I was especially happy to go because I got to take and extra week and a half off of work before the winter break. Planning for a substitute is harder than actually teaching though.
So, we got packed and ready to go. The night before we slept at my parents house so that we wouldn't have to wake up as early. We had to be ready to go by 6am. Early! One of my dad and Jon-Paul's coworkers, Frank, picked us up in his limo to take us to the airport. It was nice to not have to worry about dropping off a car and leaving it at the airport for the duration of our trip.
Our pictures begin with the trip in the limo. Already Adrian and my dad are sitting together. They were completely inseparable the entire trip.
Adrian was all strapped in for his first plane ride. He did wonderfully! He didn't even seem to notice the pressure or noise from the take-off. Coloring was one activity that kept him busy for a little while. On the way there he did take a nap on me for 3 out of the 6 hour flight.
This seating arrangement was very temporary because of course Adrian wanted my dad to sit next to him. Doesn't Jon-Paul look brave?
This picture cracks me up. We were sitting in airport on Oahu waiting for our connecting flight to the big island. He's playing peek-a-boo under the Papa tunnel.
I'll add at this point it was raining on Oahu, and little did we know that we would be encountering a lot more rain when we got to Hawaii. We stayed in Kona. This is the side of the island that is known for being very dry with a lot of volcanic rock. When we landed in Kona it was pouring! The airport on Kona is all open air so we had to run out from the little plane and find baggage claim in the rain. Jon-Paul and my mom went to get the rental car while the other 3 of us sat, waited, and watched the rain. The first night was stayed in a different hotel than the time share hotel because we flew in a day earlier to save some money on the flights.
My sweet boys looking at the ocean the first morning waking up in Hawaii. I love this picture!
Trying to take one of these impossible picture with 3 people again. Of course I already have a flower in my hair. We were in Hawaii. Although I may have it on the wrong side. I forgot which side to put it on if you are taken. Oh well, I have a ring on.
We're sitting eating breakfast on the first morning. We had to check out of our one hotel and wait for check-in time for our main hotel. I had macadamia nut french toast, yummy!
On Saturday morning there was a welcome breakfast down at the pool. This is intended to welcome and provide an explanation for different activities we could do while visiting the island. The first activity we signed up for was a submarine ride. This was a picture taken by some trees while we waited to get on the boat to take us out to the submarine.
Guess who's sitting with Papa. Here we are riding the boat out to the submarine.
Awww...
This is such a great picture taken in the submarine. He didn't freak out at all. Jon-Paul on the other hand didn't get a chance to take some Dramamine and paid for it the rest of the day.
This is a WW2 boat that is laying on the bottom of the ocean. It's the kind that stormed the beaches of Normandy.
This was a sailboat that was also down there. Some lady sailed this boat all the way from Alaska to Hawaii. Then, as she was anchored in the harbor she accidentally shot of her flair gun in the cabin and it sunk. Too bad.
There's the top of the submarine.
Most sights on Hawaii are beautiful, but once in a while I would see something that was too funny. I remember on Kauai there were chickens running wild everywhere. Well, in Kona it was cats. We went to the grocery store and saw that there was actually a cat house for them. There must have been at least 20 cats in that area. We did see a woman feeding some of them.
We took our Christmas pictures while we were there and actually printed them and sent them out while we were there. This is standing in front of our hotel. Notice all the lava rocks.
Some nice man took our picture.
The big island is not the place to go if you are looking for a nice sandy beach to lay out and play in the waves. We didn't find one of those the entire trip. This was a little strip of beach but there weren't any fun swimming waves. Adrian was really brave in the beginning, and then a wave knocked him over and that was the end of that. He kept to digging in the sand from that point on.
This was a good morning picture looking off our lanai. That is one of the pools at the hotel and the ocean is visible in the distance.
Monday morning Jon-Paul and I walked to the place we had had breakfast before. I was only about a mile away. On the way back we stopped to take these pictures.
There's me.
Monday night we had a luau to go to. Once again we were taking picture for our Christmas card.
The ceremony of uncovering the luau pig.
Adrian enjoying his first luau food. Not my favorite and we had it once more on the trip.
Hey, guess who's together again. He loves sitting on his shoulder.
Picture with the cute dancers.
If we get one with the guys I guess he's allowed one with the pretty girls.
Still on his shoulder.
One morning there was a cruise ship in the harbor that we could see from our hotel.
Tuesday we didn't have any activities going on so we decided to drive to the place my parents visited in 1977 and got engaged. We drove down the south side of the island to where the volcanoes are. No one told us that the road was very curvy on the way there. We found out that Adrian gets carsick just like his father. After stopping at a gas station to hose off his car seat we were back on the road. The place is called the Volcano House. We stopped there for lunch, luau food again, and set off to explore a little bit.
The steam from the volcano.
We did a little hiking down to a lava tube. Up on the shoulder again.
Entrance to the lava tube.
Jon-Paul hanging loose in the lava tube.
Climbing out of the lava tube. It was very wet and cool in that area.
We ended up driving home on the North Side of the island because we were told is wasn't as curvy. The whole trip is 180 miles, but due to slow speed limits and stopping to eat it took about 8 hours to make the drive. Poor sick baby slept on the last stretch of the drive.
Wednesday morning we set out on our first snorkeling trip. This was the only time Adrian had a mask on. In fact, he didn't even get in the water.
We snorkeled on a reef around Captain Cook's monument. It's a popular place to snorkel.
After a couple hours of snorkeling I joined a few other people in jumping off the front of the boat. Here I am hanging loose after a jump.
Thursday we went on another snorkeling adventure, but this time we were off to swim with some dolphins. The boat we went on would normally hold 22 people, but since we were there when it was a little bit slow we ended up being the only people on the boat. It was as if we had privately charted the boat without having to pay the price. It was cool.
We spot the dolphins we would be swimming with.
I think my mask was a little bit too tight.
Adrian did feel a little bit braver and got in the water for a few seconds.
My big cheeser eating lunch on the boat.
He sat with me on the back of the boat and splashed his feet for a while.
We were done swimming with the dolphins and headed out to do some whale watching.
My mom spotted a whale!! I got a few pictures but I missed out on the big tale picture.
Thursday night Jon-Paul and I went on a dinner cruise. We had to go alone because for some reason Adrian wasn't allowed on this extremely slow moving boat. Silly if you ask me. It was probaby due to the fact that alcohol was served. This picture looks like a postcard to me. We saw a lot of beautiful sunsets, but it was always cloudy and we never saw the green flash.
There weren't too many people on this huge boat so we had to take another picture like this. Not too bad though.
And then it goes down behind those clouds.
This was the view of our hotel from the boat.
Headed back to shore after a lovely evening.
Friday morning we left the big island and flew over to Molokai. My mom's best friend's brother lives there so we stayed with his family for 3 nights. On Saturday we drove up to see the leper colony. We couldn't actually go down there because there are still a few that live there. Once the last of them die then the public will be allowed to go there.
This is the Phallic rock. Yep. I was a little bit hesitant to touch it because the last two couples that they know who have touched it are now pregnant with twins. Then I embraced my destiny and touched it.
Hiking out from the rock. This was the prettiest part in my opinion.
Jon-Paul hanging loose again.
They drove us to some of the beaches on Molokai. This was the prettiest by far, but we couldn't swim because the waves were breaking too late.
Adrian stayed away from the water and let Papa bury him.
The waves would come up unexpectedly.
We drove over to another beach and look who got buried again.
Breaking out.
On Sunday Jon-Paul and I stayed at their house and watched football. My parents and Adrian took a little hike. They hiked to the top of the big cliffs and it was apparently very wet and lush.
At the top, yay!
The small little walk way they had to hike on most of the way. Yep, on the shoulders again and most of the time.
On Monday the 22nd we headed home. From Molokai to Honolulu we flew in a plane that only held 9 passengers. Jon-Paul was a little bit freaked out but it turns out it was his favorite flight of the whole trip. 
There's me.
Monday night we had a luau to go to. Once again we were taking picture for our Christmas card.
The ceremony of uncovering the luau pig.
Adrian enjoying his first luau food. Not my favorite and we had it once more on the trip.
Hey, guess who's together again. He loves sitting on his shoulder.
Picture with the cute dancers.
If we get one with the guys I guess he's allowed one with the pretty girls.
Still on his shoulder.
One morning there was a cruise ship in the harbor that we could see from our hotel.
Tuesday we didn't have any activities going on so we decided to drive to the place my parents visited in 1977 and got engaged. We drove down the south side of the island to where the volcanoes are. No one told us that the road was very curvy on the way there. We found out that Adrian gets carsick just like his father. After stopping at a gas station to hose off his car seat we were back on the road. The place is called the Volcano House. We stopped there for lunch, luau food again, and set off to explore a little bit.
The steam from the volcano.
We did a little hiking down to a lava tube. Up on the shoulder again.
Entrance to the lava tube.
Jon-Paul hanging loose in the lava tube.
Climbing out of the lava tube. It was very wet and cool in that area.
We ended up driving home on the North Side of the island because we were told is wasn't as curvy. The whole trip is 180 miles, but due to slow speed limits and stopping to eat it took about 8 hours to make the drive. Poor sick baby slept on the last stretch of the drive.
Wednesday morning we set out on our first snorkeling trip. This was the only time Adrian had a mask on. In fact, he didn't even get in the water.
We snorkeled on a reef around Captain Cook's monument. It's a popular place to snorkel.
After a couple hours of snorkeling I joined a few other people in jumping off the front of the boat. Here I am hanging loose after a jump.
Thursday we went on another snorkeling adventure, but this time we were off to swim with some dolphins. The boat we went on would normally hold 22 people, but since we were there when it was a little bit slow we ended up being the only people on the boat. It was as if we had privately charted the boat without having to pay the price. It was cool.
We spot the dolphins we would be swimming with.
I think my mask was a little bit too tight.
Adrian did feel a little bit braver and got in the water for a few seconds.
My big cheeser eating lunch on the boat.
He sat with me on the back of the boat and splashed his feet for a while.
We were done swimming with the dolphins and headed out to do some whale watching.
My mom spotted a whale!! I got a few pictures but I missed out on the big tale picture.
Thursday night Jon-Paul and I went on a dinner cruise. We had to go alone because for some reason Adrian wasn't allowed on this extremely slow moving boat. Silly if you ask me. It was probaby due to the fact that alcohol was served. This picture looks like a postcard to me. We saw a lot of beautiful sunsets, but it was always cloudy and we never saw the green flash.
There weren't too many people on this huge boat so we had to take another picture like this. Not too bad though.
And then it goes down behind those clouds.
This was the view of our hotel from the boat.
Headed back to shore after a lovely evening.
Friday morning we left the big island and flew over to Molokai. My mom's best friend's brother lives there so we stayed with his family for 3 nights. On Saturday we drove up to see the leper colony. We couldn't actually go down there because there are still a few that live there. Once the last of them die then the public will be allowed to go there.
This is the Phallic rock. Yep. I was a little bit hesitant to touch it because the last two couples that they know who have touched it are now pregnant with twins. Then I embraced my destiny and touched it.
Hiking out from the rock. This was the prettiest part in my opinion.
Jon-Paul hanging loose again.
They drove us to some of the beaches on Molokai. This was the prettiest by far, but we couldn't swim because the waves were breaking too late.
Adrian stayed away from the water and let Papa bury him.
The waves would come up unexpectedly.
We drove over to another beach and look who got buried again.
Breaking out.
On Sunday Jon-Paul and I stayed at their house and watched football. My parents and Adrian took a little hike. They hiked to the top of the big cliffs and it was apparently very wet and lush.
At the top, yay!
The small little walk way they had to hike on most of the way. Yep, on the shoulders again and most of the time.On Monday the 22nd we headed home. From Molokai to Honolulu we flew in a plane that only held 9 passengers. Jon-Paul was a little bit freaked out but it turns out it was his favorite flight of the whole trip. Waiting in the Honolulu airport for our long flight home. It looks like he is really using the computer. Once again, Adrian did a great job on the 6 hour flight. He slept on my for 2 hours and then bounced back and forth from me and my dad the rest of the time. He did fall asleep again right as we got into Phoenix. Oh yeah, and it was raining when we got home. Apparently we bring the rain just in time to land.
It was a wonderful trip, but we were glad to sleep in our own bed. Adrian did great and turned 2 the night before we left, on the 21st. This post is long enough so his birthday pictures will come later.
