Beachy, Beach, Beach, Beach

After we arrived in Hawaii, we were so thrilled to see beaches, and … the top of a garage. We checked in so late to our hotel that there were no hotel rooms really left so we woke up to a lovely view of a garage. We also had a sick little boy with a fever. As soon as we checked into the hotel (oh wait, fabulous Grandma and Grandpa Faiola already checked us into the room!), Jamisen fell right asleep and slept the entire night.

Thankfully Grandpa Faiola had figured out that we needed to be next to Grandpa and Grandma for the trip and had arranged for us to move to the room right next to them – with an adjoining door and everything. Talk about heaven. We basically had a suite and even better? Grandma and Grandpa kept Lily every night. They woke up with her at whatever ungodly hour she chose to wake up at and kept her in the mornings so we could spend time with Jamisen. Lily didn’t have a rough time of it with Grandma and Grandpa as her favorite buddies.

Clearly, Lily did not suffer. Look at that smile! Grandmpa was in grueling medical conferences all morning which left us alone to our own devices that generally involved some sort of beach activity.

We found an amazing beach called Baby Beach that was basically the best beach on the planet for the babies. It’s this tiny little beach that has tons of small coral that break off the waves so it’s entirely lovely and calm. It also is a maze of coral. Grandpa Faiola and I went snorkeling and basically sucked in our bellies and held our breath to try to get over the very shallow coral. We were rewarded for our efforts with not one, but two but THREE little pufferfish that loved us. That was entirely worth it.

Jamisen smiles this crazy richtus grin when you tell him to smile. It's sweet that he's trying but he doesn't seem to understand the concept of what looks good in photos yet. I'm just happy he sometimes lets us take photos of him. If he wonders why it's so hard to find a photo of him from this age, it's because he pretends we're the paparazzi and won't let us take photos of him lately =)

The kids played nicely on the beach together and Jamisen loved it all - until he got too dirty. He's still quite fastidious but did managed to get down and dirty (ha!) with the sand.

Parts of the island were quite impressive with huge waves and surfers. The adults (eh hem, parents) were fascinated by the athleticism displayed and the kiddos generally slept in the car during our sight seeing. It was a win win for everyone.