Gasbarro Family: Aloha

This family spent 9 days saying aloha to the beach, sand, waves, ahh yes, the Pacific! Adelaide and Penelope had their first dip in the Pacific Ocean, but the water was a bit cold in March so there wasn't too much wave jumping happening. I should probably back up a little bit to mention how and why we landed in Hawaii for our vacation.

To make a long story short, we were first going to go to the Mediteranean for a family event that was later canceled, so then we had the bright idea to fly to Barcelona and cruise from there. Well surprise, the ship sank. Yes, the Costa Concordia was the exact ship we were to take in March. So much for that cruise.

Of course we are thankful that we were not on this ship, we were also bummed that there were now no vacation plans. This was the point where we said, "Mom, just pick something." Next thing you know our inboxes were full of itineraries for a trip to Hawaii and a stay at the famous Turtle Bay. If some of the photos jog your memory and you aren't sure why, it is because this resort has been featured in a ton of moves. In fact, our 3 bedroom villa was across the lawn from all of the infamous shots in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Getting there: when you tell people that you took two little ones on a vacation, they don't care much about the trip it is all about the plane ride. I would like to report that my babies were ANGELS and that is not me over exaggerating. Neither child screamed or cried the entire trip. It definitely helped that we had bulkhead seats with a bassinet. Penelope played in the bassinet, napped in it and all was great. Other passengers were high-fiving us and some didn't even know that we had children with us until they saw us getting off of the plane. Now I do question why I can't get them to behave like this at home all of the time.

So on to the fun stuff...Penelope put herself in jail, we went through multiple bottles of suntan lotion, ate off of shrimp trucks, rode a train through the Dole Plantation, golfed, spa treatments, napped, went to a luau and most importantly we just relaxed.

Sometimes naps happened outside, because getting into dry clothes and into the villa was too much effort after all of that pool time.

Strolling, lots and lots of strolling around the grounds.

First time in the Pacific for both girls and the truth is, we could have just been in St Augustine because the pool was much more fun to Adelaide.

All aboard!!! Adelaide loves trains, so to be able to take her on this little tour of the Dole Plantation was a great experience. Of course we couldn't leave this local without a Dole whip.

Russ's restaurant of choice EVERY time he is in Hawaii, Cholo's.

This was also the week that Penelope tried just about any food she could get her hands on, literally. This child eats and eats and eats, I would bet that most mornings she out ate her sister.

Once upon a time A was a shy, quiet little girl that didn't stray far from my side. This was not the trip for that little girl. We were at the luau and when they called A up to the stage, she ran. A listened to all of the instructions, did a dance and then had to be coaxed off of the stage.