Hamiltons in Hawaii - Day 1

While we have never seen the movie Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events, I believe the title could be borrowed to describe our Hamilton family vacation in Maui, Hawaii.  Hence, the sub-title of the next several blog posts.  Also, in order to not dwell on all of the unfortunate events but in fact rise up the fun we had, the events will simply be labeled what they were, unfortunate.

Hamiltons in Hawaii

and the Series of Unfortunate Events

Day 1 - Adventures to Paradise

On Friday, September 23, three Hamilton families from three separate states embarked upon a journey across county in search of a paradise vacation in Maui, Hawaii.

Keith's parents (Bill and Jacquie AKA Papa and Nana) have a time share that they traded for Maui and graciously invited their boys and their families on vacation with them.

Brian and his family were unable to attend from Sheridan, WY because their two children, Lauren and Kaden has just started the school year.

Sometime around 6:00 AM MST, Nana and Papa boarded a plane in Billings, MT.

Sometime around 6:00 AM CST, Jeff, Lindsey, William and Baby #2 boarded a plane in Dallas, TX.

Back up the clock...

2:30 AM MST, Keith and Carrie's alarm clock went off.

2:35AM Oliver and Kellan woke up (even though the plan was for them to sleep and move directly into the car with their PJ's on.).

Unfortunate Event: Kellan had 2 blow-out diapers with 2 changes of clothes prior to leaving the house.

3:45 AM departure from the house, 15 minutes late due to kids being up early and Kellan delivering two messy packages.

Unfortunate Event: 4:20 ish AM Kellan projectile vomited curdled milk in the back seat of the car while we were driving 65 mph+ down Pena Blvd.  This resulted in a moment of shock and then fast action to clean up as much as possible.  Kellan is now wearing outfit #3.  We dread the odor of the car upon our return in a week.

We arrived at the airport late due to the Unfortunate Events but thankfully, curbside check-in was open and waiting for us.  Everything went well through check-in and security.  We were at the gate just in the nick of time but thought it was odd that the airplane wasn't loading yet.  Then we heard it, "Last call for Hamilton party of 3."  YIKES!  We rushed to the gate (Keith was in line for a stroller tag).  The gate guy asked if we wanted a $500 voucher to take a later flight.  I promptly responded "No, we just need a stroller tag and we're ready to get on the airplane."  He had no idea what the past 3.5 hours had been like and there was no way we were not getting on this airplane!

2.5 hours later we arrived in San Francisco.  To our delight, Jeff and his family were on our flight from San Francisco to Maui.  We really enjoyed the flight with them and the five hours went fairly quickly.  Both Kellan and William took naps on board and Oliver thought that watching Kung Fu Panda 2 on the airplane TV monitors was the coolest thing ever!  Shockingly, I didn't take a single picture.  Maybe I was still in shock over the mornings events.

We all arrived in warm and sunny Kahului around 11:00 AM Maui time.  (This was 3:00 PM MST).

WE MADE IT!

Mommy and her boys on the shuttle ride for the rent-a-car.

Look how happy Oliver is and the look of anticipation on Kellan's face.  Watch out Maui!  The Hamiltons have arrived!!

Since we were so early and we couldn't get into the condo in Kihei until 2:00, we found a park nearby to relax.  Oliver had been sleeping in the car and needed some wake up time with Dad.  Kellan was ready to rock the park since he took quite the snooze on the airplane.

The rest of the Hamiltons had a few stops to make so they met up with us later.

Kellan was loving the warm Hawaii breeze.

He was so excited he thought he should text everyone he knows.  Too bad for him, he doesn't have any of his friends numbers yet.

Oliver was trying to take a nap and Kellan couldn't resist pestering him.... and pulling Dad's leg hair!

One small step for man Kellan.

Kellan loves to walk around but he's not quite ready to take off on his own yet.

What a great place to practice walking after a long day of travel.

Carrie and Keith self portrait.

Can you see the breeze billowing out  by shirt.  I can almost feel it now!  Ahhhh!!!

A little perspective.

That small statue in the middle is our big man Oliver looking out toward the Pacific Ocean.

When the rest of the Hamiltons arrived we walked down on the beach to look around.  Oliver was dying to get in the water.

Hey look, Uncle Jeff and William arrived!

To say Oliver LOVES the beach is an under statement.  

He LOVES LOVES LOVES LOVES the beach!  

Run Oliver Run!

Oops... the wave was a bit bigger than he expected.  He was laughing and giggling the entire time.

Any day at the beach is a great day in Oliver's book.

Whew!  After a very long day of travel we were all happy to be together in Kihei, Hawaii on the island of Maui.  The weather was perfect in the 80's and sunny.  Our location was great, centrally located in Kihei right on the beach.  It was great to be there together with family.