It’s hard for us to believe, but we’ve been here for a week and our vacation is ending. In the morning, we’ll load our 87,000 items back onto a plane and return to Los Angeles. To help prep Annabel for the post-vacation blues, I’ve been reminding her that this week is going to be really fun: a field trip on Tuesday and Halloween on Thursday. Yesterday she woke up asking how many days until the pumpkin patch, and after I told her she said, “I can’t wait!…But I’ll miss Hawaii!!!!” I feel the same way.

When you take out travel time, we had six and a half days here, which is a lot but at the same time, not nearly enough. On Thursday, we celebrated my mom’s birthday. We surprised her with a massage and then took her out to a nice dinner.

Birthday dinner!

There is a gorgeous beach in Kahana directly off the property we were staying at that we went to the first few days we were here, but on Friday and Saturday we branched out. On Friday we went to a spot in Napili that my family has frequented in the past, and on Saturday we went to the beach in Lahaina.

Annabel made friends everywhere she went. Most of the time that worked out well, and Annie had playmates to dig in the sand and chase waves with. James was the best baby. His skin is soooooo pale, so I slathered him in SPF 1,000 and covered him with shorts, a hat, and a rash guard. If he wasn’t under an umbrella, he rolled around in his shaded tent.

beach baby

My parents and aunt were wonderful and offered to watch the kids one night, so Mike and I were able to go out to dinner just the two of us. We had an amazing meal while we watched the sun set over the island of Molokai. And of course, no date night is complete without shave ice!

shave ice!

We are now all obsessed with shave ice. We might have bought shave ice every day, and I might be a little worried that Mike is going to have serious shave ice withdrawals.

loves his shave ice
He is hugging his last shave ice goodbye…

I think a highlight for me was taking James in the ocean for the first time. My mom was surprised that he hadn’t been in the ocean in California, but the timing was never right. Annabel was sooooo excited.

James' first time in the ocean

James was like, “Whatever, dudes.” Maybe someday he’ll think it’s cool that the first time he touched the ocean, he was in Hawaii.

Spohrs in the Ocean
If you look at my left leg, you’ll see the bugs found me…again. They always do.

When we wake up, we’ll throw the last of our things in our suitcases and say goodbye to this beautiful place. This has easily been one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on, and I am so thankful. I’m sad to see it end but I’m hopeful that my family can turn this trip into a new tradition and we’ll be back soon (next time with my cousin Leah and her fiance, Ted!). Mahalo, Hawaii!