Hawaii!

For those of you who don't know, we were supposed to go to Mexico at the beginning of September with my dad and stepmom but 2 days before departure, a hurricane was forecasted to hit exactly the part of Mexico we were going. The news was sad for about 2 minutes until my dad told me that he was re-routing us to Hawaii instead! Poor us! We even got to stay one more full day than we would have in Mexico. We had to deprogram Megan on going to Mexico so to this day, she still asks, "I go to Mexico?"

We had such a good time and are so grateful for the opportunity. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It had 90 shops in it, TWO Starbucks (!!) - too bad we couldn't afford it though! It has a bunch of pools, a private lagoon and is right on the beach. You could really just stay there and never leave if you wanted to.

It was great that Megan got to spend time with Dad and Teresa too. We did some Skype phone calls before we left so there would be some familiarity and anticipation for Megan. It worked really well because she was very excited to see them and had no problem opening up to them.

This is our first view from the lobby when we arrived - one of the 5 or so pools the hotel had.Josh and Megan checking out the view from our hotel room

As you can see the Skype-ing worked! We headed straight to the pool when we arrived.

Hundreds of koi fish on the property.

My view from my lounge chair by the pool.

We took Megan down to the beach when we got there too. She had fun building a sand castle with Teresa. She didn't really get into the water much at first.

Josh and Dad did though. Josh has never been anywhere like Hawaii where the water is so blue and warm!

The hotel had African penguins and Megan got to pet one during the feeding time. She said, "Penguin real soft!"

Pretty cute picture of Megan and Grandpa!

Our little daredevil! She was so brave just jumping right into the pool. She kept telling us to move so we wouldn't catch her. People around the pool kept asking how old she was and calling her fearless. She had so much fun and she slept really good, most of the time!

One of her many jumps into the pool. She had to try her goggles but really only had them on for about 10 minutes of the trip.

"I take a break Mama."

Megan met a little girl at the pool named Sophia. This was about 20 minutes before her little accident.....

We were playing at the pool and I decided to go get some lunch and bring it back. Megan was walking over to me and slipped on the pool deck right into a lounge chair. She hit with her face and bit almost all the way through her bottom lip. So of course she was bleeding a lot and screaming almost as much. It didn't however keep her from eating the Cheetos that came with her lunch before the cut actually stopped bleeding. Mmmm....bloody Cheetos. Anyway, we took her to the doctor that was at the hotel and she said it was relatively minor. So she got a bandaid for the scrape on her chin and a fat lip for the next couple of days.

That night we rode the trolley into Waikiki and walked around a bit and had dinner at a great place that surrounded a huge aquarium. Megan got to watch a scuba diver swim around in it and hand feed the fish. It was pretty cool and a very yummy dinner. Megan got her own virgin Blue Hawaiian drink. I'll have to get that picture from Grandpa.

Waving at all of the "peoples".

Megan and Duke

Dinner at the restaurant that night. She was very excited to use her chopsticks.

The only family picture we got while we were there.

This is Megan playing in the sand on the North Shore. As you can see there weren't many waves that day so we didn't get to see any surfing. It was so calm Megan was even able to swim in the water.

Josh asked Megan if she wanted to be buried in the sand thinking that she would say no but she was very willing and laid right down for him.

Little toes peeking out!

She thought it was pretty funny.

On Friday night the hotel has a show called the Hawaiian Rockin' Revue or something like that. We were able to watch it from the 2nd floor terrace of our tower and then watch the fireworks show right afterwards. This is a picture of the sunset that night.

Megan thought the fireworks were pretty neat. She didn't get to see them on July 4th this year because we were camping.

One of the penguins.

Getting some more swimming in.

On Saturday we went to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. It was pretty overcast that day so the water wasn't very clear but we did get to see some fish. Josh probably couldn't have spent the whole day out there.

What a ham. I wish her eyes were open.

Swimming with daddy.

This was a break that actually turned into an hour long nap, poolside. I just covered her with a towel and let her sleep while I sunbathed.

This is Megan when she is not so happy.

Oh look she's happy again, about 3 seconds later. We may start calling her Sybil.

Dinner at Duke's tasting her very first sushi!

Josh's face says 1,000 words.

Grandpa got Megan a lei that she was happy to pose with for about 3 seconds.

Our last day in Hawaii, we thought we should get some pictures of the property and where we got to spend our time.

The only picture the 3 of us got, unfortunately I was dressed like a slob so I would be comfortable for the plane.

Flamingos at the hotel too!

Megan and Grandma T

Watching the penguins and turtles.

Megan also did really well on the plane. It was 5 1/2 hours each way and she definitely was a trooper. We also got to see another hotel there called the Hale Koa. It was actually right next to the Hilton and is for military families only. Military can stay there for great rates based on their rank and it's also right on the beach. Since it was next door, we were able to go to the Px and do some of our grocery/snack and souvenir shopping for much less than anywhere else. We were also able to get a great deal on the rental car for our excursions. We may have to go back there someday!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Darling!