Hawaii is ALWAYS a good idea. Especially in my book. If I never get to travel anywhere else in the world because we have to go to Hawaii every year (it's not exactly a cheap trip), I'm totally ok with it. Family means everything to me and I want my girls to see and visit with my side of the family as often as possible, so Hawaii trips are pretty much mandatory.
Our adventure began on Thursday, March 5th. We had to be up at the butt crack of dawn (3am) to make it out to LAX in time for our 10am flight. Traffic is usually horrendous in the early mornings here, as you can imagine, so we wanted to make sure we were checked in and ready to go without being rushed. Traveling with 2 kids under 5 can be overwhelming for a lot of parents. Thankfully, Ella and Everly were troopers and didn't give us any problems even with the early wake-up time. From parking the car in the airport's parking lot, to riding the shuttle to our departure terminal, to getting through TSA and then finally to the gate. We made it onto our flight all the way to Hawaii with zero drama and tantrums. Okay, maybe 1 or 2. And mostly from Everly. But they weren't epic meltdowns so I'd say we totally nailed it.
We are lucky that I have family there... beats having to pay for hotel fees for 2 weeks. And it's also nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of city+tourist life in Waikiki. It's also nice not having to eat out ALL the time. I go to Hawaii for 3 things: family, food, and the beaches. Everything else is just extra lol.
Here's a quick rundown of all the things we did in the 2 weeks we were there...
1. We did the beach thang! We actually managed to hit up 5 different beaches to get our dose of Vitamin Sea + D.
2. We had planned to do a couple of hikes while we were there, but we ended up only doing just one.
3. We took our girls to the Honolulu Zoo - If I remember correctly, the last time I went to this zoo was my sophomore year of high school? For a class field trip with my Biology teacher. AND it was on my birthday. Wish I had a pic of that to share with y'all, but digital photos didn't exist back then and I don't remember where I put my box of photographs, so instead, I'll just post some pics here instead.
4. Daniel and I got to celebrate both of our birthdays (his is on the 11th and mine the 13th) with my family - something that we haven't been able to do since our trip to Hawaii in 2009 when we got married. We went to SALT at our Kaka'ako to spend the day and then celebrated with dinner and cake at home with my family.
5. We also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary - left the kiddos with my family so we could go to Kualoa Ranch to ride raptors all through the valley for a couple of hours.
6. We took family photos in the backyard with my mom + siblings and all of our kids (the last family photo we took was at my sister's wedding but both my kids and her kids weren't here yet).
**We also took a full family photo that included Daniel and my brother-in-law but I have yet to receive that photo from my sister. Will be updating this blog post with that photo once I get it.
7. We ate A LOT of shave ice.
8. And then on the last weekend there while everyone was off work, we took a drive up to the North Shore area and stopped to do a lot of touristy things.
One thing's for sure, we managed to make A LOT of memories and we cannot wait to go back. Oh and I also shot A LOT of content for my blog and Instagram. Here's a sneak peek of some of that content...
I will be publishing more detailed posts of the things we did (like the beaches we visited, our Kualoa Ranch adventure, and all the different murals we encountered) in the near future. So stay tuned for that!
Tags: #wanderlust #hawaii #hawaiitrip #oahu #kualoaranch #beaches #hawaiibeaches #travel #travelblog #lifestyle #lifestyleblog #springbreak2020 #springbreak #kakaako #northshore #haleiwa #waianae
You have such a beautiful family! It must be amazing to be from Hawaii and actually have family who live there, perfect excuse to visit every chance you can!! The girls look like they enjoyed it a lot as well. I always loved that my parents took me back to their hometown in Dominican Republic every year as well. It really made a difference in my life and I'm sure it will for your girls as well. You are teaching them to value and appreciate their culture and heritage. Your photo qualities are always so amazing!