02 Oct

Day 1 – Travel Day!

The day was here!! We were finally going to Hawaii! We had visited Hawaii a couple of times before (Stephen even lived there for two years when he was young), but this was our first Aulani visit! I had seen Aulani under construction before, but never finished!

Our flights were actually later in the day then I thought. I thought we were leaving in the morning, but we weren’t leaving until around 3 in the afternoon. With a layover in LA, that meant we wouldn’t get to Aulani until it was dark! Shoot!

But leave at 3 we did. At the airport, the agent told Stephen his bags could way up to 70 lbs because he’s in the military. Hallelujah!! I am always right on that 50 lb border! This time I was under, but that meant I didn’t have to be as careful on the way back! This was revolutionary. Seriously, I think I’d rather have 70 lbs over an extra bag. Thank you, United!!

The kids stocked up on magazines and snacks.

Ally also apparently lost her wallet at some point here. We didn’t discover that until the next day, but we’re guessing it’s in the trash somewhere because the credit card was never used. ::)

She looks guilty even though she didn’t know what she’d done yet.

I am also stocked up, but not on magazines.

We had crazy turbulence into LA, but it wasn’t a long flight. We had a quick layover but really needed some dinner. I mean starbursts and M&M’s are awesome, but I needed dinner to supplement them.

When I saw a Counter had opened in the terminal we were in, we got in line! The Counter is delicious. But not fast.

Stephen went to the gate to wait and by the time our food came out, we were speed walking to get there. And we were delayed! Alrighty! We could eat and not make everyone on the plane hate us because of the smell!

Plane selfie!

This was a crazy long flight. I read the whole time, so I was happy. We swiped our credit card (lame, United) to buy TV for the other three of us. The boys were quite excited to watch the soccer that was being heavily promoted on our tiny screens. Until the TV signal went out about 20 minutes into the flight. Really?

Oh well, they watched movies instead.

Finally, we made it! I was moving too fast for pictures!

We went to pick up our rental car and were told we owed $959 for our 10 day rental. Um. What?

That wasn’t right! It was actually closer to $180! They fixed it.

I was a little worried about our luggage fitting in the car and had already decided we were probably going to be holding suitcases. But when we got our car, a new Honda Accord, the trunk was huge! Yay!

It took about 30 minutes of high anticipation to drive to Aulani. We were so excited when we could finally see it!!

We checked in and were lei-ed. They were out of floral leis but said we could come back tomorrow if we wanted. Poor quality phone pic but you must see the leis!

We dropped our bags and went exploring. The resort was dark, but it looked amazing from what we could tell.

We finally went back to the room to go to unpack and go to bed! It was sooo late our time!

Our room was beautiful, but the one bedrooms had a big flaw. Our decorative door was beautiful, but it was essentially like closing shutters. Which meant sound-wise, we were basically all in the same room. I was not real excited about that.

But this was very obviously a first world problem. We were in Hawaii. All was good.

Exploring and tons of pictures tomorrow!

Hanging 10 with Mickey at Aulani June 6-15, 2014
Day 1 – Travel Day
Day 2 – Gorgeous Resort Day
Day 3 – Hiking to Kaena Point
Day 4 – The North Shore and Turtles! 
Day 5 – Resort Day
Day 6 – Manoa Falls Hike
Day 7 – Leaving Aulani 
Day 8 – Driving Up the Coast to Bellows
Day 9 – Last Day at the Most Gorgeous Beach Ever!