Hawaii

Hugs from Minnie

Finley liked the characters from a distance, but whenever she'd get too close she'd squeeze her legs super tight around my hips letting me know that was close enough. I, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of them and their hugs/high fives. I finally had to tell myself to cool it before they had the crazy mom with 3 kids escorted out of the resort for being too friendly with the animals!!

Loads of fun in the pool. We all looked like shriveled little raisins at the end of the day!

Oliver was literally sick & tired from having so much fun. Poor kid.

Berkeley got the hotel stationery and put a note on each person's pillow before bed: I Love You Mom, I love you Dad, I love you Uncle...etc. So sweet!

Finley ate some triangles while wearing her triangles!!!

Berk just barely tolerated a kiss from her brother

Tom really was having a good time, honest, he was.

Finley had a great time throwing sand all over herself!

Bikini Babes

Taking a walk with Goofy! So fun!

Finley loved this guy. Not sure if it's Lilo or Stitch? Every time we'd walk by it she'd have to pet it and look at it for 10 minutes and we'd have to pry her away kicking and screaming.

This was an awesome loop/"river ride" that you could go around on a tube. The water was like bath water and the current would just slowly take you all the way around. Very relaxing.

It doesn't get any prettier than this!

This was a huge water "play ground" with little water slides for the kids to go down and all kinds of fun things inside of it!

The Fam

I call this picture "Triangles"

Swimming with Uncle!

Sleeping on dad by the pool

A big 'ol hug from Mickey. She later explained to me that it was just a man dressed up in a costume. Sad.

She is having so much fun here!! Pure joy!

He is playing Simon Says with Goofy and paying close attention to directions!

Oooh! Look dad, I see Goofy!

When Goofy told all the kids to start dancing Oliver broke out in his famous break dancing. I don't know where the kid picked it up, but he is very serious when it comes to break dancing! Too funny!

More crazy dance moves!

I love how shy little Berk meandered her way right up next to Goofy!

Group photo

Sleeping on dad again! Oh, how she loves him!

Diva #1

Diva #2

And Diva #3 just prior to getting harassed by Diva #2

Every couple of days they'd play some really loud, fun music by the pool and everyone would dance and rock out with the characters

Last day by the pool, Finley ate some sun block...

...Oliver did magic tricks with a quarter and amused us all with his crazy antics...

...and Berk had a cup stacking competition. A little bit of fun for everyone! We called it the Potts Variety Show!

Dressed and ready to leave for the airport. Smiling on the outside, but crying on the inside. Actually I was throwing a huge tantrum on the inside, but I was trying to be a good example for the kids...little eyes watching and all...why does Tom look so darn happy in this picture? In all the other ones he doesn't look that happy. Huh, first time I noticed that. Gonna have to have a talk with him. What's that about?

After the craziness of the past 2 years we decided to take a real vacation! We left on January 25, one day after finally received power after 5 or 6 days of being without it (just in time to get loads and loads of laundry done before our trip. Whew, that was close!). We went to the island of O'ahu and stayed at the brand new Aulani Disney Resort. It is only 6 months old and it is absolutely gorgeous. We didn't have to worry about other people's skin cells all over the bedding and carpet. It was just lovely. Everything was crisp and clean and brand new. We had an 1100 sq ft suite with a master bedroom/bath and another huge bedroom with 2 queen beds and bath. I literally could have lived there. We gave Jerry the master suite and we took the other room so the kids could sleep in one bed and we could sleep in the other.

The day before we left I had gone into the garage to throw something away and when I came back into the house and turned the corner Finley had thrown up all over the floor. There was no way we were going to cancel our trip since we'd never get a full refund so we decided to soldier on and just roll with it. So the next morning we got the kids up and headed to the airport. The kids did amazing on the plane. I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't really looking forward to the flight with 3 little ones, but they were awesome. Of course, it helped that we took about $1500 worth of high-tech gadgets along to keep them busy! We also brought enough snacks to feed everyone on the plane. Hey, whatever you have to do, right? I was just relieved that the whole plane didn't hate us!!

So we arrived in the late afternoon, got some dinner, wandered around for a while and then went back to the room to go to bed since everyone was exhausted. I slept with Berk in one bed and Tom slept with Oliver in the other. Around 12:30 Oliver threw up all over himself and the bed. So, we got him cleaned up and thankfully there was a pull out bed in the couch so I slept with him for the rest of the night out in the living room. He ended up throwing up a couple more times. Just before he'd throw up he'd say "Mom, I don't think it's a good idea for me to swim tomorrow." I'd say "Ok buddy, we'll just see how you feel in the morning." Then, he'd throw up again and his tummy would feel better for a couple of minutes and he'd say "Mom, I think maybe I'll be ok to swim tomorrow." Then he'd throw up again and change his mind and say maybe it's not such a good idea. He was so excited to swim in the amazing pools and all he could think about while he was sick was missing out on all that fun!

The next morning we ate some breakfast and took the morning slowly. Oliver seemed much perkier and wanted to put his swim shorts on so we went down to the pool. We ended up swimming for 6 hours every day. We'd swim for a few hours in the morning, head up to the room to make lunch and then go down for a few more hours before dinner. You'll have to excuse our lack of clothing in all of these pictures, but we literally wore our swim suits all day long. If I would have known that I would not have packed an entire suitcase. I would have just brought a carry on with our swim suits and a change of clothes. We had a washer/dryer in our room so we did laundry everyday and we really didn't need much of anything!

So the next night we all went to bed and Tom and Oliver slept in the living room on the pull out bed (we didn't want Finley to get woken up again in case Oliver got sick again). We made it through the night, but the next morning Fin woke up covered in vomit. She cried for maybe a minute that night, but then went back to sleep and I never heard anything else so I don't know what happened there, but she was fine in the morning so we went and played all day long again.

One night we were heading out the door to go out for pizza and Oliver mentioned his tummy hurt again. Jer had taken Berk & Fin down to get the car so I grabbed the ice bucket (his throw up bucket) just in case and we headed down the hall to the elvator. Well, he started to cry when we were halfway down the hall so I had him stop and I knelt down to hold the bucket for him and he started throwing up so violently that it would hit the bottom of the bucket and splash back up. Some of it got on my lip and my arm. It was quite something and a few families walked down the hall and felt really badly for him. I was so thankful we had the bucket cause it would have been a complete mess. I think the hotel should have given us a discount...that really would have been a nasty, stinky mess for someone to clean up :) So I told Tom to go on without us and I stayed behind with Oliver while they went and had dinner.

We happened to be there when they were having the Pro Bowl so all of the players were staying at our resort and at the Marriott right next door. It was really cool to see these mammoth guys with their families playing in the water and enjoying their vacation. One night after dinner, Tom was taking Fin back to our room when he noticed 3 or 4 of these huge guys waiting for their table at our restaurant. So, he just stood off to the side and watched them for a few minutes. One of the major players, Ben Rothlisberger and his wife were there in the group. His wife saw Finley and came right up to Tom and started asking about her cause she thought she was so cute. She had a brand new baby with her, but she left her 2 yr old daughter at home with the nanny. Anyway, Tom said she was a really "close talker" and was totally in his face while she was talking to Finley and he started to get nervous that her husband might get a little upset and beat him up so he wrapped up the conversation and high tailed it out of there. He didn't think Ben would believe him if he said "Hey buddy, your wife sought me out, not the other way around." He didn't want to stick around and take any chances! Smart guy!

On the plane ride home everyone did great again. We were all tired and the plane left at 2:30, Finley's usual nap time so she was a little fussy, but took a decent nap on Tom. Towards the end of the flight she got kind of fussy and at one point all 3 kids were on my lap since they were all tired and ready to be done. I started to feel slightly clausterphobic since the seats are so close together and there really is almost no room to move. I was super tired too and said a couple of naughty words in my head as I had 3 sets of bony knees and elbows digging into my legs and various body parts. Then I realized we were over the ocean and our plane could go down any second so I repented and said a few Hail Mary's for good measure. Wanted to have all my bases covered just in case :) Really though, I was very pleasantly surprised at how well they did. That's a LONG flight for little ones and big ones for that matter.

Anyway, despite all the vomit and drama we all had a fantastic time. I asked the kids what their favorite part about the trip was and Berkeley said, "Hmmmm, well, everything. I can't choose just one thing." Oliver liked swimming the best. The characters were so fun to visit and dance with and everyone was so nice. When we got back I saw Tom's mom a few days later and she hinted that since we took a romantic vacation to Hawaii we might not want to get rid of Fin's infant seat. I said "Oh, it wasn't that kind of trip. In fact, we never once slept in the same bed." With 2 out of 3 kids vomitting that thought never even entered our minds. Well, mine anyway :)

Usually on vacation I am ready to go home and get back into my routine after a few days of being gone, but this time I really, truly did not want to go back. I have never felt like that before. Hawaii is such a special place and I'm so thankful my kids got to experience a trip like this. There really is nothing like it.