I meant to publish this post this morning, but we woke up this morning to find out we had been exposed to head lice (YUCK!) and my mission became that of pro-active damage control. I vacuumed my ENTIRE house, stairs and basement included. Then changed every ones pillowcases and bedding. Not exactly what I thought Id be doing today, and my head has been itching, though there is nothing in my hair-Thank you God :) But on the up side, my house is VERY clean and that is never a bad thing.
ON OUR WAY: Our plane left at 10:30am but Joe's mom arrived at 6:15 to take us to the airport. We left with 5 carry on bags, 1 bag to check and 1 car seat bag. We had to check one because we had to bring along the only sunscreen that Joe can use without an allergic reaction and we needed a lot of it AND you can't carry that on. So we had 1 bag each and 1 backpack each. Here are the kids with their stuff :) I had prepared them for what may happen at the Security checkpoint. Especially Cam. I needed him to be prepared to remove his shoes and put down his backpack etc.
As I said before I left I was totally petrified to fly, but didn't want to project that onto them. Keegan and Delaney were nervous themselves. We stopped and had breakfast after getting through security and I enjoyed a nice cheap-o bottle of champers :)
I told my friend that I was going to be really pissed if we crashed and Cook's was the last champagne I got to drink :)
I am REALLY glad we left early. I felt at ease to take our time getting through the airport, we finished our meal, had enough time to get the kids in the bathroom and situated. 
SEATING ARRANGEMENTS ON THE PLANE:
We got to be part of the "pre-boarding" process because Maddie is only 2 :) Thank you! I knew Delaney and Cam could NOT sit together. We had almost the whole row. The seats were 2-3-2 so we had put Keegan and Cam together in the window-aisle. Then Maddie, Delaney and I sat in the 3. Joe got to sit by himself on the other side of the other aisle. We had activities and snacks in their packs. Coloring, video games and movies on our iPhones and my iPad. I'm glad that we ate right before we left they did NOT like the spinach manicotti on the plane :) They were definitely ready for a pre-dinner snack and WAY ready for dinner once we got to it. They ate EVERY BITE!
All the excitement and newness of the airplane overshadowed the anxiety and bad behavior I was fearing. We barely heard a peep out of the boys, Maddie and Delaney slept for a good majority of the flight and when they woke up, we were almost there. It was pretty windy coming into Maui. The kids "Oohed and Aahed" and laughed with excitement as we bounced onto the runway. When we came to a stop and I stopped praying, Maddie yelled "Let's do that Agin!" And no I did not misspell again. That is how she said it :)
We got to Maui, it was Hot, Hot, Hot! This is the kids with our "not a lot of bags." Remember its all about perspective :)
We got our bags situated and got our rental car, got everyone in and we were on our way. The kids called the mini van their "dream car!" So sad :) It had a bench seat in the back and 2 captain seats in the middle so there was a fight every single day as to where everyone was sitting. Finally I assigned their seats. A little better.
NO ITINERARY:
Normal life for us is where we are constantly running here and there and everywhere most of the time scheduled days out. This trip we did not schedule anything! OK we did make a reservation for our luau, but only because my aunt is a travel agent and said it was a good idea. And actually it worked well because we kind of worked our days around knowing Monday night was that. Every morning Joe and I would wake up, look outside and say "What do we feel like doing today?" Then at dinner we would hash over ideas for the next day but never anything concrete. If we woke up and said hey let's go to Kaanapali Beach today and then go to Whalers village and then go out to dinner and half way to the beach we decided to stop and do something else, Oh well! It was so awesome to just go where we wanted, when we wanted and not be tied down to any plans. It was such a pleasant respite from our crazy every day lives. I will say this though. That is what worked for us and there were a couple things like our snorkel trip that we ended up deciding to do Tuesday and then we couldn't get all of us on it until Wednesday, so vacationing that way can bring its own difficulties, but if you are willing to roll with it, it doesn't matter :)
EATING OUT:
One thing is for certain, we do not eat out a lot. As some of you know I actually don't prefer it. This is usually for 1 of a few reasons...
A) I hate paying a lot of money for something I can usually make myself and sometimes I make it better
B) I don't usually like taking my kids out to eat, because
a) they don't know how to act in public and
b) they don't appreciate the experience or the food
I had actually planned on cooking for most of this trip. We had a kitchen in our room, a grocery market and a Farmer's Market nearby, and even access to grills on the resort property. The first night we got there, the kids were like I said, really hungry and they ate everything. They were excellent at the table despite being extremely tired and the whole meal was a blast. One thing we had done ahead was check out the menu while we were waiting for our table. This helped us be ready to order when we got our seat. I think that helped tremendously because it moved everything along quickly and smoothly.
For the rest of the trip we looked ahead at the menus. As the kids made their decision on a meal, I wrote it down and figured out what they wanted to drink. This made ordering very efficient. I would order for them all and wouldn't have to be waiting on them or questioning them while the wait staff waited. Several times we were told by other patrons "how well behaved our children were." We laughed and talked and even though a couple of our kids would fall asleep from time to time during meals, I looked forward to eating out every time, for the first time ever! This is also because of the beautiful food we got to choose from but that's another segment :)
THE LONG WAY HOME:
Sweating...crying...Oh and Maddie crying...Screaming...A pitch SO loud and SO shrill, my ears fuzzed (Does that make sense to anyone but me ;)...Writhing...Flailing...OK let me back up.
We took off at 3:10pm Hawaii time which would put us in at 11:22pm Seattle time. If Maddie slept on the plane, there was going to be a really good chance she wouldn't sleep at home. She was fine to start, she ate, she was watching a movie, and then the switch flipped. She always gets really "vocal" when she gets tired. She started to fuss, then cry, then scream, then passed out. It was not too bad, I thought. We had a couple hours left in the flight and I felt like it was worth the risk of her not going to bed when we got home, that she nap then. Flash forward to 45 minutes till we land. Now it went me-Mad-Cam in the 3 middle seats and we had the arm rests up so she could lay out. Even Cam was being sweet enough to let her put her feet on him. When the pilot came on and said that we were preparing for decent, she started to stir. Then she started to cry, first softly then louder, and louder and LOUDER. Then she fell back asleep. 5 minutes later, she started to cry again, she was talking but not coherently, like she was still half asleep. Realizing this I tried to just rub her back or her legs and shhh her and it worked a couple times but pretty soon it didn't anymore. About 20 minutes until we land, she started to get more and more awake. She was now crying, screaming REALLY loud, hitting me, kicking the seats in front of us, basically my worst nightmare AND the nightmare of everyone who boards a plane and sees a toddler in a seat near them. Joe was looking at me so helplessly from across the aisle, like he wanted to help but didn't know what to do. There was nothing he could do. I knew that. She could not be consoled, She flailed and was so strong I could barely hold onto her. At one point she rolled off my lap and onto the floor, for a moment I considered leaving her there because she was quieting down, but then the pilot came on telling the flight attendants to take their seats for landing. I picked her back up. She kicked the seat in front of me SO hard, that I saw the man's head jerk forward. I tried to get out an apology, but I'm sure he couldn't hear me over the commotion. It felt like it was taking an hour to land, in reality it was 15 minutes. I had sweat rolling down my face as well as tears, I couldn't help myself and I didn't care who saw me. Cam was asking but actually yelling because his ears were plugged "MOM! WHY ARE YOU CRYING!?!!!" I felt awful. I felt horrible for everyone around me but honestly most horrible for her and MYSELF. Anyone who questioned whether I was trying to control the situation I'm sorry to say, could kiss my ass. It was obvious I was trying as hard as I could. Maybe she was just THAT tired or maybe the air pressure was hurting her poor little ears but either way... She was OUT OF CONTROL!
I think I held my breath until I finally felt the wheels touch down. I am not sure I took a deep breath until my feet were in the airport. As we waited to deplane the woman who sat next to Joe leaned over and smiled and said "You are a great mom! You handled that so well." I thanked her and then embarrassingly said out loud "I am so sorry everyone!" At that moment everyone around me gathered. The woman on my left said she felt so bad that I had to go through that, and then said her daughter was considering a trip to Ireland with her 3 and 1 year old. That was her greatest fear. Not sure if she'll be making the trip after that meltdown :) Then the guy behind me said "Either we have been there or we will be there. Anyone who doesn't get that, who cares. You kept your cool Mom. Way to Go!" They were so nice I felt a little bit better. But then because we always wait until everyone else has gotten off the plane. I could see everyone's eyes on me as they passed. I was red as a beet and Maddie, who was standing on the seat had eyes SO swollen and red, it was obvious WE were the ones making the ruckus. I never thought I would have been so happy to be back in Seattle. As per my mantra, Perspective :)
Despite our horrendous flight home, our trip was all in all awesome! I would say to anyone traveling with kids a few tips...
1. Prepare as best you can. Think ahead to where you are going, what you may be doing but don't over think it. Unless you are going to the middle of nowhere, you can almost always find a store that will have a replacement for that forgotten must have :)
2. Having a few tricks up your sleeves and a bag full of tricks can and will come in handy, but won't always save the day. So roll with it.
3. Hope for the best, but expect the worst. You never know what a trip is going to be like until you are on it.If you are somewhat prepared for the worst, then you will most likely be pleasantly surprised :)
4. Have fun! Let the kids get away with a little more then usual, it will make it more fun for them and you.
If you are like us hopefully you will get home from your next trip happily and excitedly awaiting your next, reveling in the new memories you've made, and so proud that your beautiful family came through it with such flying colors!
Happy Travels!
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