Las Vegas and Hawaii

We just returned from a two week trip to Vegas and Hawaii. We had a family reunion in each place--Dan's fam in Vegas and my family in Oahu.

We were gone fourteen days, and I took about 14 pictures the whole time we were gone. I just never seemed to think about taking a picture, even though we were doing awesome things.

First off, I just hate taking a phone to the beach. It's a hassle. So there aren't a lot of beach pictures.

Second, I'm an airhead who loves to make lofty goals for blogging amazing trips and then doesn't do that.

So there are two things against me here.

So we left for Vegas late on a Thursday night. Dan's sister who lives in Utah and brother in California came down with their families to see us.

We played lots of games--like paint twister.

And that watery-bucket game-y thing-y.

And Aunt Diana taught my girls how to use a loom. They did this for hours and looooooooooooved it.

We had an early birthday celebration for Gwen.

We drove to our very first apartment. Ah the memories. So many scary neighbors. One jumped on my car while I was still driving when I was 8 months pregnant with June.

Not pictured in Vegas--TONS of swimming. We went to a water park and several public pools and also had an inflatable pool set up in the backyard at Grandma and Papa's.

We got together with a bunch of the young men Dan used to work with while we lived in this ward. They all brought their wives and we had dinner and discussed missions, marriages and future plans. One just had his first daughter, and another has a baby boy on the way. It was amazing.

We visited our old ward, and the lady who served as YW president when I was there is STILL the YW president. She's going on 8 years. The YW were singing a special musical number, and she brought me up to join them. Just like old times!

Our kids were terrible during church. Just like current times!

After a full week in Vegas, we headed back to the airport to board our flight to Hawaii.

I'm always super early to the airport. But my phone told me the wrong time for my flight. I should have checked the original itinerary but thought I could trust this alert which my phone picked up from my emails.

We ended up leaving later than I would have liked for the airport and then found out when we got there that the flight was actually at six, NOT six-thirty and that we had 4 minutes to check in before they wouldn't let us anymore.

It was a stressful morning, and I kinda want to go to bed just thinking about it.

Everyone was jealous of the Jolley Party Row on the plane.

And this is exactly what my girls looked like after the flight. There was no posing for this photo. We felt like death.

But Hawaii was amazing.

We stayed in a condo for a couple of days until we met up with my family and stayed in a big house my mom had rented.

These peacocks were always outside our condo.

We found these flowers in our parking lot and put them in our hair as often as we could.

We went to Pearl Harbor with the family, and I made everyone late and we almost missed our tour. Well I did miss it but it was my fault. I've kind of been off my game lately.

The temple. We try to have one of us go to the temple every month. Dan had plans to go in Vegas, but the temple was closed for cleaning. So he joined up with my brother's family and helped with youth baptisms in the Laie Temple. So beautiful.

Not pictured:

Tons of beach time, celebrating my mom's birthday, snorkeling, a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center (complete with luau), paddle boarding, eating shave ice and shrimp, a hike up Diamond Head, and staying up late watching the most embarrassing family home videos. Oh my goodness were we obnoxious. My parents are saints for putting up with us.

We took two 6-hour flights home on Gwen's actual birthday, and I have been dragging ever since. Can't seem to get back on schedule. Everyone slept on the flights except for me.

But Dan pulled it together and took Gwen out to spend her birthday money.

Guess what? It plays music! Goody goody!

It's like my kids' toys are my own punishment.

I'll see what photos Dan took from our vacation and try to do a separate post with it.

Moral of the story: Hawaii was fantastic. I hope to go back one day. Going without the kids wouldn't be so terrible either.

The End.