A Joyful Girl...: Aloha, Hawaii {Part 1}

Last night I uploaded over 150 pictures to put up on the blog, so I'm pretty sure recapping our Hawaii trip is going to take a few posts. Bear with me as these posts may be a bit picture heavy...and my apologies to those of you with chronological OCD as most of these pictures will be in no particular order.

On Saturday, February 23rd, we left our house {not at all} bright and early to catch our 8am flight to Honolulu. We lucked out and had seats in the same row as my parents and my brother and we got even luckier that the extra seat in that row was open! Our flight out was fairly painless, but 6 hours on a plane with two kids under the age of four is probably nobody's idea of a walk in the park. But we made it.

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and it was such a great resort to stay at with kids. There is a lagoon that we actually explored a little bit the last time we were in Hawaii, five different pools and a beach right within walking distance from our condo. My brother set us up with this whole location and convinced us to get a 2 bedroom condo for the week. Our place was SO nice and roomy, we had a kitchen where we made almost all of our meals, and our condo was right below our parents. Plus, it had a phone in the bedrooms. What more could a girl want?!

Oh yeah, and this was the view from one of our balconies.

Exploring the lagoon on the first day. She kept saying she wanted to surf, and paddleboarding was pretty much the same thing in her mind.

We basically went to Hawaii because my brother is obsessed with it. Seriously, he loves Hawaii. And he found us some cheap flights and he paid for Olivia's flight and yada yada, twist our arms. I think he loves Hawaii so much because he loves shave ice. I think he got at least one a day while he was there. And, Olivia definitely had a few too. Annnnd, so did Sydney. {Mom of the Year!}

Olivia's favorite activity {besides eating shave ice} was to go to the beach. The pools were cold {and compared to the 94 degree pool we get in at our house in the summer, these pools were freezing} and the ocean was even a bit chilly. But, she loved playing in the sand and dipping her toes and legs in the ocean. Every morning she would say, "I want to go to the ocean. You know, the one with the waves!" {Cue a gazillion pictures of the girls in matching swimsuits at the beach...}