Hawaii: Day 7

Last day- We cleaned the condo and let the teenagers eat to their hearts content before we packed up food.
We had time to go to the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium where we found a few good deals before our flight.

To sum up, we had to put the smoke detector in the fridge a few times during meal prep but I only burned one thing. My ears wouldn't pop on the flight over and my allergies kept me from smelling until they cleared up on Wednesday. Kevin gets motion sickness and could only handle swimming, snorkeling for small increments of time. We tried to go snorkeling as a family; after switching masks and snorkels to make everyone comfortable, KayDee swam back to shore, Samantha continued to dive for shells, Kevin swam fast after a turtle, Derrick stood on a rock in the middle of the water and I was trying to decide who to join. I think we lasted about 10 minutes. Reality is always entertaining. Kevin won a black pearl at the Dole plantation but we didn't want to pay for it to be set so it will be fun to figure out how to set it in when we get home.
Kevin meet a Russian guy that was so excited to meet people. He traded the condo with a friend and will be here for 5 years and has gotten Kevin's phone number and has already texted him.
I drove the whole trip since I do traffic better than Kevin. I only got honked at twice.
We loved the museums, PCC, temple, dole farm, hiking and getting to know our area in Hauula.
Kevin loved sitting on the beach watching the turtles heads pop up, looking at the surf, and catching crabs. He caught the really big one.
Samantha loved finding shells, organizing them and then finding more. She snorkeled and dove for them. She touched a fish and saw some really cool ones. She also wants a ukulele.
Derrick loved boogie boarding, making sand castles, snorkeling, and digging out crabs. He boogie boarded right into sand bags with a huge wave. We had north shore surf warnings but our beach was still pretty calm.
KayDee loved catching lizards, finally caught a couple crabs by herself, building sand castles and playing in the ocean. She loved being pulled around by Derrick on the boogie board in the waves.
I loved snorkeling, floating on the waves, trying to boogie board, walking along the beach, and sitting on the beach. Lots of smiles to take home.

Hawaii: Day 3 Polynesia and Dole

Dole Plantation:
Train Tour- We had fun visiting another farm and seeing their fields.
World's Largest Maze- The kids made good time!
Pineapple fields and garden

Polynesian Cultural Center:
Island Villages-We ran out of time and need to go back. Our ticket is good for 3 more days!
Dinner and Show- Super good pork, fish, and chocolate cake.
We had to get a Pineapple Smoothie!

Hawaii on a Budget

Hawaii on a budget for 5 people:
Save $100 per month for 5 years. ✔
Get airplane tickets early.  ✔
Get a condo on the beach. ✔
Borrow stuff like fins.✔
Pack light. ✔
Bring dry packaged food. ✔
Buy fresh food at the grocery store. ✔
Buy tickets to sites ahead of time if possible. ✔
Car or local transit. ✔
Enjoy the simplicity of Hawaii. ✔
Keep expectations to a minimum. ✔

Valley of Fire

  We kept passing the signs that said Valley of Fire along the freeway and kept saying we wanted to go see what it was. We had never met anyone who had been to the Valley of Fire and only had the information that was on the web. Fall break came and it was settled, we packed and left for 2 nights at the Valley of Fire. 

First we had to find a camping spot. We drove around looking for a large tent pad and couldn't find one big enough for our tent. We found 3 walk in camp sites that were bigger and the one in the very back convinced us that we should camp there.

Tarantula

We noticed that many of the park visitors did not have children so being in the back corner would allow our children room to make noise and the amazing rocks to climb on made our kids extremely happy. We enjoyed our camp site for the rest of the day and slept under a FULL moon. The tent did not have the rain fly on so we could see the stars and the moon was so bright it was actually hard to sleep but we didn't see a need to complain since it was sooo BEAUTIFUL!

The next day we went to the visitor center so we would know what our options would be for the day. The chipmunks were entertaining and the kids were already convinced that the rocks were good enough to climb on.

 We hiked White Dome where we ran into a large bus of Italians toward the end of the loop.

This is where we started and took the most pictures since we were so fresh.
The rocks were all different colors and sizes and we were able to crawl through many of them. My favorite picture is the one that looks like waves.

Then we went to Rainbow Vista where we saw 7 big horn sheep (Kevin's favorite).
Mouse Tank was fun since we continued to run into a Swiss couple (David and Andrea) on vacation. We stopped and talked to them and thoroughly enjoyed David's description of people from different countries (one including how loud Italians are and another of how American women smell of coconut sunscreen).
We learned that Mouse Tank is named after an Indian who was a nuisance to the settlers and they nicknamed him mouse since he would steal and bother them and hide in these rocks.

We decided to go to the Lost City Museum in Overton for the afternoon since it was getting HOT.
When we got back to camp we saw that David and Andrea were in the same campground and we invited them for dinner. We made Navajo tacos and enjoyed playing games, Uno and Pass the Pig, and the kids tried to tell some jokes.

1930s Valley of Fire visitor housing

Our last morning we saw the Atlatl Rock and Petroglyphs. The visitor housing was interesting too.
Then we saw the Petrified Logs. It is random to have 3 logs in the middle of sage brush and rocks...
We also saw the Elephant Rock and we ran into David and Andrea again. We parted there as we drove home and they went to Zion.

DISNEYLAND!

We did it and we never thought we would get there. Our finances have always been tight but this year we decided we were going no matter what, especially since I promised Samantha we would go when KayDee was 4 yrs old. We set out to make some money. The kids worked in the neighbor's garden all summer to contribute. We sold pecans from our tree, did seed packets for our other neighbor and even sold some fruit from our trees. We earned almost half the amount we needed which was impressive considering the price of tickets! We told my parents we were planning to go and we invited them to go with us. They planned on taking us on a vacation and so we were able to go and have a great time with them. They went to Disneyland with us for the first day and then had some meetings for my Dad's business the next 2 days.We enjoyed the Adventures side of Disneyland first and Sam and Derrick loved Soaring Over California. All three loved the Bug's Life rides and then we went on The Tower of Terror. Samantha still claims it is her favorite ride. I don't think Derrick knew what he got himself into. We made our way around and we got to the big Mickey Farris Wheel and we got on a moving seat. It was the longest, scariest, devastatingly, helpless ride the kids thought they had gone on. There were almost tears of terror as we rolled backwards in an oval shape. Luckily my mom was there to hug and hold the kids with me until the ride finally let us off! Who knew a ferris wheel could be so terrifying?!We continued on and decided to skip the roller coasters since the wheel had taken all their courage. The kids enjoyed the Toy Story soldier program going on the street. They were bossed around by the green men telling them to freeze like a toy. Very entertaining.We went to the Resort side of Disneyland at the end of the day and did we get a reaction from KayDee as we came to the castle. She was prancing and galloping to each of us to make sure we knew the castle was right there. "There it is! We found it!" It was really a magical moment for her. As we continued walking around observing the long lines, we decided to head back to the hotel for dinner and go back early the next day.We went the second day by ourselves and were able to do everything we wanted to do before it started pouring rain. It's a Small World, driving cars, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribean and of course we visited the Princesses and Fairies. KayDee saw Belle first and she asked if KayDee was a princess and she said yes. Then Belle asked if Sam and Derrick were her servants and she said yes. It was so cute. She told them to take care of their Beast when they left. Samantha loved that Arial asked if they swam there and to look out for sharks. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride which everyone enjoyed except for KayDee. Once she saw Zurg she was hiding, crunched up, shaking next to our feet for the rest of the ride. Derrick and Kevin scored pretty high! It rained on and off throughout the day and we decided to shop for our souvenirs at the end of the day and the rain forced us into a store at about 4:30pm. We had window shopped throughout the day and were able to find the items the kids had seen and wanted. Derrick ended up with action figures from Toy Story, and the girls each got a large Minnie Mouse doll. Samantha's was a pink baby Minnie with a blanket and KayDee found a red Minnie.
We decided to head back to the hotel and my parents watched a movie with the kids while Kevin and I sat in the hot tub. We left for home on day 3 and stopped at Calico Ghost Town. It was a fun stop even with their not so classy Halloween decorations on the old carriages and buildings.
It was a great vacation and we are grateful my parents could join us and help us get there!