Christmas in Hawaii!

Most of you know that we were in Maui for Christmas! Anyone who knows us knows that this is VERY unusual for our family. The Williams' fanciest vacations growing up included the oregon coast and souther ca to visit family. This was our chance to feel fancy and we had an AMAZING time! I was a little worried about taking the kids on a 7+ hour plane ride, but they were champs on the way there and did their best with our red-eye on the way home (shout out to the noisy woman in front of us who turned her light on and off, on and off and woke up Owen and then glared at me when he kicked her seat ONCE. in the words of adam lambert "what do you want from me?"). Before we left a friend of mine told me they always have more fun when they take their kids along with them on vacation. At first I thought "are you nuts?" but then I decided to try and adopt this attitude for Hawaii. We may have had a few weary moments, but it was a wondeful experience to share with them.

My whole side of the family went. It was our first Christmas without Mom and this was kind of a special gift from her so it was very nice to be all together by her doing and in her honor. (although I'd take her back over a trip to Hawaii in an instant)

We were there for 8 days and were able to see/do everything there is! We tried out several beaches (we are pro boogie boarders now!), went snorkeling at molokini, went to the blowhole, did part of the road to hana, haleakala national crater, luau, lahaina where they have the BEST shave ice (not "shaved"), dinner cruise and church at the local ward. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'll never forget this trip. It was memorable for sure.

Here we are at the Haleakala Crater. We drove from sea level to 10,000 feet in 2 hours and I was SO SICK by the time we got there I could not truly appreciate it. But in retrospect it's pretty darn cool.

This is my Mom's Mom with Elly. They have the same birthday and became good buddies on the trip!
Here is Dad with all eight of his grandkids. People looked at us like we were a traveling circus (maybe that's not stretching it too far), but it was so fun having them along. They had SO MUCH fun together. Elly IDOLIZES her older cousins.

This is the balcony on our hotel/condo. We would stand on the deck and watch whales breech in the ocean. It was amazing. We got to see a few up close on our boat ride to Molokini....mating dance and all. REALLY.

Dad with his two princess granddaughters. The only fights on this trip were fights over Grandpa!

Here are 18 of the 20 of us in Hawaii. The only ones missing from this pic are my Mom's parents.

Elly was the sand queen! She did not want to go near the water, but she'd sit and play in the sand ALL day.

This tree is from the Road to Hana. Isn't it amazing? It looks like some little kid got out his flourescent paints and went to work. Green, orange, purple...not bad.

Whenever Andrew and I saw a good photo opportunity, we'd pull the car over and one of us would race across the street and pose and then we'd switch!

More road to Hana. It was seriously stunning.

I'm thinking the Carribean next year? Now all I have to do is talk my Dad into it.