Babymoon Hawaii Trip

Ryan and I decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary a little early and take a trip to Hawaii sans the kids for 1 week.  Our actual anniversary is not until August 3rd, but with baby #4 due in mid July we knew this was the best time to go.  We joked and said this was our "Babymoon" trip.

We felt very blessed and grateful to have family members close-by who could watch the kids for us while we were away.  My sister Kristi came and stayed at our house for the week with her 2 boys and watched all three kids for us.  Needless to say, she is amazing and did a great job of course!!  (Thank you so much Kristi!!)  Grandma and Grandpa Bellows also took the oldest two for a couple of days.  The kids all did great and had a blast playing with their cousins everyday.  We missed them a ton and were happy to see their cute little faces when we came back. 

We went to Oahu and stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach.  I haven't been to Hawaii in over 10 years and it was Ryan's 1st time so we wanted to stay on Oahu and hit a lot of tourist spots.  It was a blast!!  We both felt so renewed as parents and a couple when we came back.  I think everyone should take a break even if just for a few days if you can.  It just puts everything back into perspective and allows you to take some needed time for yourselves.  I am so glad we went!!

We loved our Hotel and would definitely stay there again!  It was right on the beach and had its own secluded beach too. It had a ton of cute little shops and restaurants located right in the hotel.  It also had a huge Spa where I got a pedicure our first day there.  Aren't they the best?! 

One of our favorites places to eat was the Bar and Grill "Tropics".  It was right on the beach and they had the yummiest Pina Colda smoothies (which BTW definitely became my drink of choice the whole trip!) and food.  Here is a pic one night we ate there.

Here is the view from our hotel room.

The beach.  The weather was beautiful while we were there.  Mostly sunny days with only a few that were cloudy/rainy.  We loved just relaxing on the beach in the sun!!

Our room was awesome and overlooked the hotel and pools and had a partial ocean view.  We loved hearing the ocean every night falling asleep.

These flamingos and penguins live on the Hotel's grounds.  They also have a ton of little rivers with Koi fish in them. It was so cool to see! 

Hanging out by the pool.  Our tower had a private pool with these sweet padded beach chairs that were so comfy (comfort is a big deal when you are 6 months pregnant :) ).  We came here to relax in the sun on a daily basis.  It was one of our favorite spots.  It also had a workout room that we were able to use.  We worked out everyday together.  It was so fun for us because we never get the chance to do that at home.

Dinner at one of our favorite places we found called Dukes.  It was so yummy!!  Another one of our favorites was Lappert's Ice Cream Shop located in our Hotel.  It had some really good and unique flavors.  We loved the Coconut Pineapple ice cream.

Another fun thing we did was ride in a Submarine.  We were able to see a lot of fish, a sea turtle and even a reef shark.  It was pretty cool.

 Here is the Sea Turtle on top of a sunken ship.

Our second night on the island we went to a show our Hotel put on called the Rainbow Review.  It was a Hawaiian music and dance show you watch by the pool followed by fireworks right on the beach.  It was so cool!  Neither of us had ever seen fireworks this close before.  It was awesome.

We both were really excited to go and do the Pearl Harbor Tour.  It was amazing and did not disappoint.  One cool thing we learned is that there is an airfield in Hawaii named Bellows air field that was bombed during Pearl Harbor.  Here is Ryan pictured below the sign showing Bellows Field. 

You can see the USS Arizona Memorial behind us in this pic.  You watch a movie about Pearl Harbor then you take a boat out to the memorial.  It was really neat.  Especially since both our grandparents fought in WWII.

Ryan on the actual USS Arizona Memorial.

The USS Arizona Memorial.

One of the best things we did was rent a car for a day and drive all around the island hitting various spots we heard were worth seeing.  Of course most of it involved eating too!  Our 1st stop was Leonard's bakery for some homemade Malasadas.  So yummy!  They are a kind of doughnut.  Next we hit up the Dole Plantation Factory.  It was a really cool place to look around.  They had the best pineapple soft serve!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

                           

Here are some pineapple plants growing we saw.  So cool.

Next spot we hit up was Matsumoto's Shave Ice.  It was incredible!!  Everyone told us we had to try it and we were so skeptical.  But it lived up to the hype.  Wow!  So good.  We also tried a shrimp cart called Giovanni's we had heard so much about.  It was pretty good.

We drove all along the North Shore which was beautiful.  Then we visited the Temple.  It was Monday so the temple was closed.  We looked around took some pics and went to the visitor's center.  What a beautiful temple!  The grounds are pristine and the land it sits on is incredible.  We loved it.  Now I know why it is called the Taj Mahal of the Pacific.

Next we drove by BYU Hawaii Campus.  It was very beautiful.  Then we stopped off at the Polynesian Cultural Center for our Luau and show.  It was cool and had a lot of things to look at and explore.  The Luau was fun and the food was good.  The show was a live music and dance performance called "Ha Breath of Life".  It was very fun and entertaining.  We had a great time.

Of course we did a lot of shopping while we were there.  We found a great Premium Outlet Mall, and another huge mall within walking distance from our hotel, and we had to hit up the Aloha Flea Market.  We both came home with new watches, clothes, and some shoes.  Ryan even got a new wedding ring(finally one he actually likes wearing :) ).  We bought most of the kids Spring and Summer clothes along with plenty of presents for them when we got home.

We had some really nice dinners while we were there and managed to watch quite a few movies too which was fun and something we don't do very often.  One night we met up with some friends from Reno who actually moved to Hawaii about a year ago.  They took us to China Town for dinner at a place called The Little Village.  It was very good.  It was fun to hear about their lives in Hawaii.  It sounds like such a fun place to live.

We had the time of our lives and are so glad we did it.  It was so great to spend a lot of quality time with your best friend without the worries and the stress of life!  We can't wait to bring the whole family back one day when the kids are older.  We love Hawaii!!  ALOHA!!