Hawaii

We are back from our Hawaiian vacation and what a vacation it was.  I will spend the next several days blogging.  I plan to break down everything we did on each day we did it.  It's one of those vacations I simply never want to forget.  The travel was brutal and we hit a huge hiccup on the day we were leaving.  Our connecting flight in Phoenix got cancelled.  I spent 60 minutes on the phone on Friday Morning (Dec. 27) frantically trying to get all 9 of us another flight.  When the airline told me, "Sorry, this is our busiest travel day of the year, we can't get you guys out until tomorrow," I about became unglued.  Thankfully Kim's family flew out on a direct flight on Dec. 27 at 10am and my family and mom flew out on a direct flight at 2:30 pm on Dec. 27.  We were all scattered throughout the plane but we made it.

I loved this sweet picture of Jay and his nana.  Jay was so sweet to nana during the cruise.  He helped her frequently without being asked and assisted me (when I had to assist mom).

I took this picture of Honolulu on the morning on Dec. 28.  My family and mom arrived in Honolulu the night of Dec. 27.  It was 9pm Hawaii time but it was 1am Illinois time.  Needless to say we crashed hard that night.

Before we had to leave for our cruise we had all bruch (minus Mike and my boys) in Honolulu.  The food was pretty much amazing but it didn't compare to weather - Gorgeous!

We arrived on our ship about 1pm on Dec. 28.  We immediately went to eat (imagine that?).  Our entire family (Kim's and mine) but especially Nick, Luke and Lauren, loved the "all you can eat buffet" at Aloha Café.

The cruise was still decorated for Christmas.  You'll see that through many of these pictures Jay is scowling.  He really did have a good time but he hates pictures.  I didn't really care.  I made him take pictures anyway.

Nick and mom in mom's room.  Mom loved her room and we were all so thankful she made the decision to get a balcony room.  She spent a lot of time on her balcony reading.