Forever and Always

oh man. two postings in one day. things are getting all sorts of cray cray up in herrrr. well, we came home from mexico saturday night, around 11:30 and then hopped on a plane sunday morning around 8:00. that was interesting. remind me never to do that with greysen ever again. the girl who had to sit next to him decided to come on a flight to hawaii with nothing, literally no headphones, phone, cd player, kindle. nothing. and she was less than pleasant about us when i overheard her venting after she got off the plane. i say it's her fault for being an idiot but whatevs. i digress. i will say that our children were exceptional on all of our plane rides, except for greysen on the one here, which is to be expected. they far exceeded my expectations on all of them. it's amazing what ipods/ipads/tv/kindles/phones/candy/juice can do to entertain them. i heart technology. and special treats.

it took us a few days to get into the time zone here, and unfortunately greysen and i ended up pretty sick. mine only lasted a day or so. but as to be expected.... his made him pretty miserable for the majority of the trip. little stinker. so, we took it easy for the first few days, venturing to the beach and pool, relaxing and recovering from the five hour time change.

hawaii is my scene. i love that it's still america. i can go to target. people speak english. i like that. it's so clean too. i vote that for our next wild getaway without children, that will unfortunately not happen any time soon.

we spent the majority of our beach time at the lagoons. they were perfect for the kids-- no waves, shallow and perfect sand for building sand castles.

sidenote: prepare for picture overload. i didn't take any in mexico and then decided to try and overcompensate in hawaii so i have hundreds on my camera.

looking at these pictures after bedtime just makes me swell with love. i love my little kiddies so much and being able to share adventures like these with them. i especially love them when they are happy. {ahem. greysen}

we went to pearl harbor one day and had an amazing time. it honestly might have been my favorite part of the trip because zak was in heaven there. he could have stayed there several hours more exploring everything, but greyen was trying to pass out on levi so we figured we'd better go.

they are just so adorable together.

until this. because for some reason greysen hates holding hands with zak with a burning passion. it makes me a little sad because they're supposed to be BFF's, but that little brother has a mind of his own.

zak was so sad he couldn't go on the submarine because he wasn't big enough. luckily for him his parents felt bad for him and forked up the money to go on the big battleship.

he also love the torpedoes. i feel like he's such a boy here. i remember coming here in high school like "ehh. cool bombs" and this kid was all over hearing everything about every ship, gun, torpedo, army guy. it was so fun to watch him be interested in everything.

greysen fell and scraped up his knees for the 900th time this trip because he refuses to hold hands, and they were pretty gruesome. and that pretty much ruined him for the rest of the day. he basically snuggled on levi like this all day because he didn't want to walk anywhere.

he could have played with this gun all day. literally. best thing ever.

it was great being able to show levi a lot of this stuff, since he's never done any american history before. it's kind of my secret passion. i totally aced my AP us history exam in high school because i'm a nerd like that and love it so much.

and of course we could not be in hawaii without shaved ice. zak thought it was the most amazing thing ever.

and this is how greysen felt about everything. poor kid was miserable our entire trip.

we snagged the perfect spot at the back of the boat to the arizona memorial which lead to some amazing pictures. i was pretty stoked.

zak was the first one off. he was not nearly as impressed with the memorial as the battleship, but that's ok. how can it compare when it doesn't have giant guns?

holy cow. i have waaaay too many pictures of this part of our trip.

zak was a swimming machine the whole time we were there. all he wanted to do was swim in the ocean, swim in the pool, swim in the hot tub. it was great! he loved the ocean and i'm so glad, because that means we can all enjoy it together! and by enjoy it, i mean they can get in the ocean and i can lie in the sand and take a nap all by myself.

we ventured to waikiki one day to explore the touristy parts. the boys looooved the koi fish.

and saw the weird old man with the parrot i paid three dollars to take a picture with. yes zak, i am the nicest mom ever after you begged me to do it. greysen was in heaven! that kid loves himself some animals.

we also decided another day we'd go to north shore to see the legit surfers and legit waves. it was the most fabulous beach. i could have spent five days just lying there in the sun. ahhhhh.

i felt like such a legit photographer with this picture. boom baby. woah. the usage of the word "legit" just became a little too much. so sorry.

i just wanna squish this kid. he had such a great time on our vacations.

and then there's greysen. still so pleasant.

love my little family. they're all just so handsome. let's only have boys mmmkay? because i'm pretty sure if we have a girl she's gonna get the super weird genes from both of us.

it amazes me how huge the waves are so close to shore. we didn't let the kids in the water for fear of them never coming back. plus, the life guards were super anile about children near the water anyways.

ohhhh. we're getting happier.

oh look! no clothes! that makes everything better!

it was so great having levi all to ourselves for two whole weeks. it had been a whole year since he had any type of break. everything was devoted to externships, board exams, more externships and other boring things. i'm so glad we're finally on the downhill slope!

after north shore we went to the dole plantation for ice cream. because how can you pass up pineapple whip??

i had no idea pineapples grew on the ground. surprise!

this was one moment where greysen somewhat accepted hand holding.

of course zak was dying to go on the train. we bribed him with ice cream to not do it because the wait was an hour.

and that ice cream was serious business. they were disgusting afterwards.

phew! i think we made it to the very end! so. things i learned in hawaii:

1. i'd pick hawaii over mexico when traveling with kids. much more family friendly.

2. zak needs friends. he tried to swoon anyone who looked under the age of 16 to play with him every time he saw them.

3. greysen is a homebody. that kid was so excited to be home, i don't think i've ever seen him as happy as he has been the last two weeks.

4. hawaii is expensive.

5. i want to go to the disney resort there bad.

6. i love the beach. so much. it makes me feel so rested and refreshed. i honestly could have sat on the beach every day and be totally happy with our trip.

7. apparently it is not socially acceptable to go to the movies while you are in hawaii. learned that from friends who judged us for doing that on our night out. noted!

8. most hawaiian food is oddly delicious.

9. pretty sure i need a house there. and to go back without children.

10. i could use some pineapple whip now.

we had such an amazing amazing two weeks over christmas. it was so nice to spend time with family as well as with our own little family, since who knows when levi will have time off again when he {hopefully} starts his residency program in june? we have been blessed with awesome families who are nice enough to pay for us to do fun things with them, so thank you thank you!!

and to end this ridiculously long post with pictures you've already seen on facebook: my favorite.