the trip. not the vacation.

Hawaii was a great trip (see post below) but there were some not so picture perfect moments in our adventure to Maui.

*notice I called it a trip.  It's not a vacation when children are involved in travel.

So lets begin:

It started with forgetting the stroller.  We had graduation Friday morning and came home after a brunch with bags all packed and left within two hours for the airport.  With the hustle and bustle of everyone being around, we (Darren) forgot to put the stroller into my parent's Suburban.  He realized it wasn't put it an exit before the airport.  I was already getting my "airport anxiety syndrome" and this situation did not help.  To make matters worse, I had just purchased our stroller a week before for this trip.  So we tried our best to find that stroller in West Valley with our time allotment. It was unsuccessful-no surprise.  Fortunately, we were able to get one as soon as we landed in Seattle that night.  Problem solved for the stroller.

With stroller in hand, we were ready to tackle the rest of the trip. Or so we thought... 

Now for those of you with babies, toddlers, any child under the age of like 7 would naturally panic about being on a plane for over 2 hours. Fortunately, my parents were GEMS and loaned us their iPad, which was equipped with movies, and it saved our lives this trip.  The flights themselves were breezes. Luke loved watching movies and eating treats to his heart's content.  It was airport security that was h e double hockey sticks.  

Airport Security. It's a hot topic for me right now.  I had to have a pat down twice. TWICE! (First time in Maui and then again in Seattle) The second time I did it in tears.  They don't just do a quick pat down... Darren even got uncomfortable watching them run their hands over uncomfortable places.  I can definitely relate to this story.  I have to say I agree with her.  I believe in safety 100% but I felt like a wand could have done much better than a human pat down. There clearly has to be a better way.

It was just so frustrating, especially when I'm in yoga pants and a cotton t-shirt with no jewelry, except my wedding ring which they told me to keep on, and a basic bra. It has underwire, but nothing crazy.

I must say I'm not in a hurry to run to the airport anytime soon.


We had this vision of Luke and his first time in Hawaii.  His first time at the beach! He was going to love playing in the sand and running in and out of the ocean.  Darren would go off in the afternoon and surf, Luke and I would take a nap/relax in the afternoon, I would get lots of reading in & we would all get golden brown tans...

Monday morning we headed to Baldwin beach and it was breathtakingly beautiful.  Darren and I expected to spend a nice morning playing in the sand with Luke.  He hated it.  He cried and cried.  My first sign was the runny nose, but it was clear and I figured it was teething.  We hung around for awhile, doing a little forcing on Luke to like the beach, and it didn't seem to work.  Man, I wish the kid could talk to us.  The next day he had a fever of 102 and began vomiting and had horrible diarrhea.

For five days we stayed in the condo as our little guy barely moved.  He was so sick.  It broke our hearts.  He didn't eat but 2 ritz crackers for 4 days & we forced liquids down him to prevent dehydration.

Did I mention I love the iPad?   The iPad was running non-stop this entire trip.  It literally saved us.

Tuesday night we had to give him his antibiotic.  Oh, did I not mention we left town with an ear infection?! Yep, just one more thing for the little guy to deal with. He hates his medicine.  I was holding him and Darren was getting the meds down.  Luke was very upset as we finished up the process.  I was holding him on my lap when 15 seconds later, I had projectile vomit coming at me.  He did it four times.  I have a very keen sense of smell and by the fourth round, my nose was plugged and I was going to my happy place to not return the favor back to Luke.

Tuesday night his fever broke (hallelujah), but Wednesday night we could still tell he just wasn't himself.  Being somewhat selfish, we took him into Lahaina with us for dinner.  We didn't want to pass up the amazing restaurants, after all we are on vacation. He did great going over (30 minuteish drive) and was fine during and after dinner.  On the car ride back, Karen was sitting in the back with Luke giving him some puffs (he begged for them) and water when he just let loose in the car.  Vomit everywhere.  We pull over on the highway and try to get things cleaned up as best we can.

Thursday he was staying awake more often, and was keeping liquids and some crackers down but still had the diarrhea.  Darren was gone most of the day and I was going CRAZY sitting in the condo, especially being in Maui.  So we decided to take him with us to grab something to eat at a Thai restaurant right next door... This is my favorite story of the trip

We ordered our usual Thai meal and got out Darren's phone with Cars and began talking about Darren's day (mine wasn't so eventful) when I heard a bubbly sound.  Now, this might be too graphic for some of you but for you parents you know that's not good, especially when the wee-one has diarrhea.  He needed a diaper change NOW!!  Darren took round one and took him into a tiny bathroom and changed his diaper on the stroller because they didn't have a changing table.  Phew, he had gotten that out of the way before the food came.  Our curry and stuff come and then we hear the bubbly gross nasty sound again.  Mind you, there are only like 5 people in the restaurant and it was abnormally quiet.  So we make this a family event this time and I join the boys in their bathroom. The changing didn't go quite as smoothly this time around as liquid poop got all over the stroller.  Oh my gosh, it was gross!!  So we got Luke all situated and cleaned up.  I went back out to our food to let them know we weren't done with our meal. All the while, everyone in the restaurant could hear what was going on with our lovely family.  Darren stayed and was trying to get the stroller in the sink to wash off (which was quite a sight).  It was just pathetic.

Darren comes back to the table and says "Look at the Curry... looks like something else we just saw." It was over.  Dinner was done.

Karen also caught Luke's bug and was out from Wednesday to Monday (the remainder of our trip).  It was a yucky yucky bug.  Darren and I both dealt with upset stomachs, but nothing like Luke and Karen.

Luke had a couple more incidents, but I figure we've all had enough of the puke and poop stories for this post.

And to top off our airport adventures, when we arrived in SLC our car seat was missing.  At that point, things like this are just comical.  It was found later.   All is well.

So this post is all about honestly.  Don't get me wrong, we had a great time but with kids it just isn't a vacation. You can make any trip look like all we did was sip pina coladas and laugh and cheer and giggle, but behind every perfect post there are stories.  Stories that we will talk about forever.  "Remember when Luke had diarrhea so bad at the Thai restaurant" or "Remember when he puked all over your mom" or "Remember when you were groped at the airportS".  Its those things we will talk about over and over again.  And the more time that passes, the funnier they get and I'm fine with that because we made memories.  Memories we will talk about as a family at dinner for a long long time.

And that makes me happy.