Hawaii 2023 - The Good and the Very, Very BAD

This was one of our best trips yet.  And the worst.  We loved escaping to the sunny island of Oahu.  The weather was not great for most of our stay, but it didn't slow us down much.  The sun came out enough and the rain bursts only lasted a few minutes so we were just fine.  We packed in all we could for our four full days of fun and then an unexpected twist of events happened.  

Just as we had packed up and left our condo, I got notified our flight back to Seattle with a stop in Portland was cancelled and rescheduled for two days later.  I was shocked!  Apparently Portland got two feet of snow and any flight going in or out of Portland was canceled.  Long story short, after lots of waiting on hold, scouring the internet, and calling my friend/travel agent, there weren't any flights for two days so we were stuck in Hawaii with nowhere to stay.  Both a blessing and a curse.  Randy had to reschedule a full day of patients into his already booked schedule and then we had to find a last-minute hotel room for a family of six.  We searched every hotel and AirBnB on the island and there were only a few options and all cost a small fortune.  So that's how we wound up spending two luxurious nights at the ritzy Turtle Bay Resort.  It was faaaaaancy!  We are hoping the airlines will compensate us even a little bit for this huge inconvenience.  The last two days of our trip were not only the most expensive but also the most fun.....until the worst thing ever happened.  

Our connecting flight from L.A. to Seattle was canceled.  This time I wasn't given an alternate flight option and was told to call a special number that got me directly to an agent.  I told her our predicament and literally spent an hour on the phone with her trying to find a flight to Seattle.  There was nothing for two more days!  I was NOT about to spend two days in L.A. waiting for our next flight.  The agent tried to split up our family to find other flight options and that didn't work either.  Then we tried for anything that would get us closer to Seattle like San Francisco, Portland, Boise, Sacramento, Vancouver B.C., anywhere!  There was nothing!  The agent said if we were willing to wait 12 hours in L.A., she could get us on a flight to Alaska and then from Alaska to Portland, and then we could drive the three hours home.  I wanted to punch her in the face.  We opted to drive the 18-hour drive from L.A. to Seattle.  It was nuts.  Randy and I were both exhausted from a red-eye flight and then bad luck struck again when Ethan came down with the stomach flu.  We had to stop frequently for the first several hours of the drive so he could run to the bathroom.  Poor guy!  and poor us!  Things were coming out from both ends and we knew it would just be a matter of time before everyone else got sick too.  And eventually we all got sick the following weekend.  Everyone except Henry.  It was awful!

I told the boys to compartmentalize the amazing trip to Hawaii from the awful ending of getting home.  The boys were troopers and did a great job on the drive.  Unlimited screen time works wonders, even in a car that smells of bodily functions.  The following week was brutal as we had to get back to all the normal things with no time to adjust.  But the trip was awesome, even with the terrible ending.  Once again I feel like my life would make a great comedy that people laugh at and thank the heavens it's not their life to live.  

And now, on to the pictures...

We spent our first two nights on the South Shore in Honolulu at the Hilton.
 

We thought this hotel was super nice.  Little did we know what lay in store for us at Turtle Bay!

There was a man-made lagoon for snorkeling in, right outside the hotel lobby.

The pools were beautiful but crowded.  Henry was in heaven there!

Don't let the filter fool you.  We hardly saw the sun the first couple days of our trip.

We drove to the nearby mall for lunch.  Floweres were growing everywhere!  We found a great burger joint and I got to eat at the famous Liliha Bakery.  The Cocoa Puffs and malasadas were divine!

We stopped at this scenic outlook on our way to Sandy Beach for boogie boarding.  It was breathtaking!

Boys will be boys :)

We arrived at Sandy Beach with our boogie boards and hadn't even gotten settled when a lifeguard suggested I take my boys to a different beach with smaller waves.  Sandy Beach waves were HUGE that day and the only people in the water were adults who knew how to surf and boogie board like pros. This beach that we LOVED was called Waimanalo Bay, I think.  It was gorgeous!

We loved 7-Eleven!  Lots of Japanese treats, sushi, ice cream, and new slurpee flavors.

That night it rained so hard the streets flooded, many shops flooded and put out sandbags, and the ABC Market was filled with people trying to buy umbrellas and rain ponchos while the employees were frantically mopping up water from the leaking ceiling.  It was chaos!

The next morning was nothing but blue skies and all was well again.  We go ice cream for breakfast since the ice cream shop had flooded the night before and we missed our chance.

We checked out of our hotel and drove to the North Shore, stopping along the way at this scenic overlook.  It was gorgeous even with the wind and clouds.  We saw A LOT of chickens and roosters everywhere.

We stopped at BYU Hawaii to check out the campus and the bookstore

Apparently skateboarding is allowed on this campus!

We checked into our condo straight out of the 1980's and enjoyed swimming in the pool before heading to dinner and the fire dance show at the Polynesian Cultural Center

We ate at Seven Brothers three times.  It was delicious and convenient and my boys love burgers.

The PC was pretty cool even if it's not really my thing.  The show was amazing though and we all loved the fire dancers.

That's the end of Hawaii Part 1

February Break

We made the best of a lame situation and ended up having a great time staying home for our week off of school.  While Randy and Marcus slaved away in Costa Rica, we did a little staycation that wasn't too bad.  

We spent a couple days at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Washington.  It's a hotel with a huge indoor waterpark in the middle of nowhere.  The last time we went was ten years ago and if we ever go again, it won't be until Henry is ten years old, or maybe never. 

Ironically, our good friends were also there which made the whole experience better since I still can't submerge my leg in water. Their son, Jack, is Henry's BFF so they learned how to do all the water slides while I sat in a chair with my leg up (the story of my life lately).  

Five minutes into our trip and Ethan said, "I should've stayed home."  Five minutes after that a couple cute teenage girls asked for his number and then he wasn't as disappointed about things.  Luckily Ethan channeled his inner twelve-year-old self and hung out with Landon and Parker and their friends.  Ethan showed them how to break all the rules without getting caught.

We were at the hotel on Lindsey's birthday and to honor Linz, we left packages of Oreo cookies at random hotel doors, knocked, and ran.  ALL the boys loved it!  They felt so sneaky.  They even wrote cards that said "Life is better with cookies.  From ?"  This is definitely a tradition we will do on our future hotel stays.  It's really fun to race back to the elevator and close the door before getting caught.  A true adrenaline rush! Watch a short clip of the action here.

The rest of the week we spent at home.  I let the boys have one entire day of screens.  We didn't even get dressed and wore our Christmas pajamas all day.  It actually felt a little like Christmas--lazy and relaxing.  

We also took care of my friend's dog for them.  My boys were so excited until she ran away and we had to drive around our neighborhood looking for her that Parker said, "Now I get why you don't want a dog."  Tillie was such a good dog though and it was fun and work to have her.  I haven't changed my mind on the dog issue but now it's only Ethan who is begging for one.  

Landon and I made sushi rolls together.  He's been begging me to do this for a couple of years and I finally bought the ingredients to make it happen.  It turned out so good and was so easy to make that we definitely won't wait another two years to make them again.

For our last staycation activity, I took the younger boys bowling.  Can you believe they have never been??  At least not that they remember anyway.  I think the last time we went was in Rhode Island.  They loved it!  

Conveniently, The Shake Shack was only a few minutes away from the bowling alley so of course we had to stop there for lunch to make the adventure complete.  

Can I just say how awesome it is hanging out with my younger boys?  Less arguing, less grunting and more conversations, and an all-around good time had by all.  Teenagers are great but it's sure fun to do stuff without them!

Oh, and I painted the den.  It looks so good!  Now I need to get some desks and cupboards installed and it will look less like a disaster from remote learning.

The after…I used Retreat by Sherwin Williams and I love how it turned out!

Not to Be Forgotten- A Sledding Adventure and the Pinewood Derby

A few things came and went and I need to post about them so when I look back on this year it won't look as horrible as it feels.  OK, horrible is a bad word.  Stressful is probably a better way to describe our lives.
Anyway, winter break came and went.  Technically it's mid-winter break just because Christmas break is now called winter break so we don't offend anyone.  Calling Christmas break winter break offends me and I'm not doing that.  So for our winter break back in February we had a whole week of not much to do.  I tried to come up with some things that would interest the boys but then Landon got sick with double ear infections and the fun was over. 
However, we did manage to go up into the mountains, a short 40-minute drive away to play in the snow and sled.  We met up with our next door neighbor and her six kids so there were plenty of kids to go around.  Luckily my friend came prepared with an extra snow suit because I had nothing for Henry but a couple of blankets.  I knew he was toasty warm because he spent most of the time sleeping on my back.

 Our mountains covered in snow are a sight to behold

Marcus helped the boys cross a log to get to an igloo.  Luckily no one fell in!

It's hard to tell but this is the igloo that was missing the roof.  Someone worked really hard on it and it was pretty cool even if it wasn't complete.

The sledding hill we had to pay to use was ok.  The rude rule-follower guy running the thing kind of took away the fun

Henry in his giant girlie snow suit.  If you could see his toes they would barely be poking out from under Marcus's arms.  But he was warm so major fist bump.

 By the end of the week we had done nothing fun so I surprised the boys with lunch at McDonald's.  They were thrilled and I took them to a newly remodeled one which has an amazing play place.  Marcus said, "Some day I'm going to come here and eat all the Big Macs I can until I almost throw up." So that was our winter break.  so much fun.

Landon competed in his first Pinewood Derby.  There were a few dads who worked really hard to make a good car and of course some that barely held up on the track.  One car was weighted with quarters on the back and they kept falling off.

This year the wood shop teacher at the middle school let us come in and cut out our cars.  Landon was excited to use a shape other than the traditional and easy wedge that Randy prefers to work with.

Landon and Parker were excited to put on their aprons to paint the car

 Landon won first place fore his age group and 2nd over all.  He and Randy were quite proud!

The stickers were a big deal.  I keep trying to tell the boys they don't even need to paint their cars but they want them to look awesome. 

I think this was the 7th car Randy has had to build.  Every year he spends way too much time on it and every year he says "Next year I'm letting the boy do all the work!"  But as they get older the boys help more and more.  I'm just happy to be uninvolved!