Hawaii- Mason's First Trip (1/19/17-1/25/17)

David had a critical care conference in Honolulu, HI this month.  Months before the conference David asked me to come with him.  He has never been to Hawaii, and I'd been there a few times.  But, since we knew Mason would only be a few weeks old, we figured it would be a great trip for us to get away with baby Mason.  So, we booked our tickets.  If this had been my first child, I would probably have not been super excited about traveling with a 5 week old baby, but third times a charm I guess.  Mason has been the best baby and the transition to motherhood with 3 has been far better than I ever expected.  Porter is older and more mature, Jonas is a pretty easy going kid even though he is opinionated, he is much easier than Porter at this same age.

We flew Melissa out to watch the boys while we were gone and she had Jackson come along.  My boys LOVE older boys that will play rough, but they especially love Jackson and he is soooo good with them.  He is fun, kind and patient.  I knew the boys were in great hands, so I wasn't so worried when I left.

Our first night in Hawaii we spent time relaxing and walking along the beach.  The sunsets were beautiful and slowing down was nice.  We tried out a new restaurant.  The food was good.

Mason's first flight.  He was practically perfect.  Both to and from Hawaii he slept basically the entire time and only cried briefly when he wanted to be fed.  We could have not asked for a better travel companion.  David and I joke that he's living large since his first travel experience was to Hawaii.  Hopefully we didn't set his expectations too high.  On our flight out there we ran into one of David's co-workers and his wife.  The wife loves babies and she actually took Mason for part of the flight to San Diego.  Then in San Diego we were waiting at the wrong terminal and by the time we realized we were at the wrong gate, we had to run through 2 terminals to get to the right gate and barely made our flight.  Thank goodness we squeezed in at the last minute.  We flew Hawaiian Airlines and they were so friendly.  

 Mason's first trip to the beach in Honolulu.  We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  It was a great place to stay.

 I had to take a picture of the hula dancer to send to Porter.

 Beautiful sunset for our first night in Hawaii.

 We did not plan our vacation very well since David had his conference and we didn't know exactly what his schedule would be like.  So, our first full day there was a Saturday.  We wanted to go the Polynesian Cultural Center and luckily we were able to get tickets last minute.  And of course we ended up upgrading so we had a tour guide, the buffet Luau dinner and front row seats at the show at the end, "Ha"- The Breath of Life.  I love the Polynesian Cultural Center and knew David would enjoy it too.  We didn't need the guided tour, but the rest of it was fabulous.  We even took the tram ride over to BYU- Hawaii and the Laie Temple so David could see both of those sites.  We enjoyed our day, the food and the entertainment.  Once again, Mason was a gem.  I was a little worried about how he'd do during the show at the end since it was late at night, but he was soo good.  The only drawback of the whole day was I got car sick on the bus ride home and ended up throwing up about a gallon of grossness.  The upside, if you could say there is one, was that we had gotten ponchos at the Polynesian Cultural Center because it was raining and I was able to use that to catch my throw up.  Disgusting since I had to hold it the rest of the trip, but it was contained.

Picture above: David during the Fiji performance up on stage since he had a January birthday.  He got to practice some dance moves and learn some new ones.

 Parade of Floats.

Laie Temple

 
 Getting his laie before dinner.

Just chilling. 

 The view from our hotel.

 A couple of mornings I would sit at the pool for an hour or so before we headed out for the day.  This was my view.  It was a little chilly most days, so I never even put on a swimsuit.  But, being 5 weeks out from having a baby, I was okay not getting in a swimsuit.

On Sunday we went to church and that evening headed to a Boston Children's Hospital Reunion get together.  It was fun to see so many people from the Boston days.  It was amazing how many people were there.  I had a great time talking with Meredith Vanderbelt.  We mainly chatted about motherhood.

 One day we decided to rent a car and drive around the island.  We got sucked into the Dole Plantation trap on our way to the North Shore.  We took the train ride around the plantation.  This entire stop could have been passed and we wouldn't have missed a thing.  

 One of the best parts of going to a conference is running into friends from David's training years.  Merrick Lopez, Jerry Williams and Dr. Tinney from Loma Linda Residency.

 The garlic shrimp from Giovanni's came highly recommended.  It was good.

 One day I spent a couple hours at the pool reading and relaxing while Mason napped.  It was great.  I enjoyed the quiet time and getting to read.  That doesn't happen much at home.

David took a morning and went to Pearl Harbor.  I opted to stay back and sleep.  I decided I should not go home more tired than when I got to Hawaii.  I've been to Pearl Harbor twice before, so I let David go and enjoy it by himself and go at his own pace.  He really enjoyed it.  I'm glad he was able to go.  

 David and I decided to hike Diamond Head.  The view was spectacular and the hike was not challenging.

 This is another photo from the Dole Plantation.  Mason just snuggled in and enjoyed the ride.

 And even though we were hiking, Mason needed a break to eat.

We had a great trip and enjoyed some warmer weather while Utah was being dumped on with snow.  We missed our boys and were glad to get back and snuggle them.  I had been so worried about how Jonas would do, but he did fantastic.  I was so grateful for Melissa's willingness to watch the boys and taking such great care of them.