Sadly, our cruise came to an end.  I was really ready to go home, though, and I think Mom was ready to stop rooming with the boys 🙂  Here is Mom and the kids as we waited to be seated for breakfast.  The kids are wearing t-shirts they decorated themselves at Kids Club the night before.

And Bill and I at breakfast

BJ thought his backpack was heavy.   So were all of our bags.

We headed off the ship and back to the same hotel from our first night in Waikiki.  Alyson loved the fish at the hotel and was happy to see them again.

We spent some time at the beach, which was very busy with a surfing competition, before headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch (amazingly less expensive than the lunch we had the first day).

This time, our room was on the opposite site of the hotel, the 28th floor, and we had an even better view.

Then, we were off to a luau (what Hawaii trip is complete without a luau?).  Honestly, I was a little too drained and overly emotional to be interacting with people this day, but it’s good we went anyway.  Our driver was super ADD.  We had landed on the “Party Bus!”.  The kids were a little tired, to say the least.

When we arrived, we took our places at a table on the ground, where the kids got a little exuberant with the sand.  After we ate, Alyson and I went off to play away from the people so I wouldn’t have to worry about her getting sand in other people’s food.

Alyson really enjoyed the dancers, and the boys loved the fire dancer the best.

On the bus back to the hotel, a sleeping Alyson won a candy lei for being the youngest on the bus.  In the morning, she shared her candy evenly with her brothers once they were all awake.

Here they are when we tried to wake them.

And Alyson

We had breakfast at Burger King, where I gave in and let Christian have coffee (Mom and I went off in search of mochas too).

BJ and Alyson being silly in the restaurant

Then we had just enough time for a quick swim before heading to the airport. BJ:

Christian (with snorkel)

Unfortunately, us adults weren’t up for a swim, so poor Alyson had to sit out.  (But she perked up… she got a juice and the boys didn’t).

On the plane, I have lots of pictures like this.  Brandon went a little crazy with the camera.

But he did get this shot of the sunset over Puget Sound.  We were SO happy to be home!

The End of the Abella Family’s adventures in Hawaii 🙂

Next, we spent two days in Kaua’i.  I’ll mention here that the kids subsisted on Jello and Watermelon most of the week on the ship.  Maybe some macaroni and cheese and yogurt too.  One unexpected plus to this trip is that Alyson has finally learned to use a napkin instead of her shirt to clean her face 🙂  Here’s the view from the Aloha Cafe buffet where we spent many many meals.

Here’s the water off the side of the ship, while we were in Kaua’i.

I have SO many wonderful pictures of Kaua’i, it’s hard to pick the ones to share.

The first day, we took a shuttle to Coconut Marketplace, where Mom insisted the kids try a shaved ice.  I’d never heard of getting a shaved ice with ice cream in it.  They were H-U-G-E!

Here’s silly Alyson

The second day, we (less Alyson) went on a kayaking excursion.  Christian and I went kayaking a few years ago (much closer to home), so we were really excited to go again.  This time, we were kayaking down a river, 3.5 miles if I remember correctly.  Here’s the view Bill had for the trip.

And the guides took this one for us.

I do get the bad mommy award here, though.  BJ was calling Christian over to “show him something” and I was certain he was going to splash Christian.  So I tried to splash BJ a little and got him in the eye *cringe*.  The kid milked it for all it was worth, hiding and fussing about it for EVER afterward.  He did finally perk up a little after the kayaking was over and the guides showed us sleeping grass, that wilts when it’s disturbed.

We had a short hike back to the van, passing under so many crop trees (avocado, coffee, and I don’t remember the others).  Then a quick drive to our lunch destination.  From here, we went down… down… down… hundreds of steps to a waterfall.

We even (less BJ) were brave enough to sit IN the waterfall (although I couldn’t get all the way up there… I couldn’t see and was worried about losing my contacts).   It was a bit cold, but felt great.

I’ll admit, the climb back UP to the lunch area was exhausting for me.

The boys and Bill made it back up without a rest.

On the way back, the guide pointed out this view of the fish pond, which they discussed while we kayaked.  It is a historical site and no longer in use, but the pond used to fill with fish with the tide.

This picture is as the ship left port, a lighthouse.

And the Na Pali coastline

And the boys ready for dinner.  Kids get away with wearing whatever they want in all of the restaurants.  Us adults had to wear dresses (collared shirts for the men) for most of the restaurants.

Kona was one of my favorite places in Hawaii.  The water is too shallow for the ship to dock close to shore, so we had to take tenders (essentially life boats) to shore, so that by itself was fun.  The water was an amazing blue.

When we got off the tender, the first thing we saw was sea turtles!

The boys were disappointed they couldn’t swim in the water near the turtles, but the current was really strong on that side of the pier.

The other side of the pier was another matter, though.  It was PERFECT for the kids to spend some time in the water.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize swimming would be on the agenda, so Alyson wasn’t wearing a swim suit.  Even worse, she was wearing a pullup.  Before we knew it, she was soaked, but having a blast.

The kids found a hermit crab and made it its own little tide pool.

Mom and I went shopping and got Alyson a new dress so we wouldn’t have to take her back to the ship soaking wet.  I also finally gave in and got the kids a snorkel… they’d been asking incessently.  Bill and I went shopping and found my favorite store of the whole trip… Del Sol, where everything changes color in the sun.

Here’s Alyson’s new dress from Kona.  Mom got a great picture, but this one will have to do for now 🙂

Today we were in Hilo.  We decided to spend another relaxing day on the ship.

The kids have been playing hard and the time difference wore them out a little.

The kids enjoyed their morning at Kids Club, and in the afternoon we saw the movie Meet the Robinsons.  Christian and I attended the Lauhala Ribbon Weave lei making class.  It was much more challenging than the Kuikui Nut lei, but we really enjoyed it.

Here’s Alyson’s new dress from Hilo Hatties.

The kids actually being sweet to each other.

Here’s the main pool

I love this picture of BJ.

And the three monkeys while I tried to finalize the purchase of my painting.

While the kids were in Kids Club, we enjoyed the Music of the Night show of mostly Andrew Lloyd Webber music.  I say mostly because they threw some South Pacific in there too.

Our second day in Maui, and today our room steward made us an elephant.  The kids didn’t let us keep these towel animals for long.  They took them apart for some reason.

Mom told us we had to get off the ship and take the shuttle to Hilo Hatties, and I’m glad she did.  We enjoyed seeing a bit of Maui from the shuttle bus, and Hilo Hatties was a fun store.  We picked up a few souveniers and new clothes, and the kids each got to pick a pearl from an oyster.  The boys each got beautiful rosy pearls and Alyson’s is bright white.  Unfortunately, Christian’s was lost fairly quickly.  We have the other two in safe keeping.

When we returned to the ship, Alyson and I attended a Kuikui Nut lei making class, which was great fun.  Alyson loves teachers.  She amazed me.  As the class was ending, I was furiously trying to finish my lei (as I had helped Alyson with hers first), so I handed Alyson hers and told her to take it to the teacher so she could tie it for her.  Alyson marched across the room through throngs of strangers to do exactly that.  This, the child that chooses to be shy around FAMILY.

While us girls were making leis, the boys went on the Gyroscope.

BJ was sadly too little to go upside down, but he did get to spin a little.

Mom and I attended an art auction.  I’d never attended an art auction before and it sounded like fun.  Free champagne and free art for everyone who registered and attended sounded like a good deal.  I walked around and really enjoyed seeing so many different types of art.  Fortunately I didn’t get attached to any of them until I came to this one.

It’s perfect for my office.  Even though it was out of my price range, 12 months no interest made it more affordable.  I can’t wait for it to arrive (should be here in another couple of weeks).

While Mom and I were enjoying the auction, Bill got the kids dinner at the kid sized buffet so they could go to Kids Club while we had our 8pm dinner.  The darling little boy with our kids was very attached to Alyson.  Whenever they were together, neither of them ate anything because they were too busy chasing each other around.  We adults got to enjoy Lobster night and an adult meal after the kids were happily in Kids Club 🙂

I woke early our first morning on the ship.  I managed to spend 30 minutes on an exercise bike before trying to capture the sunrise on camera.

We were docking in Maui this morning and really had no plans for the day, so we took it easy.

We explored the ship,

and read a few books in the library.

And we had to buy pony tail holders for Alyson.

Our cabin steward made us a bunny with towels.

We went swimming and got to participate in smoothie tasting (although Cantaloupe is NOT my favorite).

The boys did a little putting…

And what cruise is complete without shuffleboard?

Cruise life at its finest 🙂  The boys also got to participate in a soccer tournament.  They played against a dad and his son, who was a bit older than Christian. The boys did great!  They lost, but only by 2 points.

While the kids were in Kids Club in the evening, we went to hear WT Greer sing.  Honestly, it was awful.  But on the way back to our cabins with the kids, I heard Mark O’bitz, who I really enjoyed.

We started off July 5th by saying goodbye to our hotel

and getting on a bus to visit the USS Arizona memorial.  Alyson thought tour busses were great.  I thought they were tiring.  She was constantly up and down and bouncing around… not in her own seat, but on our laps.  Buses did make her tired, too, though.

We arrived at the memorial before it opened, and the line to get in stretched all the way around a big green field.  Thankfully, there were some trees for shade, and once the gates opened the line moved fairly quickly.

At the bookstore, we got a great pamphlet about the events December 7 1941 for Christian to read, a comic book for Brandon, and some totally unrelated paper dolls for Alyson.  Bill and the boys walked through the museum.

We watched a film containing all original footage from the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I was amazed just that much film existed and survived.   After being put in a somber mood, we boarded a boat that took us past the USS Kittyhawk and dozens of other ships to the memorial.  So many people lost their lives that day.  And so many are still entombed there.  It was pointed out that many of the names on this memorial wall are the same, because fathers and sons, brothers, served together and died together.

It was amazing to  see what’s left of the Arizona under the memorial (which incidentally does not touch any part of the submerged ship).  They had great displays that explained what we were seeing beneath the water.  The kids were fascinated by the oil on the water.

Drips of oil are still escaping from the Arizona.  Legend says it’s the ship crying for its fallen crew.  Legend continues that it will stop the day the last survivor dies.

The kids didn’t understand, of course, what it was really all about.  When we returned from our trip, we showed them the Hollywood movie, Pearl Harbor, and I think Christian at least has a better idea of why we went and why it was important.

After that sobering start to the day, we had a tour of Honolulu by tour bus (which much of the family slept through), and returned to reclaim our luggage from the hotel and catch taxis to the cruise terminal.  We waited in excruciatingly long lines, but they were moving, and got our luggage checked, our key cards issued, and were finally allowed on board the Pride of America.

We were greeted with Mimosas (or orange juices for the kids), and our first buffet lunch of the cruise while we waited for our cabins to be ready.  We also had the opportunity to check out the kids’ new favorite place, Kid’s Club!, where they would spend 6 hours a day most days (9am to noon and 7pm to 10pm).

We went to dinner at the Liberty Restaurant that night, and before the entrees could even be served, two of our kids were asleep at the table.  That 3 hour time difference and busy day caught up with them.

The 4th of July arrived so quickly this year… and the first day of our long-awaited vacation!

Shuttle Express arrived bright and early to take us all away.   The kids were excited, except Alyson really didn’t like the carseat that was provided for her.  The kids particularly enjoyed riding the subway train to the terminal at the airport.  Here’s Brandon listening to his mp3 player and waiting patiently for our flight, surrounded by our multitude of carryons.

The kids did really well on the 5 1/2 hour flight.  They played their DSs (except Brandon’s which broke), built lego cars, watched movies, and perhaps slept a little bit…

When we arrived in Hawaii, the first thing I noticed was the heavier air and the floral scent.  We took the longest bus ride ever to get from the airport to our hotel in Waikiki.  We got quite the sightseeing tour.  We saw the same buildings at least three or four times before he finally got to our hotel, the Sheraton Princess Kauilani.

While we waited for our rooms to be ready, we went to the most overpriced meal of our trip.  It was over $100 for the five of us and Mom for a mediocre lunch.  It was a bit of  a neat place… the waitresses in 50s attire would go up and dance, but it wasn’t worth the cost of the lunch.  We opted for the Burger King next door the next time we needed a meal.

Our room was on the 29th floor.  The view was beautiful, and we were just blocks from the beach.

The boys went off with Uncles to the beach, while the rest of us had the chance to relax for a bit.

After a nap, Bill and I had the chance to walk around a little, and we picked up ice cream for those of us that were going to watch the fireworks from our room.  We enjoyed our ice cream on our balcony and enjoyed not one, but three fireworks shows.  It was really cool to watch the fireworks shows progress down the beach.

What a great way to spend the 4th of July!