Hawaii: part one

August 15-22, 2009

Our flight left Chicago early Sunday morning for Honolulu. We spent the night at the Hyatt in Chicago. I don't have any pictures from that night before we left but I remember it being stressful. It seemed like it took us forever to even get to our hotel; we had to make a few stops (we bought a double stroller so that we would have something decent to navigate the airports and the sidewalks once we were there), we needed a bike pump to inflate the stroller's tires so we stopped at a bike shop, Henry's Crocs broke (it seemed like the end of the world then, but he was still able to wear them and it was no big deal), and once we got to the hotel there was nowhere to park for free (even for 15 minutes) while we unloaded the van and checked in (So I had to drive the van back and forth on the street in front of the hotel while Patrick checked in. This stressed me out because I hate "city" driving and feel like if I leave the same street I will definitely get lost.) Then once we got checked in to the hotel, I had to stay with the boys and the van while Patrick unloaded our things in the parking garage and then drove the van to a long term parking lot. While he was driving it there I brought the boys into the room, got them settled in and ordered them room service for dinner. I had to call to have a crib delivered for William and then give them baths only to find a single stand-up shower stall in the bathroom. When the man came to deliver the crib both boys were completely naked and wild. They ran around the teeny tiny room while he wheeled it in. Have I mentioned that William started wheezing the day before we left and when we got to Chicago I realized I forgot one vital piece of his nebulizer? Oh the sweet relaxation of vacationing with children!
We woke up the next morning at 4:00 am. I was so worried we would be late. Plus I wanted the boys to wake up early enough to be tired for the flight at 10:00 a.m. (not exactly prime sleeping time). We were on time and had everything rounded up and ready to go when our shuttle to the airport arrived. Henry was in heaven riding the "bus". The shuttle driver passed out bottled water and it might as well have been chocolate milk; the boys were thrilled. I loved watching them as we got closer to the airport and they saw the huge planes taking off and landing. They were so excited for every part of our journey. I kept thinking of the looming 9-hour flight. Nine. Hours.
We chose to fly direct instead of having a lay over in Los Angeles.
It was William's first time on an airplane and Henry's second.

Just before we boarded the plane William fell asleep in the stroller. Not exactly my plan, but I was praying that he would somehow, by way of a miracle, stay asleep once we were on the plane for an hour (maybe several hours).
He didn't. He woke up while we were finding our seats. I also hoped that another miracle would occur. One that would involve an empty seat next to us on the plane, or an entire row for just our family. That didn't happen either. There were three rows of seats on the plane separated by two aisles. Please Lord don't let us be in that middle one. But we were. We were in the middle row of 5 seats. We were in three of the 5 seats and two young college students were next to us. I said hello and I'm sorry to them in the same breath. I'm sure no one wanted to be next to us. Oh and yes, we had three seats. William was to sit on our laps. (You can laugh, it's ok. It's over now.)
The flight attendants all wore

During take off, William said "scared" and then burrowed into Patrick.

Both boys did amazingly well on the flight. I was expecting the worst, so I prepared for the worst. I packed two backpacks (one for each boy) full of special surprises, snacks, crafts and books. We did open several of the surprises and read lots of books. They also snacked a lot and drank tons of apple juice. But we survived. They napped too. And we circled around the plane several times. From our seats to the bathrooms to the flight attendants galley and back to our seats. At first I was embarrassed. I don't like to stand out and walking around with little (sometimes noisy) boys, I felt like everyone was staring-sometimes glaring at me. The first 5 hours those stares bothered me, then I started to feel like I didn't care. The countdown had begun and I just wanted to get off that plane. I would do whatever it took to get through the next few hours. Plus by then everyone was up and walking. Nine hours proves to be quite a long time for grown-ups too.

Henry playing with one of his surprises. {It's a calculator from the dollar store that looks like an I-Pod. Ha!}

Eventually the 9 hours was up. We landed in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. We were so thankful. Thankful to be there. Thankful to be out of the air. Thankful to be off of that plane! {And somewhat dread-filled at the thought of doing it again in a week. But that was a week away, so back to thankful!}It was early afternoon there even though it was already almost bedtime for the boys on Chicago time.
We were greeted with Aloha's as we gathered our luggage and boarded another shuttle and were whisked off to get our rental car. Rental car number one, everyone is loaded up (car seats and all) and our luggage won't fit in the teeny trunk. Rental car number two, everyone is loaded up (car seats and all), we fit everything! As I buckle William in I realize he has peed through his entire outfit {all of that apple juice} He's soaking wet. We're exhausted. He's crying. I change him quickly and we're off!


The Moana Surfrider
on Waikiki Beach
Honolulu, Hawaii; the island of Oahu
We've arrived! They greet us with fresh floral leis for Patrick and I and candy/toy filled leis for the boys.
I'm feeling so tired. The bed looks super cozy. It's late in reality, in Chicago at least. But, we're in Hawaii so it's
To the beach!!