We had a glorious time in Hawaii, just wonderful! This was our first (of many I hope) family vacation that was more than a weekend trip. This was Steve's and my first extended vacation since our honeymoon, 10 years ago! To sum it up, it was an overdue vacation.We left on a Wednesday on a brief 5.5 hour flight to Honolulu, Oahu. We had stressed over Andy being the defiant child on the flight yelling and kicking, and while there was one, it wasn't ours. The power on a Nintendo DS and DVD player (oh yeah, and the nap helped too). Both kids were a breeze and made a great start to a great trip. We landed in Oahu before noon, and had to get our rental mini van. The time it took to get our van was half as long as our flight... and that's no lie. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the first few hours in paradise, but whatever, right? We got to our hotel in Waikiki and the kids were kicking off their clothes and getting into their swim trunks before the door was completely shut. Our hotel (like many) was right now the beach and the hotel had beach towels (yeah) and we were on the run. The kids went full blast into the salt water, mouth opened and all. While Jake being the more mature older child was able to handle his mouth full of salt water better, Andy on the only hand had a full on fit. Ran out of the water and threw up right beside a very beautiful lady. Did I mention he had fruit punch just before we went into the water? Not to be mean, but the look on this ladies face was priceless. While I felt bad, what do you do? Well, what I did was kick some sand over it and went about my afternoon. Phew, that was just the first afternoon...
We were in Oahu for 5 days. In those 5 days we went to the Polynesian Culture Center which was a delightful day trip. I highly recommend it to anyone who can afford a day away from the beach. We did the whole experience where we visited each island's center, luau, and show.
PCC was on the other side of the island from where we were staying so we had a beautiful scenic drive to the PCC. One place we stopped off at was Chinamen's hat (very top picture). Here are some other pictures from our trip to the PCC and at the PCC:
The other place we visited was the Dole plantation and learned all you ever needed to know about how pinapples grow and how they are harvested. We did little train ride there (for Andy) and Jake and Steve did the largest human maze ever. Andy and I went in and well, it was big and it was hot that day. Water and shade was more our speed. :)
The rest of our days were spent lounging by the beach and shopping. It was all very relaxing. 
This concludes our trip in Oahu. I'll be writing a follow up with our stay in Maui.
