and took much longer then we expected.
BKMs from our 2013 trip:
1) Definitely only do direct flights.
2) Having access to a resort instead of just renting a house was awesome! But definitely still want a place where we can cook and hang out and not feel like we are in a big resort.
3) Keep the adventures to small short trips like the one to Puako. They really want to walk part of the King's Trail.
4) Think about staying a couple of days in a place on the South side of Kona so we can take the kids on small adventures on that side of the island.
5) And the best idea: Darin & I go one week ahead of the kids and then have the grandparents bring the kids for the 2nd week and then the grandparents could stay another week after we leave. Then we all get alone and family time!! :-) Also the kids won't miss a week of school, which is becoming harder for Elissa.
Aloha Hawaii…..we WILL be back!!
