August 23, 2017-Hawaii Adventure!

(click here for today's pictures)



I think that I said it yesterday, but I will say it again-there is nothing like sleeping in an interior room. Robby is trying to figure out how we can make an interior room in our house. It does help that we have some of the best Dennie sleepers in our room. Keaton and Whitman could sleep forever and sleep through anything.

Our alarm clocks rang and we climbed out of bed. The boys had already gone to breakfast with Nonna and Pops at one of the nice restaurants. Campbell and Reagan had waited to go with us at the buffet. We went upstairs to eat. While we ate, we sat and watched the lifeboats tender people to shore and we watched a submarine take a load of people out for an excursion. When we came to Hawaii when I was in college, we did a submarine and I plan on never riding in a submarine (or helicopter or plane held together with duct tape) again.

We knew the line to tender was already long this morning so we were in no hurry. After we had all eaten we moseyed to the area where they were passing out tender tickets. We had to wait there for a bit but the kids were entertained with the lady passing out color changing rings.

Soon they called our numbers and down the stairs we went. We crammed into the boat and were off just a ways to the dock. The ride was fairly calm and soon we were getting off. Each time you get on or off of the tender, there are at least 3-4 guys helping you step up. When it is a child, all of them are grabbing on to the kid. Once when Whitman was leaving the boat, the man just lifted him up and passed him to another man. Whitman said, “thanks for the ride.”

The last time that we were in Kona, we went snorkeling. This time we didn’t rent a car either and we took it a bit more leisurely. We walked along the water’s edge for a bit and then wandered around a flea market. I bought a bag and Campbell and Keaton bought little purses. The big boys found hats and we bought Whitman a shirt to wear next summer. Reagan couldn’t really find anything that she wanted.

Nonna and Pops headed back to the boat after the flea market and we pressed on down the road. When we had arrived, a lady pointed out one beach that would be good for us to swim at but the kids wanted bigger waves like in Waikiki. The bigger wave beach though was much further but it was also rocky. The kids explored it for a bit-Reagan was a bit freaked out though because a lady had said to watch out for the sea urchins and there were crabs crawling on the rocks nearby.

After a bit of time, we headed back up the hill (it was really uphill both ways) back toward the ship. The kids did great on the walk back up…because Robby was bribing them with ice cream when we made it back to town. We quickly found an ice cream spot and sat in the cool breeze. Reagan had a smoothie, Anderson and Whitman had snow cones, Keaton and Campbell picked cokes, Graham and I both had ice cream.

We were rested and headed on to the one shop that Reagan wanted to stop at. She had seen a lei that she wanted and it was on a rack that said 1.69. Robby went to pay and the lady said 15 dollars. Um, sorry, no. She was fine and we still have a few days to find her something.

We found our beach and after sunscreening everyone up, off they went. The beach was perfect to me-pretty, little waves, very shallow. Now, for my kids these things didn’t add up to perfect. They loved the Waikiki beach and nothing will ever compare to that. They still had fun swimming and were able to use their goggles to see some fish swimming nearby. Robby ran to buy some drinks for us. After a good while, we kept an eye on the tender line and when it became a bit shorter, we herded our crew towards the tender boats.
The tender didn’t take any time and soon we were back on the boat and the kids were swimming in the pools. I ran downstairs to change out of my wet bathing suit and to unpack a few our bags. Then I went upstairs to get Campbell-she was the only one who wanted to go to the ribbon lei weaving class. She changed her clothes and convinced Nonna to come along with us.

This class wasn’t as simple as the nut lei making class. This one was tough! The man explaining how to weave the ribbons did a really good job and Campbell and I were able to follow along. She did hers a bit slow but she was doing it. After I had finished mine, I helped her finish hers up. We both left with a very neat ribbon lei.

Meanwhile, the others finished swimming, played some shuffleboard and came downstairs for showers. Soon it was time for supper. We decided to eat at the buffet and everyone came out into the hallway to walk there together. I noticed that Graham had on socks with his sandals and sent him in his room to change.
Soon we were on the elevators-the grownups and Whitman ended up in one elevator and most of the kids jumped on another one. With 11 of us, there are too many to ride in one elevator. We walked through the buffet line and Campbell found us a spot to eat outside. Keaton and I saved the tables outside while Campbell went to tell everyone where we were.

The crew started arriving with their food and I headed to get my food. I was the last one at the table and they asked me where Graham was. I hadn’t seen him and no one else had either. I went inside and looked around the buffet area peering down each direction of tables hoping to see him walking around with his food. I continued to wait right in the middle where he would be able to see me.

Eventually, Pops and Jason showed up to help look. I told Pops to check the bathroom and then to check their room because that is where he would go if he was lost (we have discussed this). He was missing for at least 15 minutes and everyone else had already finished by the time Graham was found. I knew the boy has sense and would be fine but gracious me, my life span is a few years shorter.

As I was standing there in the middle of the buffet, looking for my boy he appeared. He was out of breath and a bit flustered. The first thing he said was, “Where were you?” It took me a good while to realize that while he was taking off his socks, the rest of us jumped on the elevators. He said that he waited in our hallway a long time walking up and down in front of his room.

He then said that after a while he thought that he better go upstairs to the buffet to look. He said that he decided to go up the stairs and at each spot when he heard the elevators ding, he would look in them to see if we were in them. When he did make it to the buffet, he did see me first thing in the middle looking for him. He took all of this a bit better than I did!

He made himself a plate and I started on my supper. Everyone else was already finished with theirs and ready to go. Robby took the all of the kids except Reagan off to the kids club while the I stayed back and had a few bites of a Nutella crepe that Pops had gotten for me. It was good but pretty eggy.

Then Reagan and I met Robby at the theater and watched the comedian. He was very funny and she enjoyed watching him. Afterwards, Reagan was ready to go to the kids club so we dropped her off. Robby and I then walked around a bit before ending up back in our room. I went to work on the blog and he watched some tv.


At almost 10, I picked up the kids. Campbell is usually never happy with me because she wants to stay until 10:30. I really feel like 10 is too late to be picking them up so staying until 10:30 probably won’t happen (oh, maybe on the last night). For a bit extra, I could let everyone stay until 1:30 which seems almost cruel! Of course though, my crew would absolutely love every single minute of it-if my littles could stay awake that long.

Tonight’s theme had something to do with glowing-I kept hearing about someone named Glowtron. So everyone left with glow sticks tonight. After picking everyone up, I took them all to the buffet so they could get a drink and one snack.

While we sat there, I reminded everyone that tomorrow they would need to put on all clean clothes and make sure that they have a pile of their dirty clothes because I was going to start packing. Anderson told me that he didn’t have any dirty clothes-he has just worn the same thing every day. I am not sure if he was kidding or not-I must consult the pictures to see. That is the downside of the boys staying in Jason’s room because Robby or I are not there to ensure that things are done properly. I guess Anderson wearing the same thing each day will make my laundry easier when we get home.
 

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