November 30, 2008
I can’t believe it has been a whole month since I updated this blog! The most exciting thing since then is our family trip to Kauai. So the short story is that in Aug-2007 I booked 2 condos at a resort for Scott, myself & the kids plus my sister’s family, my brother’s family & my mom & step-dad and potentially my little brother to join us for a Thanksgiving in Kauai.
Well….my sister ended up having a baby in Sept. and decided not to travel with her 2 ½ year old & 2 month old, my folks decided they could not afford to go, my brother & his wife waited too long to get cheap airfare & my youngest brother joined the Marines & wouldn’t be able to go!
So we had this extra condo that we practically tried to give away for the last few months to friends, family, friends of family, & friends of friends…with no luck!
For the record, Scott & I would NOT have planned this trip with our kids so young if we knew we would only go as our family of 4! How relaxing can paradise be if you have a 4 year old & 1 year old without gramma or a nanny to give you a break to snorkel or sleep in?
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The flight over was not too terrible except Nolan was a typical 14 month old boy who was difficult to occupy…Leah was a dream & watched her movie (thank you inventor of the portable DVD player) and slept. Nolan slept for 1 ½ hours of the 5 ½ hours of the flight….the rest of the time my awesome husband tried to keep him occupied with a few breaks from me.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Kauai at 3pm, I had a terrible migraine & felt nauseous, so Scott was left to deal with our luggage, rental car & Nolan. Leah hung out with me while Scott got the rental car. Then Scott had to go grocery shopping for a few items for dinner & breakfast the next day and diapers for Nolan to at least get us by until I felt better to go shopping the next day. We didn’t get to our condo until 6pm & I was completely useless & even had to pay homage to the porcelain god in Leah’s bathroom! What a way to start a vacation!
Thanks goodness the next day, I felt 110% better! We moved from our 1 bedroom condo into our 2 bedroom condo with a view of the ocean. The kids actually were really good, but Nolan continued to wake up at about 5:30 give or take 30 minutes each morning! (Here is where we wish grandma had come to give us a break a few mornings-would have been nice to wake up after 6:30 & hang out in the bed with my husband for a bit, sipping coffee & enjoying our gorgeous view...for the record, that did NOT happen this trip!)
The first 2 ½ days we were there-it rained quite a bit-even the locals told us it was more rain than usual) So we spent these days running to town, checking out our resort etc. We did run to the beach by our resort on Monday between storms & spent everyday but one at some beach on the island for a few hours.
We were usually back to our condo by 2pm or so for an afternoon nap for Nolan & quiet time for Leah who thought it was the coolest thing to have a TV in her room. Then we would head to the resort pool or play in the grass outside our room or poolside while Scott would BBQ our dinner. Scott or I would go snorkeling by ourselves while one of us hung out on the beach with the kids (again…we needed at least a 3rd adult!) Although a couple of times while I snorkeled-Scott came out with the kids & Nolan had a great float tube & Leah had her life vest on & he at least was able to “hang out” near me while I snorkeled.
On Wednesday we went to a great family beach that had 2 lagoons-one for small children – no deeper than 2 ½ feet & the second lagoon was probably 4 ½ feet at it’s deepest & each lagoon had a ton of fish you could swim around & was a great place for easy snorkeling
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We BBQ'd a fish (Mongchong) for Thanksgiving & ate well (mostly) the entire trip. The best part of the vacation was not having a schedule (which was the one benefit of NOT going with other people). We could get going as fast or slow in the morning as we wanted…hang out at the beach as long as we needed or wanted, eat dinner whenever. We usually eat dinner at home as a family & we did do this a few nights there-but there were a couple of nights we fed the kids early & then enjoyed a later dinner with Nolan usually asleep & Leah watching a movie.
Although I cannot call it a “relaxing” trip with young kids – it was a very leisure trip not to have any schedules. And we will return….when the kids are teens!
Now it’s back to the grind as I gear up for Leah’s 4th birthday party and then on to Christmas.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
