Hawaii=Paradise

Thank you all for your suggestions on where to go, what to do, where to eat and what to read! We used a lot of the suggestions and had a blast. Thanks for all your input.

Just over a week ago, Josh and I got back from Hawaii. I think I'm just finally getting past the bummed out part of coming back, so it's okay for me to post this without totally wishing I were there right now. Or maybe not, I think I'd be quite happy there:).

The morning we were leaving Hazel was in a funk and I was nervous leaving her when she was so sad. She'd been that way for a week and that morning it all came out and she just told me how sad she was we were leaving. The sweetest thing was that Felicity came up to her on my bed and laid down beside her. Hazel clutched her arm around City's neck and they just laid there foe a while. It was incredible, I snatched a pic with my camera phone and wish I knew how to download it. I felt better knowing they had each other.

After she was able to get a good cry out, she was able to go out and hang out with Josh's parents and was having a great time, so then I knew we could. Which I should mention here, we both have awesome parents. Mine watched our kids so we could do our last trip and Josh's watched them this time. Pretty awesome huh? Thanks parents!

I polished my wedding ring and we were set to go:).

Here we are at the airport. It was still a little weird for me, I missed them a lot more on this trip than our last. I did LOVE being there and going through security just me, not having to do it with two girls alone. And LOVED flying for 5.5 hours and watching a movie and reading, it was total bliss.

For all the tanning I did beforehand, I look pretty pale here.

HAWAII!!! I loved the airport, I was singing my praises of this paradise the second we walked into the cool, dark wooden airport. It looked like it hadn't been touched since the 70s and felt very Hawaiian to me. Outside it was so open--we walked outside to get our bags, sooo cool.
It was open air on each end of this part of the airport. The weather was so much warmer than I expected. I mean, I read 70-80 degrees, but I couldn't believe that really meant t-shirts. I definitely should have packed more.
Our first night we arrived at our hotel and I was so in love with this place. They had live Hawaiian music by the pool and we were nestled right into the middle of the cutest shopping place that was having a Friday night farmers market. We bought some coconut cinnamon rolls without the cinnamon and some other coconut goodies. Then we walked through a market trying to find dinner.

We discovered Waikiki is a happening place on a Friday night so we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen ironically. It was perfectly delicious though. While we waited to be seated, Josh reminded me of the guy I dated and ran all the way back to the farmers market to buy me two more coconut rolls. With kids, we're just so focused on them and logistics and without kids or work around, I was his focus and he spoiled me rotten.

This is the next morning. We were on our way to get our rental car. I was ecstatic just being there. It was one huge date and I loved it. I look a little elfish huh?
Here's the best part about the car, we got upgraded to a convertible. Think you can put a car seat in the back of that baby? Nope.
In the words from Farris Beuler's Day Off, "Ohh yeah..."
Josh's highlight of the trip. I've been hearing about this place from him since we were married, he was in heaven. It was just a fun place with pretty gardens and great Dole Whips--his favorite and you can apparently only get them here and at Disneyworld/land. We also had a fabulous Kalua pork sandwich with pineapple that was probably my highlight. Josh actually made that for us for dinner tonight, yumm.
View from Dole.
Aren't they cute little pineapples?
I loved the colors of all the plants. This was so Hawaii to me, so tropical.
Meant to be a pineapple.
Josh is so good to humor me:).

I loved this sign, it felt so Hawaiian to me. See? I'm obsessed.
Our first beach trip! This is Waimea beach and it was probably one of my top three things we did. Thanks for the recommendation Vicki!

"Where's Josh?" game.
ISN'T THIS SPECTACULAR?

"Ohh, yeah..." again.
I don't remember when it started, but it was probably the first time I saw a picture of the Hawaii temple, I wanted to get married there. My sister, Amy, gave me a picture of it when I was 15 and I held on to it always thinking that would be my place. Then my Mom let me know that it would be tricky to get people there (but hello??? who wouldn't want to go there? Oh, cost, right).

I finally got to at least go see it. I was so bummed to find out before we left that it was closed for renovations. Guess we'll have to go back sometime to go through! The drive up to the temple was a gorgeous, palm lined road. So awesome. The sister missionary that greeted me gave me the gorgeous flower I'm wearing.
This was the view from the temple parking lot--I love the foggy mountains.
As we drove away from the temple, we went by this church. I was surprised how many LDS churches we saw, it was so fun.
BYU-Hawaii. And why didn't I go there again? Awesome location huh?
We almost skipped going to the Polynesian Cultural Center as we laid on the beach and were tempted to just hang out there longer, grab dinner and go to a movie, but Josh convinced me to go because it was the only chance we'd have to go so we went. I'm glad we went, it was like a mini Disneyland. We were only there for a few hours including dinner and the show, but it was a really fun experience.
Josh called the girls while I was changing from the beach. I love how cute he is talking to them:).
Isn't this set-up awesome? I love how groomed and perfect it was, it was so fun.
More PCC.
I couldn't believe they let me hold that thing.
I loved hearing the loud drums from the Tongan section.
They had these fabulous, vine-y trees all over Hawaii, they look like ropes hanging all over it huh?
They gave us these fun woven headbands from leaves. I felt so native, don't I look it? I was soaking it all up, I just needed my lei!
I thought I'd be a little bored during the show since I have a short attention span, and I was. I would have cut it down to a third or half of the show, but I ended up loving loving the fire dancing and the cool tricks they could do. It was incredible what they could do. I'm still surprised I enjoyed it so much, it was really cool.
I also loved all the little shops they had around, it was a fun evening. This guy reminded me of the "dum dum" shouting statue from "Night at the Museum."
Couldn't resist. I'm always trying to pick my kids nose and sometimes Josh's:). He always says, "You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends nose." But I can pick my kids noses until they can fight me off.
I loved (here I go again, more lovin) having the open windows in the hotel. There were open windows everywhere, so fun to feel the breezes coming in.

And if you're reading this with hopes of seeing another one of your friends brave the "swimsuit picture posting," look no further, you will find I'm not so brave. This is it, so soak it up. Hey, but I do look tan here, that's somethin.
There was a big Honolulu Asian festival. The parade lasted for hours and hours. We managed to cut across to go to the beach. Here are my happy "peace" fingers for the Asian festival:).
ISN'T this awesome? This is the walkway to the beach from the street. See, there are even surfer dudes behind me!
Waikiki beach.
We walked over to the nicer Sheraton on the beach and used there lawn chairs and hot tub (don't worry, we were allowed:). I loved laying there reading and listening to the music and ocean waves.
This is the other view from my chair. See the tiki torches? Everywhere.
The fancy ambiance on our way out of the Sheraton. Aren't those hanging lanterns beautiful?
Okay, get this, that dude drawing behind me? SAME EXACT GUY THAT DID MY PICTURE IN PARIS 10 YEARS AGO! I recognized his pictures immediately (still advertising with the same ones) and then I saw him. I swear he's wearing the same thing he wore when he did my picture, I'm going to have to rummage back through my stuff and find pics of that. I just found the pic he drew of me about a month ago and showed Josh. Oddly enough, the picture he was working on right then looked an awful lot like the one he did of me...

I decided that was a pretty sweet job, just go from gorgeous place to gorgeous place.
A cool outdoor market where I bought my brown bead necklace that I'm wearing in the next several pics, and just $3!
Waikiki beach again.
This is so cool to me still. I'm still totally giddy about this place.
This is so another honeymoon for us.
Here's another one of those cool vine-y trees. You can't tell, but it looks like there are roots just hanging all over.
Aren't these colors vibrant?
We walked from the beach a couple of miles, yes, to find authentic Hawaiian food. It was very authentic and a good one-time thing. We then hiked further to get our first shaved ice with ice cream. It was pretty tasty! Then in true Josh and Afton fashion we stopped in Safeway to see if any of the chocolate macadamia nuts or coconut syrup was cheaper there. It wasn't.
It started raining as we left for the airport, it was the island crying for us to stay. Then there was this beautiful rainbow we could see from the airport.
I loved the open air feeling of these airports!
We arrived in Kauai! It was rainy our first night and the next day and even a little of the next.
We went to Duke's restaurant at the Marriott. We loved just wandering around by their beach at night waiting for our table, it was so peaceful. We'd heard the food was delicious and it was. Here is this giant slab of macadamia ice cream with all sorts of goodies.
And ta-da! Upgraded again, how awesome is that.
We drove up to Waimea Canyon our first day there.
This was just on the side of the road, I thought it was pretty cool.
We were headed to the beach straight from our drive, hence our outfits (in case you were wondering).


Josh just snapped this and no, I'm not angry, I was loving it, just bright. I had to show you my fetish with accessories on this trip. I feel like I never wear any interesting accessories anymore because my kids used to pull at it or it gets in the way around the house, so I was sure to wear lots while I was there. It was so fun!



There were wild chickens all over the place in Kauai. We liked this little stand at the Canyon overlook, great toasted coconut.
Some other beach, hurray for beaches! Kauai in general was much more secluded and quiet. Honestly, I prefer the buzz of all the people in Honolulu and it was sunnier there, but it was fun to see Kauai too.
Enjoying the hotel chairs. I pulled it onto the sand but discovered that was a no-no since the beach was public land. Oh brother.
A beached whale! Okay, it's a seal, but it was still beached. And there is tiny Josh in the background water.
Looks cold, but it wasn't. Well, the water was a little cool, but Josh enjoyed it once he was in. I enjoyed reading.
And there the handsome devil is.
We each brought a few things we wanted to use while there. I brought accessories, summery beachwear and reading material. Josh brought snorkel gear and goggles. Thankfully we merged our interests pretty well and here is Josh making use of his goggles.
A relaxed and awesome ending to our day. We ate some delicious pizza and it felt completely vacation to us. What better way to wind down from a day at the beach than to shower up and go have pizza?
We fell so in love that night. Okay, we were in love, but it felt like we'd just gotten engaged. We were having so much fun together!
This is the beach right before we hiked part of a trail to see the coast of Kauai.
It had been pouring rain all morning but we decided to go ahead and hike anyway so we put on our suits in case it dumped on us the whole time, but it actually stopped just while we hiked and then picked up again right after we stopped! Perfect huh?
This is the trail. I was in flip flops and they flopped off a few times.
Napali Coast. Pretty stinkin sweet even with the clouds. But enough hiking, lets get back to laying on the beach reading.


See the cool tree roots?
We got a steal on this hotel thanks to off-time and recession. I loved our view. Josh and I bought ice cream from the grocery store the night before because the famous place we heard about was closed--all three of the darn locations we tried and drove all over to find--and Josh bought a lot only to find out we didn't have a freezer in our room.

We ate what we could and then filled up the ice bucket--it worked! Josh had a Haagendaas ice cream bar for breakfast with our leftover frozen 7Up. Hey, it was vacation after all.
Our last morning before flying home=my last day for reading and Josh got to use his snorkel gear finally!
This is where we checked in--isn't this cool? If you have to work security at an airport, do it in Hawaii where it's outdoors.
My girls! This was the only reason I got on that plane to come back. It was a good reason.
We bought them these cute little dresses there and they loved them.
We had Hawaiian night where we gave them some treasures from our trip. They got Hello Kitty photo albums and we discovered those were a brilliant idea. They love having their own picture books.
Here's super dad. If you know Josh, you know he passionately hates dancing. But would you looky here, he'll do anything for those girls. He's teaching them how to hula.
And so it is, we're home. I'm finally over the nasty withdrawal, but I'm determined to find a way back some day. I used to want to travel the world, so many places to go. Josh and I always want to see somewhere new and adventurous, but not now, not after Hawaii. For me, it's only Hawaii. I'm sure there will be a time in the future when I'll want to see another place, I mean I do now, but if we only have a week every couple of years to do a trip together, it will be really hard to not just go back.

Highlights:

-The beaches, the ocean waves, the sounds, the smells...ahh

-Eating, eating, eating. Our days revolved around what good food we'd eat and what beaches we'd see and the occasional site to see. But there was always eating to do.

-Staying up late and sorta sleeping in. Josh will probably always be cursed with getting up early. But it was nice to still have a lot of the day when we'd get up early. Well, he let me sleep in, but I still got up at like 8-8:30, which was early.

-Reading.

-Hiking 2 full miles to church (whoopy right? hey, it was hot and humid and I was in a long skirt that magically trapped heat--and two miles back) to find it was very worth it. If I can figure out how to download pics from my phone I'll post the pics of the church. It was a tabernacle over 100 years old and absolutely...gorgeous, you guessed it.

They had a big pool of water in front of a giant bell tower. The chapel had open doors all around it with breezes and sunshine coming in. I'm sure not having our kids with us added to this, but it was one of the most enjoyable meetings I've ever been to. Also while there, we were having this girl take pics for us outside and after talking a while and her taking off her sunglasses we realized we knew each other and fairly well at one point! I was in the womens organization at BYUI and was in charge of putting on the pageant and she was the girl nominated from our group and in the pageant so I saw her a lot one semester. It was so fun!

-The ease of picking up and going without considering nap times or belongings for the girls.

-Airplane ride, reading and watching movies.

-No responsibilities.

-Boogie boarding our last night in Kauai. It looked cold, but I figured I'd regret it if I didn't do it and it was so worth it. We just shared one and it was getting dark so we didn't do it for too long, but I'd never done it and it was so so fun. I managed to have beginners luck and boogied all the way to the shore several times when the the native guys weren't, I was so proud.

-Best thing about the whole trip was just being on one long date with my boyfriend. It totally felt like we were dating again and it was all about having a good time.