Aloha! "Our Gift of A Day"

Aloha from beautiful Hawaii! We are slowly transitioning to a new time zone... just in time to move over the International Date Line and completely lose another day! Yes, it's all so strange! We've been waking up around 2:30am here in Hawaii - because in SC it is 6 hours ahead (8:30am). I think I'd sleep in more - but my sweet little Mia apparently has her own ideas and lets us all know that her little belly is hungry - NOW! What can I say? She's my child - don't mess with me when I'm hungry! ha ha!




We've had a GREAT time here so far! The first day we settled into our hotel... later went down the street to get some food at Wolfgang Puck's Express. Delicious! Waikiki Beach is just 2 1/2 blocks from our hotel and the kids had a fun time just playing around in the sand the first night and watching the sunset... Mia fell asleep on the way there... hence the 2:30am wake up calls!


On Tuesday we toured Pearl Harbor bright and early. Caught the tour van at 6:30am... no biggie right?! Since we've been up for a few hours! It was a pretty moving experience to witness and "go back in time" what happened that tragic day on Dec. 7th, 1941!


We then met up with Dale's relatives - his Lolo's brother... we call him Lolo Ingo (Dom"ingo" Ramirez) & Lola Percy.
Lolo Ingo picked us up and brought us around the downtown of Hawaii and through Chinatown. We ate at a delicious Asian Buffet and then headed back to their home for a few hours to visit and relax.




It was so nice to meet Dale's cousins and our kids had a nice time meeting their new relatives... especially their "Aunties" Allison & Jody... twins girls who are 5 years old... and their "Uncle" Jacob who is 7 years old! It was so sweet to see how they all instantly bonded and started playing together!


Lolo Ingo later brought us to the Punchbowl Cemetary - a beautiful area with a gorgeous view of Honolulu.


From there - we went to the amazing military resort - THE HALE KOA... where Lolo Ingo retired and worked there for 27 years! Unfortunately we were unable to lock in reservations at this resort - but will definitely do so on a later trip!
The hotel is situated right on the beach with 3 beautiful pools and wonderful renovated amenities! Lolo brought us home and the boys (and Daddy) played tennis at the hotel - while the girls fell asleep... ZZzzzzzzz!


Our family "GIFT OF A DAY"... (my Ultimate Gift moment) A day like today from beginning to end was truly a GIFT... and marked our transition to our newest adventure ahead!

Today was a great day spent at the beautiful Hanauma Bay for snorkling. Thanks to our Military ID's... it was a free entrance and a day of relaxation and fun! It was the kids first time snorkling and it was so neat to see how excited they were when they located various marine life down below! Mia enjoyed splashing in the water and playing in the sand. She made lots of friends with the Japanese & Australian tourists as she greeted each of them with her 6 tooth smile or blowing kisses or doing her little bootie dance for them. She cracks me up sometimes!


The morning started off rainy and overcast - but by the time we got to the sand - the sun was out and the beach was clear!

We went back to our hotel to shower & nap. By early evening we were ready to walk downtown to eat. Not knowing the area - we asked our driver that took us to Hanauma Bay one place to go - and he said, DUKES. So we were off to find Dukes! The weather was perfect... and walking allowed us to discover the Waikiki area.


We arrived right on time to watch the KINGS GUARD perform and take a quick picture with them. The kids enjoyed watching the precision and accuracy of their movements!




Here's a FIRST... the sun was setting quckly and I mentioned to Dale to find a beach access entry so we could take a family photo before the sun went down. We found a beach access and with the crowds walking all around us and all our little feet following ours... I set up our camera on top of my diaper bag backpack... and somehow all the crowds disappeared and our FIRST and only shot came out GREAT! Ask my kids... we usually have to take 5-7 (okay... maybe 12 - 15 shots) timed shots to get the right one. Of course not that night... because today was our GIFT OF A DAY. I didn't even want to jinx it... I didn't take another shot... ONE SHOT and that was it!



Wouldn't you know... DUKES RESTAURANT just so happened to be right where we took the sunset photo... so what were the chances of us getting seated quickly?! Well... to end our GIFT OF A DAY... we told the hostess how many we had in our family - and she told us it would be about a 45 min. wait. There was NO WAY we could wait... the kids were hungry and so were we... so we smiled and as we were about to leave... another girl came up and said... "I have a big table ready and I can seat them now".


A perfect quiet & spacious corner table with a beach view... it just didn't get any better than that. But wait, it did! Just as the appetizers came... Mia fell asleep in her stroller... and even Ryan (our most energetic child) snoozed off! AMAZING TIMING!


We enjoyed our last evening in Hawaii with a delicious meal with our kids (2 awake, 2 asleep)... and our waiter even brought us dessert FOR FREE!



It was an incredible day from start to end! One I will cherish and remember ALWAYS. A day like no other... how everything just fell into place like a perfect puzzle!


As I pay .20 cents per minute to use the hotel computer... I am thankful that there is a computer here that I can get on and "catch up". We head to Guam tomorrow afternoon... leaving on Thursday at 2pm (8 hr flight) and arriving on Guam on Friday 5pm. Hopefully we'll adjust quickly... and if not - no big deal - we're livin' the kick back Island Life for the next 3 years!