blessed2BaMama
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2013
6 DAYS TO DEPARTURE:
Tuesday Oct. 4: It’s hard to believe that in only 6 sleeps we will be on the plane headed to Hawaii! I wanted to give everyone a pre-trip report so that you will know us a bit before the actual journey begins! We are a family of 4- Me (Amy 48), DH (53), Sons N(12) and D(17) and we have NEVER been to Hawaii!
This whole dream vacation began in a Chick Fil A parking lot in the first week of May!
On Monday May 2, I picked up my son D (17) from a rehearsal at church. It wad been a busy season for him. He is on the worship team and they had a concert coming up. He had been there every day the previous week and had played at church the day before (Sunday) from 6am-7pm. Anyway, Monday night, we left church at 6, stopped at the Chick Fil A drive thru at 6:15 and were going to eat in the car before I was to take him to a high school guys Bible study at 7pm. He seemed really down and announced that he not going to the group because he was too tired. I pushed too hard for him to go, giving all the reasons it was best for him, (not realizing how exhausted he was from rehearsals) and he just got really frustrated and upset…This was an uncommon reaction for him…Any mom with high schoolers knows that point when your “big kid” melts and just needs that mothering like you’d do when he was little.
I changed tactics and changed subjects to de-stress the mood in the car. Hoping for a fun conversation, I asked, “D, summer is coming…if you could go anywhere on earth for a vacation, where would it be?” …expecting to hear Alaska or New York City (his favorite vacation we’ve taken so far). He thought a while and said “I have always dreamed of Hawaii- Aulani”.
And guess what? As DVC owners, on April 29th we had just banked lots of points (our first time ever banking points) for use after September…which gave us more than enough points for this vacation. I told him we’d go home and check availability. We found a 2BR Ocean View villa for 9 nights within the hour! It was a possibility but we’d need to talk with his dad and brother as this was BIG (financially and time required for DH to take vacation). I talked to DH and he agreed this would be great, so the next day we booked it! Hawaii here we come!!
All summer long I asked my questions here and faithfully have read (and still do daily) EVERY post on EVERY thread on EVERY page of this Aulani board – I recommend doing this because many times the initial topic title might not seem like what you need but then a post many posts further down will give you great ideas. I kept a notebook with a page per topic and took notes on anything I learned. I have lots of categories- beaches, hotel info, things to bring from home, Costco and shopping tips, excursions, hikes, restaurants (arranged by location) and many more…
So here we are- 6 days to departure…Alamo rental car booked thru Costco Travel, many hotel dining reservations made, all but one excursion reserved (so far we have reserved Pearl Harbor, a dolphin swim, a shark cage dive, FiaFia Luau, Kualoa Premier Movie Tour, Auntys (Fish are Friends, Coconut Kings and Queens and something else I forgot) and are waiting for our Go Oahu cards to be emailed so I can reserve the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our crew will enjoy the beach and pool activities but we are very active and plan to be out and about too!
Here is my “hard stuff” I am still fretting over…
· I am far behind on ironing so packing cannot be started
· the house isn’t ready to go on vacation (I like for it to be really clean so coming home won’t be such a letdown)
· we are still waiting on the GO Oahu confirmation # to be emailed from Costco, order placed last night at 11pm EST so it should come today
· D (DS 17) has rehearsals for student worship event in late October (2000 kids come so the team is busy getting ready)... they had a Make A Wish child fly in and come to church yesterday whose wish to meet the worship team (she loves their albums) so that was a fun/busy/emotional event for him
· N (DS 12) has 3 soccer games – One last night, one tonight (Tuesday) and another Friday and we are praying for no injuries
· Hurricane Matthew is predicted to pass near NC- it shouldn’t affect us inland but as we leave on Monday, we hope the flights wont backup over the weekend…
· Gotta arrange for my parents to feed the outdoor cat (haven’t asked them yet) and then I must take indoor kitten to the boarding place on Saturday.
· And I homeschool both sons!
I bet you are already bored but I wanted to introduce myself and will update this as we get closer to travel and during and after the trip! Aloha!! Amy (off to do a load of laundry)
Tuesday Oct. 4: It’s hard to believe that in only 6 sleeps we will be on the plane headed to Hawaii! I wanted to give everyone a pre-trip report so that you will know us a bit before the actual journey begins! We are a family of 4- Me (Amy 48), DH (53), Sons N(12) and D(17) and we have NEVER been to Hawaii!
This whole dream vacation began in a Chick Fil A parking lot in the first week of May!
On Monday May 2, I picked up my son D (17) from a rehearsal at church. It wad been a busy season for him. He is on the worship team and they had a concert coming up. He had been there every day the previous week and had played at church the day before (Sunday) from 6am-7pm. Anyway, Monday night, we left church at 6, stopped at the Chick Fil A drive thru at 6:15 and were going to eat in the car before I was to take him to a high school guys Bible study at 7pm. He seemed really down and announced that he not going to the group because he was too tired. I pushed too hard for him to go, giving all the reasons it was best for him, (not realizing how exhausted he was from rehearsals) and he just got really frustrated and upset…This was an uncommon reaction for him…Any mom with high schoolers knows that point when your “big kid” melts and just needs that mothering like you’d do when he was little.
I changed tactics and changed subjects to de-stress the mood in the car. Hoping for a fun conversation, I asked, “D, summer is coming…if you could go anywhere on earth for a vacation, where would it be?” …expecting to hear Alaska or New York City (his favorite vacation we’ve taken so far). He thought a while and said “I have always dreamed of Hawaii- Aulani”.
And guess what? As DVC owners, on April 29th we had just banked lots of points (our first time ever banking points) for use after September…which gave us more than enough points for this vacation. I told him we’d go home and check availability. We found a 2BR Ocean View villa for 9 nights within the hour! It was a possibility but we’d need to talk with his dad and brother as this was BIG (financially and time required for DH to take vacation). I talked to DH and he agreed this would be great, so the next day we booked it! Hawaii here we come!!
All summer long I asked my questions here and faithfully have read (and still do daily) EVERY post on EVERY thread on EVERY page of this Aulani board – I recommend doing this because many times the initial topic title might not seem like what you need but then a post many posts further down will give you great ideas. I kept a notebook with a page per topic and took notes on anything I learned. I have lots of categories- beaches, hotel info, things to bring from home, Costco and shopping tips, excursions, hikes, restaurants (arranged by location) and many more…
So here we are- 6 days to departure…Alamo rental car booked thru Costco Travel, many hotel dining reservations made, all but one excursion reserved (so far we have reserved Pearl Harbor, a dolphin swim, a shark cage dive, FiaFia Luau, Kualoa Premier Movie Tour, Auntys (Fish are Friends, Coconut Kings and Queens and something else I forgot) and are waiting for our Go Oahu cards to be emailed so I can reserve the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our crew will enjoy the beach and pool activities but we are very active and plan to be out and about too!
Here is my “hard stuff” I am still fretting over…
· I am far behind on ironing so packing cannot be started
· the house isn’t ready to go on vacation (I like for it to be really clean so coming home won’t be such a letdown)
· we are still waiting on the GO Oahu confirmation # to be emailed from Costco, order placed last night at 11pm EST so it should come today
· D (DS 17) has rehearsals for student worship event in late October (2000 kids come so the team is busy getting ready)... they had a Make A Wish child fly in and come to church yesterday whose wish to meet the worship team (she loves their albums) so that was a fun/busy/emotional event for him
· N (DS 12) has 3 soccer games – One last night, one tonight (Tuesday) and another Friday and we are praying for no injuries
· Hurricane Matthew is predicted to pass near NC- it shouldn’t affect us inland but as we leave on Monday, we hope the flights wont backup over the weekend…
· Gotta arrange for my parents to feed the outdoor cat (haven’t asked them yet) and then I must take indoor kitten to the boarding place on Saturday.
· And I homeschool both sons!
I bet you are already bored but I wanted to introduce myself and will update this as we get closer to travel and during and after the trip! Aloha!! Amy (off to do a load of laundry)
Can't wait to read more!
