Hawaii

Oh beautiful Hawaii...

Is there a more beautiful place on the earth? 

White sandy beaches, clear blue water, beautiful greenery throughout the island, and the warm sun lighting it up everyday!

For the past four years Kyle and I have been so blessed to visit this wonderful place with my family.  This year was very special though, as the whole Shepard clan, 36...yes, I said 36....of us went to visit the beautiful island of Oahu, and stayed in the Marriott resort in Ko Olina.  

Traveling is always the hardest part.  Especially when you have young children.  Not only do they have to sit on a plane and behave for 6 hours, you also have to lug around a CART LOAD of stuff for your sweet young on.  I am not sure how we carried around all the stuff we needed for them, I am pretty sure we grew an extra set of arms for the occasion.  Traveling may be hard, but this year, I made it even harder if you can imagine.  You know when you have a nightmare, and you are so glad when you wake up and realize it wasn't real?  Well, the morning we were leaving for the airport, I didn't wake up from mine....

I booked a shuttle to get us to and from the airport.  I was so organized the night before, even though I stayed up well past midnight getting everything done.  It was so important for me to pack my family healthy snacks, that I stayed up making homemade granola and baking healthy muffins for breakfast in the morning.  I was even up, showered, and ready to go on time (which is considered a miracle in our home)....not only that, but our kids were all dressed and ready and so was my sweet husband (I could never do it without his help).  We were doing good.  So when we were waiting outside for our shuttle to pick not only us, but my dad and brother up, you can imagine the confusion I felt when our shuttle wasn't there on time.  My grandparents, who live right next door, had a shuttle which was already there and loading their stuff.  As the time passed, I figured I better check my email to get the number to call them.  To my horror, when I looked closely at my reservation confirmation, I realized that I had booked the shuttle to pick us up THE NEXT MORNING!  Oh my gosh!  This was my first time really ever taking responsibility and booking something for a family trip, and needless to say, it was an EPIC fail.  I was mortified!  Not only did it affect my family, but my dad and brother as well.  Well, my dad was such an angel, and decided to drive us to the airport and just pay for a car to stay there.  My hero.  Does your dad ever really stop being your hero?  Mine hasn't.  Fortunately, traffic was minimal, and we were able to get there in plenty of time to make our flight.  Crisis averted...though I must say, I think my blood pressure stayed elevated that whole day!

Grayson was so precious.  He was so excited to get on an airplane.  Not just an airplane, but a "BIG ONE" airplane.  It was the only thing I could bribe him with the whole week before our trip.  I wondered how excited he would be once he realized what we actually do on an airplane.  Just sit and stay put for hours on end.  But, he did surprisingly well.  He only seemed to get ants in his pants toward the end of the flight, and lets be honest, what two year old wouldn't?  We brought him the ipad with his beloved Scooby Doo movie, and it kept him pretty entertained.  Between that, and sticking stickers all over the window shade next to him (don't worry, we got them off) he was pretty mellow.  Emma Jo was an angel as well.  Slept part of the time, and just looked around the rest of it.  She really is our angel baby.  She is hardly ever upset.  And when she does get upset, it's usually not a hard fix.  I just have to feed her or get her to sleep.  I mean, we all need to eat and sleep sometimes, so it's really not much to ask.  At the end of six hours, we arrived in gorgeous Hawaii.  Ready to start the vacation of a lifetime with my mom's WHOLE family!  How could life get any better?  

In security at the airport

Two small bums in one seat:)