From Thursday thru Sunday the girls were spoiled with a trip to Aulani the Disney Resort here on Oahu. It is an incredible place, of course because it’s Disney. They went with their dad, grandma Debbie, Cousins Tyson, Jacquie and Maddie, Auntie Mona and Uncle Brandon. And they had a serious amount of fun together! They spent their days swimming in the pools, floating the lazy river and going down the water slides. And they spent their nights having nice dinners and staying up late laughing with their family. I know Riley was cuddled a whole bunch and Keagan had a blast with Tyson. I guess Keags pulled quite the prank on Tyson with fake poop one night, but they have had a ton of fun together. Uncle Brandon bought them the cutest Hawaiian dressed Mickey and Minnie, their dad bought them light up Mickey ears, Auntie Marjorie sent the most amazing chocolate plate to their room, and Riley’s dream of meeting Moana came true!
And Grandma Debbie treated everyone to a character breakfast Sunday morning. That’s where I came in as they invited me out to the character breakfast to join them. It was SO good for my mommy heart to hug my babies and to see them hug Mickey, Minnie and Goofy! The characters dressed in their aloha wear was darling and of course the buffet was delicious and we had a ton of fun! We took pictures with Mickey on the way in and Riley was only interested in a high five then. She never warmed up to Goofy and watched his every move but she finally warmed up to Minnie and her sweet sister helped her give Minnie hugs! We also had fun with all the other entertainment and the girls loved the menehune march parade!
After breakfast we took the kids on a menehune hunt around the hotel. It was a scavenger hunt with Disney iPads that made paintings come to life, lights come out of the floor, etc. You know, just the magic that Disney does best. And then unfortunately I had to get my last hugs and kisses and leave my babies again. But so was so thankful to see their sweet faces in person and not worry about them at least for a couple hours.
The night before I had dinner with the girls Auntie Kim and met her fiancé Dave. We really enjoyed walking around the PCC market and dinner at Pounders. They are a great match and I’m so happy for them both! Sunday night the girls left Aulani to go back to their dads house and I went to one of my favorite spots in the island, Pali Lookout and to an old friends house for dinner. It was amazing to see 3 sisters and their husbands who I consider all to be good old friends and meet all of their darling kids, the Kanaheles, the Katsunos and the Bagoyos. We talked and laughed for over 5 hours until I had to finally deal with my stupid rental car drama. A part of the undercarriage of the rental car had broken and was dragging extremely loudly on the ground while I drove so instead of dying from hilarious embarrassment I took it back to the airport late at night and swapped it for another. That made for a late night and I was exhausted but had some good down time Monday while I needed to be up here on the North Shore. But unfortunately that meant I missed lunch with the girls Uncle Terry and Auntie Jean. But I was so glad the girls got to go!
Today the girls took it easy with their dad and had time to relax, play with legos and enjoy a nice tepanyaki dinner. I had a great afternoon doing a little more exploring and reading on the beach and swimming in the ocean! In fact, what I thought was a large rock on the bottom of the ocean only 3 feet from me all of a sudden popped it’s cute little turtle head out of the water and I realized I was swimming with a turtle! That made the massive sunburn I got today totally worth it! It also made me a little sore when I went to the absolutely beautiful Laie temple tonight to do a session. I took a female ancestors name to the temple and was seeking both blessings for my babies (someone to watch over them) and peace for my mommy heart. While there I fought my mixed emotions as the last time I was there was under very hard circumstances, the hardest of my life actually. But I left feeling stronger and more full of peace in Christ then I was when I went in!
To deal with all this mommy worrying and heart aching I really should have just gone to the temple everyday and that would have done the trick! But instead I did what I do best and checked things off my what to eat list! Liliha Bakery chantilly coco puffs have to top that list but all the other plate lunch is a close seconds and man do I love the spam and Portuguese sausage breakfast from McDonalds, yep you read that right!
We have 3 more days in Hawaii and since I just can’t turn my mommying off with all my worrying and missing nonsense, I’m probably going to weigh 50 pounds heavier by the time we leave here! Until then I am going to try my darndest to enjoy this very rare mommy break that I should be absolutely relishing in! I promise I am enjoying Hawaii as much as my mommy heart can, but I realize that turning the mom in me off is just downright impossible! There is no switch to flip off when you love your babies more then you love yourself. So I will just countdown until I see them again instead. I guess I’m left hoping they will be happy to see me too! Fingers crossed!
