He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
So, I’m not totally crazy. When my husband suggested taking a family trip to Oahu for 12 days, my initial reaction was to cringe. I asked my friends. Am I weird? Am I super ungrateful to not want to go to Hawaii? Who doesn’t want to take a Hawaiian vacation?! But, now that we are gratefully back home, I realize that I wasn’t crazy to feel a bit of dread and anxiety at the thought of attempting our adventure.
Other than just wishful thinking, I agreed to go to Hawaii because I didn’t think my husband would have taken 12 days off from work to stay home and chill out with us. So, ultimately, the best part of our trip was that we were together. It was all in all, an "experience." The trip could not really be described as relaxing or even that much fun. It was stressful and tiring, but it was completely hilarious (in retrospect) and a learning experience. I see in retrospect that I’m not crazy. I was able to laugh a lot and learn a lot and I’m 1,000x more grateful for my home and family, but I realize that I wasn’t weird to cringe.
It all started when my parents decided to spend their first Christmas in Houston with my brother’s family. When Ryuta found out, he said,” Well, if they aren’t here, we should go somewhere!” We looked at possibly going to Japan for the New Year, but it was too expensive. A trip to Oahu was slightly more affordable and what a great way to rack up our miles!
The flight over was filled with Kai insisting on sitting on his daddy’s lap (and he was glued there for the 12 days following), Kai kicking the back of his neighbor’s chair, Kai telling us how he wanted to go back home, not having enough food to eat on our flight. Lukas slept for part of it. Kai did not. Gratefully, we got there safely.
The good, the bad, & the ugly. Such is life.
Here are some good, bad, & ugly moments from Oahu:
The GOOD:
*We got to eat lots of yummy food such as Kua’aina burgers, Teddy’s teriyaki burgers, shaved ice @ Aoki’s & Waiola, Gyukaku, Korean bbq (twice!), ahi poki, sushi (twice!)
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| @ Gyukaku: Kai surprisingly kept running away.. |
*I had 20 minutes of peace walking in the sunshine on the beach in Ka’a’awa while the kids hung with Ryuta @ the playground.
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| Sign reads: "School property. No loitering. No trespassing." I thought this looked funny to me as my husband was sleeping on the slide holding the baby looking like some bums. hehe |
*We got lots of great souvenirs such as shirts from Aloha Stadium, 14 boxes of mac nut chocolates (!!!), Hawaiian decals. Ryuta got a funny hat and license plate holder that say,"I not late. I stay on hawaiian time."
*Kai & I built 2 sand castles (this was a huge deal since Kai is scared of the ocean and freaked out anytime we’d even suggest going on the SAND!)
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| "For Tutu" (Mom asked Kai to build her a castle.) |
*Kai touched the ocean ONCE.
*I had LOTS of opportunities to tickle Kai (the agreement was that if he whined, said anything negative, or acted like Oscar the Grouch, he’d get tickles.)
*I sat in the back of the car with my kids A LOT. And didn’t get car sick.
*Ryuta’s old boss, Azuma, was very generous & kind to us with dinner & a stay @ her beautiful condo.
*I got to attend church services at UH. I REALLY like our Oahu church!
* Other than long car rides, Lukas was the perfect traveler!
*Despite eating LOTS of white rice, I didn’t gain any weight from our trip! Yay!
*We met Mickey & Minnie @ the Aulani Disney Resort (that place is AMAZING.)
*We did NOT lose our rental car keys.
*We got to stay at a nice, clean hotel in a great location.
*The parking lot guy liked Ryuta because we used to be locals and so hooked us up with free parking!
*We got to take pictures with our kids in the place where we met and where we got married.
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| @ the Kahala hotel. Good job doing your shaka, Kai kai! |
* We have lots of hilarious memories.
*Kai got to spend lots of time with his daddy.
*Kai & Lukas had a number of nights that they played and giggled together. I cherish these moments.
* We were together.
THE BAD & THE UGLY:
*Kai reminded us daily that he did not like Hawaii & wanted to go home. “I don’t like Hawaii.. I want to go home.. I don’t like it.” (Oscar the Grouch got a million tickles.) “Oh wow, Kai. Look out the window. Isn’t it beautiful?!” “No.”
*Kai built his walls wherever we went. @ GG’s place, @ the restaurant, @ the hotel. He got obsessive about building a wall out of a straw beach mat. On the morning we were packing up in our hotel, he screamed for a couple of hours because his “wall” kept falling down.
*We had our hands very full during meals. Lukas sat on my lap while Ryuta fed him baby food. Kai, for some reason, refused to sit by himself and sat on daddy’s lap for almost every meal.
*It rained about 80% of the time. We spent a lot of time in the car trying to find somewhere pleasant and dry. Lukas HATES being in the car and screams, so I spent much of my energy trying to appease to him and calm him down.
*On New Year’s Eve, the neighbors directly behind my grandma’s cottage had a BIG fireworks party. It felt like World War 3. They shot off large fireworks most of the evening and did a grand finale at 12. They got really excited again around 2am. This would have been fine if our boys were bigger and liked fireworks. However, I submitted myself to not getting sleep, blasted a musical concert on PBS TV, and tried to keep the boys calm. In that sense, I miss the calm. peaceful New Year in Japan.
*We lost our rental car keys (thankfully, Ryuta found them.)
*Ryuta slammed Kai’s hand in the car door.
*All of the guys got congested. Runny noses and boogers for 2 weeks.
*Kai wet the bed twice.
*Lots of laundry plus no dryer plus rain.
*Kai fell out of the hotel bed at 2:30 am and screamed for an hour that he needed to leave. (Ryuta later found him at 4 am dead asleep upside down on a chair. I WISH he got a photo!)
*After a long walk around Waikiki, with kids asleep in ergo and stroller, standing at a red light just across the street from our hotel, getting hit by a downpour of rain. We could only scream and laugh.
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| This is us before the rain hit. We're taking a picture in front of the place where we first met. |
*When we finally landed at SFO (Kai fell asleep just 5 minutes before landing. Typical!) we were so relieved and happy. We had never been so glad to leave Hawaii and be back home to my parents, lots of clean carpet space for the baby, the kids’ books and toys, the baby’s high chair and jumper. However, right when we thought we had it all.. we had all of our luggage and my dad was ready to pick us up, the airlines misplaced Kai’s car seat. They told us that the car seats were gate-checked (although we checked them in with our luggage) and Ryuta had to go back through security to our gate to get them. We spent 90 minutes waiting and trying to figure out where the car seat was or trying to locate a loaner seat. They finally found it and we finally made it home.
We learned and realized a few things.
1. If and when we make a big trip again with small children, travel with grandparents. Also, do a shorter stay at a resort.
2. Getting a dog might be better than having a 3rd baby.
3. Weekend getaways may be better than big trips.
4. You can’t force a kid to be a good traveler.
The end.
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