Laurie was house swapping with some friends in Hawaii and she invited us to join. Greg in his travel deprived state said yes. We bought tickets and tried to keep it a secret from the littles. The plan was to wake them up the morning of and have them figure out where we were going on the way but those plans were foiled. Emmy overheard Natali mention our trip on a Marco Polo a few days before but Emily promised not to tell Lily. In order to travel to Hawaii we had to have negative covid test results. 72 hours before our flight we were tested. When the results were emailed Greg ran upstairs and said,"Guess who's going to Hawaii?" right to Lily and I while she was getting ready for ballet. She looked at him with a question in her eye as he realized his slip. It all came out. She was so excited and we did manage not to slip that we would be meeting cousins over there.
We were up around 4:45am to get on our flight to SLC for our 5 hour layover. Thankfully, Natali crossed our path while we were there- a wonderful distraction and chat.
Greg and Lily got a nice view of Oahu as we landed. These pics were fun to look at when we got home to identify some of the places we had been.
By the time we landed, got through Covid screening, rode to the rental place, got a van, a bunch of KFC and got to the hotel the kids were exhausted and went to bed. Greg went right back to the airport to pick up Beth and her kids, got to lay down for about 20 minutes then went back to get Natali. It made for a long day and short night (especially for Greg) but we all made it.
The next morning Beth and her kids knocked on our door. Emily and Lily were so surprised to see Piper and Gus standing there. Excited to be together, we all headed to check out Wikiki Beach. We had to do a little maneuvering through hotels and over walls but we eventually got to the beach. It wasn't long before the kids were soaked; there is something magical about the beach wither you have clothes on or not you get sucked in.
February 12th was my parents 50th wedding anniversary and as part of their gift all of the kids, spouces, and grandkids (49 in total) shared a memory about mom and dad. It was just the kids on the phone, conveying these stories. I called in and just enjoyed listening as we traveled. It was wonderful to hear all the different ways we love and appreciate my parents. I am so grateful to have them in my life. It was a special call. But enventually, I had to hang up so I could experience the Arizona.
It was humbling to gain the scope of the attack and to learn more details about the battle and the lives lost.
The boat is still leaking oil; little amounts drip out each day. It was interesting to put into perspective how that battle is still impacting the world today.
Sadly, this may be the only photo all together from the whole trip. By the end of our Arizona tour and wondering around the museums we were all hot, sweaty and hungry.
We managed to find a lunch spot that made everyone happy. So happy in fact, that Mack requested to go back nearly everytime we ate lunch. I guess the street tacos were that good. While we ate we discussed how to spend the next hour or two before we could go to our place. Beth was inspired to read the fine print on the Dole Plantation website - free admission to the garden where you can see pineapples growing. We promised the kids Dole Whip and we were on our way.
I learned so much about growing pinapples and had convinced myself to try it when I got home until I thought it all through and realized a pot large enough was unrealistic indoors. The kids loved finding lizards, Natali loved learning about the plants and Greg called Grandma to tell about when she worked there long ago. The pineapple plant takes 22-18 months to produce one pineapple - wow right? It takes another 12 months to produce the second pinapple. After that the fruit produced gets smaller each harvest so one plant rarely produces more that 2 or 3 pinapples.
Everyone's favorite part was the Dole whip. Shareing one wasn't enough so the boys bought a second with their own money. So good. Emily, of course, didn't want Whip so she got a bag of taffy - also quite yummy. We enjoyed the fun, informative and oh so yummy, pineapple cutting demo as well.
From there we grabbed some groceries and checked into our place. We explored a nearby beach where Andrew went eploring and thought he could swim back but cut on his hand on some coral and needed me to rescue him. He was worried about stepping on sea urchin -I didn't think they were sea urchin but he didn't want to risk finding out while he was barefoot and I am no expert so I brought him some shoes and helped get him back to shore. We made a quick dinner and everyone fell into bed exhausted.
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