The Trip Home

The trip home didn't go as smoothly as hoped. 2 years ago when we were leaving Hawaii on a red eye flight, the plane was 2 hours late. That meant sitting in the airport with tired grumpy kids at 10:00. This time, the plane was on time, but we were too late. We left the house with about 3 hours to go until our flight was supposed to take off. We stopped at the store. I took a little too long trying to find something that might help to make sure Kenzie's ears wouldn't hurt, since the night before she had been crying because of ear pain. I didn't find anything, and hoped that the Tylenol I had would be good enough if needed. After driving 20 minutes Kenzie has to go potty. So we stopped and all the kids went potty. Then we drove to the airport Doug dropped the rest of us at about 11:30 (for a 1:15 flight) off while he went to return the rental car. It took what seemed like forever (the kids were not being well behaved...) but was actually 30 minutes. We had to go through customer service in order to get our tickets because of the way we had to book them in order to get the best deal  for each ticket. The kids were booked separately so it looked like they were unaccompanied minors. Customer service took so long. We were in line at least a half hour and there were only 4-5 people in front of us. By the time we got to the lady it was  35 minutes  until our plane was to take off and she wouldn't let us check in. Doug tried to persuade her, but she just kept saying she couldn't do it. She also said we couldn't get out money back because the tickets were nonrefundable. We could change the tickets to another day but we'd still have to pay a ton to do that. And the next available Hawaiian Airlines flight was the next day. She said there was one ticket we could buy and we could do standby for the others. But there wouldn't be any guarantee that we'd get on. So after talking to her for awhile about our options she sends us away while we make our decision so she can help other customers. We look for flights leaving that day. We found one that is going to Bellingham (a couple hours north of Seattle (I think it's north)). They were only 250 a ticket I think. Way cheaper than any of the flights going to Seattle. It was departing around 11. So that's what we did. We bought those tickets. Then spent the entire day at the airport. The kids played around the chairs. We ate pizza for lunch and dinner. I guess Doug ate something else for dinner. They played on Doug's phone and my kindle. Watched Netflix. Played DS. Then finally we were able to get on the plane. The kids slept pretty well on the plane. Pretty much the whole time. There was only a little crying from Kenzie and Coleman. I only slept a couple of hours since I was holding Coleman. Doug didn't sleep at all since he was holding Kenzie so she wouldn't cry. 

Coleman stealing Kenzie's snacks.

Doing sticker books.

Searching for a new flight.

watching Dora.

Playing DS.

Coleman even played on the Kindle.

DS, DS, Dora.

After we arrived in Bellingham, we got our bags. While Doug was getting the bags, a lady came and asked my if the kids were all mine. I told her yes and she was like "you gave birth to all of them?"  I saw another lady point us out to her husband too. :) We got a rental car, ate breakfast, started driving,switched drivers after a little bit because Doug was going to fall asleep, drove some more, stopped again because I was afraid I might fall asleep (which has never happened before) took a nap, then drove home, unloaded the car, dropped it off at a rental place near our house, then finally came home. It was quite the adventure. But the good news is, Doug emailed Hawaiian Airlines, and told them about what happened and they are giving us a full refund! So at least we didn't pay double for our return trip home. Plus we got to go to the Bellingham airport, which I thought was nice :)

I can't wait for out next big family vacation! 

ALOHA!

Hawaii Week 4

Finally, I'm getting to the last week of Hawaii. I kind of forgot that I needed to still do this one. 

Week 4, Day 1, Wednesday.

 We went to Sea Life Park. It's kind of like tiny Sea World. Shell and her kids didn't join us. We found a way to get pretty cheap tickets so we went. We had a great time. We saw a sea lion show, a dolphin show,  and a show featuring a dolphins, sea lions, otters, and penguins. There was a playground and a petting pool (I'm not sure what it's actually called, but you know what I mean right?)

Everyone watching the Sea Lion show. Coleman and I stayed to side for this one so he could have a little smoothie snack.

Sea Lion show.

Cute Coleman with his mo-hawk.

The play ground was designed for only big kids to go up to the top part, where the slide was. There was a tricky curvy ladder that was in a tunnel and that was the only way to get up. And the only ways to get down was a twisty tunnel slide or the curvy ladder in a tunnel. Kimber helped Kenzie get up the curvy ladder, but once Kenzie got up there she was not very happy. She doesn't like slides. She never goes down big ones. And there weren't even any edges that I could lift her down from. And getting down the tunnel ladder was too tricky because I was too big for it and I couldn't reach her well enough. It took quite awhile, but I finally convinced her to come down the slide (backwards on her tummy) by bribing her with lunch.

And then she ended up loving it and wanted to go down it again. But now she's back to not liking big slides again. She will go down a twisting tube slide at Chuck E Cheese's though. the same kind of thing happened there though. It was pretty much her only option of getting down since she was too scared to come down the way she'd gone up. :)

Sam and Jack

Alli

Jordan

Sam and Coleman.

The next ones are at the dolphin show

Alli, Jack, Sam

Grandpa, Kimber, Grandma.

Ash and Konrad.

Kenzie, Doug, Jordan.

The Dolphin, Sea Lion, Penguin, Otter Show

I love that she's sticking her tongue out at him. :)

The kids in the splash zone. I think my kids all moved away from there by the time the show started.

I was hoping one of the dolphins would jump up and touch the hanging ball. But none of them ever did. I was highly disappointed.

Penguin

Sea Lion

Touching the baby turtle.

Week 4, Day 2, Thursday.

My parents, sisters, and I went to the temple together in the morning. Then the boys went golfing in the afternoon. My sisters took their kids to a pool. I stayed at the house with my kiddos so they could have naps after a busy day the day before.

 

Week 4 Day 3, Friday.

We went to Hukilau, Sunset, Matsumotos. It was a fun day.

Doug found a sand board (I think that's what it was) and tried to figure out how to use it. He wasn't very successful. :)

Kenna, Jack, Sam.

Nati, Shell.

Kimber.

Kenz and Jordan.

Surfer Kenzie.

Doug chased the kids while he boogie boarded.

I like him.

Jordan swimming.

Sunset:

I made Sam into a surfboard. ANd Jordan into one too, I think.

Nati and Shell became butterflies. Nati didn't want to sit for the picture though :).

Week 4 Day 4, Saturday.

This was the Crabtrees last day ( hopefully I can remember what happened the next few days without having Ashlee's blog to remind me) We to Hukilau. Celebrated Sam's 9th birthday. Had a girls' trip to Walmart.

I'm not sure why this picture was taken. But it makes me laugh :)

Jack

Doug and Colie.

Kenzie took a nap under the towel.

Michelle made these super cute skirts for all the girls. And my mom got them matching shirts. Kenzie loves her skirt and wears it often!

Kenna and Nati.

Kenna, Nati, and Kenzie wanted to see the pictures my mom had taken.

My dad playing Uno with the boys. Most of the time if I couldn't find Jordan he was downstairs in my parents room playing Uno with my dad. Jordan loved playing it and often convinced my dad to play.

Kimber and Sam loved watching the Disney Channel as much as they could when we were home.

Sam's party:

Week 4, Day 5. Sunday.

The Crabtrees left in the morning around the time the rest of us went to church. The rest of us spent the day at church, resting, and packing. Shell, her girls, Doug, and I walked to the end of the street to the ocean after my kids were in bed.

I think Jordan took this.

This was the view from our deck. Isn't it beautiful?

Week 4, Day 6, Monday

Our last full day in Hawaii. Without Ashlee there to make decisions, it took the rest of us awhile to figure out what to do. Should we just go to Huikilau? Or just Sunset? Or both? Should we go to Matsumoto's or not? I think we decided to just go to Sunset and then to Matsumoto's. We also ate out at McDonalds. My kids chose to have ice cream there instead of shave ice. Crazy kids :)

My mom bought my boys matching swim shorts. I bought them shirts to match.

Coleman's almost as big as Nati :)

Kenzie laid down under a towel again with her bink, but I don't think she actually slept this time.

Coleman loves eating.

Eat shave ice. I guess Jordan chose shave ice. Jack and Kenzie had ice cream though.

This was our house. And the Kenyon's convertible, our just as stylish, minivan, and my parents car. It was actually hard getting home and having to get used to a mini van that we had to open the door ourselves. Automatic doors are really nice :). It also took a little while to get used to no having a red van. 

And that concludes are month in Hawaii. It was wonderful and fabulous and I wish it was July again. I still have to write about our trip home though. It was exciting enough that it deserves its own post.