Hawaii part 1

Over a month later I'm finally getting around to starting my posts on Hawaii! Well, as you can imagine, it was such a wonderful trip. Has anyone ever gone to Hawaii and not had  an amazing time? My generous parents extended the invitation to all the kids and their spouses to join them for their week's timeshare on Kauai sans kids. Nearly all of us kids are not in ideal financial situations to say "hey, let's take a vacation to Hawaii" but since the offer was put on the table far in advance we all just made it happen, and it was oh so worth it.

Casey's saintly brother and SIL, Cody and Camille, took in the orphan Max while we were gnu and we will forever be indebted to them, more on Maxson's stay later. My parents also decided why not extend their week long vacation by a couple days since they were already spending all the time nd airfare going over there. Some of the couple joined in with this idea, including us. After we bought those plane tickets Casey signed up for a school dental trip down to Jamaica which happened to overlap our Hawaii trip! Our minds began spinning of how we'd make this work. It was decided that I would still go early with my parents and a couple of siblings, and Casey would leave his Jamaica trip a day early to get to Hawaii for the original week's time we'd be there, also getting there the same day as some of the other siblings.

So off we went to Hawaii!

Those first couple days there without Casey were fun but hard on me. I guess I just didn't quite realize how big pregnant I was. It slowed me down more than I wanted to admit, things were uncomfortable and hard to do, and Casey, my main support in life who I talk to about everything, just wasn't there, it was hard. I felt like a really inconvenient 3rd wheel on my family. Except at the same moment my parents made me feel completely otherwise and included me on everything and took care of all my needs in place of Casey, they were so sweet and I was so grateful for them.

We stayed on the North side of the island in a town called Princeville at the Hanalei Bay Resort. Our view every morning and evening:

Ha, rough life. Between us and the ocean was just a bunch of steep jungle. But the resort had a golf cart that took you anywhere you wanted to go, down to the beach, to your car, the pool, it was great. My pregnant body was ever so grateful for that convenience. 

Our first day, Thursday, was mainly just flying, shopping for food and checking into the hotel room. Because Casey cancelled his sear on the flight I somehow ended up with a middle seat all by myself. Through lots of awkward and desperate pleading with the people in the row in front of me (my mom and dad's row) and the one behind me (Kirk and Whitney's row), the kindest man ever on the aisle seat of Kirk and Whitney's row switched me for my middle seat. I was beyond grateful for this guy. I got up probably 10-12 times it seemed like during our 7 hour flight to stretch my back, legs, and belly. My back felt awful. Kirk spilt cranberry juice all over Whitney, literally a full cup, and her bum and pants were soaked for nearly 6 hours, poor girl. Kirk graciously let me borrow some head phones to watch a movie that was on, and I also worked on our 2014 photo album (got January out of the way!).

So after getting our luggage, renting cars, grocery shopping at Walmart and Costco we drove the hour north to our hotel to visit the dark beach right beneath our resort since the sun had gone down but we were all itching to get our feet in some sand and water!

Friday involved snorkeling and more snorkeling. It was the best. We first went to Ke'e beach and had a blast. I stayed close by and ventured out a little tin Kirk and Whitney while Mom, Dad, Scott, and Megan went much further battling a stronger current. It felt like it had been forever since snorkeling but oh man it's so easy to just do it and remember the feeling. The fish were in plentiful supply, just hundreds of them with so many beautiful colors, it was absolutely mesmerizing. After snorkeling we hung out on the beach for awhile, let the rain come and go and then come again hard and that's when we packed up to go to a different beach down the road in hopes of sunnier weather. By the way, there were chickens everywhere. That is literally the background noise of Kauai, roosters, chickens, and little chicks, constantly making noise for all to hear, ha.

The second beach I went out with my brothers and mom and snorkeled more. Not as many fish but still some col individual things. I think it's fun to snorkel in bigger groups because you have that many more eyes to notice really cool things and then share it with everyone else. The water was wonderful of course, temperature wise. Made snorkeling so enjoyable, also the water felt amazing on my back, hello weight of my belly lifted! After snorkeling at the second beach I hung out with parents in the shade, reading books, dozing off and just relaxing in the ocean breeze, it was great.

I think later that afternoon we walked around a couple shops and then shared a delicious snow cone with my parents. That night we were all pooped and went to bed way early from all the sun, snorkeling, traveling, and time change.

 I don't know why blogger has blocked out Kirk and Whitney's faces :(

 We bought this snorkel gear for our honeymoon to Cancun and finally got to use it again, ha!

 My mother and Scott (and in days later, Casey too) loved feeding the chicks, ha

 driving through jungle, always

Saturday we did more snorkeling, can't remember which beach, but then our car battery died :( The other siblings had left in their cars already and were doing their own things so my parents and I were stuck at the beach for a few hours for the tow truck to come. Not an awful place to be stranded though being right there by the ocean with breeze and tables to sit at.

Casey FINALLY flew in that afternoon and I could not have been happier. It was truly like I was reunited with the other half of my body and all felt right in the world again. I hate being away form that guy, I love him just so stinking much!

 these pictures are from the next day's activities, but I just wanted to show how excited I was to see this man of mine.