Aloha!

Many months ago Joe and I decided that we needed a vacation - like a real vacation - on a beach - that isn't in Guatemala.  Knowing the pattern of unforeseen circumstances arising in life, which is what has diverted us from taking relaxing vacations in the past, we decided to just book a trip to Hawaii and make it happen.

The thrill of booking the trip lasted about a week, but December 1st seemed so far away.  But today, our first beach vacation together (and as a family) has arrived.  We are so thankful for everything that gave us the opportunity to take this trip, as we realize we are truly blessed.  We're thankful for jobs that give us time off, for the financial flexibility to squeeze this in, and for the opportunity to take our son on an awesome vacation that he'll remember through all of the pictures I'm about to take.  

I'm not sure why we never learn not to book early morning flights.  Probably because they're cheaper - but today we would've put out a bunch of cash to push our 7am flight back 4 hours.  Rory didn't want to go to bed last night, so it may have been midnight before any of us closed our eyes.  It wouldn't have been the worst thing to wake up at 4am (4 hours is kind of normal for us now)…if Rory had slept from 12 - 4am, which of course he did not.  Not only did we save some money by leaving before dawn, we also saved money by booking a flight with a layover in Sacramento - which gave us an almost 9 hour travel day…with Rory.  This, we thought, wouldn't be the highlight of the trip.

But, while I'm writing this from the plane, we already have much to be thankful for.  Yes we are miserably tired and our bodies hurt, and yes our kid just watched several hours of shows and ate every snack we could find at the store last night, but we survived.  And, Alaska Air gave us an extra seat so we could bring Rory's carseat on!  You have no idea what this is worth to us (well, approximately the cost of an airline ticket I guess) but we feel SO blessed to have had the extra space.  Rory even got in a good 2 hour nap on our flight from Sacramento.  And he's just so darn cute when he finally falls asleep!

Joe and Rory celebrated the end of the flight!

Thanks to some good advice, we stopped by Costco on the way to our condo and bought some essentials:  beach umbrella and tons of pineapples.  While we were there we saw a guy wearing a shirt from a bar near us in Seattle called Chucks.  We stopped him and asked him if he was from Seattle and low and behold it was Chuck himself!  He was kind enough to pose for a picture.  

Also, if you ever need a Hawaiian shirt:

Well, the condo is amazing...the air here is even amazing.  We are all in bed and it isn't 8pm yet.   I'll leave you with this video which is Rory's favorite part of Maui so far:

We're not trying to rub in the fact that we're at the beach this week, but we would love to share our adventure with anyone who's interested in joining.  So, ideally I'll be sitting with Joe on the Lanai in the evenings while Rory is peacefully asleep and sharing some of our trip with you through this blog.  (We have to stay optimistic.)  I might even take a few pictures.

Aloha!

Robyn, Joe, and Rory