The Ray's: Hawaii Family Vacation

Our Hawaii vacation was set to stay at the Aulani which is a Disney Resort in (Oahu) Ko Olina, Hawai‘i. We own a Disney timeshare and decided to cash in our points for this awesome resort.

Getting to Hawaii... Got to the airport around noon for our 2:00 flight. Took a photo before we got on the plane and after. But we got all excited to leave for nothing!

We had a Horrible start to the vacation we were so excited to start! We were suppose to leave at 2:00 but after plane trouble we didn't leave Phoenix until 7:15pm. The plane's air stopped working after we backed out of the terminal. They had to fix it, it was taking forever so had us get off. Then got back on later and it broke again after we backed out of the terminal. They announced we will just use another plane so we had to wait an hour for a new plane. We loaded the planes 3 times and that's not a fast process. I was so upset I really wanted to cry because a whole day was wasted at the airport. I wanted to have fun once we got to Hawaii and let the vacation begin but we just sat at a airport. My kids were so frustrated and getting mad at us like we planned this. Once on the flight the kids fell asleep which made the trip nice. But we didn't get to our hotel until midnight. We were so tired because it was really 3:00am AZ time. I never want to fly US Airways again.

After checking in we got to our room and found this. They did it since our 14 wedding anniversary is soon. Nice end to a crazy and long day. Then I was off to bed.... it was only 4:30am (AZ time)

Day 1 - It was a great day. Started by getting the kids registered at the kids play house so we can drop them off whenever we want while here. Took Hayden and Emmie back to create Stitch ' s Goo. We went with Paxton to Costco to stock up on some food (we have a full kitchen) and to buy everyone snorkeling gear (paid as much as we would pay to rent it once and we get to keep it and use it as many times as we want). Went to lunch at a little hole in the wall Hawaiian restaurant (similar to what you would find at Moki's or Ono's). It was very yummy! We came back to the hotel and went swimming (our hotel has a lazy river, a couple of slides, a play area for the kids, plus a "normal" pool). We played around for a couple of hours and then walked to the beach (just on the other side of the pool) for a bit. Came back to the hotel for a little rest, some people napped. Then to another hole in the wall pizza joint, again very yummy! Hayden and Emmie wanted to go back to Aunty's beach house before bed and Aaron, Paxton and I went back to the hotel so Paxton could sleep. He was so tired that he fell asleep during dinner.

While the kids played Aaron and I ran to Costco for some food, water for our room and Snorkel Stuff so we didn't have to rent any.

Pool time!

Filling up our "all you can drink" mugs

Every Disney vacation one of our kids falls asleep at dinner. This vacation is no exception.

Day 2- It is Sunday so we wanted to take it easy. We made reservations to take the kids to Pearl Harbor. But had hours before we could go so the kids wanted to go to the kids area at Aunty's Beach house. They absolutely love this place and so do we. Our kids get to play and have fun and we get a break.

(Written by Aaron) Day 2 was nice. We sent the kids to kids play house for a couple of hours this morning and then went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was a really hot and humid day so being outside was a little unbearable. Hayden really seemed to soak everything in and seemed interested in what happened there. Emmie & Paxton not so much. Afterwards we want to the outlet mall about 15 minutes from our hotel room. There wasn't a good selection of stores and there weren't many great deals so we didn't really buy much. When we were done there we were pretty exhausted so we came back to the hotel to rest for about an hour. We then sent the kids back to the play house and Tami and I went to eat dinner. Not an exciting day but a pretty good Sunday. Tomorrow we are going to try the North Shore.

Paxton attending the morning toddler Aloha party

I love how much they take care of the kids. Each kid wears a wrist band with a tracking device. Not that they can just leave but the beach house is pretty big and this way they can even track them down.