We decided last minute to travel somewhere during my college spring break and Darin threw out the idea of staying at the Disney Resort - Aulani. We went there for two reasons: 1) We try to travel somewhere every year, but this year is a little tricky with me being pregnant and Levi being pretty young and 2) We figured it is kind of our last vacation before baby #2 arrives.
The Aulani is definitely a family resort and we went there during peak time, so it was very busy. We enjoyed ourselves and I was thinking that one more night (3 nights) would have been a better stay, but nearing the end of our 2 night stay, I think Levi had enough. He was starting to get grouchy and non-compliant. Too much sun + pool + lack of night time sleep (we all slept in the same bed) = a grouchy baby. He was pretty flexible though.
Overall, I already want to go back there! I think Levi would love the pool, slide, and Disney characters even more as he gets a little older.
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| Playing peek-a-boo at the Lihue airport |
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| Levi is beginning to pose for pictures. Here's his head tilt with Uncle Jed. |
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| The braddahs had Prince Kuhio day off and we met up with them for Pancakes and Waffles. |
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| Mickey Mouse towels greeted us in our room |
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| Levi loves watching the fish |
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| He also got to feed the koi! |
We weren't able to get Jed and Royce added on to our room in order for them to be able to get wristbands at the pool area. The beach is public access, so we hung out down there instead. The weather was beautiful, Levi loved digging in the sand with the uncles and swimming in the water.
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| At the beach |
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| A shave ice cup proved to be a fun toy for Levi to play with. So simple life is at this age! |
Every day, the Aulani comes out with the Daily 'Iwa that has a schedule of the events offered for the day. Most of the events are free to guests of the hotel. The pictures below are of Disney friends and learning how to surf. They all got little surfboard rugs and the leaders taught them how to paddle on their board. Chip and Dale arrived midway through the activity and they danced and played musical boards with the characters. Levi was excited to see them, but when they got close, he got pretty scared.
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| He actually stayed for a picture! |
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| Daddy played peek-a-boo to get Levi to smile here! Haha! |
We were able to meet up with Aunty Amy, Chelsea, and Eric for dinner that night at Ichiriki. It's a hot pot Japanese type dinner. Super yummy, and fun! We got to sit in tables that were sunken into the floor. Levi got a little antsy, but lucky we have phones that have YouTube!
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| These are the items that got thrown in to the hot pot. |
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| Levi giving Aunty Amy lots of hugs. He loves to hang out with her :) |
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Azuki beans, green tea shave ice, mochi balls, and condensed milk for dessert!
We came to the consensus though that the dessert at Sweet Home Cafe is way better. |
Uncle Royce and Aunty Amy treated us to this great dinner! Thanks Uncle Royce and Aunty Amy! It is pretty cool to see your "little brother" treat, especially such an expensive one :)
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Levi fell asleep on the car ride home, and we set him up in the pull out sofa bed here. That lasted about 10 minutes, and he woke up (I think I made a noise by opening the closet door). Shucks! But we got to watch Frozen, and Levi LOVED it!
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| Stitch! |
Aunty's Playhouse is also a nice option for the keiki to hang out during the day. You can sign up for activities and have your kids be watched for free if they are between 3 and 11 years old. We could also opt for dinner/lunch options (costs extra) if we wanted to go out on a date. Too bad Levi wasn't old enough for this option (more reason for us to come back to the Aulani!).
We did get a chance to check out the playhouse before any of the bigger kids arrived. They had activities for the 0-3 kids there like coloring, dancing, dress up, blocks, and craft making.
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| Levi working on his fine motor skills... we think he's going to be a lefty! |
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| Dancing time... or more like mommy dancing while carrying Levi. |
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| Ooooooh! Blocks! |
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| Bracelet making with straws |
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| Donald Duck showed up! Yay! We got to dance with him too. But Levi didn't want to go on the ground and dance. He was a little scared of him. |
The Aulani features a Character Brunch, so we booked it for Thursday morning. There was Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Goofy there. While we were waiting in line for pictures with Mickey, Levi was so excited to see him. He pointed at Mickey and said "MORE, MORE!" We asked him, "Do you want to give Mickey a hug?" He answered, "Yeah!". But when we got close to Mickey, he screamed in terror! Hahaha!
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| Levi loved his breakfast, but didn't like eating the Mickey Mouse waffles. Might have been too crunchy. |
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| Minnie and Aunty sang songs and got the kids involved. They paraded around the dining area with fish and coconuts throughout our brunch. |
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| Levi hitting the two coconuts together to make a rhythm. |
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| Minnie Mouse ears! |
After our brunch, we got to hang out and play in the pool! Levi was able to get a life jacket that easily flipped him over on his back. He wasn't afraid of diving in and floating around. He also loved playing with the mini fountains at the 2 inch deep pool. The lounge chairs were hard to find, but we were able to find some and dump our things on it while we swam around. We also floated in tubes down the lazy river.
Lance, Leah and Ezekiel were able to meet up with us at the pool area in the afternoon. It's so nice to get together with them and watch Ezekiel grow up too! We think of them all the time and wish that they lived on Kauai so that Levi could hang out with Ezekiel more.
After dinner, we went to watch the Starlit Hui. It was a hula show that featured the Disney characters at the end. We were kind of far in the back, but Levi still loved the music and the dancers.
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| Levi dancing while watching the Disney characters |
Last morning at the pool! The weather was perfect during our time there. Levi turned a nice shade of DARK, just like his daddy. We checked out of our room at noon, stored our bags at the front desk, and we did a scavenger hunt with these digital pads. There was a lot of walking involved, and I think Levi was getting hot and tired, but we hung in there for a lot of the cool things that this scavenger hunt showed us.
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| Taking a break from the pool and hydrating up! |
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| These drums came alive when we found it on our scavenger hunt |
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| Levi waiting in line to see Stitch... he looks really excited :) |
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| Stitch trying to make Levi smile by playing peek-a-boo... it didn't work though. |
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| So we took a picture with mommy in between |
That afternoon we were able to meet up with Uncle Jed at the Elk's club and he took us out on the canoe! Levi was all smiles after that little adventure. Maybe when he's a little older he can surf some waves with Uncle Jed.
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| The secret word to get him to smile wasn't "CHEESE" today, it was "BOOGERS!" |
For dinner, we met up with Royce, Amy, Eric and Chelsea again at this restaurant called Seed. A very healthy ending to a yummy, food-filled trip. I had a fresh salad, a fresh juice sampler, and Darin did the shabu-shabu.
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| Berry beet, cucumber mint, and orange carrot juices. The berry beet was the hardest to swallow. |
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| We made up for our healthy dinner with a gellato dessert. We got Nutter Butter and vanilla :) |
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| Very nice to see you guys! |
It was a short vacation, but was jam-packed with activities, family, and friends. We loved every minute of it, and are looking forward to more memories to come!
