Day #5

So today we wanted to do some shopping at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. I am so NOT a souveneir person, but Hawaii is one exception. Its so fun to get cute dresses, bags, t-shirts and necklaces at such a great price - and the swap meet is THE place to go.

But the thing is, all that the kids wanted to do was swim. Poor kids, had to endure more car time and shopping before they could swim. They did great and got to pick out some fun trinkets.

Tonight marks the start of our travel back home. We've started packing up ALL of our stuff - whew. We'll check out in the morning and begin the LONG day. Until next time, beautiful Hawaii!

*******************

This is the kitchen in the time share. We couldn't have survived without this! This time share has 3 bathrooms and three bedrooms. The bedroom Tucker and I stayed in was a large master bedroom with a pull-out couch, so neither family was disturbed in the night by eachother's screaming children!

A faint pic of our living room, and there are bedrooms on either side of the living room. There are lots of benefits to time shares. This one is a Marriott and has every amenity you can imagine! Its located on a beautiful lagoon and they monitor it closely so people from the general public can't use the facilities.

Driving around the island can take a while! On the North Shore it's a one lane road and you constantly have to stop for surfers. And in Honolulu it's traffic! Poor kids spent more time than they would have liked in this rental van.

The swap meet is held on Wed, Sat and Sunday beginning at 6:00 am. There are hundreds of vendors with thousands of fun aloha items. The prices are unbeatable and its fun to do some bartering down on the prices.

This is just one of the many stands with aloha attire. So much to choose from!

I love these! The girls have been wanting rolling suitcases for a long time. There were tons to choose from at the swap meet, and they loved these with pink aloha print. They were $11 each, and they fit a lot!

This is one of the 3 hot tubs at the resort. The kids were obsessed! There are also 3 pools, one of which has sand (imported from Australia) in the shallow-end just like the beach. They were salt water pools. We also walked just a few more paces down to the lagoon where we could swim in the ocean. Tucker and Dane snorkeled there the other day.

So sad to leave this beautiful place! I already can't wait until we come again. I think this will be the main vacation spot for our family. It isn't cheap, but it is do-able. Our tickets were $300 each and we were lucky to stay in the time share for only $350 for the week. Tucker shares my love for Hawaii and we both really look forward to coming back as soon as the opportunity arises! By the way, I found this cute swim long tankini at the swap meet for $20. I love the pattern!

What a blessing that we were able to make this trip happen. And what a blessing to have such great friends to make memories with. We were talking tonight about how rare it is to find a family you want to take a trip with, stay in the same time share and spend sun-up till sun-down with and STILL have fun and laugh. The kids have all had a blast together.

We're especially glad to take this trip since Dane & Beth are leaving us next month to move back to Utah. I can hardly talk about it, it makes me so sad. Taking trips like this will have to be our yearly meeting spot! Thanks guys, for making a great trip even better!