Good-Bye, Hawaii!!

On Friday, November 4th, we headed back home to San Francisco.  It's nice to be home, but I will sure miss the fun we had on our first trip to Hawaii.  I have got to say...this was one of the BEST vacations EVER!!  It was just so nice to relax and not be on the go rushing to one thing or another.  It was nice to spend so much QUALITY time with my family.  The kids got along very well, I don't even think I can recall them fighting at all!!  It was fun exploring on 2 of the days, getting to see a little more of the island.  There's still more that I'd like to check out next time we go. 

One thing is for sure...I'd really like to take my mom here.  I really want her to experience what we just experienced.  Disney Aulani is a wonderful resort to stay at.  The staff are very kind and act like they WANT to be there to make our vacation great.  It was nice hearing the lifeguards call the kids by their name and talk to them like they are family.  Disney does a great job with their services; you can't go wrong with them!!

Our next family adventure will be this summer (2012) when we take the kids to Disney World!!  (Hopefully grandma will come with us!!)  ;-)

Waiting to board our plane!!

Last FULL day in Hawaii - November 3, 2011

Our final day in Hawaii was great!!  We started the day early with an activity in Aunty's Beach House for the kids.  It was a fun way to begin our last day.  The kids got to sing songs, play music instruments, listen to stories, color and hand out with some Disney Characters.  

After the activity was over, we left Jacob and Ashlyn there to play and headed back to our room.  We were switching rooms for our last night because of how our reservations were set up.  When I reserved the room, they didn't have openings for the same type of room for the last night.  So, we went from a 1 bedroom non-ocean view to a 2 bedroom ocean view.  Our first room was amazing, this one was SUPER amazing!!

Once we got settled in the new room, we headed to the pool area for one last swim.  Again, it was great!!  We all had a good time together.  It's just so nice to see the excitement in the kids faces.  I know they really enjoyed our trip!!  After swimming, we had one final sunset, and one final dinner.  Since we're on vacation, the girls had a super awesome bubble bath in the jacuzzi bathtub!!  :-)

Pictures from our last full day...

 All 3 kids had fun coloring their Disney color sheets.

 At the dance party with Minnie (Chip and Dale were also their earlier).

 Posing Minnie Mouse - I'm actually surprised Lauren was up there...before this, she'd only take pictures with them if I was holding her.  

She must have felt safe with "Sissy" holding her hand.  :-)

 Playing dress-up!!  Ashlyn LOVED this little girl.  She doesn't live too far from us...I wish I got contact information so we could set up a playdate!!

 Lauren LOVED this bear, but she ended up picking Mickey Mouse as her souvenir.  She takes Mickey everywhere, including bed!!  

She has fallen in love with Mickey and anything Disney!!

Some pictures of our room...

 

The 2 bedrooms!

The master bathroom!

The kitchen!

When we were on our way to get Jacob and Ashlyn (from Aunty's Beach House), we stopped for a picture with Mickey and Minnie!

My sunbathing beauties!!

Lauren met a little friend, too.  This little girl (I think her name was Julie) was about the same age as Lauren.

Getting Shave Ice!!  YUMMY!!

 Ashlyn was always the first one to see the rainbows.  I thought it looked really pretty with the resort in it, too.

 This was the greatest hot tubs I've been in.  It was 2 levels and it overlooked the ocean.  VERY relaxing (even with 2 crazy kids in it)!!

 This is them on the bottom level having fun in the waterfall.

The FINAL sunset.  :-(

 

The girls smothered in bubbles!!  Fun-times before bed.

Hawaii - November 2nd

On Wednesday, we did a lot!!  We started the day bright and early with our family pictures at the beach near our resort.  I'm excited to get our edited pictures from her in about a week and a half.  I took a few with my iPhone, but they didn't come our nearly as good as hers.  But at least you can all see a little preview.

After our pictures, we went to a Character Breakfast.  Mickey, Minnie and Goofy were all there.  The kids had fun watching all the activities going on around us, but they didn't want to participate this time.  I think the highlight of the breakfast (besides the characters) was the Mickey Mouse Waffles! 

After we were finished with breakfast, we took a journey up to North Shore.  North Shore is another popular area on Oahu.  There are a lot of nice beaches and nice places for surfers.  North Shore is also where the best shave ice is.  We tried the shave ice, and it really is probably the best I've had.  We also checked out a couple little shops.  There were some neat little towns up there, next time we come I'd like to explore them a little more.  On the way there, we passed the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  That's another place on my list to explore.  It looked pretty cool.

When we got back from North Shore, I took the (big) kids swimming again for about an hour or so.  Lauren needed a little rest, so Mike took her back to the room.  Jacob and Ashlyn wanted to play in the water splash playground, so they did that for a little while.  Then we all did the slides, lazy river and ended with the hot tub.  The pool area at Aulani is the best!!  We never got bored of swimming, there is so much to do at the pool.

We couldn't swim for too long, since it was later in the afternoon.  We still had to feed the kids because they wanted to go to Aunty's Beach House again.  Mike and I dropped them off there, and we headed across the street to a taco place for dinner.  It's kinda nice having that option for the kids.  I know they have a lot of fun playing in there with other kids and the awesome Disney workers.  And we get a little quieter dinner.  So it's a win-win situation!!  When we got back to Aunty's Beach House, Chip and Dale were there for a little Dance Party.  Jacob was having a good time with this.  He loves to dance, and that boy can move!!  It was so fun watching him out there with the other kids.  Ashlyn gets nervous when others are around, so she just stood back and watched, too.

Here's some pictures from our super busy day!!  Enjoy!!

These 2 pictures were at the location we had our family pictures taken.

Ashlyn and Lauren playing around while they waited for their turn.

My handsome guy!!

 My pretty big girl!

 My pretty little girl!!

She just loves her big brother.  They have a special bond.

This child is such a mommy's girl.  Pretty much any time I look down, this is what I see.
But, I wouldn't change it for the world.

 

 

 Sibling LOVE!!

Jacob and I waiting for our reservation for the Character Breakfast.

He really wanted this Hawaiian shirt that was in gift shop...as soon as we bought it, he wanted to put it on.

Our family photo with Mickey at the Character Breakfast.

 The (big) kids with Goofy and Minnie.

North Shore

The (big) kids in front of one of the beaches.

Trying the BEST shave ice. YUM!!

The kids LOVED playing on the splash playground.

Jacob going down head first.

Since brother did it, she HAD to, too!!

You can see how much fun they were having by her face.  And I was having a great time watching them.

 The kids posing with the Menehune.  There were 300+ of these little guys hiding around the resort.  

The kids had so much fun on a scavenger hunt looking for them.

Jacob dancing at the dance party.

This was the only night I didn't take a sunset picture.  :-(
This was the best I could do while we were across the street at dinner.

Lauren LOVES my iPhone.  She does very well holding it while she watches Dora.
It does keep her content while we wait.  ;-)