Living in Putin's Backyard ~ Our Adventures in Mother Russia

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Vacation Pt 2 - O'ahu Hawaii

We spent a week in California and a week in Hawaii. We stayed at the Disney Resort, Aulani which is in the Ko'Olina Resort with the Marriott Hotels and Vacation Club. It was a little ways from Honolulu but it was obviously super kid friendly and really was beautiful resort.

Kids got Lei's when we entered. It was cute

Little photo op while we are waiting to check in

My little ducks

This is the courtyard of the resort complete with a lazy river, that mountain peak is two slides - one single rider in the complete dark without a tube and the other single or double with a tube. Kids did both and loved them. Several pools and a kids water / play structure

This was amazing. So much for the kids to do and we rented a cabana for the week which was right next to this. Our room was less than a minute walk on the 1st floor so we really did have prime real estate!

In not lying... THIS is what CJ did for 5 days. Waded in the water like little baby water buffalo

They are all so close in age and they sure do fight but man... they do love each other, play well, protect and watch out for each other :-) Melts my heart. Ash is going to be very fortunate to have these two boys on her side later in life!

Time for sun bathe

Falls asleep in the sun just like his mom and aunt

Lets have a talk about this picture shall we.... I took Ash on the slide and when I returned by mother in law informed me that this little girl took Mike and CJ by the hand and was relocating them. There were brought back to our line of sight and she stayed with them the rest of the day. Mike kept telling me about his new "friend"! She was really sweet with the boys. It was cute! When it was time for her to go she came over and gave Mike and CJ a big hug.

She loves the sun too - I'm in trouble!

We had breakfast with Chip, Dale and Minnie this morning and she let me to her hair in a nice sideways french braid (Like Elsa in her words) donned with a Hibiscus Bow.

As per usual... CJ hated characters... He found enjoyment watching fish :-)

After breakfast I took Ash out on the paddle boards. She did so well last summer in NY that I did not think twice before renting one here. She has a great center of balance and actually paddled us for 15 minutes.

Lagoon view of the resort

Haha I told her time was up and we had to go back in. Mild melt down and this is her pouting / sun bathing :-)

The next day we took a tour around Downtown Honolulu and Pearl Harbor (that will be a blog entry all by itself)

This is part of the cityscape and the mountain peak is Diamond Head volcanic cone.

Aloha Stadium - Home to the NFL Pro Bowl

This is the Pacific National Cemetery. I really wanted to get out and walk around but there has been a bunch of vandalism so tours are not permitted to walk around the monuments.

Hawaiian Government Building - Statue of St Damien

On Saturday, our friend Aleena (who lives in Honolulu) came to visit Will and I and meet the kids. We were stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with Aleena and she was my room mate for a couple of years. We met her fiance Lee, super awesome guy.... Aleena, if your reading this.. He's a keeper :-) We hadn't seen each other in close to 6 years so it was great to catch up. They are world travelers and are planning a trip to Sapporo, Japan. That's a hop, skip, and a jump for us so hopefully everything pans out and we meet them there.

Cori and Tamer with their niece and nephews before we left to go home. My kids enjoy Cori and made a new best friend out of Tamer :-)

And this is where we say goodbye! Sadly our trip came to an end and we had to head back home. Until next time... Next trip is scheduled for April 2015 and the 5 of us are taking on Australia!!

Vacation Pt 1 - Manhattan Beach, California & Disney

We took a 2 week vacation over the holidays (well Russian Holiday season). We left Yuzhno on December 30 and came back on January 13. Our first stop was Manhattan Beach, California just southwest of downtown LA. Kids were excited to get to CiCi and PaPa'a beach house :-) Although, we never did go to the beach. It was rather chilly and I thought that coming from close to 0 degrees F, 40 and 50 would be HOT... Nope... Not so much. It was still cold!

We had six hours in the Tokyo airport so we sat with a view to the runway - This is Mike showing us how planes fly

She was bored and so was mommy :-)

We had the fortunate pleasure of getting to see Will's grandmother the 1st day we were in. Our New Years Eve was pretty low key. Will and I went out for sushi. I live just north of Japan and at one point this portion of Sakhalin Island belonged to the Japanese so I can really have sushi whenever I want and it is really good so you would think that being back in America, I would want something different.. Nope.. Sushi it was. We got back from dinner and poor Mike kept asking if her could go to bed. It was only 630pm so I told him to wait a little bit longer. That answer was not good enough. This is where I found Mike 5 minutes later :-)

We stayed in and rang in the new year with my in-laws playing cards with the help of vodka, scotch, wine, and champagne :-) Oh and did I mention that Will and I woke up 5 1/2 hours later and took Ash and Mike to Disney? Meanwhile CJ was nice enough to sleep in until 9 or so and let my in-laws sleep in a little bit. Lord knows that was the last time any of my kids let ANYONE sleep past 6am!!!

I was really impressed with Disneyland this time of year. Everything was so beautiful and Christmasy!

I was determined to get my kids on Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain. I thought for sure Mike would pass but I was 1/2 inch too short.. Boo Hoo! Will took Ash and she apparently hated the whole thing. I also took her on the Star Wars ride and she hated that one too. Ashlynn's MO is when we wait in line and she decides she does not want to ride anymore, she gets very theatrical with "I have to go potty!!!" I quickly realized that she does not ever have to go but is just scared. Poor kid. She overcame her fears and enjoyed the rest of the day.

One of the kids that I most enjoyed was the Haunted Mansion. It is usually the same old theme but for Christmas, they changed it up with Nightmare Before Christmas. My kids LOVE Jack Skellington and this movie. They were thrilled! I was impressed as well. It turned out quite nice.

We got them Nightmare Before Christmas themed hats. The red eyes on Mike's glow in the dark.

In line or Pirates of the Caribbean - Ash singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirates life for me"

Last July my in-laws treated the family to a trip to Disney and Miss Ash walked away with the typical blue winter Anna dress - in 80 degree weather she choose to wear long sleeves. In January, when it is 30 out Ash wants the cap sleeve coronation dress. She also scored the Elsa dress. Its possible I went overboard but she is my little lady and felt like spoiling her :-)