Hawaii!!

We had such a great time on our first full family vacation. Thanks to my awesome parents we enjoyed a week in Kauai, Hawaii. It was great and I have many pictures to share.

Ella's first plane ride. I was SO nervous leading up to the trip thinking about how Ella would handle the travel. She's not one who likes to sit still so I wasn't sure how she'd do on a 6 hour flight. But she did amazing. Way better than I ever could have hoped for. In fact, we had many people around us on each flight compliment us on how well behaved she was. Huge blessing.

(Don't you love the lady's face behind us? Whoever she is, I am sorry.)

The first day we got there it was rainy so we explored the resort. Kauai actually had record breaking rains the week before we were there. They had major flooding, bridges were out, some parts of the island were without power, resorts on the other side had to be evacuated - it was crazy!

Ella loved the chickens that are all over the island. And the chickens are so used to people that they let her walk right up to them.

Ella wasn't a huge fan of the sand because it was "messy." Her first experience in the sand she sat with her feet and hands up so they wouldn't touch. And if she happened to get sand on her toes she would sit and pick off every last grain. 

 She didn't mind playing in the sand if she was sitting on a towel.

What she loved on our trip was the water! She is a water baby! She had a blast playing in the waves and letting them splash on her. Even when the waves would knock her over she'd just laugh and stand back up to play.

It was a full time job to keep her from drowning. She would run as fast as she could straight into the water and if we didn't stop her I'm pretty sure she'd go in over her head.

Taking a break from all the swimming. We were out early enough (still on Utah time) that we had most of the beach to ourselves.

Danny and I were so lucky to be there with my family. My dad (aka Gammpa) spent a ton of time with Ella. He was always willing to hang out with her in the room or to be the one to put her down for a nap, etc. so Danny and I had plenty of opportunities to go play.

We went snorkeling almost daily.

 Our whole group.

 My little family.

 Out to dinner.

 Ella hanging out with gammpa and gamma.

 Swimming in the pool at the resort. Ella, obviously, loved it.

A few things that I didn't manage to take a picture of were kayaking on the Wailua river. The way to the waterfall was flooded and we took Ella so we didn't make it too far. But it was fun anyway. 

We saw some awesome whales one day while laying out on the beach. There were two who were jumping and playing and so fun to watch.

We also gave paddle boarding a try. It was so fun but the day we tried it there were a lot of waves and breeze so it made it tricky. When you'd stand up the wind would push you out to sea. My mom, in fact, got so far out the guy had to go out and rescue her. I had some major spills but we had fun. Danny loved it.

It was so fun to get away and relax. Thanks mom and dad for a great trip!