Several weeks ago Mark was planning a business trip and would be gone for about a week. Not a big deal really...except for the fact that he was going to HAWAII! I was extremely jealous, to put it mildly. I have always thought that Hawaii sounded absolutely heavenly and if I could pick one place that I would love to go, that would be it. Warm weather, beautiful water, sandy beaches, and sunshine! We toyed with the idea of me going with him, but Mark thought the trip might get moved around and we didn't have anyone to watch our kids. So I stayed home. The week started out fine. We had President's Day, and then a snow day, and then Mark left. The girls were really great. They all got along well and stepped up to help out. We simplified and planned ahead to make sure everyone got where they needed to be. And then he was asked to stay longer. Tuesday night he called and asked if I thought I could get someone to watch the girls if his company were to buy me a ticket. That was his one condition to staying an extra 6 days. My intitial thought was that he had completely lost his mind. We have 4 very busy girls and they go to 4 different schools. Just getting them to and from school everyday is a chore! I hung up and immediately got a call from my friend who was just calling to see how things were going. I explained the situation and she all but forced me into going, saying she'd take all of the girls AND the dog. The next day I worked on getting all of the laundry done and trying to figure out the scheduling. It was crazy trying to figure it out and get everyone packed up in the little time that I had. I have never left my girls and was a little apprehensive about leaving the little ones, but Thursday morning I was on a 6:00 a.m. flight to Honolulu.Mark and I have never taken a vacation together, so this was so exciting. Mark still had to work while I was there, and we did have that little tsunami warning, but we managed to spend some time together and work in some fun too.
This is the Marriott Ihilani where we stayed, with the pool and the beach just yards away. I have never stayed in a 5 star hotel or ordered room service. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the view from our balcony was breathtaking! Gorgeous sunsets!
After the tsunami warning was lifted on Saturday, we decided to drive around the island of Oahu and do some sight seeing. We watched some surfers taking advantage of some great waves at North Shore. We wanted to see BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian Culture Center. Both had been closed because of the tsunami warning and our hopes of going to a luau at the Polynesian Culture Center were ruined. We did get to walk around the Laie Temple and ran into a cousin of mine that I haven't seen for at least 20 years. He and his wife were visiting Hawaii and had had tickets for the PCC luau as well. It was a chance meeting and still has me amazed that we even stopped to talk and then recognized each other. It's a small world!
We spent a morning at Pearl Harbor, which was very cool and quite humbling to see the video shot on that morning and to imagine all that went on during those hours.
We also went to a swap meet to get some fun souveniers for the girls and then went to a luau at Paradise Cove, just down from our hotel.
Mark was in Hawaii for almost 2 weeks and never even got to the beach. I did enjoy some sun with my niece, Stacy, who lives there while Mark was at work one afternoon. Mark and I enjoyed having some time alone together and taking walks down the beach in the evenings. And the girls had a great time with the Andersen's, surviving quite nicely without their mom. We won't wait another 18 years before we do something like this again! You can call and schedule your time to come and stay with my girls!
Mackenzie at 4-years-old
