Aloha!

Well we did it, we fulfilled a dream of mine...going to Hawaii!  

We were planning on taking the kids to Italy this year, thinking that they just might be old enough for us to share with them that part of the world that is so dear to us, but...we were using airline points for the tickets and it all didn't work out as smoothly as we had hoped. 

So we started fiddling around and found that we had just enough points to go to Hawaii this year!  HELLO!  I immediately got SO excited about it and did some research and decided on Kauai for our family vacation.  Our main goal was to go somewhere and just chill-ax for a week, spend quality time together, and make some great family memories...

Day 1: 

We woke up the kids REALLY early on the morning we left, leaving DFW at 6:45am.  We got to LA to find that our flight was delayed two hours.  Yuck.  We finally got off on our way to Kauai.  A 6 hour flight with two tired and grumpy boys, feeling very smashed and totally crowded took us all a little trip to the grouchy side...but when we finally landed in Kauai, and got off the plane we could just feel ourselves start to RELAX!

We drove the hour drive north to our resort and Todd and I just kept saying to each other the whole way there, "I just cannot BELIEVE how gorgeous it is here!"  Pictures, movies, etc. could never do it justice.  It really just needs to be seen with your own eyes.  And it isn't just the scenery, it is the smell in the air...so fragrant, and the thickness in the air makes your whole body just relax.  It really is just so magical. 

We got to our resort very jet lagged and worn out from our long day of travel.  We stayed at the Westin Princeville and it was SUCH a gorgeous resort.  We checked in got a bite to eat and then went to bed at about 7:00pm Hawaii time (11:00pm our time!).   

Day 2: 

We woke up to this on day two...

We were refreshed from a good nights sleep, and SO excited to finally be there!

We decided to just have a chill day at the resort and drive around the area...

We got the boys out in the sun ASAP to start un-jet lagging them.

The resort had amazing pools and we played all morning and afternoon...

About mid afternoon the clouds starting rolling in and then began a tropical rainstorm...

it rained buckets...

But we still went out that night and went down the hill from Princeville to the town of Hanalei.  Hanalei is this beautiful LITTLE town with the MOST amazing beach we went to later in our trip...

but for this night we found our favorite restaurant of the trip, Kalypso!

We LOVED this little place, they had the BEST fish tacos!  We ate here 5 times...yes, really 5 times. 

That's it for day two, stay tuned for more updates!